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Wiltshire Council and the new planning
application procedure. |
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As the new Unitary Council is now in place, we are all having to get
used to new rules regarding the determination of planning applications.
Development Control Committee meetings
are still held at Monkton Park in Chippenham, the previous offices for N.W.D.C. They are held every three weeks on a Wednesday starting at 6pm. There are now only ten members of this committee drawn from elected
members from all over Wiltshire. This
means that the Unitary member for your division
may not be on the Development
Control Committee.
The members of this Committee are:
Mr. Peter Colmer, Mrs. Christine Crisp, Mr. Peter Davis, Mr. Bill
Douglas, Mr. Peter Doyle, Mr. Alan Hill, Mr. Peter Hutton, Mr. Howard Marshall,
Mr. Toby Sturgis and Mr. Tony Trotman (Chairman). They can be contacted through Wiltshire
Council, (telephone No. 0300 456 0100); email at
www.wiltshire.gov.uk
or through your own Unitary member. Your Parish Council should also be able to
give you the information.
The agenda is published five working days before each meeting. All information on applications (you will
need the application number), including the plans and letters from objectors and
supporters can be found at
www.wiltshire.gov.uk. The name and telephone number of the Planning
Officer dealing with the case is also shown there.
Over 90% of planning applications are dealt with by Planning Officers
under delegated powers, which means that they do not go to committee for
decision, The decision is made by the officer. This is in line with National Government
guidelines.
A big change under Wiltshire Unitary Council is under what is called the ‘Call-in‘ procedure. This covers the remainder of
applications. The ONLY person that can request that an application is decided by the
committee of councillors is the Unitary Councillor of the Division where the
planning application is located. He or
she has to give planning reasons why the decision should not be made under
delegated powers and this must be done within 21 days of the application being
advertised on the weekly list. This list
can be viewed on Wiltshire Council’s website.
In practice the applications that are ‘called-in’ are those
where applicants or objectors do not agree with the officers recommendation.
In the past, under N.W.D.C. a ‘call-in’
could be made by TWO Councillors or five
or more letters from objectors. Now, objector letters, no matter how many there are, cannot force an application to go to committee for
decision. To repeat, the ONLY person who can do this is the
Unitary Councillor of the area where the application is located. In Box this is either
Sheila Parker or Dick Tonge.
Please note that planning applications for listed buildings and conservation
area consents cannot be called-in to committee under the new arrangements.
Pauline Lyons, Chair of the Planning and Conservation
committee of Box Parish Council
November 2009
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