Cookie preferences
Toggle menu

What does the planning committee do?

council background image

The following information about the planning committee can be found via these links:

The planning committee guide and the planning committee chairman's welcome letter can both be viewed in the downloads section of this page and gives more detailed information on the planning committee process and public speaking at committee meetings.

What does the planning committee do?

The planning committee makes decisions on about 5% of the planning applications received. All other applications are decided by the Director of Service Delivery and named officers under delegated powers. The planning committee will make a decision on applications that meet the following criteria:

  • for all householder and other applications, the trigger for a decision to be made by the planning committee will be 10 letters of representation or more contrary to the officer recommendation;
  • for all Major and Minor applications the trigger for a decision to be made by the planning committee will be 20 letters of representation or more contrary to the officer recommendation;
  • that are large scale and submitted by Guildford Borough Council, for example redevelopment of an existing site or provision of new housing. Small scale and minor schemes will be dealt with under delegated powers;
  • that a councillor or a council employee has made, or when the applicant is related to a councillor or council employee;
  • that the Director of Service Delivery asks the committee to decide; or
  • that a councillor asks the committee to decide for planning reasons.

Who is on the committee?

The planning committee is made up of 15 borough councillors. A further 18 councillors are named as substitute members. The email address to send an message to all members of the Planning Committee is: Planningcommitteemembers@guildford.gov.uk (opens new window) .

When and where do planning committee meetings take place?

Planning committee meetings normally take place every four weeks. Meetings are normally on Wednesday evenings and start at 7pm.  Occasionally there are special meetings to discuss major or strategic major applications.

Agendas are published five working days before a meeting and free copies are available at each committee meeting as well as on the website. Minutes are available on the website shortly after the meeting.

Can anyone attend a planning committee meeting?

Any member of the public can attend the planning committee meetings and listen to the discussions about applications and other public issues on the public part of the agenda. In certain situations, you can ask to speak at a committee meeting about a planning application you're interested in. If you would like to speak, you will need to have arranged this with us before the meeting please refer to our planning committee guide for further information.