Vowchurch & District Group Parish Council
POLICY FOR DEALING WITH PLANNING APPLICATIONS BETWEEN PARISH COUNCIL MEETINGS
Reviewed and adopted at meeting on 16th May 2024
Planning applications will as a rule be discussed at full Council meetings so that Councillors can collectively agree a response.
Potentially contentious planning applications, which raise local concerns or which seem to conflict with either Herefordshire Council’s Core Strategy or with the Neighbourhood Development Plan, will always be discussed at a meeting of the Parish Council even if the Chairman has to call an extraordinary meeting to comply with the timetable for commenting on planning applications
In the case of planning applications on which comments are required to be submitted before the next Parish Council meeting the Clerk will first seek an extension to the comment period and if that is not granted will have the responsibility for obtaining comments from Councillors.
The Clerk will alert all Councillors to the planning application and invite the Chairman or Vice-Chairman to speak to the Councillors in the parish to which the application relates. The Chairman will ask these Councillors to suggest what response should be made in the light of the views of local residents.
On the basis of the local views the Chairman and Clerk will then write a draft response to the application and the Clerk will circulate this to all Councillors inviting them to comment.
Councillors will let the Clerk know whether they agree with the response and whether they have any suggestions for amending the response.
If there is no agreement the Chairman will call an extraordinary meeting of the Parish Council at which a response can be agreed.
Otherwise once the Clerk has received comments the Clerk will finalise the comments and submit these to Herefordshire Council making sure that comments are lawful and purely on planning (not personal) grounds.
The Clerk will notify all Councillors of the response that has been made and the Council will be asked to note this formally at the next Ordinary Parish Council meeting and will be included in the minutes accordingly.