Political opinion with Cllr Duncan Crow: Defending resident's rights to a say on planning applications

In less than a fortnight on 31 October, new changes to the planning scheme of delegation come into effect, that significantly weaken the ability of residents and councillors to bring planning applications for determination at public committee meetings, rather than by delegated officer decisions behind closed doors. Mandated by the government, local councils like Crawley are legally bound to implement them.

These changes mean the number of objections from local residents will no longer be taken into account, as to whether a planning application will be determined by a planning committee, as opposed to a delegated planning officer decision. Additionally, the right of any ward councillor to call in any application to planning committee on behalf of residents is also being removed.

In July, Conservative MPs forced a vote in the House of Commons seeking to stop this legislation. It achieved cross-party support and even 21 Labour MPs voted with the Conservatives on this, but Crawley’s Labour MP voted with the Government and almost all of Reform’s 8 MPs didn’t bother to turn up to vote at all, helping to defeat the Conservative attempt to stop this legislation.

At this Wednesday’s Full Council meeting a somewhat symbolic vote of Councillors will take place, on updating the Council’s Constitution to recognise that these changes are happening. I say symbolic because even if a majority of Councillors voted against it, the new law will still apply from 31 October, and the only difference would be the Council’s Constitution being out of date. Unlike the Parliamentary vote, it is effectively a meaningless vote.

However, as the opposition party at Crawley Borough Council that shows up and actively holds the Labour Administration to account, we Conservatives have enabled a meaningful vote on this matter for Wednesday’s Full Council meeting. We have tabled a motion calling for the government to urgently review this legislation, focussing on reinstating the rights of residents and councillors to bring planning applications to planning committees. If a majority of councillors support our motion, Crawley Borough Council will be one the first to start pressuring the Government to reverse these changes.