The Minister of State for Housing has intervened to improve Chorley’s Labour Council poor performance in dealing with major planning applications as over 17% were overturned on appeal.
In the latest two-year period, 17.9% of major planning decisions were overturned on appeal.
That contrasts very poorly against 2.1% median for councils similar to Chorley, and 1.4% across England.
Following a letter sent to the Council on 6th July 2023 from the Chief Planner warning the councillors action was required, the Labour Council has now been given a ‘Designation Notice’ from 19th December 2023.
That means once an authority is ‘designated’ for major development applications:
- Applicants can choose to apply direct to the Planning Inspectorate.
- And Chorley’s Labour Council is expected to prepare an improvement plan identifying actions that address the areas of weakness that led to the authority being designated.
The Conservative Group has expressed their concern about the delay in adopting a new Local Plan for Chorley which they say is long overdue leaving the Council exposed to inappropriate development.
Developers have appealed and won their applications in areas such as Euxton, Clayton-le-Woods, Whittle-le-Woods and Eccleston.
Councillor Alan Cullens said:
With 17.9% of major planning applications overturned on appeal, then something is seriously wrong with the process of dealing with major applications here in Chorley.
And we put that down to a lack of an up-to-date Local Plan, which was last adopted 11 years ago.
Developers are now able to bypass Chorley planners leaving us more vulnerable to large developments. All as a result of Labour’s failure.
With a strong Local Plan, the scope for any appeal would have been very much limited.
Labour's path towards the government's action
