Agenda item

The Overview and Scrutiny Board, at its last meeting, considered a request from a member of the Public regarding BCP Council’s Planning Committee Structure. The Board agreed to consider this matter further and is placed on this agenda for consideration at this meeting.

The request was accompanied by a consultant’s report commissioned by local Parish Councils which is attached to this agenda for further consideration.

The relevant Cabinet Members Councillor Philip Broadhead, Portfolio Holder for Development, Growth and Regeneration and Councillor Bobbie Dove, Portfolio Holder for Community Safety and Regulatory Services have been invited to attend the meeting for consideration of this item.

Following a request by a member of the public for an item of scrutiny to be placed on the Board’s agenda in relation to the Planning Committee Structure the Board agreed to place this on the Boards Forward Plan and the Chairman had agreed to add this to the agenda for this meeting.

The Chairman of the Board invited, the parish Councils’ representative Chairman of Highcliffe & Walkford Parish Council, who was acting at the request of, Christchurch Town Council, Hurn Parish Council, Burton Parish Council and Throop & Holdenhurst Parish Council, to address the Board and outline the issues which they wanted the Board to consider.

The representative explained that they felt that BCP Council should operate the Planning function as three separate area-based committees rather than one single committee. It was outlined that there was a lack of confidence in the system by many which was why the local parish councils had become involved in the situation. There was no confidence that the Councillors on the Planning Committee would appreciate and understand the nuances of planning in the different areas of the conurbation. They believed that public confidence would increase if the Council operated with three, area-based committees as opposed to the single committee model.

The Chairman invited the Head of Planning to respond to the points raised. The Board was advised that they understood the concerns and issues raised by the parish councils within the report but from their perspective the current planning committee was operating very effectively and that there hadn’t been any issues of the wrong decisions being made. Councillors applied the appropriate policies within the different areas. It was no considered that this was the most appropriate time to raise this as there were many other issues in the service at present. This was also previously considered less than 12 months ago but was potentially something to monitor

There was a need to approach this in an evidenced based way. The statement in the report that there was a democratic deficit in the current planning system was not evidenced. However, the Planning Committee shouldn’t stand still but should consider opportunities. The current operations were efficient and cost effective. Multiple committees were in the minority across the country and were generally in Council’s which covered a large geographical area. A key risk in moving to a multiple committee model would be a need to ensure consistency.  Servicing a committee was time and resource intensive. There was nothing within the report which indicated that a shared or multiple committee system would be more efficient or engaging than the current arrangement.

The Chairman also invited a Ward Councillor for the Commons Ward to address the Committee who advised that public confidence was the absolute key to effective town planning. Making decisions which the public had faith in required local knowledge. Many local residents did not have this confidence in this current system. Councillors needed to use local knowledge to understand that what may be acceptable in one area of the conurbation would not be in another area. It was also suggested that the Committee of 15 members was too big and this impaired its effectiveness. Individual local committees could include just 7 members. It was also noted that the current committee had a significant workload and needed to start early and sit for a whole day.

Following this the Chairman opened the issues for debate by the Board, the issues raised by the Board included:

·     There was huge sympathy for the idea suggested by the parishes

·     That there was only 13 miles from one side of the conurbation to the other.

·     Members on the planning committee should familiarise themselves with what was going on in different areas of the conurbation.

·     It wasn’t possible to have people from every ward on the planning committee - how far was it preferable to go in terms of breaking down geographically.

·     Christchurch only had five wards which would allow someone from every ward to sit on an area-based committee.

·     That it was important for Planning Committee to be doing site visits and ensure appropriate training was in place.

·     It was important to take into account the parish Councils views and this may help with public confidence.

·     Parish Councils and neighbourhood forums had the statutory right to speak at the Planning Committee.

·     The Christchurch Planning Committee had been running very well pre-merger.

·     Dorset Council ran two area-based boards and an overall committee for major applications and most large unitary Council’s had separate area committees.

·     Even if it was not something which could be addressed now it could be something which was considered and revisited in the future.

·     The majority of planning decisions were made by officers not by committees.

·     There was currently a level playing field with the same planning committee for all applications

·     The Planning Committee followed national planning conditions, the local plan and neighbourhood plans. There should be more work going into putting together more neighbourhood plans with more detail for local areas.

·     Currently the Planning Committee thoroughly considered applications including visiting sites and finding out what was going on in a particular area.

·     Each application should be dealt with on its own merits and in accordance with the correct policies

·     The Planning committee was doing a good job but there could be further training provided for members and anyone who substituted.

·     A formal report on this issue was considered by the Audit and Governance Committee on 26 November 2020. The Committee concluded that the current system should remain in place and this was agreed by full Council in January 2021.

·     That this should be reconsidered in future but time was needed to make appropriate changes within the Planning Service first.

·     Most Councillors knew the different areas of the conurbation well.

The Chairman suggested that the Board should not take any further action on this matter at this stage but that it had been useful to hear the comments from senior planning officers and the Portfolio Holder earlier in the meeting, which indicated that it would create further issues if the Planning Committee structure was looked at further at present.

However, there were indications from a number of Board members that this should be considered again in the future. 

It was suggested that there should be a public communications campaign on planning. It seemed like a lack of information and misunderstandings fuelled certain issues and people made assumptions which were incorrect. It was important to ensure that the public was fully engaged. It was also important that ward Councillors were engaged in the process.

The Chairman thanked Mr Hutchings for representing the Parish Councils this evening and gave him an opportunity to have a final say on the matters discussed by the Board. The Chairman noted that whilst it was not presently the right time to look at this issue due to the development of the local plan for the BCP area and the changes underway in the Planning service it was something which should be kept under consideration for the future as it was important to ensure the confidence of local residents in the planning process.

RESOLVED: That no further action be taken at this stage.