Speaking at planning committee

Residents can speak at Planning Committee if they submit a valid petition. The lead petitioner or nominated person is allowed to speak for five minutes around the application.

These meetings are live streamed on the council website. There are certain things that anyone who is going to speak at a Planning Committee meeting needs to be aware of.

• Please keep your speech and comments to the subject of the application and only cover planning issues;
• You are not permitted to refer to the conduct of officers or councillors or to the manner in which an application has been dealt with. The council's Complaints Policy should be used in this situation;
• You should not make comments about individual applicants, objectors, supporters or other involved in an application;
• The law of slander is very strict. If in public you say something about a person which is not true, even if you believe it to be true, you may be sued and have to pay compensation. Therefore, you need to be very careful about any criticism you wish to make of people.