Wokingham Borough Council is at risk of ‘underperforming’ if a rule about planning appeal decisions is changed by the government.
Wokingham Borough Council is the planning authority for the town, Woodley, Earley and the surrounding villages, meaning it makes decisions on planning applications.
Typically, decisions are made by Marcia Head, the council’s development manager, following reports by planning officers recommending approval or refusal.
For larger plans decisions are made by a committee of councillors.
Applicants can get these decisions overturned in an appeal to the government’s department of housing, communities and local government, with an inspector being appointed to grant or dismiss the appeal.
The government is seeking to introduce a number of changes to how planning decisions are made, which it has consulted local planning authorities on.
These reforms have received a mixed response from Wokingham Borough Council.
Its response to the consultation supports a recommendation that planning committees should have between eight and 11 members.
Wokingham’s committee currently consists of nine members, meeting that optimal number with flexibility to increase slightly if required for any change in political balance.
However, the council has opposed a suggestion that authorities are ‘underperforming’ if five per cent or more of its major or non-major application decisions are overturned at appeal.
The current threshold is 10 per cent.
According to council statistics in May, of those 76 major applications submitted during that period, five had appeals allowed, amounting to 6.5 per cent of those plans.
Wokingham council would therefore be underperforming if the threshold is raised.
The council’s response to the consultation states: “Due to the much lower number of major applications determined by the council, a small number of decisions can lead to unrepresentative outcomes. In essence, losing even a small number of appeals could risk triggering designation.
“This would be disproportionate, especially for authorities facing speculative applications in areas with historic housing land supply challenges. Maintaining the threshold at 10 per cent provides councils with sufficient scope to identify emerging decision-making trends and effectively put in place measures to address them.
“Reducing the threshold to five per cent would reduce this opportunity significantly.”
The government has also proposed mandatory national training which Wokingham council supports.
Councillors on its planning committee already receive training before they can sit on the committee.
It supported national training as well, as that would complement the knowledge of committee members.
The council’s responses to the government’s reform of planning committees consulation were sent in July.
The response was signed off by councillor Martin Alder (Liberal Democrats, Twyford, Ruscombe & Hurst) the executive member for planning and enforcement.
