Adopted 11th May 2026, 011/26

Review: May 2027

Authority

The Planning Committee is appointed by and is solely responsible to St Agnes Parish Council. The Committee’s duties are defined and agreed by the Full Council who may vote at any time to modify these.

Membership

  • There will be nine elected members (voting).
  • The Chair and Vice Chair of the Council are ex-officio members of the Committee (non-voting, per Standing Orders).
  • There will be two appointed substitute members whose role is to replace the ordinary members at a meeting if they are unable to attend (per Standing Order 4(d)(v)) when the attendee numbers are nearing quorum.
  • Members of the Committee are established at the Annual Parish Council Meeting.
  • Only Councillors appointed by the Full Council are entitled to vote or move or second a motion.
  • At its first meeting after the Annual Parish Council meeting, the Committee shall elect a Chair (per Standing Orders).
  • Councillors appointed to the Committee must be willing to commit to undertake planning training as soon as they are elected to the Committee. The Council recognises that a stable membership of the Committee is desirable and as such membership of the Committee should be seen as a long-term commitment.
  • Any member of the Council can attend but must leave the room whenever the press and public are excluded.
  • The agenda will be circulated to all Councillors, allowing non-Committee Members to share relevant background information with the Committee where necessary.

Quorum

Quorum will be five members.

Substitute members

Ordinary members must provide as much notice as possible of non-attendance at meetings (formal apologies). Substitute members will be appointed to minimise risk to quorum, considering ordinary member non-attendance (without apologies) and the meeting becoming inquorate.

Apologies received Substitutes requested Meeting total (voting)
1 0 8
2 0 7
3 1 7
4 2 7

Frequency of meetings

Scheduled meetings once per month. Ad hoc extraordinary meetings, as necessary.

Public Participation

There will be a public participation item at meetings of the Committee. Each member of the public will be allotted a maximum of three minutes each and the total amount of time for the session shall not exceed 20 minutes. This will be the only item on the agenda on which the public can participate. A member of the public is anyone that is not a member of the Committee. On occasion the Chair and Clerk may together grant an applicant or an agent thereof permission to present information as a separate agenda item of the Committee meeting provided that the request is received seven working days before the relevant meeting, and that the request is thought to warrant the specific attention afforded by a separate agenda item.

Record of meeting

Written minutes will be taken to record the Committee’s decisions and will be noted at a following Full Council meeting.

Review of terms of reference

The Committee may review their terms of reference annually and make recommendations to the Full Council. The Full Council must review once each Council term (normally four years).

General terms

  1. That powers be exercised in accordance with any policy adopted or resolutions made by the Parish Council.
  2. That powers be subject to the Council’s Standing Orders and Financial Regulations.
  3. That any proposal which involves any change in the existing policies already approved by the Council shall be submitted to the Council for approval.
  4. Day to day management of Council matters rests with the Parish Clerk.
  5. Urgent/emergency issues may be dealt with as they arise by the Parish Clerk in consultation with the Chair of the Committee.
  6. All members will attend training relevant to the work of the Committee as identified and provided by the Council.

Delegated powers

  1. To discuss planning applications coming to the Council for consultee comment and Officers to submit comments to the Local Planning Authority.
  2. To analyse, and make changes as appropriate to, the methods by which planning application consultation requests are considered, including “five-day protocol” requests, provided that this is compliant with law and best practice.
  3. To authorise any Committee member(s) to represent the views of the Committee at relevant meetings of the Planning Authority and Planning Inspectorate, or otherwise to make written representation.
  4. To consider pre-planning proposals and feedback as per the Pre-Application Discussion Policy.
  5. To receive and consider planning policy consultation documents and to respond.
  6. To note planning application decisions and notices regarding enforcement issues. Officers to raise new enforcement investigations with Cornwall Council, as requested, or add new information or comment to an existing case. The Parish Council shall not submit requests for an enforcement investigation when it is known that a case has already been raised.
  7. To establish working groups from its membership for specific time-limited tasks as required.
  8. To arrange meetings with the Local Planning Authority and other partners as appropriate.
  9. To formulate a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) Working Group annually to review the NDP in relation to the previous year’s planning applications and appeal decisions. To receive reports from the group. To forward any recommendations to Full Council for resolution.
  10. To receive reports from the Cornwall Planning Partnership group.
  11. To receive reports from other planning related groups as appropriate.
  12. To consider such matters as may be delegated by the Council from time to time.