Issue - meetings

To inform the Regulatory Committee of decisions made under delegated powers by the Head of Development Management and the Chair of the Regulatory Committee.

The Committee considered a report, previously circulated, which set out details of decisions made under delegated powers between 14 May and 4 November 2012.

• The Committee discussed whether these figures should come to the Committee on a more frequent basis, however it was noted that the same information was circulated to all Members on a weekly basis, for their information.
• In response to a request from the Committee, it was agreed that the information could be provided in a spreadsheet format, to enable the data to be searched and / or reorganised according to the specific information sought.
• The Committee asked about ‘observations to other boroughs’, and it was confirmed that this was where a scheme was of such scale in one borough that neighbouring London boroughs were consulted on the application.
• In response to a question regarding applications affecting properties owned by the Council in other boroughs, it was confirmed that this would be handled by the Council’s Properties Department, and in such cases the Council would not be acting as the Local Planning Authority.
• It was agreed that a sampling exercise of delegated decisions would be useful, and it was agreed that a report on the principles of undertaking such an exercise should form the basis of a report to the Committee at a future meeting.
• It was suggested that the information in the report might be more useful in a solely electronic format, given that the information was for noting only, however after some discussion, the Committee on balance felt that the report should be retained.
• A report was requested for a future Committee on the issues taken into account where a delegated decision to grant permission was taken in respect of an application that conflicted with planning policy; it was noted that this issue was covered in the ‘how the planning application process works’ item, later on the agenda.