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Councillor Fouweather asked: The below is a response I received from the planning department about a change of use from a nursing home to a children’s home at Llanthewy Road: “There is no national policy and no national requirement for neighbours to be notified of Certificate of Lawfulness applications. Newport’s local policy was adopted by Planning Committee as stated in the first sentence of the policy. The local policy already requires publicity over and above that required by regulations.” You will note that this policy was agreed by the planning committee. However, this change means that local residents do not need to be consulted, and I believe this to be the wrong approach. A change from a nursing/ residential home to a children’s home is in my opinion quite significant as there are often different issues associated with the applications. In particular as residents are now experiencing anti-social behaviour which would have not been present at the previous use of the premises. Therefore, I am asking you as the cabinet member to revisit this policy. All policies are the responsibility of the relevant cabinet member. Councillor Adan responded: As you are aware, Planning is a highly regulated function of the Local Authority and the minimum requirements in relation to consultation on planning applications are set out in statute. We are required to consult on applications for planning permission where the merits of a case are for consideration. For such applications, consulting with residents and other interested parties can add context to help inform a decision on an application. There are other types of planning application where a decision does not involve a judgement on the merits of a proposal. Instead, the application is a legal determination, based on fact and whether a development is permitted by legislation. These are applications for a lawful development certificate. In such cases, there is no to consult. In the example cited, this related to planning application 23/0725 which requested confirmation of whether a dwellinghouse can lawfully be used as a children’s home without the grant of a new planning permission. As mentioned, this is a matter of fact, i.e. does the Town and Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987 permit this change of use or not? It is a simple yes or no situation. Changing this approach and consulting residents on all applications for lawful development certificates would be disingenuous. In the case referred to, residents would reasonably believe that their comments would be taken into account in determining the application, when in fact they would not have any relevance nor influence. It is important that the planning is open and transparent, and we do not use the planning system to mislead local residents.
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