Agenda item

To approve the required changes associated with the introduction of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025.

Consideration was given to the report which recommended that the Council’s Constitution be amended to reflect the provisions of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025.

The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 introduced significant measures to reform planning committees in England, including a national scheme of delegation for planning functions and a cap on the size of planning committees.  

The Town & Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026 would come into force on 31 October 2026, at which time councils would be required to operate in accordance with the amended framework and statutory guidance which was published on 1 June 2026. To do so, the Council’s Constitution needed to be amended. 

The draft regulations set out requirements for certain types of application to be determined under officer delegation, i.e. may not be determined by a Planning Committee:-

(a)  Schedule 1 to the draft regulations set out that applications for planning permission for householder, minor residential and minor commercial development, as well as a number of supplementary and technical consents which must be determined under officer delegation. Further detail on what a Schedule 1 application would be were provided in paragraph 2.2 of the report.

(b)  Schedule 2 set out the types of application which could be referred to a planning committee subject to the Gateway Tests which were set out in Regulation 5 and this required agreement between the nominated Member (e.g. the Chair of the Committee) and officer (usually the Chief Planner or equivalent), but which otherwise must be delegated to an officer. These included any types of application for planning permission which were not in Schedule 1, variations of permissions, and special controls such as listed building and tree preservation order consents. Further detail was provided in paragraphs 2.2 to 2.9 of the report.

The Regulations also provided for the number of members on a planning committee or sub-committee to be no more than 13. At present, the Planning Board in Rotherham had 15 members and as such this needed to be reduced. This had also required a review of the entitlement of the political groups to seats on the committees of the Council.

During the debate on the item, Councillors Adair and Currie were thanked for their contributions to Planning Board and Councillor Blackham was thanked for his work on the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

Resolved:

That Council:-

1.    Note the content of the report;

2.    Approve amendment of the Constitution as set out in the Report and in particular the additions of Schedule 1 and 2 detailed in Appendix 1;

3.    Note the reduction in size of the Planning Board to the maximum 13 Councillors permitted;

4.    Approve the allocation of seats, in accordance with the political balance calculations, as set out in Report;

5.    Approve the appointment of the Head of Planning Services and the Chair of Planning Board as the proper officer and the nominated member as per the statutory guidance; and

6.    Delegate authority to make consequential amendments to guidance documents and the Scheme of Delegation (such as to the Probity in Planning: Code of Practice) to the Service Director: Legal Services and Monitoring Officer in consultation with the Head of Planning Services, the Portfolio Holder for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy and the Chair and Vice Chair of Planning Board.

The following changes to nominations to Committees, Boards and Panels, as set out in Appendix B to the Mayor’s Letter, were also approved:

Mover: Councillor Mault                          Seconder: Councillor Jackson