And so we get to the Planning Review Commitee meeting that will reconsider the planning decision made at the last West Area Committee.  This is the first Planning Review Committee meeting I’ve chaired as the first meeting happened while I was in Bonn on the twinning trip.  I was very keen to get things right so ran the meeting as carefully and inclusively as I could.

I should point out that “review” is a slightly confusing name for this committee as its job is not to review the previous decision and the process followed to reach it, but rather to take a fresh look at the planning application and make a new decision based on all the evidence presented.

All objectors had time to speak as did the applicant’s agent.  The planning officer (Murray Hancock) gave a very informative and useful report and though he was recommending approval, that is just one of the opinions we as a committee were to consider.  We had some debate among councillors and then a motion was put  seconded to refuse the application and this received almost unanimous assent.  The application was thus refused.

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