A word about planning…

This is the claim of Cllr Adrian Naylor who says he and his two Craven ward colleagues are no longer allowed to comment on planning applications for housing developments in their ward.

 by, David Knights

According to Cllr Naylor, the situation has been caused by the removal of just one word – “relevant” – in the Bradford Council constitution.

The original rule stopped councillors commenting on planning applications in their own ward if that application came before a planning committee they sat on.

Without the sentence saying “relevant committee”, the rule now stops members of all three council planning committees speaking on applications that come before any of the three committees.

The change affects Craven ward more than most other Bradford district wards, because all three of its councillors – Adrian Naylor, Rebecca Whitaker and Jack Rickard – serve on one or other planning committees.

Cllr Naylor said none of the three democratically-elected district councillors would be able to speak for or against controversial Silsden issues including the current proposal to build an ‘enabling road’ from Bolton Road to a potential housing site in Hawber Cote.

Cllr Naylor said: “The effect has been to stop all three of us commenting on applications in our area. The legal department in Planning have made it very clear that if you sit on any committee then you can’t represent your constituents.

“This is an unintended, unconsidered consequence and is undemocratic. It happened because officers were asked to make change to the constitution to sort out a minor matter, but it had this effect. I’ve had it confirmed that this is an unintended consequence.”

Cllr Naylor has asked for the decision to be reviewed, and hopes it can be reversed through a vote at Full Council.

Silsden town councillor David Loud said he had contacted Bradford Council over the problem.

He said: “I have questioned whether a lack of representation could deem a planning application void by not following due process, and leave it open to legal challenge. I have been advised that this is being looked at as a matter of urgency.

“In the meantime however, I would have thought the sensible solution would be for one of our three ward councillors to step down from the planning committee they are involved in to ensure residents had proper and effective representation.”

Bradford Council had not responded to requests for a comment before the Keighley News went to press.