Westminster City Council could overhaul its planning processes under new proposals that include restructuring its leadership team and introducing stricter rules on hospitality, according to a cabinet meeting report.
The council is looking at removing one senior position by combining two roles: the director of planning, held by John Walker, and the director of place shaping and West End partnership, held by Deirdra Armsby.
The proposals also include handing more power to planning officers by allowing them to assess and sign off plans without escalating decisions to the planning sub-committee. They would continue to act as a buffer between elected councillors and planning applicants.
The council will discuss ways to revamp its planning procedures at a cabinet meeting today, which also include tougher rules on hospitality and gifts, in the wake of the resignation of former Westminster deputy council leader and cabinet member Robert Davis.
Internal investigation
Davis resigned earlier this month, after an internal investigation found he had breached the authority’s code of conduct. The councillor departed after it emerged he had received hospitality or gifts 893 times over six years, frequently from property developers seeking planning permission.
The cabinet report sets out a range of proposed changes to its planning department, following a review conducted by the Planning Advisory Service in May, and presented to Westminster City Council last month.
With regards to hospitality, the report asks that staff and councillors “retain a distance” from applicants, land owners, agents and community stakeholders “other than through formally arranged visits and recorded meetings linked directly and specifically to the consideration of planning applications, pre-applications or the development of the local plan”.
Previously, the report continues, the way some Westminster councillors accepted hospitality from planning applicants was “excessive and unnecessary”.
It adds: “It has become ‘normalised’, in contrast to the practice of most planning services across the country.” It instructs: “Attendance at hospitality events is not required to deliver a good and professional service.”
Earlier this month, council leader Nickie Aiken said in a statement about the upcoming planning changes: “We have put planning under the microscope and made changes which put local people at the heart of decision making.
“The council oversees some of the most valuable, high-profile developments in the world, so our entire planning process needs to be robust and transparent.
Immediate action
“When I became leader [in January 2017] I took immediate action, opening up planning decisions to more scrutiny, making sure all meetings about planning applications take place in council offices with officers present, and launching an independent review.”
The council’s final decision on its planning policy will be revealed in its City Plan, a policy document for determining planning applications in Westminster, on November 12.
The cabinet papers also outline further detailed proposals for the £150m regeneration of Oxford Street, including a £2.5m fund to support the development of work streams and public consultation on the draft plan.
It also describes council plans to use soon-to-be released Housing Revenue Funds, alongside the council’s housing subsidiary, to deliver the 750-home Ebury Bridge Estate development.
Westminster Council confirmed this month that it does not receive funding from GLA grants and was excluded from the London mayor’s £1bn new council housing fund allocation announced on Tuesday.
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