At the City Council's Development Quality Committee tonight, I expressed concern at the apparent effect of changes made to the scheme of delegation some months ago that has resulted in fewer applications being decided by the committee - with a greater number being delegated to officers to determine.The rationale for this was sound - changes in planning legislation has resulted in the creation of 'local review bodies' that made it sensible that the council revised its scheme of delegation.
However, it is now the case that it takes some six separate objections to ensure an application is decided through the democratic process at committee. In my view, the 'light' agendas at Development Quality Committee indicates that the objections 'bar' is too high at 6 and should be reduced.
The matter is being kept under review and I will be calling for the number of objections to allow the application to be determined at committee to be reduced when the issue is debated. I think this would be in the interests of all Dundee citizens who have concerns about planning proposals.