THE future for Herefordshire Council’s area planning committees has been questioned in favour of one body making development decisions for the county – if those decisions are not directly made by planning officers themselves.

A scrutiny review report into the council’s planning service says supporters of the current northern, central and southern area sub-committee system “may overstate” the opportunities it provides for member involvement in local issues – limited by law.

The report says that, arguably, a single county planning committee would allow more active member engagement locally, against the potential loss of local knowledge on the committee itself.

Herefordshire remains among a small minority of planning authorities to keep area committees. In the county’s case, that means three separate officer teams, reports and staff attendance at up to four committtees each month.

The report says that this “relatively expensive” system may become too costly in the long run with resources already “demonstrably limited.”

Equally, the current reduction in the number of planning applications on agendas could make the area committee process look inefficient, the report says.

More significantly, the review revealed the “unacceptable” possibility of the three area teams developing different working cultures and recommends at least merging administrative support while there is a longer look at the volume and complexity of applications in each area.

The report recognises that the 2008 Planning Act may require more decisions being delegated to officers anyway, and the limited opportunities a single committee offered to improve on current public engagement with the planning process, which is largely determined by the type and size of application involved.

The full findings of the report and its recommendations are due to be debated by the council’s environment scrutiny committee on Monday.