Planning applicants are withdrawing proposals ahead of a rule change that could spare them from scrutiny by Buckinghamshire councillors, an authority meeting was told.

Darran Eggleton, Buckinghamshire Council’s head of development management, building control and enforcement, said some applicants were “presumably” planning to submit their proposals again after October 31, when new national rules will make it harder for planning applications to reach councillors’ committees.

He called the situation a “loophole in the system” caused by the absence of transitional arrangements. From Halloween, councillors and town and parish councils will lose their existing power to call applications before a committee. Planning officers already decide most applications, but fewer cases are expected to reach committee under the new rules.

The council is holding extra meetings to hear outstanding cases before the deadline. But Mr Eggleton told its Growth, Infrastructure and Housing Select Committee that some applications were being withdrawn.

placeholder image — Darran Eggleton Image: Bucks Council

“We’re also seeing some applicants that are withdrawing their applications, presumably to resubmit them after the 31st of October, in order to save committee scrutiny,” he said.

“Now, that’s a loophole in the system and [a] sort of failing of there being no transitional arrangements.”

Mr Eggleton did not say how many applications had been withdrawn. He said the council was working with planning committee chairs to hear as many cases as possible before the October 31 deadline.

He added: “We are working through at the moment with our committee chairman which applications are going to go to the committees between now and the 31st of October.

“We are prioritising the Schedule 1 applications in order to get through as many as we possibly can.”

Buckinghamshire Council leader Cllr Steven Broadbent has previously warned that the changes remove existing call-in opportunities “at a stroke”. He described them as a “fundamental shift in democracy”.

Cabinet member for planning, Cllr Peter Strachan, said only around two per cent of the county’s planning applications currently reach committee and warned that the figure was likely to fall further.

Under the new arrangements, applications classified as Schedule 1 must be determined by officers, unless they are also classed as own-interest applications.

Applications classified as Schedule 2 may reach a committee if the nominated councillor and officer consider that they raise a significant economic, social, environmental or planning issue.

Councillors and town and parish councils will no longer have the right to require an application to be called in. Any request they make will instead be advisory.

Mr Eggleton said October 31 was a firm cutoff and the council would continue to make planning decisions in accordance with the law.