COUNCILLORS will today be asked to approve a major shake-up of planning in Westmorland and Furness which will see four existing planning committees scrapped and replaced with a single 13-member committee.
The proposals are among the biggest changes to the council's planning decision-making arrangements since Westmorland and Furness Council was created in 2023.
Councillors meeting today, September 24, will be asked to approve the abolition of the four existing planning committees from October 31 and establish a single authority-wide Planning Committee.
The new committee will have 13 councillors and will cover the whole of Westmorland and Furness.
For residents in Penrith and the former Eden area, the changes could mean planning applications that would previously have been considered through an area-based committee being dealt with through a single committee covering communities across the entire authority.
The council's report does not specify where every meeting of the new committee will take place, but the new structure removes the existing area-based planning committee system.
That means planning applications from Penrith and Eden could potentially be considered alongside applications from South Lakeland and Furness under the new arrangements.
However, the changes will also mean that many planning applications will never reach councillors at all.
From October 31, a new National Scheme of Delegation will come into force across England, setting out which planning applications must be decided by officers and the circumstances in which applications can be referred to a planning committee.
Householder applications, minor residential and commercial developments involving one to nine dwellings, discharge of conditions, lawful development certificates, prior approval applications and a range of other applications will have to be determined by officers.
Other applications will fall into a second category where there is a presumption that they will also be determined by officers.
Those applications can only be referred to the new Planning Committee if the council's nominated officer and nominated member agree that they should be considered by councillors and the application meets one of the new tests.
Those tests include whether the application raises an economic, social or environmental issue of significance to the local area, or a significant planning matter having regard to the development plan and other material considerations.
The new arrangements will also remove the existing system allowing ward councillors to call in planning applications.
The council's report states that call-in arrangements will no longer exist under the national scheme and that current practices allowing ward councillors to refer applications to committee, or referral based on an objection, will no longer be possible.
One Westmorland and Furness councillor speaking ahead of today's meeting has criticised the proposed changes, warning that they will reduce local involvement in planning decisions.
The councillor said: "It reduces local input and local democracy and will be a backward step. Nobody knows the area better than the local councillors elected to serve the wards when it comes to planning matters."
The change effectively means that the decision over whether a planning application should be considered by councillors will move into the new referral process involving the Development Management Service Manager and the Chair of the Planning Committee.
The council is proposing that the Development Management Service Manager becomes the nominated officer, while the Chair of the new Planning Committee becomes the nominated member.
The Vice Chair would act as a substitute where necessary.
The council's own report acknowledges that replacing four area-based committees with a single committee could lead to concerns over local democratic representation.
Council officers have identified a risk that communities could perceive a reduction in local representation because the four area committees will be replaced by one committee covering the whole Westmorland and Furness area.
The report says this could result in reduced public confidence in planning decision-making and increased challenges to decisions.
It also identifies a separate risk that the single committee could become overloaded, potentially resulting in longer meetings, delays and reduced efficiency.
The new committee will contain the maximum 13 members permitted under the regulations.
The council says the number has been chosen because of the size and geographical spread of Westmorland and Furness and the range of political parties represented on the authority.
The proposed political balance would be seven members, three members, two members and one member.
The financial saving from scrapping the existing committees is expected to be relatively small.
The council estimates that reducing the number of committee chairs will save £21,420 in members' special responsibility allowances during 2026/27, with a further £2,087 saving in national insurance costs.
The total identified saving is £23,507.
The council also expects officers to spend less time preparing for and attending planning committees, although it says it would need further work to establish whether that reduction in officer time would result in any additional cashable saving.
The changes are being introduced because of new national planning regulations.
The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 gave the Secretary of State powers to control the functions of planning committees, including the types of applications they can consider, their size and training requirements.
The Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026 are due to come into force on October 31 and will apply to all local planning authorities in England.
The council says it must change its constitution to comply with those requirements.
Failure to implement the new arrangements could leave planning decisions open to legal challenge, with the council's report warning that decisions made outside the statutory scheme could potentially be subject to judicial review.
Councillors meeting today are therefore being asked to approve the move to a single Planning Committee from October 31, formally dissolve the four existing committees and appoint the 13 members, Chair and Vice Chair of the new committee.
The changes will mark a significant shift in how planning decisions are made across Westmorland and Furness, with four area-based committees replaced by one authority-wide committee and a much greater number of applications being dealt with directly by planning officers.
For Penrith and Eden, the change will mean the end of the existing area-based planning committee system and a new process for deciding which applications are considered by elected councillors.
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