{"id":254221,"date":"2017-05-15T14:32:09","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T14:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sandbox.lightsourcebp.com\/news\/politics-and-planning-decisions-an-uneasy-marriage\/"},"modified":"2023-07-31T10:08:10","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T10:08:10","slug":"politics-and-planning-decisions-an-uneasy-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sandbox.lightsourcebp.com\/uk\/news\/politics-and-planning-decisions-an-uneasy-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics and Planning Decisions – An Uneasy Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Politics and Planning Decisions – An Uneasy Marriage<\/h1>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
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Article posted on LinkedIn<\/a> by Penny Laurenson, Head of Planning at Lightsource.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the hell is that? Who is allowing these ugly things?\u201d I heard from behind me as I crossed Waterloo bridge the other day. The \u2018what\u2019 they were referring to was the new sky scrapper going up at One Blackfriars (apparently, they\u2019re trying to make the unofficial moniker of \u2018The Boomerang\u2019 stick \u2013 the lady behind me went with \u2018The Blob\u2019).<\/p>\n

As to the \u2018who\u2019 allowed it to go ahead \u2013 that was the Planning Committee at Southwark Council.<\/p>\n

For the uninitiated wondering how these mystical omnipotent Planning Committee\u2019s operate \u2013 let me illustrate with a story I once heard. \u00a0On the distant shores of Northern Ireland one evening, a Planning Committee was taking place, the Councillors had settled into a debate on the merits of a proposed new park \u2013 one Councillor suggested getting 10 gondolas for the planned lake \u2013 another Councillor \u2013 perhaps only half paying attention, but with their eye firmly on the budget \u2013 interrupted to counter that they only needed to get two<\/em> gondola\u2019s and then \u2018just let them breed!\u2019<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve not witnessed anything quite as comical as this \u2013 however I have seen significant variance in terms of the professionalism and operation of Planning Committees across the UK.\u00a0Some are tightly run ships, where the Committee Chair keeps Councillors focused on the material planning considerations, and members are expected to have read and considered the Officer\u2019s Report (the report by the planner who has assessed the application) prior to the committee meeting. Others are (how to put this politely\u2026) a tad loose. Now, if you were thinking that reading the Officer\u2019s Report would surely be a given (as I naively did when I first entered this game), unfortunately that\u2019s not always the case, and that\u2019s not even the worst of it. More than one member of my team has reported back after a committee meeting, incredulous that a Councillor slept throughout the Officer\u2019s presentation and following committee discussion, awaking just in time to vote against our proposal.<\/p>\n

As a Chartered planner, it\u2019s probably unsurprising that I think planning decisions are best made by qualified Planners. Now \u2013 Planners are not always perfect, they can make mistakes, or accept development proposals that perhaps should be pushed back (in fact in the case of The Blob above, the planner had recommended approval in their Officer\u2019s Report to committee), so it is important that there is a second layer of scrutiny, particularly for major and controversial developments. My question is whether this higher level of decision making should sit with politicians. \u00a0\u00a0I recall one night when a planning committee refused all 6 solar farm applications in front of it in short succession (3 of which were ours), giving them all word for word the exact same reason for refusal (even though there were all in different locations, with different local contexts). The Council\u2019s Head of Legal even called the Councillors out of the committee room for a word part way through proceedings (presumably to remind them of the risks their approach held). Over the year that followed, all 6 of those refusals were overturned on appeal, with costs being awarded against the Council for unreasonable behaviour. Note that it is the Council as an entity that is required to pay the fines, the Councillors who made the decisions are not held accountable.<\/p>\n

The impact of politicking in decision making can be significant for applicants. Appeals can easily take over a year to be determined \u2013\u00a0so even if the appeal is successful and an applicant is eventually granted planning permission, they will have suffered time delays and increased costs, and in some cases the impact of this may kill the project entirely.<\/p>\n

The potential for politics to influence planning decisions is never more pertinent then around election time. Anyone with a remotely controversial planning application will be aware that the pre-election committee meeting presents an extra degree of uncertainty and risk for applicants. In the run-up to an election there are added pressures for Councillors \u2013 they may be concerned about their chances of re-election (particularly if a rival is campaigning on an anti-development \u2018I\u2019ll protect the village\u2019 platform), and there is likely to be greater attention to Councillors actions in the local press.<\/p>\n

At the national level, purdah means that the Secretary of State will not be issuing any further decisions on call-ins and recovered appeals until after the election.\u00a0However, no such purdah restrictions apply to local authorities as determining planning applications is a core Council function.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one way to overcome the potential for politics or the pressure of an impending election to influence planning decisions would be to import an idea from New Zealand\u2019s planning system. In New Zealand, applicants can choose \u2013 at their cost \u2013 to request an appropriately qualified Independent Commissioner to hear and determine their application, as an alternative to a panel of Councillors. (I\u2019m sure many would also welcome the importation of New Zealand\u2019s 20-working day statutory determination timeframe \u00a0– but that\u2019s a topic for another day!).<\/p>\n

This could be beneficial for both applicants and Councillors. Applicants would feel reassured that their application would be judged on its planning merits, and that politics would not influence the decision whilst Councillors would be free to attract by-lines and photo opportunities by either rallying in support or opposition of a proposal \u2013 without actually having to make the call on an application at a sensitive time.<\/p>\n

Food for thought for any policy makers out there!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n <\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n

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