Compulsory Member Training in Development Control - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

At Herts we have a requirement that all members serving on the Committee including substitute members shall have undertaken at least basic training on the planning process prior to serving on the Committee. Full training at convenient times for members of the Committee will be arranged within 3 months of any member being appointed to the Committee. This is set out in our Code of practice - attached. Hope this helps

At Richmonshire, we introduced compulsory training in 1999 - for all Members involved in Development Control and Planning Policy. We organise 3 or 4 sessions per Council year, and members have to attend at least 2 to remain qualified to continue in planning. With our culture of evening meetings, we start with tean at 5.30, work from 6.00 to 8.15. There's a mix of internal and external speakers. We have 34 members in total, with 14 on the Planning Committee - but at least 25 have kept up their "entitlement" New Members get an introductory session (about 4 hours) which qualifies them for the first year. A non-qualified Member needing to be qualified quickly gets the same time. This is now pretty rare. We have Members on the National Park and County Planning Committees. Some have suggested that they should be able to combine training entitlement. The rule is that external training opportunity can be used provided that it is relevant to our planning issues (I get the Chairman to help here!) and that it is available to all our members with reasonable notice. External speakers are often successful - because new faces are welcome. Biggest name so far was Simon Thurley on his inaugural visit to Yorkshire. At other times we run simultaneous mini-seminars led by junior staff who tell Members about the details of planning laws. Herewith recent report to Council

At Redditch we have a requirement that all members serving on the Committee, including substitute members, have to undertake basic training on the planning process prior to serving on the Committee. This is normally carried out asap post elections to ensure that sufficient members are trained to be able to make up the Planning Committee. Whilst on the subject of training, I am currently seeking relevant Planning Committee training for one Member who missed our planned session. Is anyone aware of some relevant training happening soon, preferably in West Mids, on this aspect of planning training. Any contacts/suggestions welcome.

Like many other respondents my council has mandatory training for all committee members and substitutes. It must be attended within 3 months of appointment and annally thereafter. However, all elected members are invited to attend because they can all respond to planning application consultations within their wards. Recently I have suggested that the training sessions be opened up to include chairman and clerks from our 22 parish councils. The parish councils are offered DC training sessions of their own, but the takeup has been disappointing. Involving some members of town and parish councils in the DC committee training, I hope, is a way of helping them to understand how decisions are reached and reduce some the suspicion that seems to surround the process. My own question to readers is, what do they think of the quality of the training they receive? Based on my own experience, I have asked the officers to be more challenging in their presentation to members and not just stand there and recite what the book says about policy and probity. My reasons for doing this are two fold. Firstly, too many members continue to think they can take it or leave it on policy issues and their personal feelings and the mood of their constituents is what should determine how they vote on planning applications (no matter how much training they have had!). Secondly, the officers often have hidden frustrations of their own about the way a particular application has been dealt with in committee or about members attitude to the planning dept and its officers. Using the training sessions as a forum for dealing not only with the policy as written, but also as a way of addressing performance, makes them much more interesting and challenging for both sides!

Derbyshire Dales District Council has a scheme of mandatory training for members of a planning committee. I'd be interested to learn what penalties other authorities have introduced for none attendance.

Salford City Council has insisted on Member Training for a number of years. Planning Panel members are required to undergo a training session on process and probity issues before they are able to vote. Recently we commissoned Trevor Roberts Associates to carry out the training.This was an interesting interactive session which members preferred to being talked at by the city solicitor. Members have referred to issues raised by this session during discussion at the Panel which suggests there was some learning form the exercise. We have now developed a year-long training programme and Members will be given the opportunity of attending monthly sessions on a variety of topics (such as design, car-parking standards) which they have indicated are of interest. We also encourage 'on-the-job' training by holding a reflection session at the end of each Panel meeting where Members can seek clarification of issues around policy or process which concerned them during the meeting.