Planning powers removed from Blaby District Council

11 Nov 13
Planning minister Nick Boles has insisted that councils must provide an efficient planning service as he announced the first decision to strip a local authority of its ability to take major decisions.

By Richard Johnstone | 11 November 2013

Planning minister Nick Boles has insisted that councils must provide an efficient planning service as he announced the first decision to strip a local authority of its ability to take major decisions.

Boles announced on Friday that applicants to Blaby District Council in Leicestershire would now have the choice to bypass the council’s planning department after it persistently failed to reach decisions on time.

The power to designate authorities as failing was created in the Growth and Infrastructure Act earlier this year.

This allows the Department for Communities and Local Government to take action against town halls deemed to have been consistently unable to meet statutory deadlines. In these cases, applicants proposing major developments will be able to ask the Planning Inspectorate to decide on their proposal instead.

Blaby’s planning department had consistently failed to deliver major decisions on time, which was unfair both to local residents and local firms, Boles said.

He added that the ‘imminent threat’ of designation appeared to have focused the minds of a number of other councils, and authorities had ‘raised their game’ as a result.

Such improvements would lead to more timely local decisions, but as a well-performing planning system was important to the economy, the government would keep the performance of councils under review.

‘We always want local decision making where possible, but at the same time it’s vital to the economy that proposals are decided on swiftly,’ said Boles.

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