Westbury Town Council has formed a new sub -committee – Urgent Planning Items Sub Committee, a sub committee of the Highways, Planning & Development Committee.
This is in response to changes imposed by the Government, through Wiltshire Council, relating to planning permission. The Government has made it clear that it wishes to see an increase in the delivery of new housing. From June 1st 2018 Permission in Principle (PiP) has been extended from brownfield sites (part 1) and authority promoted sites (part 2) to small developments of fewer than 10 properties.
Permission in Principal rules place less onus on developers than full planning and only require a basic outline for the proposal rather than the extensive detailed information required for full planning. There is also less pressure on developers to conform with timescales and hence Wiltshire Council can only give 14 days’ notice to consultees such as Westbury Town Council.
This reduced timescale may mean that Westbury Town Council has to call a planning meeting at short notice to deal with Permission in Principal requests within this shortened timescale, but the normal three days’ notice of a meeting will be given. It is the intention, where possible, to hold these extra meetings during daytime hours and meetings will be open to members of the public as usual. These meetings will also be called to deal with new planning applications with response dates falling before the next scheduled meeting.
Westbury Town Council says, “We are not expecting many applications to deal with within this timescale, but we thought it important to make preparations in case such eventualities arise.”
