More planning applications dealt with by councillors in Buckinghamshire, new data shows

The proportion of planning applications refused by Buckinghamshire Council has decreased, new data shows.

Around 9.8 per cent of applications delegated to council officers were refused from April to March 2023-2024 compared to 12.4 per cent over the previous 12 months.

Meanwhile, the proportion of applications refused by councillors on planning committees rose from 14.3 per cent in 2022-2023 to 15 per cent last year.

Bucks Council is one of the largest local planning authorities in the country in terms of the volume of applications processed, which totalled 6,462 in 2022-2023.

The new data was published in a council report into the performance of the authority’s five area planning committees and its strategic sites committee.

The data shows an ‘efficient process being operated’, according to the reports author Eric Owens, the council’s service director for planning and the environment.

He wrote: “In accordance with good practice only a small percentage – 1.2 per cent – of applications are being referred to planning committee for scrutiny.”

Recent examples of planning committees’ refusals include councillors stopping a new development on a paddock in Iver and blocking 89 new homes in Haddenham.

Most planning applications are straightforward and are either approved or refused by officers.

However, applications which require extra scrutiny can be ‘called in’ to be determined by planning committees.

An unlimited number of applications can be called into committee by councillors, parish or town councils or even the council’s head of planning and the environment if they feel that it is appropriate.

Bringing applications before committees delays a decision being made and costs an average of over £1,000 per application in processing costs.

Even more expensive are public enquiries into planning applications and decisions, which have cost the council hundreds of thousands of pounds in recent years.

This is because the council hires top lawyers and external specialist professional witnesses to make its case during these big planning battles.

The local authority says these costs are ‘ever increasing’ and in 2022-2023 shelled out £357,401 on professional help for planning inquiries.

Over the last 12 months, the bill for such costs was only £160,875, however this may increase over the current year due to an ongoing planning inquiry in High Wycombe.

That particular case is to consider Taylor Wimpey’s plans to build 79 new homes at the Gomm Valley site in Cock Lane.

The inquiry is set to conclude next month, after which a planning inspector will deliver their verdict on behalf of the secretary of state.