Author: Cyril Richert

Planning Forum on Team Meeting – 14/07/2021

The biannual planning forum, the informal information sharing group organised by the Council for community representatives, was organised on video-call a few days ago (for the third time since July 2020). Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Planning Forum on Team Meeting – 20/01/2021

The biannual planning forum, the informal information sharing group organised by the Council for community representatives, was again organised on video-call, due to the current Covid restrictions. Although not ideal, it allows for a good level of participation and works well. A large part of the agenda was dedicated to the draft Local Plan, and therefore, we will only focus on the matter in this article. Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Remote planning forum on July 1st 2020

On Wednesday 1st July was organised the Planning Forum meeting. For special times come special meetings and for the first time the meeting was organised fully remote, using Microsoft Team video-conference tool. We had the usual “We lost him“… “We lost him completely now“… “Sorry folks, that’s the technology…” but all in all it was a prolific meeting well organised. Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Second meeting with Cllr Guy Humphries, current chair of the Planning Application Committee for Wandsworth. It followed the Council’s workshop on the future local plan the week before, which participants commented that it was well organised.

I attended on behalf of CJAG and noted that, although promised by Mr Humphrey at the last meeting, an official response to CJAG’s proposal for planning reforms has not been provided by the Council. Beside the minutes that are received later, I summarise below parts of the discussion. Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

New era or continuity for the Planning Forum? The future will decide but so far the most visible change was a new Chair, as Cllr Sweet as been replaced by Cllr Guy Humphries (due to the last cabinet reshuffle) and probably the most relevant change was actually the proposal to have Community Groups involved within the draft of the next Local Plan through workshop(s). Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Planning Applications Committee – Room 123

This is now the third time that we experiment the new format of the Planning Forum meeting, since the changed decided by the Chair, Cllr Will Sweet (change in which CJAG was instrumental).

Instead of spending most of the time being updated on planning policies with little time for attendee’s questions, only 20 minutes was dedicated to officer’s topics with the rest of the 90 minutes dedicated to items raised (submitted in advance) by Forum members.

Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Planning Applications Committee – Room 123

The new format of the Planning Forum meeting, instigated by Cllr Will Sweet (who is also chair of the Planning Application Committee) last January, allowed once again to dedicate a large part of the time to items raised by Forum members. The main discussion, based on CJAG’s suggestion, was about planning reforms. Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Planning Applications Committee – Room 123

The last Planning Forum was definitely a welcome change from the previous instances. Not only the main part of the meeting was dedicated to topics submitted by amenity groups and gave real opportunities for discussions, but Cllr Will Sweet (who is also chair of the Planning Application Committee) seemed receptive to comments and open to feedback. Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Was it a new start for the planning forum or just an iteration of the usual meeting were local amenity groups are fed with updates without much time for discussion on issues? If it was the initial intention of the new chair, Cllr Will Sweet, it was definitely a failure.

In any case it started very badly when I asked to read a very short (1 or 2 minutes) statement at the introduction. That little piece was intended to summarise the frustration of many groups attending this meeting, and had been discussed between us (local groups and Societies) before the meeting. The response from Cllr Sweet was: No! repeated several time as voices raised from several attendees (and members of Societies) to support my request. Continue reading →

Author: Cyril Richert

Planning Applications Committee – Room 123

I think it is now more or less established that there will be 2 planning forums per year, as the previous one happened on the 10th June 2015 (I forgot to report about it but you can download the minutes HERE).

Therefore, a new planning forum was held on 18th November 2015. 11 individuals from community groups and societies attended the meeting, along with 4 officers and the chair of the Planning Application Committee, Cllr McDermott. Continue reading →