The
Council receives a diverse range of planning applications; from
relatively small domestic extensions to very large developments of
multiple residential or commercial units or a mixture of both. How
applications are managed depends upon a number of factors, such as
the complexity and size of the proposed development and whether or
not any objections have been received by the Planning
Department.
The
Council has one main Planning Committee and two sub-committees -
Planning Sub-Committee A and Planning Sub-Committee B. The main
Planning Committee is made up of ten locally elected councillors
who make decisions on major planning applications from across the
borough. A major planning application, as defined in the Town and
Country Planning (General Development) Procedure Order 1995 (as
amended) is a development involving any one or more of the
following:
(a)
the winning and working of minerals or the use of
land for mineral-working deposits;
(b)
waste development;
(c)
the provision of dwelling houses where:
(i) the number of dwelling houses to be provided is 10 or more;
or
(ii)the development is to be carried out on a site having an area
of 0.5 hectare or more and it is not known whether the development
falls within paragraph (c)(i);
(d)
the provision of a building or buildings where the
floor space to be created by the development is 1,000 square metres
or more; or
(e)
development carried out on a site having an area of
1 hectare or more
The
remaining applications are either determined by one of the two
sub-committees or by the Service Director Planning and Development,
under delegated authority. Under special circumstances the main
Planning Committee can occasionally makes decisions which would
otherwise be made by officers or a sub-committee. Full details are
in Part 5 of the Council's
Constitution.
Residents can make representations about any of the planning
applications on a meeting’s agenda, at the Chair's
discretion. Comments will normally be limited to three
minutes.
For
information about planning policies, the progress of an individual
planning application or how to submit an application, please see
the Planning section of the
website.
