Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were submitted from Councillors Pauline Jorgensen and Angus Ross.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest received.

To answer any public questions

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the item on the agenda.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to the item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

There were no public questions.

To answer any member questions

A period of 20 minutes will be allowed for Members to ask questions relating to the item on the agenda

Any questions not dealt with within the allotted time will be dealt with in a written reply

There were no Member questions.

That the Department for Communities and Local Government be informed that Wokingham Borough Council accepts the offer to raise planning application fees by 20% from July 2017 on the basis that this will be invested into the planning services.

The Executive considered a report outlining details of an offer from the Department for Local Government and Communities (DCLG) to increase the planning application fees by 20% to help fund the planning service.  This would help to ensure the resilience of the service and its ability to deliver high quality, plan led development and good customer service.

Councillor Ashwell put forward the proposal and suggested that this should start from July 2017.

Councillor Pollock asked if planning application fees were on target and if this proposal represented an increase in the current Planning Budget or not. Councillor Ashwell responded that central government set planning application fees and it covered approximately two thirds of the cost of running the service.  He reported that there had been an increase of about 8% in planning applications recently.  Councillor Pollock requested further information from Officers.

RESOLVED That the Department for Communities and Local Government be informed that Wokingham Borough Council accepts the offer to raise planning application fees by 20% from July 2017 on the basis that this will be invested into the planning services.