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!