Wandsworth Council has set out how national changes to planning decision-making will alter the route taken by some applications in the borough from 1 November.
Under the new delegation rules, more smaller and routine applications will be determined by council officers instead of going to the Planning Committee. The council says the changes have been imposed nationally and will apply to decisions made from the start of November.
Which applications are affected
The categories identified by the council include householder applications, minor commercial development and residential schemes of up to nine homes on sites below 0.5 hectares. These cases will be determined by officers under the new national framework.
The categories are defined by the type and scale of a proposal, rather than whether it has received objections. A smaller proposal can therefore follow the officer route even where residents have submitted comments.
The change does not mean that every planning proposal will bypass elected members. Larger applications, and other cases that meet the national requirements for committee consideration, may still go before the Planning Committee. The rules set a narrower route for such referrals rather than ending committee involvement in planning matters.
Wandsworth said its last Planning Committee meeting under the previous arrangements took place on Thursday 22 October. A Full Council meeting on 21 October changed the council’s constitution to reflect the incoming delegation rules. The council published its explanation of the local effect of the change on 23 October.
Objections and councillor call-ins
One practical change concerns the way objections affect the route of an application. The number of objections will no longer automatically result in a case being referred to the Planning Committee, including where a proposal has attracted substantial local opposition.
Ward councillors will also no longer be able to require an application to be called in to committee under the former local arrangements. Whether a case can be considered by committee will instead depend on the national criteria that apply to it.
That change concerns who makes a decision, not whether applications are assessed against planning policy. The council says officers will use national planning guidance alongside Wandsworth’s own local policies when determining the applications covered by the rules.
What remains in the planning process
Residents will still be able to comment on planning applications during the relevant consultation period. The council has said it will continue to work with planning officers to ensure residents’ views are heard during decision-making. Relevant planning considerations raised through consultation remain part of an application’s assessment, whether an officer or the committee makes the final decision.
The new system also does not turn routine applications into automatic approvals. An officer decision still has to consider the proposal against the applicable planning policies and other material planning considerations. The council’s announcement does not say that planning standards, consultation requirements or the opportunity to submit comments are being removed.
For applicants and neighbours, the immediate effect is likely to be a different decision-making route for the specified smaller categories from 1 November. Residents who want to follow a proposal should check its consultation details and submit any relevant comments within the stated period. Applications outside the mandatory officer-decided categories may still be considered for committee scrutiny when they meet the national test.
