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Members of the Planning Control committee are councillors who represent the various wards of the borough of Bury.

The committee meets every month and determines planning applications for certain major developments and others where objections have been received. In some cases, the committee will visit the site where the development is proposed prior to considering the application. These visits are for the members of the committee only, and no representations can be made to the members on the visit.

The committee meeting itself is open for anyone to attend. Our 'have your say' initiative enables interested parties to address the committee members to explain, for example, their concerns about a proposal or their ideas behind it and one person can speak in favour of an application and one against, for a maximum of three minutes each. Ward councillors also have a right to speak on applications in their area.

The majority of decisions are determined by the Director of Business, Growth and Infrastructure under the Council's adopted Scheme of Delegation, having due regard to the comments received, and both national and local policies.

All applications for extensions to domestic properties are determined by this process unless a member of the Planning Control committee asks for the application to be referred to the committee for decision. 

Planning Control committee meetings

Agendas, minutes and reports for Planning Control committee meetings are available online.

For upcoming meetings, these are available approximately one week before the next meeting date. The agendas include a list of the planning applications to be considered by the committee, along with relevant plans and photographs.

Have your say initiative

As part of the Council's initiative to encourage more involvement in its work the Planning Control committee has a policy of listening to views about significant planning proposals. They are often matters of great concern and the committee has to make decisions in the public interest and in the context of the Development Plan and Planning Policy Guidance.

The Planning Control committee meet every month in Bury Town Hall at 7pm. If you have made a representation about an application being considered by Planning Control committee, we will invite you to attend and notify you of the venue, date and time.

Please arrive by 6.50pm. You will be able to look at the planning application reports on the agenda and let one of the officers know which application you are interested in. It can then be brought forward on the agenda and dealt with in the first part of the meeting.

Each item will be introduced by the Chair who will then invite comments from the public. Only one person will be allowed to speak for, and one against a proposal. If more people are interested they will be asked to agree who the single spokesperson should be. Each speaker will be allowed to speak for a maximum of three minutes.

Where the committee has visited a site, speakers should bear in mind that most members will be familiar with points made on the visit.

The Head of Development Management will then bring any necessary information, in addition to that contained in his report, to the committee's attention. After any further discussion by committee members, in which the public cannot take part, the decision will be taken by the committee.

The committee's decision is final; but applicants have a right of appeal to the Secretary of State for the Environment if their application is refused or if conditions are attached which they do not like. In this event anyone who has written about the original application will be informed. Third parties, such as objectors, cannot appeal against a decision to grant permission.

After hearing the committee's decision you are welcome to stay and listen to the discussion about other applications.