Bedford councillors back extra planning safeguards to protect communities

Bedford councillors have backed proposals aimed at protecting the role of local communities in planning decisions, following concerns that changes to national planning rules could reduce powers for elected representatives.

Councillors have warned the changes could reduce opportunities to bring significant planning applications before a committee, with more decisions potentially being made by unelected planning officers.

The amendments, put forward by Conservative councillor for Wixams and Wilstead Marc Frost, seek to give ward councillors, parish councils and residents a clearer way to request that planning applications receive further consideration.

Having explored how other councils across the country were responding to the national changes, the councillor said he believed Bedford could do more to protect representation. He told the meeting that Bedford’s approach to oppose, rather than accept and work within legal parameters, felt “weak” in comparison to amendments already made by other councils.

He said: “Compliance should be the starting point and not the limit of our ambition.”

Proposed amendments included a written process allowing ward councillors, parish and town councils, and residents to request consideration of significant applications. It also requested published local guidance explaining the meaning of the term ‘significance’, with examples.

Additionally, he suggested a record of decisions with their reasoning, as well as a public register of requests and outcomes reported to the planning committee and a six-month follow-up formal review.

The councillor highlighted amendments already made by nine councils across the country.He said: “Conservative-controlled Dartford has introduced a process where six or more representations contrary to an officer recommendation can trigger consideration of whether an application should go to committee.”

He added that Conservative-controlled Bromley has introduced measures that allow councillors to request consideration of an eligible application. Reform-majority Sunderland, Labour-led Doncaster and Liberal Democrats South Oxfordshire have identified categories, outlined local examples, or introduced a formal assessment of ‘significance as well as other measures.

He said: “North Hertfordshire (Labour and Liberal Democrats) leadership has looked at additional ways of involving councillors, including early briefings and site visits.Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole has also proposed a cross-party review process, he added. While Green Party-led Bristol has developed a planning decision protocol, guidance on significance and a councillor referral form.

“Nine councils, different political leadership, all operating under the same national legislation. They’ve looked at the discretion available and asked, how can they protect local democracy?”

How could these measures protect communities across Bedford?

Considerations must be made for Bedford’s different rural and urban communities, cllr Frost explained. What constitutes as significant in central Bedford, will likely be vastly different from ‘significant’ matters in smaller villages such as Wilstead and Wixams.

Highlighting concerns such as congested roads, inadequate infrastructure, drainage issues and the loss of village facilities, he said that these could have a major impact on a breadth of communities and must be considered in quantifying significance.

These proposed safeguards, he explained, do not prevent the council from adopting the new national scheme of delegation, and instead seek to protect democracy.

The proposals would retain autonomy with elected members and communities, by avoiding an automatic right for an application to go before the planning committee. Instead, they aim to make the process for considering requests clearer and more transparent.

Councillor Frost said: “Other councils have demonstrated what is possible and I see no reason why Bedford should settle for less.”