Regulatory Board

The Regulatory Board determines planning applications and other matters relating to the Town and Country Planning Act (1990).

The Regulatory Board is made up of elected Members (Councillors), assisted by Officers who provide technical and professional advice and expertise.

The Board meets at the Civic Centre about once a month, usually on a Wednesday at 7pm.

Board papers are sent to the Councillors seven clear working days before the meeting. Limited copies of the agenda and reports are available free of charge for the public at the meeting and they may also be viewed/downloaded from the council's website or at the Civic Centre and Central Library, Windmill Street, five working days before the meeting.

Your right to speak

Public speaking is an opportunity to hightlight important points already made in your representations by addressing Members of the Regulatory Board when they are considering an application.

Public speaking will only be available to:-

• the applicant or the applicant's agent;
• those who have made written representations and who have registered to do so.

Speakers will be selected on a first come first served basis.

A maximum of three supporters and three objectors will be permitted to speak.

Each speaker will be permitted a maximum of three minutes in which to get their points across to the Board.

How to register

You must register your intention to speak no later than noon on the working day before the meeting (e.g. for a meeting on a Wednesday evening you must register to speak by noon on the Tuesday).

You can register the following ways:-

By email

committee.section@gravesham.gov.uk

By telephone

01474 33 73 02

By letter to

At the Regulatory Board

The Chairman will open the meeting and take apologies from those Members unable to attend.  Substitute Councillors may attend in their place and their names will be read out at the beginning of the meeting.  Other Councillors may also be there but cannot vote and may only speak with the Chairman's permission. 

The business of the Board will normally follow the order of the agenda, but occasionally the Chairman may agree to a different order.

A detailed report is available to the Members and the Chairman will ask the planning officer to introduce each item.

Registered supporters of an application, followed by any registered objectors will then be allowed to address the Board about a particular application.

The Regulatory Board Members and Ward Councillors may, through the Chairman, ask questions of the speaker for clarification of any facts but this will not lead to further discussion or expressions of opinion.

The Board will then debate the application and a vote will be taken.

Where planning applications are concerned a clear-cut decision (permission or refusal) will be made in most cases but, if members feel they should see a site first, they may defer the application for a Members site inspection or site visit.

The decision will then be made at the next meeting of the Board.  If the Members are in agreement with the officers' recommendations (once the consultation process has been completed) they may delegate the decision to the Service Manager (Development Control), who will issue the decision once all the processes are completed.

If the Board asks for more information, or requests the officers to negotiate changes to the proposal, the application may be deferred to a later meeting.

Towards the end of the meeting, there may be a private session of the Board (dealing with, for example, those legal or financial matters which are confidential).  The Chairman will thank the public for attending, and then ask those present to leave.

The Regulatory Board offsite link (in the above right hand corner) will provide you with useful information relating to the Regulatory Board for example agendas and minutes, meetings currently planned and the membership of the Board.