Planning Committee

Planning committee is a significant investment of time and resources for most councils, and requires the close coordination of planning, democratic services and legal teams. It is an important shop window for the council and plays a crucial role in providing democratic and transparent decisions on sometimes controversial issues.


If you would like PAS to help you with your Planning Committee there are two main areas of training we can offer:

1. An introduction to Planning Committee - this will provide all the essentials for your new Planning Committee members and a refresher for existing members of the committee.  This training will broadly follow the defendable decision making presentation and be complemented by areas of particular focus that are needed for your Council. 

2.  A case study role play exercise - this will involve a practical exercise where a fully worked through case study is used for a Major housing development.  The Planning Committee is asked to consider the planning application using a fictitious case officer report and to debate the merits of the proposal as if they were actually considering the planning application for real.  Depending on the decision the Planning Committee reaches a series of learning points will be discussed with the Members and Officers.  In true PAS style there are a few tricks and potential pitfalls to overcome.   Members will be asked to treat the role play as if they were actually determining the planning application and we will ask for volunteers to act out the roles of the applicant, an angry objector and a ward councillor.

We can also carry out other bespoke training on relevant topics.  Please refer to other pages on the PAS website for other areas of Planning support that are relevant to Planning Committee, such as:  Plan making, housing delivery, developer contributions and Biodiversity Net Gain

The training session can be facilitated by one of the PAS Team or one of our consultants using a Member Peer to chair the Member debate.

In some instances we can support the cost of the training through our DLUHC grant.  If we ask you to pay then it will simply be to cover our costs as we are committed to supporting Councils at an affordable price.

If you would like PAS to set up a training session for your Planning Committee please contact us at [email protected]

Probity in planning: Advice for councillors and officers making planning decisions

This 2019 guidance is an update to the 2013 version of the Local Government Association’s Probity in Planning. It clarifies how councillors can get involved in planning discussions on plan making and on applications, on behalf of their communities in a fair, impartial and transparent way.