The Council is improving public consultation and community involvement for proposed major developments before they are submitted as planning applications, by establishing a Planning Consultative Forum. The purpose of the Forum is to enable those who might be affected by a major development to have the opportunity to listen to detailed discussions and participate in asking questions and expressing their opinions with regard to the site’s future uses, design and layout before a scheme is submitted to the Council for a decision. This is in line with the Council’s statutorily adopted Statement of Community Involvement (2006) which encourages developers to undertake early community involvement.
Elected Councillors on the Planning Board and the ward(s) affected together with invited local residents, business representatives and relevant key consultees (such as the Head of Tourism or the Environment Agency) will be invited to participate in each Forum event.
The Planning Consultative Forum meets in public and the developer/landowner explains the proposals directly to invited public/consultees and to the Members who are likely to be involved in any decision on a subsequent planning application. This enables the public and key consultees to hear at an early stage about a development proposal.
The process is designed to assist the applicant to deal properly with important issues and to reduce delay and frustration on everyone's part in the formal planning process thereby improving the planning process in determining planning applications for major developments.
The Council’s Planning Board on 19 November 2007 decided that the following criteria should normally apply before a potential major planning proposal is considered appropriate for discussion at a Planning Consultative Forum:
- Residential: For residential development major is 50 or more dwellings or where number is not given a site area of 1 hectare or more.
- Non-residential: For all other uses major is one where the floorspace to be built is 3000 sq metres or more (gross), or where the site area is 1.5 hectares or more.
Links:
- Forum 2, 18 March 2008 - Former B&Q site, Holdenhurst Road
Please note that the proposals presented to the Consultative Forum are likely to change as the design and composition of schemes develop towards a planning application submission. Accordingly the presentations here should not be relied upon as being the most up to date.
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