Agenda item

Full Council were being requested to consider amendments to both the Scheme of Delegation and the decision-making process relating to the Council’s responsibilities as the Planning Authority for North Northants. It was being proposed that any agreed changes would be effective for the Municipal Year 2023/2024 onwards.

 

North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) had responsibility for performing the role of “Planning Authority” within its area as detailed in statute. Any functions and liabilities resulting from performing this role rested with NNC.

“Planning” was a fundamental function of local authorities, subject to extensive legislation and often undertaken subject to wide public scrutiny. Members when undertaking their responsibilities on behalf of the Council (the “Planning Authority”) needed to ensure that all relevant representations, policies etc were considered prior to making their determination on an application for planning consent.

 

Any processes put in place by the Council needed to be lawful and ensure fairness to all relevant parties – applicants, statutory consultees and those submitting representations. Decisions must be made with regard to all material planning considerations associated with the proposal and the planning balance then applied. This, along with the test of reasonableness, would help to ensure that the Council had a sound decision-making process in place.

 

The Council was currently undertaking a comprehensive review of its planning service and its delivery to those using the service. The report before Members and Appendix 1 provided background to the steps the Council was undertaking to improve service delivery and enhance improvements in decision-making and governance.

 

In 2022, the Council requested that the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) undertake a Peer Review into all aspects of the provision of a planning service by the Council. The outcome of this review was reported to the Executive in December 2022, together with recommendations suggested by PAS. The Executive agreed to establish a Planning Transformation Board with responsibility for following through and overseeing the Council’s response to the PAS recommendations.

 

A range of work was being undertaken through the transformation programme including the harmonisation of the Planning Service’s back-office processes and customer facing operations to address the recommendations made by PAS. With regard to the Council’s Planning Scheme of Delegation and committee structure, the PAS Peer Review report identified a number of issues they felt the Council needed to consider. These included:

 

·             The governance structure is not efficient and effective for a council of this scale. Four planning committees have been retained exactly reflecting the predecessor council boundaries. These have been supplemented by an additional strategic planning committee that considers very large or contentious applications.

·             All five committees are scheduled to meet monthly. In the period from January to September this year (2022), several committees were cancelled and many were very short.

·             The same scheme of delegation applies across the committees although we heard that it is not consistently applied. An excessive number of householder and minor applications are considered by committee because of the current scheme of delegation.

·             The costs of taking applications to committee are much higher than delegated decisions and committees should be considering only the most significant applications and, of course, any which involve the council, councillors, or planning staff as the applicant.

 

The PAS report also made the following recommendations:

 

Further review the scheme of delegation and the number of committees: -

 

·             Ensure that householder and minor applications only go to committee in exceptional circumstances.

·             Trial a significantly reduced number of committees with a proportionate geographical spread (based on an analysis of applications needed to go to committee after the changes to the scheme of delegation).

·             To encourage the move to a new joined up planning service, it would be better if the new committee boundaries were not aligned to the predecessor council boundaries.

 

In response to the observations and recommendations raised in the PAS Report, it had been agreed through the approval of the corresponding North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) Action Plan that the following actions be undertaken:

 

·             A review of the Planning Scheme of Delegation and the development of an    amended scheme based upon best practice and supported by NNC    planning data.

·             A review of the planning committee system and the development of proposals for a revised committee structure, supported by NNC planning           data, that optimises efficiency and enables committees to         focus on the    most significant applications.

 

Further details regarding these PAS recommendations and the data considered in formulating the proposals in this report could be found in Appendix 1 under 4.7 – 4.28.

 

Appendix 1 accompanying the report was a copy of the officer report submitted to Democracy and Standards Committee on 13^th March 2023. This report provided more in-depth commentary on the background to the PAS recommendations and the proposed actions arising from these considered by the Planning Transformation Board established by the Executive.

 

Appendix 1A included a copy of the original officer recommended amendments to the Scheme of Delegation (RED italics), based upon PAS recommendations. These were considered by Committee and further suggested amendments were highlighted (YELLOW bold).

 

Appendix 1B included a copy of the proposed geographic split for Planning Committees. The split reflected the recommendations made by PAS and was informed by historic planning data to help ensure that the application workloads of the proposed committees would be as equitable as possible. During discussions at Committee, it was noted that this split may need to be revisited following the outcome of the current NNC Boundary Review exercise being conducted.

 

Appendix 1C included a copy of the proposed Terms of Reference applicable to each planning committee, incorporating comments from the Committee and subsequent officer recommended amendments.

 

A consequential issue arising from any amendment to the committee structure related to Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) for Chairs. This matter was a decision for Full Council.

 

Currently each Chair of the four Area Committees received an SRA of £5,090. The Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee received an SRA of £7,631. The total expenditure on Planning Committee SRAs was £27,991. It was suggested that each Chair of the two new Area Committees received an SRA of £7,631. The total expenditure on Planning Committee SRAs would be £15,262. The higher SRA reflected the increased level of responsibility and related to the approved SRA scale agreed by Council based upon the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel.

 

Political Balance & Membership on the new Committees

 

The full and substitute membership of the two new committees would be drawn from those wards included within the geographic area covered by each respective committee.

 

Political balance would be calculated, with Groups advised ahead of Annual Council and nominations for full and substitute membership sought.

 

Based upon the recommendation of Democracy and Standards Committee there would be a need for the following –

 

North Planning Committee	13       Full Members
	13      Substitute Members
South Planning Committee	13             Full Members
	13      Substitute Members

 

It should be noted that each full or substitute member needs to have received the approved training prior to taking-up their duties on the committee. Given the rationalisation of committees, the proposed increase in quorum (to 7 members), and the decrease in likelihood of scheduled meetings being cancelled, the role of substitute members is of particular importance.

 

Scheme of Delegation

 

Items of debate and amendment to the Scheme of Delegation are highlighted in Appendix A. The key areas discussed by Committee included: -

 

Delegation 1 (iv), where it was felt appropriate for the Chair and Vice Chair to be included as well as the senior planning officer. In addition, there was significant discussion around the term “contentious.” A suggested definition of this has been proposed at the end of the Delegation Scheme for reference. It should be noted that the need for clear reference to material planning considerations in any representations is essential to mitigate any potential successful challenge to the Council’s subsequent actions.

 

Delegation 8, where there was reference in relation to ward member requests for submission within 21 calendar days. In order to allow more time for town and parish councils to liaise with ward members after the standard 21 calendar days consultation, the suggested amendment is for this to be increased to 25 calendar days, whilst recognising that this will reduce the officer time available to process responses to consultation, consider the application, draft a report for publication ahead of committee within the statutory timeframe for determination of 8 weeks for non-major applications. It should be noted that ward members are not statutory consultees but play an important role in channelling constituents concerns and queries regarding applications for planning consent in their respective wards to the Planning Authority.

 

Delegation 8, the final paragraph to be reworded to read – The request shall be considered by the Chair and Vice Chair of the relevant planning committee, with the advice of the senior planning officer, that the referral contains material planning issues and shall be called in.

 

Member Training – the Committee were keen to stress the importance of member training, and noted the steps taken to date regarding this which were welcomed. A particular issue related to the transfer of some of the responsibilities from the Strategic Planning Committee to Area Committees, specifically former NCC functions e.g. minerals & waste planning. Appropriate training would be provided. There was also brief discussion that members who were not on Area Committees may benefit from some basic training being provided to assist with their role as ward members.

 

Town & Parish Councils – Town & Parish Councils are an important statutory consultee. Concerns were raised that some town & parish councils struggle to respond within the 21-calendar day consultation period, although it was noted that some have mitigating measures in place to assist with compiling consultation responses e.g. planning committees, delegation. It needs to be recognised that the responsibility and liability for determining applications within statutory time periods rests with the Planning Authority and that their performance in this respect is monitored by Government.

 

It was further noted that the Planning Authority had agreed on occasions for ad hoc reasonable extensions of time for local councils’ responses to be received. Communication between local councils and the Planning Authority was key. This concern would partially be mitigated by the Committee’s suggestion that ward members have a 25-calendar day period to respond, allowing another channel for local councils to use. It should be noted that any failure of the Planning Authority to determine applications within the timeframe specified in statute increases the risk of challenges from applicants on the grounds of non-determination. Persistent failure to meet the Government’s targets on speed of decision making could result in the Planning Authority being placed in special measures.

 

Member Communication – The importance of ensuring that ward members were made aware of validated applications for planning consent in their respective area was stressed. Officers confirmed, once validated, applications were accessible to members and the public on the Council’s website, where all documentation was uploaded.

 

Councillor Lora Lawman moved the recommendations and thanked all officers and Members for their contribution to discussions on the report to date. The report recognised arising from the PAS report that the Authority needed to make changes to its procedures and operations relating to planning, whilst retaining the good practise detailed by PAS. Councillor Lawman stressed that the operation of the governance structure and delegation scheme would continue to be kept under review.

 

The recommendations were MOVED by Councillor Lora Lawman and SECONDED by Councillor David Brackenbury.

 

An amendment to the report’s recommendations was MOVED by Councillor David Brackenbury and SECONDED by Councillor Mark Rowley. The amendment read: -

 

Under recommendation 3 (c), retain “Approve the amendments to the Scheme of Delegation as detailed in the report and Appendix A …and add… subject to the addition of the following words to the Conditions of Delegation 8 –

 

If a Councillor has concerns that a delegated decision (be it approval or rejection) would go against the interests of the ward then a ward councillor can request to be advised on the officer’s decision before it is signed off. The councillor will have two clear working days to call-in the application to committee.”

 

Councillor Brackenbury explained the purpose of the amendment. This was to allow additional time for ward members to liaise with the Planning Service, particularly when they have received concern from residents and local councils. Subject to the outcome of those discussions, and relative to material planning considerations, a “call-in” request from the relevant ward member may be submitted.

 

Councillors debated the amendment. A vote was taken on the amendment.

 

RESOLVED that: -

 

(i)               The amendment was passed.

 

Councillors returned to debating the substantive motion. Members noted the extensions of time being suggested for both ward member consultation and town & parish council consultation and these were welcomed. Concern was raised regarding the Member availability for the respective proposed areas given the suggested geographic split, with a wider “pool” of availability in the North area. Members were reminded that the suggested geographic split was based on previous planning data and could be kept under review going forward.

 

A recorded vote was requested.

 

Those voting in favour of the recommendations: - Councillors L Wilkes, C Best, M Binley, J Bone, D Brackenbury, C Brown, S Brown, Lyn Buckingham, Andrew Weatherill, Lloyd Bunday, J-P Carr, R Carter, J Currall, D Howes, B Jackson, H Harrison, P Irwin, I Jelley, K Lawal, J Ekins, S Edwards, M Griffiths, K Harrington, C Hallam, B Jenney, H Howell, G Lawman, L Lawman, A Lee, D Maxwell, P Marks, A Mercer, G Mercer, M Nichol, J O’Hara, A Pandey, H Pentland, E Prentice, R Roberts, M Rowley, G Shacklock, J Smithers, C Smith-Haynes, J Smyth, M Tebbutt, M Ward, M Coleman.

 

 

Those voting against the recommendations: - Councillors Leanne Buckingham, A Dalziel, K Watt, E Fedorowycz, D Dell, J Hakewill, P McEwan, J McGhee, Z McGhee, S Tubbs, V Anslow, K Watts, R Armour.

 

Those abstaining from voting: - Councillors J Addison, M Pengelly, L Henson.

 

RESOLVED that: -

 

(i)               The Strategic Planning Committee and the four Area Planning Committees be dissolved and replaced by two Area Planning Committees (North and South) as detailed within the report and Appendix B;

(ii)              The Terms of Reference applicable to both new Area Planning Committees as detailed in the report and Appendix C be approved;

(iii)            The amendments to the Scheme of Delegation as detailed in the report, Appendix A and by Council amendment be approved subject to the addition of the following words to the Conditions of Delegation 8 –

 

“If a Councillor has concerns that a delegated decision (be it approval or rejection) would go against the interests of the ward then a ward councillor can request to be advised on the officer’s decision before it is signed off. The councillor will have two working days to call-in the application to committee.”

 

(iv)            Each Chair of an Area Planning Committee, see (i) above, receive a Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA) of £7,631 per annum;

(v)             The amendments and changes approved in (i-iv) above are enacted for the Municipal Year 2023/2024 onwards;

(vi)            It be noted that changes to the geographical area covered by each respective Area Planning Committee may require review following changes to ward boundaries to be implemented at the next scheduled ordinary elections in May 2025; and

(vii)          Delegated authority be given to the Monitoring Officer to make minor incidental and consequential changes to the Council’s Constitution as a result of any changes approved in (i-iv) above.

 

(There was a brief adjournment in the meeting. Councillor Pentland left the meeting at this point).