Charnwood Borough Council - Leading in Leicestershire

The Borough Council has delegated decisions to Officers of the Council. The full procedure is set out in the Constitution of the Council. 95% of all applications are decided by officer under the delegated powers procedure, therefore only a small proportion are decided by one of the two Plans Committees. The ultimate decision as to whether an application is referred to a Plans Committee is made by the Director of Development after consulting the Ward Members for the area where the development is proposed and the Chair people of the Plans Committees.

• The Decision Process (Word Document 645.5 Kb.)

  A flow chart showing the process applications follow from submission to decision under delegated powers or by the Plans Committees.

Decisions that are made

A decision made by the Council, whether by officer under delegated powers or by Plans Committee, take into account planning policies of the Borough Council, Regional Guidance and Central Government advice and policies. All comments received are fully taken into account and where conflicting issues arise a decision has to be taken and sometimes the decision does not always follow the ideas and concerns that have been raised.
A decision will be to

• 1. grant/approve permission/consent
• 2. grant/approve permission/consent subject to conditions
• 3. refuse permission/consent

In respect of applications for advertisement consent the decision made may be split (refuse and grant consent) for different parts of the proposal.

Applications referred to Regulatory Committee

The Council's Constitution allows the Plans Committees to resolve to make a decision on an application on behalf of the Council. This resolution is always subject to it being referred to Regulatory Committee. The process to refer an application to Regulatory Committee is contained in the Constitution and, in summary, a decision on an application will not issued until two working days have passed following the day of the Plans Committee. This allows the referral process to be followed where at least 5 members of the Council may request the decision is referred to the Regulatory Committee and, thus, the application is considered again.

Appeals against decisions

An applicant can lodge an appeal to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) against a refusal of permission/consent or against conditions imposed on a permission/consent, or if a decision is not made within 8 weeks from the date a valid application is submitted (13 weeks for a major application)against none determination.

There is no right of appeal by any other interested party.