Agendas and Minutes
The agendas and minutes of each of the three area planning committees can be found by clicking on the individual links below. Each committee meets every three weeks.
Planning committees and the call-in process
Planning applications are normally determined under the Council's Scheme of Delegation, without going to Committee. The case officer assigned to the application will make a recommendation on the basis of Local Development Plan policies. The application is then determined by the Head of Planning and Building Control, assisted by the Area Team Leaders and the Development Manager. Most applications are determined under these delegated powers.
The Planning Committees usually only make decisions on planning applications for major developments, those proposals considered by the Head of Planning and Building Control to have a significant impact on the environment, or those 'called in' by a District Councillor. In addition, all Council applications and those submitted by councillors or officers of the Council are determined at Committee to ensure probity of procedure.
The call-in process
District Councillors may "call in" applications they feel should go to Committee. If you have serious concerns about an application, you may wish to contact your local councillor about this as soon as you are notified of the application. Call-ins need to submitted to the planning department by the call-in deadline date on the weekly list of applications registered on which the application appears. This is in order that the department has the time to schedule in the application for a committee meeting so that a decision can be made within the statutory timescale.
Call-in forms will state why the application has been called in. The application will only go to Committee if the call-in position with regard to granting or refusing an application is different from the case officer's recommendation. Sometimes there are call-ins from two councillors, one if the recommendation is to grant permission and another if the recommendation is to refuse, and these applications will always go to Committee.
Only the following applications can be call-in to Committee: Planning Applications; Householder Applications; Certificates of Lawfulness (Existing); Listed Building Consents; Conservation Area Consents; Advertisement Consents and Telecommunications Applications. Other applications, for example Discharge of Conditions or Non-Material Amendments, are determined under delegated powers.
Detailed information on the call-in procedure is contained in the download below.
How to find out if an application is going to Committee
Under the Case Details displayed for each application, you will see a Committee field (which will tell you which Area Committee it will be heard at) and a Committee date field (which gives the date of the Committee). These fields will be updated as soon as we know if an application will be going to Committee. As explained above, it is usually only quite late in the process that we know this.
In addition, you can check the Agendas for each committee to see which applications will be heard (see above for direct links to each area committee). The agendas are published on our website at least one week prior to the meeting.
Speaking at Committee
Agents, applicants and interested members of the public can register to speak at the Planning Committee in respect of any application they have an interest in. Only one speaker for and one speaker against each application is allowed and each speaker will have 3 minutes only. If more than one person wishes to speak for or against an application, it is requested that they elect one of their party to speak on behalf of all. You can register to speak between 10am and 2.30pm on the day of the meeting by telephoning the Council’s Technical Support team on 01727 819347.
Webcasts
We now transmit and record all planning committee meetings held in the Council Chambers. Planning Committee meetings are normally held in the Council Chambers on Monday evenings (except on bank holidays) and start at 7pm - they can be viewed live from our webcast pages.
Please be advised that by entering into the Council Chamber you are giving permission for video (images and sound) to be recorded and transmitted live and as an archive over the internet and by any other means that the council may deem to use; at its discretion; in the future. The webcast will be made available in the public domain for future viewing purposes.
The following meetings are also broadcast live over the internet: Council, Cabinet, Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Public Services) Overview and Scrutiny Committee (Internal Performance).
All meetings are recorded and saved for six months; if you can’t view the live broadcast you can see the archived version (approximately 24 hours after the meeting) from the same webcast pages.
CLICK HERE TO OPEN THE WEBCAST PAGES
Date of last review: 17 April 2013