If you want to attend a committee to speak either in favour of, or against, a planning application you can either email the planning department on planning@stevenage.gov.uk or you can telephone the council on 01438 242242 (Main Customer Service Switchboard) or 01438 242838 (Technical Support Team – Planning) and your details will be passed over to the Planning Department / relevant planning officer. They will then make contact to discuss your request to speak at the Committee.

You will need to contact us by no later than 4pm the day before the meeting. All requests will be dealt with on a first-come, first served basis and only apply to planning applications or enforcement action.

Please note that our planning meetings are filmed and broadcast live on YouTube.

When contacting us, you will need to tell us:

• Your name, address and telephone number;
• Details of the application on which you wish to comment;
• Whether you support or object to the application;
• Whether you are speaking on your own behalf or also representing the views of others; and
• Whether or not you will allow the information you give to be passed to others who have an interest in the application, before the meeting starts (e.g. where other residents who may have an interest in a particular application).

With the exception of your telephone number or any other information requested to be withheld under GDPR, the information you give will be made available at the meeting to the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Planning Committee and other parties such as the press who may have an interest in a particular planning application.

If you do not wish to provide the required information, then officers may turn down your request.

At each meeting, unless otherwise agreed by the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Committee, only one person can speak in favour of an application and one against an application. Each person has three minutes. The Chair and / or Vice-Chair will ask you to wrap up your comments when your three minutes are nearly up. In addition, they may also cut you off if you run over your allotted three minutes.

You will be invited to join members of the Committee to address them, the Chair and / or Vice-Chair with your comments. You are not allowed to ask questions of the committee, but councillors who sit on the committee may ask you questions.

Schedule of Meetings and Committee Reports

New committee reports are usually available five working days before the next committee. They can be viewed on the Council’s Democracy pages.

Submission of late representations relating to Planning Committee

The council has introduced a new policy of not accepting public representations on an application to be considered by the Planning and Development Committee if they are received after 5pm two business days before the relevant Committee Meeting (for example, 5pm on Monday before a Thursday meeting).

Therefore, you must ensure any representations you make to an application are made during the consultation process or at least within 3 business days after committee reports are published. If any representations are lodged after the cut-off point, it will be at the discretion of the Assistant Director of Planning and Regulation in consultation with the Chair and / or Vice-Chair as to whether or not your late representation will be referred to Committee.

The reason for the new procedure is to allow members of the Planning and Development Committee sufficient time to be able to digest the content of any late representations, including the content of the published committee report (which will also set out in detail all representations and consultation responses which have been made against a particular application e.g. highways, heritage, drainage) in advance of any committee meeting.