Bridgend Council has rejected a request from town & community councils for them to view householder objections to planning applications.
In a report due to be discussed by the council’s Town & Community Council Forum today (pdf), it’s said that the forum and individual community councils had asked to receive copies of objections in order to judge the strength of local feeling around planning applications. Town & community councils are statutory consultees in the planning process, meaning they have to be informed of planning applications in their patch by law.
The request was rejected due to concerns about personal data.
“Unfortunately, we are not be able to forward any neighbour comments on to the Town and Community Councils….as that would be a breach of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Even if we had the neighbour’s consent to forward their representation on to the TC/CC, we do not have the time or resources to redact each submission of personal information before doing so.”
– Janine Nightingale, Corporate Director for Communities (BCBC)
The report says that Bridgend Council provides 21 days for town and community councils to respond to planning applications (the legal minimum is 14 days).
As an alternative, it was suggested that town and community councils could request that residents share objections with them voluntarily at the same time objections are sent to Bridgend Council.
