Making a planning pre-application

The involvement of our council members in both the pre-application and application process is recognised as best practice in the National Planning Policy Framework and is encouraged by the Planning Advisory Service.

In the National Planning Framework, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities states: "Democratically elected members are strongly encouraged to participate at the pre‐application stage, where it is appropriate and beneficial for them to do so. Section 25 of the Localism Act 2011 confirms that elected members do not have a 'closed mind' just because they have historically indicated a view on a matter relevant to the proposal."

It is important that the process and procedures relating to member involvement in pre‐application and pre-decision discussions on planning applications are clearly understood by officers, members and the public and that such discussions are subject to good governance.

Benefits of pre‐application and pre‐decision member engagement

The Planning Advisory Service (PAS) advises that the active involvement of members at the earliest stages of a development project is important to significantly improving the quality of the development scheme and reducing potential delays in decision making.

The benefits include:

Balancing community leadership - members take decisions on planning applications, balancing their community leadership role with the need to keep an open mind prior to decision making. However, this does not mean that members should be insulated from early discussions with developers. Pre‐application discussions will help to bring about better understanding of the issues relating to major applications through open exchange of information, discussion and constructive questioning.

Shaping major schemes - early and pro‐active engagement in pre‐application discussions with the members of the committee will help developers to shape major schemes before they are significantly advanced to the benefit of their communities.

Meeting aspirations - members have the opportunity to ensure that a proposed new development meets the wider spatial aspirations of the council. The chair and members of the committee can use their position as local leaders to aid important developments that will realise their aspirations for the area.

Exploring community contributions - members of the Sub‐Committee have an invaluable opportunity to understand issues of viability and to explore potential contributions to local infrastructure and affordable housing (within the constraints of national guidance on such matters).

Protocol for informal briefings

For complex and/or major applications or pre-application enquiries about forthcoming applications, where there are difficult or technical issues such as viability to consider, it may be appropriate to hold informal briefings for members. These would be before an application is submitted to the council or before an application comes before a committee for formal consideration and determination.

The Chief Planning Officer will decide whether an informal briefing is considered to be necessary in any case. Such a practice is acceptable provided the following guidelines are adhered to:

• Members should understand that an informal briefing is not the committee meeting and therefore no decisions or agreements will or should be taken at the briefing.
•  The informal briefing is essentially a fact-finding exercise to allow members to understand more about the proposal before an application is submitted to the council or before formal consideration of the scheme at committee.
• Members can ask questions about the scope of the proposal and about any issues they do not understand. It is not a forum for debate or for stating opinions about the development and not for members to declare how they will vote at the formal meeting.
• Whilst members can begin to form views about the scheme and certain aspects of it, it is important at this stage for members not to form firm views or to decide how they will vote at the committee meeting. If they do so, they will not be able to take part in the committee consideration and determination of the application as they will be deemed to have predetermined the application and will have closed their minds.
• The meeting is not a public meeting and therefore members of the public, the press and, in the case of informal briefings which are considering specific applications as opposed to pre-application enquiries, the applicant will not be present. It will also only be appropriate for members who are likely to sit on the determining committee, their substitutes and ward members to be present.
• If an informal briefing is being held about a pre-application enquiry, the Chief Planning Officer will decide whether it would be appropriate to invite the applicant to the first part of the briefing in order to present the proposals to members. After the presentation, a question and answer session can take place so that members can seek clarification of any issues arising. The applicant will then leave the briefing to enable further questioning of officers to take place to aid clarification or to seek further information.
• A record will be kept of the fact that the meeting took place and who attended the meeting and general topics/subject areas will be noted on the pre-application record. Formal minutes or notes of the meeting will not be made or published as this is not a formal committee meeting and no decisions will have been taken.
• Although attendance by members will be encouraged, non-attendance at informal briefings will not prevent their subsequent participation in deciding an application when it comes before a committee.
•  In all cases at least two planning officers will be in attendance to observe the presentation and questions raised by councillors.