Planning - Planning Committees
The two Planning Committees dealing with relevant planning applications for north and south areas of the district are open to anyone to attend. They are made up of each district councillor whose ward lies within the relevant area and they are presided over by the elected Chairman.
South Planning
The committee meets at the Council Offices, Penns Place, Petersfield, Hants starting at 6.30pm on the first Thursday of each month.
This committee deals with planning applications for the parishes of Buriton, Colemore and Priors Dean, East Meon, Froxfield, Greatham, Hawkley, Langrish, Liss, Petersfield, Steep, Stroud, Clanfield, Horndean, Rowlands Castle, Bramshott and Liphook.
North Planning
The committee meets at Amery Hill School, Alton commencing at 6.30pm on the third Thursday of each month.
It covers the parishes of Whitehill, Lindford, Grayshott, Headley, Alton, Beech, Bentley, Bentworth, Binsted, Chawton, East Tisted, Farringdon, Four Marks, Froyle, Kingsley, Lasham, Medstead, Newton Valence, Ropley, Selborne, Shalden, West Tisted, Wield, Worldham.
The agenda
The agenda for each committee is published five days prior to the meeting and will be available to download or in paper form.
See agendas for all council meetings
What happens at the meetings
As well as district councillors, planning officers attend the meetings to present each item and answer questions about those cases. Specialist highway engineers, landcaping, conservation and legal officers may also be present to answer questions on particular cases. Although the case planning officer will have made a recommendation on a planning application based on local plan policies, it is councillors who make the final decision.
Not all applications will achieve a decision at the first committee. Councillors may decide to defer the decision until they have made a site visit, negotiated amendments to design, parking or other matters, or request further information from the applicant. The application will normally be reported to the next committee, at which a decision should be made.
If a committee decides to inspect the site, the applicant, neighbours and objectors are also invited to go on the visit.
Full council
Major planning applications which affect the whole of the district, or raise significant questions about planning policies in the Local Plan, may be referred by a planning committee to full council for a decision. This means decisions on the biggest and most challenging planning cases are made by a district-wide committee of councillors who are responsible for setting planning policies.
Minutes
Minutes which are an account of the proceedings and decisions ot the committee are usually available for download and in paper form three or four weeks following a meeting.
Section 1 items
These are more major or controversial planning applications or where the planning application has attracted at least twenty letters of objection within 28 calendar days of the date of the notification letter or statutory public notice.
All letters of representation are taken into consideration and referred to in the officer’s report. However, to count as a letter of objection for the purposes of determining items where public speaking will apply, each letter must be written so that it is unique to the objector. Letters based upon a common template or proforma shall not be treated as individual letters. Letters which state that the author objects but do not give reasons will not be counted. Signatures on petitions will not be counted as individual objections.
To be material the objection must be related to the development and use of land in the public interest and must fairly and reasonably relate to the application concerned.
Only one objector will be allowed to speak per application. This means if you think there are others who object to the scheme, you should get together to appoint a spokesperson. If you cannot agree who should speak then the objector who asked us first will be the one permitted to speak. The objector will be given a maximum of three minutes. This also applies to the applicant and a representative of the parish council.
For further information please e-mail planningdev@easthants.gov.uk