Planning applications listed on parish council agendas

Question

If a parish council discusses a planning application without publishing it on the agenda prior to the meeting, does this contravene anything?

Answer 1

If it is not published on the agenda then they can make no resolutions, but they would be able to discuss it. Parish councillors dont have any real powers in relation to planning applications anyway so the only real resolution they could make would be to submit a letter of support/objection to the planning department. This would only have the same weight as a letter from a member of the public.

Comments

In practice I have found this is different depending on the knowledge and skills of your council  - some of my councillors are extremely knowledgeable about the village and surroundings and their comments and thoughts on applications are both sought and well respected by the local planning team. Given we're dealing with some very large developments currently their input is seen as vital and have held multiple meetings with developers over the last 10 years or so and have had considerable impact on plans and changes to them.

I also concur with DB's comments - the planning team seem to have a knack of issuing applications at the wrong time and we often reply to things prior to meetings if they are not controversial. Our terms of reference for the planning working group give that ability - it might not be strictly correct by the letter of the rules but it's the only real way of functioning.

Answer 2

It is annoying but planning applications have a tendency to be published by the planning authority literally as soon as the agenda for the next meeting is sent out!  My council has a scheme of delegation in place enabling the clerk to respond to applications that come between meetings with the proviso that an additional meeting must be convened if the application is controversial in any way or if a councillor requests an additional meeting.  The agenda actually states "planning applications as listed plus any additional applications received" so if there is a routine non controversial matter, it can be discussed and that discussion is used by the clerk to respond in accordance with delegated powers.  No doubt someone will say that's not the correct procedure but if we held an additional meeting for every application for a fence or conservatory that arrives after the meeting agenda has been published, the number of meetings we hold would double!

Answer 3

Frustrating that planning applications are 'listed' by the LPA in a manner which doesn't align with PC meetings  - well maybe.
The presumption that an LPA 'has a knack' or a 'tendency' of validating and publishing planning applications in a sequence which is inconvenient to PCs is to fail to understand the role and functionality of a LPA and indicates a bunker mentality where simple routine operations of a partner organisation are not understood or 'blamed' for the effect upon the subordinate entity.

Planning APPLICANTS submit their planning applications entirely as suits them self - they may be waiting for architect, planning agent, ecologist, arboriculture, highways or any other manner of required supporting documentation - they are entirely at liberty to submit their planning application to the LPA when so ever they choose.

The validation desk will then have a series of checks before the application is passed validation and allocated to a case officer.

Only then will the application be publicly listed and consultees invited to comment.

This is an entirely randomised process starting from the completely arbitrary submission of an application which has no consideration of individual parish council meeting schedules.

It is futile and indicative of a bunker mentality to assume that there is an intentional act of LPA publishing applications according to anything other than the randomness of the applicant's action.

Comments

I do not see anything that suggests anyone is stating or assuming that there is an intentional act of the planning authority to publish applications to inconvenience parish councils and a  long diatribe that suggests otherwise is bizarre.  What was said is that often it is the case that planning applications get to the consultation stage at times which don't necessarily align with parish council meeting schedules so parish councils need to come up with a process that enables comments/responses in a manner that complies with our standing orders/regulations/processes within the limited timeframe available and meets the needs of the parish/community.