The point of a planning committee?

What is the point of the Parish Council Planning Committee? The law says that all planning applications must be notified to the Parish Council. The Planning Authority must take account of any comments or objections received from the Parish Council. Nothing says the Parish Council has to decide anything.

The Parish Council cannot decide a planning application. Therefore it cannot Approve or Refuse a planning application. It can only comment or object.

The Planning Committee meets every 2 weeks, roughly 25 meetings a year. It makes comments and "approves" and "refuses" planning applications. See above.

When the Parish Council makes a comment or objection it must do so for material planning reasons. If the comment or objection is made which is not because a material planning reason, the Planning Authority will just disregard the comment or objection.

At a Planning Committee meeting on 12th January 2016 there was an item about the change of use on Bourn Airfield which is not within the boundary of Cambourne Parish.

What did the Planning Committee decide?

It was proposed to approve the application as there was no planning reasons to object. This proposal was not agreed.

It was:
RESOLVED to refuse the application due to the concern on the noise impact of residents of Upper Cambourne and increase in traffic at Caxton Gibbet roundabout at peak times.

The Planning Committee decided to REFUSE (which it cannot do) the application. With no valid planning reasons to object the committee simply made up some.

The first made up objection is the noise impact on residents of Upper Cambourne. What is the evidence for this? Has the Planning Committee done any investigations of noise? This could be done as the operation is moving from Alconbury. The noise from these operations therefore can be found out.

The second objection made up objection is the increase in traffic at Caxton Gibbet roundabout at peak times. Again where is the evidence for this assertion? There is no evidence to back up this objection.

With no planning reasons to object the planning committee simply made up some objections. A waste of time and money of both the Parish Council council taxpayer and the District council taxpayer.

Ron says: The Planning Committee is a useless waste of money and must be scrapped. I don't see the point of this committee. The major planning issues go to full council anyway.