Agenda item

(Epping Forest District Council) Update on the new Planning Committees and overview of its procedures and protocol.

 

G Courtney (Planning Service Manager) presented the new Planning Committee at EFDC -procedures and protocol. He shared a document on the new Planning Committee, referred the Committee to a document also shared in the Agenda, as well as the Planning Committee pages in the Constitution.

N Richardson (Service Director) added that the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) were invited to make suggestions as EFDCs Planning Department were not functioning very well, and EFDC wanted to avoid going into special measures. Their advice went through a long process within the Council, with officers as well as Councillors, and although still early days the Planning Department feels the new process works very well. The new procedures will be reviewed in 2025.

 

The Committee commented and asked questions:

 

-        Cllr K Williamson commented that EFDCs procedures were now in line with most other authorities.

 

-        What will EFDC do about enforcement? Town and Parish councillors felt they were not being listened to when they flagged problem developments. Some large applications go on and officers do not go to view the site. Local councillors have a lot of local knowledge but are not being heard.

 

      N Richardson replied that he strongly disagreed with the statement that

      enforcement officers do not visit sites. He asked for a meeting with

      Loughton Town Council as Enforcement was not a topic at this meeting.

 

-        Cllr W Kauffman shared that he felt the recent Plans B meeting went well, although some Councillors felt under pressure from officers. Future meetings where several Councillors may have to step down might be interesting.

 

      G Courtney reminded Councillors that substitutions could be made for

      Councillors when they needed to step down on certain applications. This

      would ensure quorum and that decisions could be made at the meeting.

 

-        Cllr Wixley thanked G Courtney for the helpful presentations and asked when the document could be sent out, he also asked for it to be attached to the Minutes of the meeting.

-        Cllr Wixley asked for a clarification on how sites visits will be decided. And added questions regarding site visits for householder applications, and whether a ward member would have any influence if they felt a site visit should apply?

 

      G Courtney explained that the default would be that every application

      should have a site visit, unless the Chairman determines that a site visit

      would not be needed. The agenda now comes out 3 weeks before the

      meeting, the Chairmans Briefing, where the decision would be made on site

      visits would be held a few days later. For householder applications to come

      to Planning Committee, the Portfolio-holder would first need to decide the

      application needed to be heard by the Committee. Once it’s decided that a

      householder application would be heard by Committee, the same rules

      apply; the default would be that a site visit would be arranged, unless the

      Chairman decided it was not needed.

      If a ward member feels a site visit would be needed, they should raise this.

 

-        Cllr J Lea asked if transport would be arranged, as site visits can now be across the whole district, not just in the local area as with the old Planning Committee system.

 

 N Richardson replied (later in the meeting) that maybe the local  

 councillors might be able to help each other out with transportation.

 

-        Cllr D Sunger expressed that the new system works. The system now lets Councillors speak to, listen to and take residents’ concerns aboard, and to support them more. He encouraged Town and Parish councillors to engage more with District Councillors.

 

-        Town and Parish councillors felt disenfranchised with the new system. Could it be explained what it means in monetary terms, what it means if the powers were taken away from EFDC. Why were we in this situation?

 

      N Richardson explained that EFDC got into this situation because the

      performance on major application were poor. EFDC were close to the 10%

      threshold when PAS were asked to help. EFDC are now at about 13%. The

      new system will take some time to improve the statistics.

      In monetary terms, if we stayed over 10% and went into special measures,

      the planning applications would not come to EFDC but would go to the

      Planning Inspectorate. The planning fee would go to the Planning

      Inspectorate, and they would make the decisions without input from the

      Councillors, however the EFDC Planning officers would still have to do a lot  

      of the work on the applications. For one of the large applications recently

      the planning fee was about £200 000. EFDC would not get this money if

      placed in special measures.

 

-        Cllr W Kauffman asked if the Chairmans Briefing could be expanded as it is restricting site visits for applications where the Chairman and Vice-Chair has to step down. Can more members be involved?

 

-        Cllr I Allgood also commented about site visit, can we where substitutions are being made, think ahead in order for the substitute to be invited to the site visits.

 

     N Richardson replied that these were good points, and this would be looked

     into.

 

-        Cllr I Allgood asked if there could be a system put in place for Town and Parish councillors to be notified sooner of decisions made by officers. This way District Councillors could call in decisions sooner.

 

-        Cllr K Williams commented on site visits, that there were never very many District Councillors attending, but that the new procedures could and would be improved.

 

-        A question was asked about substitutions, do they happen to avoid going below quorate.

 

-        Can Town and Parish councillors be consulted when the new Panning Committees are being reviewed?

 

     G Courtney replied that quorum was a concern as there are less members

     on the Committee now. The new procedure of site visits being earlier ahead

     of the meeting date should allow for substitutes to be arranged in time for

     the substitute to attend the site visit.

     There should be no issue with regards to Town and Parish Councillors

     being consulted before/during the review process.

 

-        A clarification was made that the document G Courtney shared showed when it is an Officer decision and when it is not, as well as what Councillors need to do when they want an application to go to Committee.

-        Gratitude was expressed that the different types of applications are now included in the weekly list.

-        In one document it says Major applications can be called in by Members within four weeks of them being published in the Members Bulletin, on another it says Weekly List. Which one is correct?

 

      N Richardson confirmed the Weekly List would be the correct list.

      He also expressed gratitude that Town and Parish Councillors chose which

      applications to call in and does not abuse that system.

 

-        The Planning training that has been promised to Councillors, can Town and Parish councillors be invited along to this?

 

      G Courtney confirmed the first session is in a few weeks’ time. Planning

      Committee members should have been invited. Town and Parish

      Councillors are also invited along. The training will be held in the Council

      Chamber, with a recording being available to view afterwards.

 

-        Cllr W Kauffman asked - when an officer has made a recommendation to turn down an application based on planning reasons, and a ward member calls in the decision, why is it being discussed at committee if there are technical reasons for the refusal?

 

      G Courtney explained that the Constitution states that a ward member

      can call in officers’ decisions. Officers do check with the Ward Councillors

      once the refusal reasons have been set out, if they still want to call the

      decision in.

 

-        Is it right that any councillor could speak on an application? Should it not be just ward councillors?

 

      G Woodhall explained that other Councillors with a wider connection to the

      area could speak.