Agenda item

Pre-submitted Members questions are pursuant to rule 12 of the Council & Committee Procedure Rules.

Questions should be submitted by midday on Wednesday 01 November 2023 to Democratic Services, democratic.services@adur-worthing.gov.uk     

(Note: Member Question Time will operate for a maximum of 30 minutes.)

There was one pre-submitted Members Question:

What redress do residents have when a new building or development causes unanticipated harmful consequences to their property?

The Planning Services Officer replied:

Concentrating on us as a planning committee, if a resident felt that consideration at the time of a planning application had been inadequate, they have the option to raise a formal complaint which could then reach the ombudsman. If it was found that the Officers and Committee members hadn’t taken into account all the relevant points and hadn't investigated them fully then that ombudsman could decide whether there had been any maladministration.

Sometimes unexpected consequences can occur because a development has not been implemented in accordance with the planning permission granted. That situation would warrant an enforcement investigation.

If a resident had suffered financial loss because of a developer's actions then that would be addressed as a civil matter and would be out of the Council's remit.

To recap the two forms of redress as far as Planning Committee are concerned are

1.    The resident can check that we have done our job properly in terms of considering the application and anticipating possible consequences.

2.    The resident can ask us to investigate whether a development has been constructed as anticipated and, if not, to find out why.

The Member asked a supplementary question:

There may be a situation when outline planning permission had been granted a decade ago and in the intervening period of time other things may have occurred, such as later adjacent developments or climate changes, which results in adverse effects on residents. Is there a process to go back to the original agreement that was given and check that it is still suitable and the provisions that were made and the considerations of the variables are up to date?

The Planning Services Officer replied:

An outline permission would have lapsed within 2 or 3 years if the applicant had not followed up with the more detailed reserved matters. If that doesn’t happen the development cannot be implemented.

It is important for us to consider as much as we can about what might happen to affect a development and other residents in the future. This can be difficult because a lot of the time we are subject to the comments of consultees on those matters. It is difficult to anticipate what will happen regarding flooding & drainage as well as traffic and highways in the future. That is why, for example, the Environment Agency in their comments, will predict events using various models of 1 in 100 or 1 in 50 year events. Unforeseen consequences shouldn’t occur because they have gone through that modelling. With Southern Water it is a little different because they will just advise how much capacity is needed. Provided the developer complies with that, Southern Water will have no objections.

It is a wider issue with the planning system as a whole. If we are not directly involved with capacity issues that are at play it is problematic for us to insist we think certain flooding may occur. If we can’t prove that case technically then we would have no case at an appeal.

Planning applications are instant and reactive. We receive a planning application and we deal with it immediately. The Local Plan deals with a much longer time frame that will set out development for the next 10 or 15 years. As we are approaching a Local Plan review this may be the most appropriate way, in the first instance, to look at those sorts of issues and try and build them into our Planning Policies. Once you have a Planning Policy in place you can set out certain expectations. My suggestion would be the Local plan review and the local Plan Working Group is the best place to initiate this.