The Portsmouth Society - News
| News | Determination of Planning Applications | |
| Earlier news | For some years local authorities have been under pressure to speed up the planning process and as a help in so doing to have as many planning applications as possible determined by officers rather than by committee. We have been concerned about this as the committee can sometimes refuse permission on design grounds when they have been recommended by the officers. There was one notable case where the committee refused twice with the result that the design was twice revised – and improved – before finally being approved. On another occasion the university's £7million business school was approved without going to committee. The city planning officer has told us that there are no absolute criteria for referral to committee other than a deputation being requested. "Considerable public interest" indicated by the number of representations also has an influence on the decision to refer. We have urged that size should be made to count, e.g. more than £5 million and also that public interest should have a figure put on it, e.g. more than thirty letters received. These are, after all, political decisions and we think they should be made by politicians. RJ |