Portsmouth City Council to hold special meeting about changing planning rules

Cabinet member for planning Lee Hunt originally approved the move in July in a bid to reduce the year-long backlog but a call-in led by Tory councillor Ryan Brent, who described it as an ‘unintentional constitutional power grab' has forced it to be revisited.

Last week Cllr Hunt reluctantly agreed to refer the proposal to the governance committee before deciding whether to approve the change for a second time.

‘We will have to come back again [after the governance committee meeting] unfortunately and we have to give seven days’ notice,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately it is another delay which is most regrettable.

‘I thought the urgency of getting people’s planning decisions made outweighed any harm caused.

‘I’m not riding roughshod over it, I looked at it very carefully but I’ll make the decision again.’

The next scheduled meeting of the governance committee had been November 23 but its members have agreed to meet next Thursday (October 27) to assess the change.

A final decision will then be made by Cllr Hunt, based on the committee's advice.

In September Cllr Brent said: ‘It's worrying that he feels entitled to make the decision he did. Our constitution says that if anything impacts more [councillors] than just the one making the decision then there's a process to follow - it's not adding extra red tape.’