Planning Committees - a move from dusty town halls into C21st IT wizardry

While many of us have had the opportunity to remotely join some planning committee meetings for a few years, this has been predominantly as voyeurs via respective authority’s websites. It’s been enlightening to watch our elected members in action – or perhaps sometimes not that active when it’s the slot just after lunch.

But, at last those members will also be encouraged to make best use the IT wizardry which is at everyone’s fingertips. They will shortly be able to make decisions, endorse recommendations and debate matters of import, without having to physically gather in dusty town halls and committee rooms.

About time, I say.

UKGov have taken things forward and as of 4th April, a new Statutory Instrument (SI) will allow English and Welsh local authorities to convene meetings remotely. This has to be the way forward, not only because of the current lockdown, but also hopefully as a means to adopt more effective local governance moving forward.

It is a short but very important SI that, in simple terms, allows all parties to access meetings through ‘remote means’. This is described as including video conferencing, live webcast, and live interactive streaming but also intimates that new technology could also be used, as and when available. In this age of ever-changing digital magic, this is a breath of fresh air – forgive the analogy for those stuck inside.

In practical terms, elected members will be free to hear their officer’s presentations, third party representations and then debate and determine applications remotely. So, unless councillors are ill, or the day job gets in the way, given they are all confined to barracks, there should be no excuses for decisions to be delayed. The not so helpful news is that it appears local authorities can change when committee meetings are held, or cancel them without notice.

So, good in theory but until the new regimes comes into practice, it will be difficult to gauge how stakeholders will be able to plan properly to take part. The strength of feeling shown at some meetings can be very persuasive and this ‘personal’ impact from an aggrieved third party might be difficult to replicate through a laptop screen or mobile phone connection. Some might say this is for the good, as personality and emotion shouldn’t have a part to play in pragmatic planning decisions anyway. But secretly I think that we will miss the drama!

Of course, given the demographics of our Elected Member cohort and at risk of criticism of wide generalisations, some Councillors might be at a disadvantage if their IT skills are not up to scratch – but to be honest that could apply to everyone – and its is hoped that some urgent online training will be in play over the coming few days.

It will also be interesting to see which Authorities take the lead. I think we will see some agile front runners who have already shown aptitude through strong effective leadership and where Chief Planning Officers have been retained and have good working relationships with their CEOs. I bet those chief officers have already been influential in using delegate powers properly and pragmatically – leaving other planning departments still dithering in the wake.

So, over the coming few weeks, lets cheer on those front runners and hope that all the others catch up and embrace the brave new world. After all, the last thing we need when we all get through this is to find our development sector compromised because of a backup in the planning system, and a stack of decisions that could have been made, but never got across the digital line.