Bolton’s council is set to be operating unlawfully within weeks after councillors voted not to accept new measures to implement changes in planning. Delegation changes needed for England’s new national planning rules were rejected by a majority of councillors, leaving the authority with just three weeks to resolve its constitution before the statutory regime takes effect.
It is understood that voting against the changes means any planning decision made after October 31 would be unlawful and no planning committee meetings could legally take place in Bolton.
Statutory introduction of national scheme
Councillors were told of the statutory introduction of the national scheme of delegation of planning functions will come into law on October 31, 2026 which alters arrangements for determining planning applications across England.
Introducing the motion, Labour’s Coun Nadeem Ayub acknowledged that ‘members had strong feelings on the issues’ and conceded that the changes would ‘erode local democracy’.
The Labour government act means some current policies on planning will not apply where they conflict with the national scheme. Previously councillors could ‘call-in’ decisions meaning they were decided by the planning committee. Other schemes would be considered by committee because a set number of objections had been reached.
Developments of less than nine homes
Developments of less than nine homes and small commercial schemes will in future be decided by officers. At the moment, councils cannot opt out of the new legal framework because local members disagree with the policy.
But Coun David Grant spoke against accepting the new legislation. He said: “I believe in to my core about the democracy of our system.
“This strips local people of their rights and voice over deciding what happens within their communities. Local people should shape their town and villages, not somebody from Westminster. I did not get elected to remove those rights. We must send a message to government that this is wrong.”
Concerns over residents’ role
Coun Anne Galloway said: “We always knew there were going to be changes in planning but we didn’t know they would be quite so strict and severely curtail the role of councillors and residents in planning decisions. What do we tell residents when there’s a controversial planning application?”
Coun Robert Morrisey said: “This runs against the government’s devolution agenda. But we have to be clear what happens if we reject this. We have a significant risk of our planning committee being rendered unlawful if we determine applications on our old scheme of delegation.
“We might reject it on solid grounds but it would still be unlawful. It could get rejected, go to appeal and it would be overturned. We open the door to speculative applications and development by appeal.”
Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors were outvoted on the motion, with the Conservative, Reform UK and Green groups voting against.
