Following draft regulations in Parliament to introduce a mandatory national scheme of delegation for planning decisions, the Town & Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) Regulations, made under the Planning and Infrastructure Act, come into force on 31 October. So in future applications will either be Schedule 1: always delegated to planning officers for a decision – or Schedule 2: presumed delegated to officers but can be considered by a planning committee in certain defined circumstances.
The Schedule 1 category covers all householder applications, minor commercial and residential developments (eg up to 9 homes), and other applications such as certificates of lawful use/development, biodiversity gain plans and reserved matters applications for smaller schemes, which from 31 October must all be determined by planning officers exclusively.
But inevitably there has been an outcry from local authorities who complain that they are losing power and that public confidence will be diminished – despite the government’s stated aim to provide greater clarity and consistency over the role of planning committees so that they focus on the key proposals that matter to an area.
As a result at least three authorities (at the time of writing) have turned down proposals to adjust their standing orders / constitutions so as to to comply with the regulations (which incidentally also set a maximum of 13 members for planning committees). There is also considerable anecdotal evidence that planning officers are delaying consideration of some current applications until after 31 October to avoid committee presentations.
This will surely mean more work for planning barristers (and indeed greater uncertainty) because decisions taken by planning committees in defiance of the law may not be valid.
Andrew Rogers