On 8 July 2009, the council adopted a planning Good
Practice Guide. This is for members and officers dealing with
planning applications and related matters.
The guide replaces the Code of Good Practice that was approved
in March 2004. This was in accordance with the recommendations
of:
- the Committee on Standards in Public Life (The Nolan
Committee)
- the Royal Town Planning Institute.
The code has two purposes. Firstly, it seeks to ensure best
practice and the highest standards of probity from all concerned in
the planning process. Secondly, it seeks to protect the council and
individual members and officers. It does this by advising of some
of the common pitfalls.
The changes to the earlier code reflect the advice of the
Standards Board and the Local Government Association.
The guide covers the following matters:
- Training
- Publicity for planning applications
- Declarations of interest by members of the planning
committee
- Lobbying of members
- Contact with the media
- Meetings involving planning officers
- Reporting planning applications
- Site visits
- Pre-meeting briefings
- Group meetings
- Delegation of decision-making to officers
- Officer recommendations and appeals
- Public speaking at committee meetings
- Applications concerning members, senior officers or their
spouses/partners
- Planning applications made by the council
Full Good Practice Guide
The full Good Practice Guide is available to download:
Note: The above document is in Portable
Document Format (PDF). You will need a suitable reader to
view it. A reader can be downloaded free from the Adobe
website (full instructions for downloading the reader are
provided on the site).
