Have your say on planning shake-up

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is to impose stricter time limit on planning consultations. Phil Corrigan reports

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A COUNCIL is set to impose a stricter time limit when consulting on planning applications.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council is revising its 'statement of community involvement' (SCI), which sets out how the authority engages with residents, businesses and other stakeholders when determining planning applications or setting planning policy.

It is currently the council's practice to take into account late representations received after the usual 21-day consultation period for applications.

But the reference to late representations is set to be removed in the updated version of the SCI.

According to a council report, this will ensure 'fair opportunity' is given to people to make representations, while also allowing planning officers to make 'timely decisions.