RE: Deadline to take public comments into account - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)
RE: Deadline to take public comments into account
Our current practice is to say in our neighbour notification letters when we want a response, which his 21 days from the date of the letter. But we do say in various guidance, that we will take into account any representation received up to the point of making the decision.
In practice the majority of responses come in well within the 21 days, but we have noticed a few higher profile cases where the application is going to a planning committee, where we are getting a late surge of online representations, including on the day of the committee itself. Getting the odd one or two has not generally been an issue, but the greater the numbers, the bigger the challenge to make sure that the comments contain nothing new that needs a direct response.
So, the question was to ask how others deal with this, i.e. don’t take into account any representations received outside the 21 day period, or impose an embargo on taking into account any further reps received, say 5 days before a committee sits.
Thanks
Hi Bryan
I'm not sure you can lawfully have a cut off date and it would be unwise to do so as information may come in which is highly material to the decision-making process. Such an approach is also likely to raise concerns from all parties, including your members (and certainly your lawyers!). Having said that, we do advertise a deadline of 5pm the day before committee (our committee starts at 9am on a Tuesday) and will generally not accept anything after this unless it's something that could lead to a challenge. On the big stuff, in our experience there is usually a ring-leader organising objections who we will be in contact with over the course of the application, so will make them aware that the earlier we receive objections the better and that anything late will not necessarily find its way before members.
Not sure if this helps but this is our experience.
cheers
Paul
Thanks Paul, and I have to say that I do agree with your comments, and especially the working with objectors ( and supporters) to try and avoid deliberate late submissions.
Thanks
We took a controversial application to Committee last year, with the main local action group submitting an objection from their lawyers on the morning of Committee, stating that a decision could not be made as we didn't have enough information. We referred to the letter in Committee and said we thought nothing new was raised, Committee could make a decision which they did.
The approval was then JR'd, and one of the first things the judge did was to reprimand the barrister for playing games on his client's behalf by submitting the letter so very late. He said that if they had had anything important to say that they wanted the Committee to take into account, presumably they would have (and should have) said so before the day of Committee. It worked against the barrister in the early stages of their case as the letter was disregarded and their approach considered completely unreasonable.
Hope that helps.