COUNCILLORS from all parties at Babergh District Council came together this week to condemn Government criticism of local planning authorities and attempts to "rob them" of their democratic powers.

Babergh District Council voted unanimously at Tuesday's Full Council meeting to write to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner – Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the area's MP James Cartlidge - stating their concerns over Government plans to modernise planning committees as part of their current Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

Proposals within the Bill include a national scheme of delegation for planning decisions, designed to reduce the role of planning committees by restricting the type and numbers of applications heard by committees in future.

This is to remove perceived obstacles to development and housebuilding, increasing the number of decisions being made by officers than committees – despite only a fraction of planning applications being heard by committee. 

In Babergh last year, 8.6% of applications went to committee, with the rest were decided by officers – the vast majority granted, whether decided by officers or committee.

Babergh's cabinet member for heritage, planning and infrastructure, Cllr Sallie Davies said: "This motion tells the Government to stop blaming the planning committees and robbing them of their democratic powers. This is not where the problem lies.

"The real reason why development is delayed is the 4,300 dormant planning permissions we currently have sitting in Babergh. We can grant as many planning applications as they like, as quickly as we can, but if developers don't build them out, this government will fail to meet its housebuilding targets."

As part of the motion, councillors recognised the hard work and excellent performance of Babergh's planning department and committee, with comparatively few decisions overturned on appeal. They also reaffirmed Babergh's willingness to contribute to the Government's ambitions to deliver more affordable homes.

However, the motion raised concerns over the Government's removal of funding to support the creation of Neighbourhood Plans.

"We believe planning should be 'done with' our communities, rather than be 'done to' them," Cllr Davies explained. "Neighbourhood Plans are an essential part of our work with communities. The Government's withdrawal of locality funding for them is an erosion of democracy and a serious barrier to residents' having their say."

The vote was unanimous, with 23 votes for, and the council will now formally urge the Government to rethink its proposals to curtail the powers of local planning committees.

"We must voice our objections. It may be a completely futile gesture, but we must defend our planning committees as they are simply not the right target," Cllr Davies added.