Re: Planning COmmittww being bullied by Planning Officers - Public forum - Planning Advisory Service (PAS)

Andrew i`m not sure this is quite the right forum to have this thread on but anyway.... Planning officers have a duty to advise members as to the consequences of the members decision. That is not bullying in itself. If the officers feel that in their professional judgement based on their knowledge and experience, and, possible other appeal decisions or even case law, that a refusal of a particular application will be considered unreasonable by the Planning Inspectorate on appeal, then they are right to make that clear to members. It is for members to then decide whether to heed that advice or not. If members cannot articulate their opposition on planning grounds (rather than they do not want the plans) then they are on very weak grounds. Members have to make decisions in accordance with national and local policies unless material planning circumstances allow otherwise, they cannot just make them because they don`t like something....

Chris has it summed up perfectly. There are however cases where absolutely everyone feels that an application is totally out of order, so the Planning Officers can sometimes suggest to the PC a valid reason for refusal for entering into the records..

My Experience has been the opposite i believe members(vote and politically motivated)(Especially if they are also connected to a parish council) bully planning officers,if a senior member of the PC wants an application refused then it refused,the rest of the members vote sheep like, the planning officers are then left to defend an appeal for proposals they recommended to committee for approval,

>> members ... bully planning officers ..... >> if a senior member of the PC wants an application refused then it refused,the rest of the members vote sheep like, Often PC councillors will 'give way' to the ward councillor covering the application site in deference to his/her more detailed knowledge of local factors - including parish council opinions. Some councillors also have a lot of gravitas and are very respected by other councillors who will often follow their lead. Yes, it can be political - but councillors are elected political officials, so that's only to be expected. Of course the interplay between trained planning officials and the elected councillors can lead to unexpected/unwarranted decisions, appeals and most importantly long time delays and increased costs. Does the system work? Yes. (75+% of applications are approved) Can it be improved? Yes. (Only around 50% of major applications are decided within 13 weeks and about 10% are still undecided after 1 year)