Most applications are decided by a senior planning officer unless an application is ‘called-in’ to Committee.

Applications will only be sent to Committee, when:

• they are very large
• objections are received when the applicant (or their partner) works for the Council
• they are a Councillor, and an objection is received

Every ward in the Borough has either one or two local Councillors who can ‘call-in’ (request) an application to be reported to Planning Committee.

At the end of each week a list of new applications is sent to the Councillors who then have 21 days to make a call-in request.

We can also accept a call-in from three members of the Planning Committee, even if they aren’t the local Councillors for the area that the planning application is for.

When an application is called in the Case Officer will write a report with a recommendation and aim for the first available Committee date.

Sometimes the call-in might have been made because of concerns with the application that can be resolved by changing a plan or adding conditions to approvals. If an application is recommended for refusal the Councillor may agree with that and no longer want to report the application to Committee.