New Government rules will strip Wirral councillors of their power to 'call in' planning applications for committee decisions, a change critics say erodes local democracy. The rules come into force on October 31, and a special off-diary meeting of Wirral Council was called to discuss them before they take effect.
Under the new rules, fewer planning applications will be decided by local councillors, who represent the views of their residents. Instead, more decisions will fall to unelected planning officers. While the Government say the changes will add clarity and consistency to the planning system, Conservative Cllr Simon Mountney described the changes as an "erosion of local democracy."
Shift from elected councillors to planning officers
In Wirral, the vast majority of planning decisions are already made behind the scenes by planning officers. In 2025/26, just 13 of 907 applications were determined by elected councillors on the planning committee. Crucially however, under the current system if a set of proposals cause concern among residents, their local councillors can 'call in' the application to be decided by the committee. Under the new rules, this power will be removed.
The 'call in' method was recently used to prevent the demolition of the Glegg Arms in Heswall. Whitbread's plans to demolish the historic pub and expand the Premier Inn hotel, which were not opposed by planning officers, were quashed after Cllr Kathy Hodson took the application to the committee on October 7.
Concerns over future decisions
At the full council meeting held on October 29, Cllr Hodson said: "The exact mechanism that enabled me to secure the committee vote to refuse Whitbread's application to demolish the Glegg Arms will no longer exist."
The Reform UK councillor raised concerns over how "future Glegg Arms proposals" would now be decided by planning officers once the "elected member safeguard" is removed.
Once the new rules come into force, some larger applications may be able to be decided by the planning committee, but only if both the chair of the planning committee and the council's planning officer agree that the plans would cause significant issues for the local area.
Councillors respond to the changes
Criticising the changes, the chair of Wirral's planning committee, Liberal Democrat Cllr Stuart Kelly pointed to the Prime Minister's focus on devolution and promise to bring 'power to every postcode'. Cllr Kelly said: "Unfortunately, his definition of devolution, doesn't cover residents' ability to influence planning developments that take place in their communities."
However, Cllr Kelly did reassure councillors they will still be able to engage closely with the decision makers for every planning applications to ensure their concerns are fully understood and taken into account by planning officers.
Labour councillor Steve Foulkes said the current committee system is "broke, busted, and doesn't work" and accused "most councillors" of not understanding what the new rules "are all about." He also suggest the calling of the meeting by the Conservative Group was highly political, with the council elections coming next Spring.
Ultimately, councillors unanimously requested all political group leaders to write to Government to express Wirral Council's concerns with the changes.
