Can A Parish Council object to a planning application without having an official meeting

Question

 My Parish Council chose not to have a public meeting in December, this is when my planning application should have been discussed. Instead, the Councillors made their decision via email, 2 where in support and 4 opposed it, so the Parish Clerk returned a decision to object. My application did not appear on an agender and I had no opportunity to explain the proposal.

Can a Parish Council act in this way and outside an official public meeting? Now, because they objected, the planning authority have no option but to escalate the final decision to a full committee meeting.

Answer 1

Individual parish councillors may express their opinions in a personal capacity, but the council cannot conduct its business by email. Might be worth an email to the Chief Planning Officer and the Monitoring Officer to challenge the legitimacy of the decision, however if the council asks for an extension of time, the next comment will be the same as the initial one.

Answer 2

You may find the council has delegated its authority to the clerk for planning matters and therefore this procedure where the clerk gets opinions from councillors and responds as the clerk is correct. It's not ideal though. I'd contact the parish council for an explanation.

Comments

I understood that this procedure was for straight forward matters only and not the preferred option; it was not advertised as an agender item and I had no opportunity to discuss the proposal, before the meeting? This and my previous applications applications have been somewhat controversial and always opposed by certain Parish Councillors. In this instance, it may perhaps be more beneficial to let it run and highlight this bias at a full planning committee meeting? Is there a black and white answer to having a planning application discussed in private and the Parish Clerk submitting the result?  In no way do I blame the Parish Clerk; I truly believe she has done this under the instruction of the Chair.

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Parish councils are not the planning authority so they can only offer comments/observations in the same way any individual can which the planning authority can take note of or not as they think fit.  If your parish council has an agreed policy to deal with an application as they have, then what they have done is not unreasonable, albeit not the best procedure, and has enabled them to reflect the majority view of the council within the time frame allowed for comment.