Ward councillors in Oldham will lose the power to require a planning application to go before the council's planning committee when new national rules take effect on 31 October 2026. Peter Richards, the council's assistant director for planning and development, explained the change at the committee's meeting on Wednesday 23 September.

"What was previously in the constitution in terms of ward member referral is no longer going to be an option," he said.

Ward member referral was the route residents used for years to ask their local councillor to force an application that officers would otherwise decide to a public committee decision. One of the applications decided at the same meeting reached the committee that way: the seven-bedroom HMO at 121 Long Lane in Chadderton, which came to the committee at the request of Councillor Rob Jackson and Councillor Graham Shuttleworth.

What replaces it

The change follows new national regulations covering which planning applications officers must decide and which may go to a committee. Mr Richards told the committee that some applications must now always be decided by officers, while others pass through what the regulations call a gateway process, in which he and the Chair of the planning committee consider the application against the criteria and decide whether it should be referred.

The constitution was updated at the previous week's council meeting to be ready for the change. Its weekly list of newly validated applications now carries a new column showing which category each application falls into. Mr Richards described three:

  • Schedule 1 applications, which must always be delegated to officers;
  • "own interest" applications, meaning applications by the council on council land, by a councillor or by an officer, which go through the gateway process;
  • Schedule 2 applications, some of which stay with officers and the rest of which go through the gateway.

The Chair, Councillor Josh Charters, told the meeting that the decisions on referrals, and the reasoning behind them, will be reported to the committee every month alongside the appeals update. He encouraged councillors from across the council to email their views on applications so they can be considered in that process: "we can make sure that those views are fed into that process and properly considered and put into the report. So you've got a public record there of what you've said."

Mr Richards said members could email him directly with questions about the new arrangements.

What it means for residents

From 31 October, applications that might previously have gone to committee at a councillor's request will be assessed against the regulations instead. The council's weekly list and application records remain the main public record of what has been submitted, and the committee's monthly referral report will be the record of which applications were considered for committee and why.

The government's guidance confirms the 31 October start date and says ward councillors will no longer be able to require a committee hearing. Oldham's applications can be searched on the council's planning portal, and the council explains how to comment on an application on its main website. The video of the meeting and the agenda are published by the council, and the planning committee pages carry agendas and minutes.