Lichfield public speaking rules 'unchanged' following council review

Currently both the applicant and objectors are allowed five minutes to address the committee to express their view. 

Ward councillors are entitled to 10 minutes, although this has only been used on four occasions across the last 22 meetings.

In 2023 the council’s overview and scrutiny committee recommended reducing speaking time for everyone addressing the planning committee to three minutes. It was thought that reducing the time would allow for more efficient and timely meetings.

Councillor Diane Evans supported reduction in speaking time. 

She said: “I think 10 minutes for ward members is too long because I think if you’re not careful you switch off anyway, listening for a long time to what is sometimes repetitious. I would go for five minutes for everyone with the option of the chair using the opportunity to extend if necessary.”

Councillor Richard Stephenson called for a more sophisticated system to be used. 

The Alrewas and Fradley councillor added a system could be introduced which differentiated between minor and major applications, or applications which received significant public attention.

He said: “I find it deeply problematic that we have exactly the same speaking rights for one house as to when someone wants to build 750 houses in my ward, affecting hundreds of people where 600 people have written into this council and I would like to see perhaps a little bit more sophisticated system.

“It seems to me that the current system, to be frank, is a bit of nonsense. Where one extension on one house gets as much attention as 750 new homes that many destroy people’s lives.”

Now a further options paper will be presented to councillors at a later date to include suggestions of a right of rebuttal and whether speaking times could be proportionally based. Councillors on the planning committee at Lichfield District Council voted to keep the status quo and not change the current speaking arrangements.