Councillors, Clerk and Planning Applications

Question

I have just been made aware of planning applications in my Parish.
I emailed the Clerk asking of they had received notification from the LA; they said they hadn't.
I asked the Clerk if anything could be done as this was unusual that the LA hadn't notified Council. I received a duplicate response from Clerk that all planning applications received had been sent to Council members. They had not recieved any new applications that I was referring too.

What can be done to resolve this situation?

Answer 1

It depends what sort of planning application was submitted, if it was prior approval these are not always sent out.  It might be worth speaking to the planning department as it might have slipped through the net as we have a few of those, discovered it was due to an IT error, but if nobody had noticed that the fault would not have been fixed.

Comments

Thank you. There are three applications and none prior approval; all available for public comments.

Answer 2

In my Borough anyone can request to be added to the weekly planning update list
So first thing every Monday generally before 8:00 I receive a complete list of all planning applications broken down into Wards
Check to see if your LA do the same

Comments

Thank you. Useful to know. Will contact and find out. Thanks again.

Answer 3

On a practical level you could download the application from the planning authority website, send it to the clerk, and politely ask if it could be considered by the parish council at its earliest convenience.

Comments

Thank you. Good point will do!

Answer 4

Most planning authorities use software systems that automatically generate and auto e mail planning application details to Town and Parish council consultee EMail addresses ( often the Clerk's). It is not unknown for something to go wrong with those systems, and it might be worth asking the clerk to inform the planning authority about the lack of applications. Sometimes a bug or wrongly applied software patch can be the cause. If the task is not set to auto repeat, a technician who normally does it could have been off sick or forgotten.Another issue can be implementation of new Firewall rules which can block an outgoing message. There are very few planning authorities who would print out hard copies and post them by default.

Comments

Thank you. Applications are usually sent via email. Didn't know about firewall rules so thanks for  heads up.

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If your council has changed its email address in the past, then some departments don't get the message. It was several months before we realised we were missing out on some of the emails from District, even though they had been told.

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Thanks Caroline no change but will check they have the correct email address. Thanks again