Planning decision success improving, says council

A local authority has said it is moving in the right direction after it was stripped of its ability to make decisions on major planning applications.

In June, Cherwell District Council was designated - allowing developers to bypass the council and submit their plans straight to the Planning Inspectorate.

At the time, the Liberal Democrat leader of the authority, Lesley McLean, said the government's decision was "disappointing and, frankly, frustrating".

But at a council meeting on Tuesday, it was revealed the council was aware of its situation and had been working to improve its process before being designated.

It came after an external team of contractors were brought in to help reverse the council's planning fortunes.

The designation of Cherwell was based on data from planning appeals for major developments between 2023 and 2025.

Cherwell had just over 11% of decisions on major planning applications overturned at appeal in that period, which is above the government's threshold for designation.

Defending the decision in June, Labour MP for Banbury Sean Woodcock said the local authority was "not fit for purpose when it comes to planning".

"This decision will ensure that taxpayers' money is looked after properly, and that much needed homes are actually delivered," he added.

The designation will not end until it is revoked by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

But at Tuesday's meeting, monitoring data was shown that suggested the council had improved its rate of successful planning decisions over the past two years.

"A lot of the stuff that we put in place has already started and had already been completed," a council officer told the meeting.

Alongside the improvements, the meeting also heard that the authority had already lost out on up to £20,000 of planning fees.

These are charges that would normally be paid by developers to the council, but are now being lost as developers bypass its process and instead go straight to the Planning Inspectorate.

Council officers also committed to work out the cost of designation to the authority, with one stressing: "The bigger the application, the bigger the cost."

During Tuesday's meeting Conservative councillor Kieron Mallon challenged officers and councillors on why essential training had yet to be carried out.

He said: "You've had clear advice [to organise the training], when is the date to be?"

Mallon also questioned whether the turnover of councillors on the planning committee over recent years in favour of those "with less experience" had impacted the situation.

"Some of the senior members had been on the planning committee for 15, 20 years," he said, adding: "There was a churn in planning members which I'd never seen in 26 years."