Issue - meetings

The Transport Development Planning Team (TDP) has introduced a new process for the Districts and Boroughs Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) to consult the County Highway Authority (CHA) on planning applications.

The aim of this new process is to bring the CHA into line with all other statutory consultees on planning applications and standardise the consultation process across the Surrey LPAs, to include consultation with County Members.

Resolved to:

(i)    Waverley Local Committee noted that TDP will receive planning application consultations from each LPA which meet the criteria as set out in the new protocol (see attached document).

(ii)   Waverley Local Committee noted that TDP will consult County Members on all planning applications which they receive from the relevant LPA, and this process is currently being refined. County Members are asked to inform the relevant TDP officer of any transport or highway related issues they may have to allow the TDP response deadline of 21 days to be met.

Reasons:

The Members of the Local Committee were informed of the new protocol for planning application consultation between Local Planning Authorities and Council Highways Authorities and of the need for these changes in order to make efficiency savings on the work conducted by the CHA, to allow TDP officers to spend more time providing technical highways and transportation advice to the LPAs on development related matters.

Mr Dominic Forbes (Planning and Development Group Manager) presented his report and explained that his service currently gets around 1,500-2,000 per year and each of these need to be responded to in 21 calendar days. This, combined with difficulties in recruiting skilled, planning officers, has lead to the service exploring ways that they can work more smartly and would therefore like to work more closely with members to use their local knowledge to identify areas of priority.

Mr Forbes explained that county members are now being sent a weekly email with the new applications that are received in their area so that they can have input.

A number of the councillors acknowledged that they had been receiving these emails but that these do not seem to have been sent recently. They welcome having this early notification.  It was also felt that the borough councillors would also benefit from this information.

Mr Forbes said that he would investigate why notifications had not been received recently and how best to send out information to borough councillors.

It was also noted that developer’s funding (Section 106) to improve the environment (such as lighting) is often contingent of them selling a large percentage of their new units whereas it would be more beneficial to residents if these improvements were made at the outset of the development.

Resolved to:

(i)    Note that Transport Development Planning (TDP) are due to receive planning application consultations from each local planning authority (LPA) which meet the criteria as set out in the new protocol as set out to the annex to the report.

(ii)   Note that TDP will consult County Members on all planning applications which they receive from the relevant LPA, and this process is currently being refined. County Members are asked to inform the relevant TDP officer of any transport or highway related issues they may have to allow the TDP response deadline of 21 days to be met.

Reasons:

The Members of the Local Committee were informed of the new protocol for planning application consultation between Local Planning Authorities and Council Highways Authorities and of the need for these changes in order to make efficiency savings on the work conducted by the CHA, to allow TDP officers to spend more time providing technical highways and transportation advice to the LPAs on development related matters.