This page tells you more about the Planning Committee and its
meetings and gives advice on what to do if you want to speak on an
application at a meeting.
Introduction to the Planning Committee
Most applications are dealt with by the Planning
Department under Delegated Powers.
Click here to view the Planning Scheme of
Delegation. Some
applications (less than 10%) can’t be dealt with under
Delegated Powers, so they need to be decided at Planning
Committee. There is more information
about this below.
You can read more about the
function of Planning Committee in its Terms of Reference, which is
in Part 3, Section 1C, of the council’s
constitution.
Click here to view.
Planning Committee meetings
happen in public. Councillors who are
Members of the Committee consider reports on planning
applications. They hear from the
officers who write the reports and, listen to the views of those
Registered to Speak (see below about Registering to
Speak). Once they have heard what
people say on each application, and discussed it, they will vote to
approve or refuse it.
Meetings of the Planning
Committee normally take place every four weeks, usually on a
Monday, at the Town Hall in King’s Lynn. See
here for meeting dates. They are
live-streamed on YouTube which can be viewed here or you
can attend and watch in person. If you
want to, you may be able to register to speak for or against a
particular application.
The agenda is published five
working days prior to the meeting and is available to view
here.
Which
applications are decided at Committee?
Very broadly, applications may
be considered by Planning Committee if:
·
A member of the Council has requested that it be
called-in to be considered;
·
In some instances when a Parish Council has
expressed a view contrary to the officer
recommendations;
·
Where the proposal raises issues of wider
concern.
Otherwise, the decision is
likely to be made by the officers.
Find
out if an application will be heard at Planning
Committee
To find out if an application
will be heard at Planning Committee, please visit www.west-norfolk.gov.uk and
find the application you’re interested in. Select
“Important Dates” the date the application may be heard
at Committee is under ‘Actual Committee Date’ we will
try to make sure this date is updated two weeks before the
meeting.
Please note: Sometimes it is necessary to take an
item off the agenda, so you may need to check the Important Dates
more than once.
Public Access User Guide
Planning Committee process
The committee will usually
consider items in the order in which they appear on the agenda,
although the Chairman may use discretion to alter the
order.
Late
Correspondence is correspondence received after the publication of
the agenda, but before the Planning Committee deadline. This correspondence is summarised into a
‘Late Correspondence’ document and distributed to
Members of Planning Committee and published on the Agenda Pages of
the website.
Click here to view.
The
deadline for late correspondence is 5.00 pm two clear working days
before the meeting – this is usually the Wednesday. If it is
not received by this time, we cannot guarantee that it will be
taken into account when the application is considered. The Late Correspondence is normally published on
the Friday before Committee on the Monday, although it would depend
on the day the meeting is held.
For each item the chair
will:
1.
Invite Planning Officer to present the
application
2.
Invite Speakers to address the Committee
3.
Chair a discussion on the application
4.
Committee Members will determine the
application
Making sure your view is taken into account
If you have written to the
Council regarding a planning application your views will be
summarised in the published report and taken into
consideration.
You may also consider
contacting your Ward Councillor who, (even if not a
member of the Planning Committee), can explain your issues to the
meeting.
Speaking at Planning Committee meetings
If an application you are
interested in is going to be decided at Planning Committee, you may
wish to speak on it. This section tells you how that
works.
Who can speak at the
meeting?
Depending on the scale of the
application, one or two persons for, and one or two persons
against, may speak on an application. For most applications it is
one for and one against; two may be allowed if the application is
classed as major development.
You can speak as an objector, a
supporter or as a representative of the Parish Council. Parish
Council representatives are counted separately from other
supporters or objectors.
You can only speak if you have
registered in advance and have already made comments on the
application.
Registering to speak at a
planning meeting
To register you must apply
before 5pm on the Wednesday before the Committee Meeting, if it is
on a Monday. You can notify the planning team on 01553 616818 or
616234, or email borough.planning@west-norfolk.gov.uk of
your intention to speak.
If there is more than one
person who registers to speak for or against a proposal, the right
to speak will generally be allocated on a first-come, first-served
basis. Sometimes if a group of people support or object to a
proposal, they may nominate one representative to speak for them
all.
What can I say?
You should make points that
raise relevant planning issues – the Planning Committee will
only take relevant planning issues into account.
You may not:
·
Enter into any discussion or debate on the
proposal;
·
Ask any questions of Councillors, the other party or
anyone else at the meeting;
·
Use any equipment, however, documents which are
already before the Council (e.g. site plan) can be displayed for
you to refer to. If you wish for your own document(s) to refer to,
please send us these when you Register to speak.
How long can I speak
for?
You will be invited by the
Chair to address the Committee immediately before the application
is to be considered.
You can speak for a maximum of
three minutes, unless the application is for major
development, in which case two speakers will each be permitted to
speak for or against the application for five minutes.
You should therefore be
prepared to attend the meeting for some time before your item is
considered. However, once it has been considered you can
choose to stay or leave the meeting.
Contact Details
Please contact the Area
Planning Officer dealing with the application or:
Planning Admin, Borough Council
of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, King's Court, Chapel Street,
King's Lynn Norfolk, PE30 1EX
Tel: 01553 616818 or
616234
E-mail: borough.planning@west-norfolk.gov.uk
Site
visits and reconvened meetings
Sometimes members of the
Planning Committee will decide that they would like to visit the
location of the application to see the site for themselves. When
this happens, the application is deferred until the site
visit. Site visits
usually take place on the Thursday following the Planning
Committee meeting on a Monday.
After
the site visit, the committee will reconvene, usually back at
the Town Hall, to determine the application/s.