LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO DO OVER THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS?
Come and play tennis at Adastra park community tennis courts
To Book visit https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/AdastraPark/HowToBook
The Role of a Parish Council on Planning Matters
The role of the Parish Council in planning, is to represent local views; drawing on local knowledge to raise areas of concern, inform, debate and add value to the process. Parish Councils are what is known as statutory consultees in the planning process. They must be informed of all planning applications and any amendments to those applications, within the parish. However, it is the local planning authority which is responsible for the majority of planning matters and makes the final decision on planning applications. The planning authorities for Hassocks are Mid Sussex District Council (MSDC) and the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA).
The Parish Council (PC) can only comment on planning applications in the same way as members of the public. Any comments submitted by the PC must be agreed during a publicly called Parish Council meeting, which in the case of Hassocks, is the Parish Council Planning Committee. Hassocks PC Planning Committee meets on a Monday evening at 7.30pm (with the exception of Bank Holidays) every three weeks throughout the year; the date of these meetings and agendas are published on the Hassocks Parish Council (HPC) website and noticeboard. The meeting minutes are also published on the website. HPC endeavours to publish the agenda for forthcoming meetings of the Planning Committee at least five days in advance of the meeting date to allow members of the public time to comment on any applications on the agenda, in writing or at the public meeting.
Members of the public are welcome to attend all HPC planning meetings and have the opportunity to speak on any application which is included on the agenda for that meeting. There is a designated Public Participation period of fifteen minutes in total for this purpose, prior to the Committee considering applications. Once the Committee proceeds with considering applications, no further public participation is permitted other than if invited by the Chair. However all members of the public are very welcome to stay and observe the Committee’s deliberations. Comments agreed in the council meeting are then submitted in writing by the Parish Clerk to the relevant planning authority for consideration.
Prior to the meeting, members of the HPC Planning Committee review all documents online detailing each application on the agenda. These documents are available to view through visiting the relevant local authority website planning pages, which can be accessed via the links below: MSDC - https://www.midsussex.gov.uk/planning-building/view-and-comment-onplanning-applications/
SDNPA - https://www.southdowns.gov.uk/planning-applications/find-an-application/
To read the full newsletter, please click the images to enlarge them or pick up your copy of August’s Hassocks Life.