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Wirral councillors have unanimously agreed to tell the Government they are worried about new national rules that will see more planning applications decided by council officers instead of councillors.
The vote came at an extraordinary meeting of Wirral Council on Wednesday, 28 October, called by 13 councillors to discuss the Government's National Scheme of Delegation for planning decisions.
Conservative councillor Simon Mountney moved the motion, seconded by Cllr Jeff Green. A Liberal Democrat amendment was accepted as friendly, and the amended motion was passed unanimously, the draft minutes show.
The national scheme restricts when applications can be decided by elected councillors and requires some types of application to be decided by planning officers.
The motion notes that only 13 of the 907 applications received in Wirral in 2025/26 were decided by the Planning Committee.
It says removing residents' routes to public scrutiny for that small number of applications "will not fix the wider planning system or build a single additional home".
The Wirral Globe reports that the new rules come into force on 31 October and will remove councillors' power to "call in" applications to the committee.
Reform UK councillor Kathy Hodson told the meeting the mechanism she used to get the committee to refuse plans to demolish Heswall's Glegg Arms "will no longer exist", the Globe reports.
The council agreed to:
- Ask the group leaders to write to the Secretary of State, calling for enough local flexibility for applications of significant community concern to get public scrutiny
- Ask the group leaders to call for a change to national 'grey belt' policy to protect farmland and prioritise urban regeneration
- Ask the chief planner to explain the changes in letters to neighbours about planning applications
- Ask for guidance for all councillors on how the new scheme will work in Wirral before 31 October
- Ask for a report on the impact of the changes within six months
- Ask for records of decisions made through the new 'Gateway Test' to be made available
- Ask for a report to the Economy, Regeneration and Housing Committee on setting up a group to review council guidance on HMOs
We previewed the meeting earlier this week.
The group leaders will now write to the Government. The impact report is due within six months of the new rules starting.
