Walsall Council leader defends planning committee following critical report
Walsall Council’s leader has defended the authority’s planning committee, which he also chairs, following a critical review of its operations.
On June 7, a Planning Advisory Service report was published detailing an assessment of the authority’s planning services.
The review praised the council’s planning officers but raised several concerns about the planning committee, stating that it required a ‘fundamental overhaul’.
The report found that the committee was perceived to be operating with "undue influence and suspicions over probity and impartiality" and that it often undermined officers’ professionalism.
It also said the size of the committee was abnormally large and had a much higher overturn decision rate than national averages.
The report highlighted that in 88 per cent of appeal cases, the planning inspector overturns the decision of the committee that rejects an application against the officer’s recommendation.
Councillor Mike Bird said people are too quick to criticise the planning committee when decisions don’t go their way.
He said: “It’s alright, people criticising the working of the planning committee, but they don’t criticise when things like the McDonald’s [Buffet Island] application were refused against officers’ recommendation.
“They forget that the battery storage unit on the green belt in the Barr Beacon was refused by the planning committee, but allowed by the inspectorate.
“I have to say I was very instrumental in making sure the Aldi in Walsall Wood got approved because of the amount of jobs that that entailed.
“It was being recommended for refusal because about 30 square metres of the land was in the green belt. Well, 90 per cent of the development was not in the green belt. You have to have some logic here.
“We had a children’s home in Blakenall a few weeks back, officers recommended that for approval.
“Now, would you want a child who is in care being brought up in an area which, by police standards, not mine, is the most crime-ridden area in the borough? The answer is no. So the committee, again, unanimously rejected the officers’ recommendation.”
The applicant for the children’s care home has since appealed the committee's refusal to the planning inspectorate. Councillor Bird added: “I wonder whether any of those criticising members of the planning committee will turn around and say ‘well done’ if the inspector were to side with us.”
The planning committee recently faced criticism after two five-bedroom homes were approved in the green belt and conservation area on Barr Lakes Lane.
Councillor Bird said: “I didn’t personally agree with the recommendations that were put forward but as the chair of the committee, if somebody moves a resolution and it is seconded, you have to take the vote. That’s the constitutional matter and the way democracy works.
“I’m sad to say that what’s being said casts aspersions on all the members of the planning committee, which I find reprehensible.
“I do get very angry when people start pointing the finger at members of the planning committee. We are there to do a democratic job. If the officers were to make all the decisions, why are we there? It’s bloody mad.”
