Bassetlaw District Council has adopted a new set of guidelines to ensure that the approval of plans for property development and alterations are much more transparent.

Portfolio holder for Community Prosperity and Planning, Cllr David Pressley, says “The sheer volume, diversity and complexity of planning applications received by the Council means that the Planning Committee, consisting of elected members of the Council,

cannot possibly deal with them all within the laid-down time scales. There is therefore a system in place of delegated authority to deal with some applications by either the professional planning officers or the Planning Consultation Group [PCG].

“The PCG consists of the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Opposition Spokesman of the Planning Committee, plus one other member of the Planning Committee chosen on a rota basis. Also present is the Council’s Development Control Manager or one of the Principal Planners.

“The new guidelines set out the criteria for determining the circumstances in which delegated powers can be used, which applications should automatically be referred to the PCG as well as those that should automatically be referred to the Planning Committee.

“When considering an application that doesn’t obviously meet these criteria, planning officers will use their judgement to determine whether it raises issues that justify consideration at the PCG or by the full Committee.

“In the interest of transparency, planning officers will, in future, prepare a written report of each meeting of the Planning Consultation Group [PCG]. This will include a section summarising any relevant issues arising from the discussion and noting any specific points that Members wish to be recorded. This report will be added to the application file and will be available for inspection as a record of the considerations taken into account in determining the application.”

Dave Armiger, Head of Community Prosperity, says “The new guidelines cover the huge array of circumstances and legalities that determine the nature of each and every planning application. There are far too many of these to even give examples and anyone who wants to find out how the guidelines work should refer to the Planning pages on the Council’s website.”