In more detail
Local government in England used to be run by committees. In most authorities now, however, executive decisions are made by councillors chosen by the council Leader who make up the council Cabinet. Cabinet members have a portfolio for which they are responsible (housing, social services, public health etc). They make executive decisions relating to their areas of responsibility. Other councillors scrutinise those decisions through the work of overview and scrutiny committees.
Non-executive council decision-making
Parliament has given local councils certain sets of non-executive decisions to make. These include decisions about local planning which Parliament has delegated to the ‘local planning authority’. The local planning authority is the unitary local authority or the district or borough council in places where there are two levels of local government. These councils delegate their responsibilities as the local planning authority to a committee of councillors chosen by the full council. This Planning Committee (it might be called the Planning and Highways Committee or the Planning and Licensing Committee or some other variant depending on where you live) is, in effect, the local planning authority.
It used to be said that planning committees were ‘quasi-judicial bodies’. That is, that they had powers and approaches to decision similar to those taken by a court of law. The High Court has ruled this is not the case: councillors are still councillors (democratically accountable to the people that elected them) when they sit on a Planning Committee. Unlike judges, committee members are not required to be independent or impartial: they may clearly be predisposed to agree with one side or another in the debate about planning permission for a contentious development, for example. They must, however, consider fairly the issues before them and make decisions on the merits of the arguments presented to them.
Who is on the Planning Commitee?
The Planning Committee is made of by a balance of councillors from the political parties represented on the full Council. The different parts of the area covered by the committee will also be balance in terms of representation; so that the committee is not dominated by councillors from only one part. Most planning decisions are delegated by the committee to be made by officers. The chief planning officer – who may be called a Director of Planning etc - reports these decisions to the committee. The committee looks in detail at the larger, most contentious or complex proposals.
Meetings of the local Planning Committee should be advertised and conducted in public. Meetings may even be streamed online. The public can be excluded from meetings if confidential matters come under discussion.
| Key Facts:
The Planning Committee is the group of councillors in each city, borough or district that exercises the powers and duties of the council acting as the local planning authority. The committee delegates most planning decisions to officers accountable to it. Important decisions – including the adoption of a neighbourhood plan, for example – will be made by your local council planning committee. |
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BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.
| created: 2016-06-08 17:23:39 | by: admin | status: f published |