Wrexham Council will defend its opposition to plans for 600 homes on land south of Holt Road against the advice of planning officers.
The application is due to go to appeal on September 29 but at a meeting of Wrexham County Borough Council’s Planning Committee on Monday, senior planning officer Matthew Phillips said no-one within the council’s planning department could represent the council in front of Planning and Environment Decisions Wales inspectors.
“I would be in a difficult position defending that as it would go contrary to the Royal Town Planning Institute’s professional charter which says officers shouldn’t try to defend a position contrary to their professional recommendation in an inquiry,” he said.
This passage, from a Nation Cymru article (link below) caught Sam Stafford's eye a little while ago. The responses that he received after sharing it with a few people convinced him that this was fertile ground for a 50 Shades episode...
Why shouldn’t a professional planner (albeit not the original recommending officer) be able to support a different weighing of the issues by members and put that case forward at an appeal on their behalf? That would, at the very least, save on the cost of consultants.
On the other side of the coin, if the integrity of professional opinion is not sacred is the system not fundamentally undermined? And if councillors did have to defend decisions taken against an officer’s recommendation would it not focus minds more and encourage less playing to the gallery?
How to take decisions, how to write reports, and how to weigh the professional judgment of planners against the democratic accountability of councillors are some of the themes discussed in this episode, which is a conversation recorded online between Mike Kiely, Simon Ricketts, Annie Gingell, Gilian Macinnes and Ben Woolnough, who were steered along the way by Hashi Mohamed.
Some accompanying reading
Brighton Gasworks appeal decision and costs award
Councillors will defend 600-home planning appeal after ignoring officers’ advice
The Only Way Is Ethics – What Is The Role Of The Professional Witness?
The basics #18 - planning barristers, Linkedin, and the “cab rank” rule
The basics #20 - weighing things up
The Nolan Principles - keeping the public front of mind
Probity in planning: Advice for councillors and officers making planning decisions
Some accompanying listening
Any other business.
50 Shades T-Shirts!
If you have listened to Episode 45 of the 50 Shades of Planning you will have heard Clive Betts say that...
'In the Netherlands planning is seen as part of the solution. In the UK, too often, planning is seen as part of the problem'.
Sam said in reply that that would look good on a t-shirt and it does. Further details can be found here.
Sam is on Bluesky and Instagram. His blog contains a link to his newsletter.
50 Shades of Planning
50 Shades of Planning is Sam Stafford’s attempt to explore the foibles of the English planning system and it's aim is to cover the breadth of the sector both in terms of topics of conversation and in terms of guests with different experiences and perspectives.
50 Shades episodes include 'Hitting The High Notes', which are a series of conversations with leading planning and property figures. The conversations take in the six milestone planning permissions or projects within a contributor’s career and for every project guests are invited to choose a piece of music that they were listening to at that time. Think Desert Island Discs, but for planners.
Sam is on Bluesky (@samuelstafford.bsky.social) and Instagram (@samuel__stafford), and his blogs can be found here: http://samuelstafford.blogspot.com (from where you can also sign up for his newsletter and buy a t-shirt).
The 50 Shades platforms are expressions of Sam's personal opinions, which may or may not represent the opinions of his past, present or future employers.
50 Shades of Planning is by planners and for planners and so if you would like to use the podcast or the YouTube channel for sharing anything you think that the sector needs to be talking about then do please feel free to get in touch with Sam via [email protected].
Why Fifty Shades? Well, planning is not a black and white endeavour. There are at least fifty shades in between....
