Under recent changes, the Council was required to refer this to the Secretary of State to consider calling it in, with the government deciding to do so a few weeks after committee.
A call-in means that the Council can no longer issue a decision on the planning application, and the Secretary of State decides the application instead. Before coming to a decision, the Secretary of State holds a public inquiry led by an Inspector, who then makes a recommendation which the Minister decides whether to follow or not.
The government has brought in this measure to try to dissuade committees from refusing schemes which they should be granting, with an idea to speed up decision-making. However, given a normal appeal would have been determined within 6 months, the call in inquiry process is likely to take 9 to 12 months. This time increase has caused concerns that the measure is having the opposite effect.
Gladman’s own Mat Evans recently spoke to Planning magazine about how a positive measure may be having unintended consequences.
