Councillor Alison Foster, a member of the Bedford Borough Council Planning Committee, has expressed her concerns that applicants and objectors no longer have the same rights to be heard as before the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the last physical meeting of the planning committee on March 23, 2020, the day after lock down was announced, a decision was taken under pressure to give officers extra powers for four months so that the Chief Officer for Planning and Infrastructure had power to decide all planning applications other than those that were allowed to be called in to the committee only by a political Group Leader, the Chair of the Planning Committee or the Chief Executive.
The previous ‘scheme of delegation’ allowed for all councillors to call in applications to be heard by the planning committee where they or their residents had genuine concerns about a planning application.
Cllr Foster was unhappy about this decision at the time of the March meeting and asked to hear the recording of the meeting. Unfortunately this was not available.
Since this decision was taken Bedford Borough Council has been able to arrange virtual meetings using ‘Webex’. Cllr Foster, as Conservative Spokesperson on the committee asked for a late item to be added to the committee agenda on June 22 recommending that the amendments made to the scheme of delegation at the March meeting be cancelled and that the prior scheme of delegation be reinstated. This was not allowed.
Cllr Foster said: “Since the March decision, things have changed and we are now able to hold virtual meetings. I and my fellow Conservative planning committee members therefore are very unhappy this decision hasn’t been revoked. We are now seriously concerned that it may be extended further. As a result we all abstained from the vote at the last meeting where the decision was deferred to the next planning meeting.
“As a Councillor I know how deeply important planning is to communities and that is why it is so important to have Councillors input into decision taking and not just officers.
This isn’t simply a case of being able to object, communities can also support applications that officers have recommended for refusal. As elected councillors we understand how planning impacts positively, and negatively on people’s lives.
“I feel strongly that with the current amended scheme officers have too much power and too much control which, in my view, is highly undemocratic and a denial of residents rights of representation.”
Recent planning committees had been very well attended by community groups such that a number of committee meetings had to be moved into the Council Chamber.
Across the country many councils have moved to fully virtual meetings for their planning committees, Central Bedfordshire Council for example, using their existing rules for decision taking.
