On 12 October councillors vote to shrink the planning committee and on a motion calling the government's changes anti-democratic. Plus Waldo Road questions.

Bromley councillors will be asked on Monday to condemn “in the strongest possible terms” the government’s changes to how planning applications are decided. The motion comes from the council’s Development Control Committee. It calls the changes “anti-democratic”.

Full Council meets at 7pm on Monday 12 October in the Council Chamber at the Civic Centre, 2 Westmoreland Road. The meeting is streamed live on the council’s website (agenda).

What is changing on 31 October

New national rules take effect on 31 October 2026. They do two things (report CSD26080):

  • they stop planning committees deciding some kinds of application at all, including householder, minor commercial and minor residential schemes and permission in principle
  • they cap any committee that decides planning applications at 13 members

Bromley’s Development Control Committee has 16 members, so it has to shrink. The council cannot choose whether to make these changes. The vote on Monday is about how it fits them in, and whether it says what it thinks of them.

Under the new process, councillors will only be able to ask for an application to go to committee if it falls in the second category, known as Schedule 2. Under the council’s proposals, they will have to give reasons and ask within three weeks of the application appearing on the weekly list. A panel of the Development Control Committee chairman and the Head of Development Management would meet every two weeks to decide which cases go to committee (report to Development Control Committee).

Officers wanted one committee now. Councillors want to wait

Council officers recommended moving to a single planning committee from 31 October. It would meet monthly, with one set of members making every committee decision.

The Development Control Committee disagreed when it met on 17 September. It said a single committee straight away “could reduce Member involvement and, over time, diminish planning expertise”. It wants the present system kept until May 2027, in a smaller form:

Committee Seats now Seats proposed
Development Control Committee 16 12
Plans Sub-Committee No. 1 9 11
Plans Sub-Committee No. 2 9 11

The four seats taken off Development Control are two Conservative, one Liberal Democrat and one Reform UK. They move to the two Plans Sub-Committees. The total number of committee seats across the council stays at 174 (proportionality report CSD26089). The plan is to review it in May 2027 and move to one committee of 13 or fewer then.

The report says the change could mean a small saving on councillors’ allowances for sub-committee meetings. From next May, two sub-committee chairman allowances would go.

Bar chart of seats on Bromley's planning committees: Development Control Committee falls from 16 to 12 seats, and Plans Sub-Committees No. 1 and No. 2 each rise from 9 to 11 seats, under proposals for Full Council on 12 October 2026
Chart by Bromley Online, from the council's proportionality report for 12 October 2026.
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The motion

The Development Control Committee recommends that Full Council approves this motion, word for word:

“This Council condemns in the strongest possible terms the Labour Government for introducing these anti-democratic changes to the planning system.”

The motion changes nothing in law. The new rules apply from 31 October whatever the vote. The council has 58 councillors: 35 Conservative, 8 Labour, 6 Liberal Democrat, 6 Reform UK and 3 Chislehurst Matters, according to the proportionality appendix.

What residents and councillors are asking

Questions had to be in writing by 28 September. They are published with the agenda. The answers come at the meeting or in writing afterwards (public questions for oral reply, councillors’ questions for oral reply, written questions from the public and from councillors).

The questions cover, among other things:

  • Waldo Road recycling centre. Councillor Julie Ireland asks for the reopening date, which parts will stay shut, and an explanation of what her question calls a recently reported £5m overspend. Councillor Chloe-Jane Ross asks when the tips will open for trade waste. Councillor Mark Smith asks whether the council’s procurement processes are robust enough, given the overspend.
  • Dead fish and eels in the borough’s rivers. A resident asks what the council will do after what the question calls a mass die-off, and who will be held accountable.
  • River pollution from misconnected pipes. Councillor Steven Jefferies cites Thames Water figures of 10 pollution incidents from misconnections in Bromley in the past year.
  • Council tax. Councillor Jeremy Adams says the council has written to ministers asking to raise council tax above the 4.99% limit without a referendum. He asks what difference the extra money would make to services.
  • The old Civic Centre site. Councillor Graeme Casey asks what the council will do about break-ins, stones thrown at homes and verbal abuse reported by neighbours.
  • Planning delays. Councillor Gita Bapat asks about a Beckenham business that applied in March 2025 and is still waiting for a decision. Councillor Mark Smith asks how many called-in applications are still waiting.
  • Town centre and high streets. Residents ask about support for TG Jones and other bookshops, about Conquest House on Elmfield Road, and about impounding abandoned hire bikes.
  • Trees in Clock House. Councillor Josh King says two large trees were felled and asks why there is no replanting programme.
  • The pension fund. Several residents ask about ethical investment, sanctions on illegal West Bank settlements, and a petition handed in in February.

A written question asks how many applications called in over the last 12 months could not have been called in under the new rules.

Six councillors, led by Councillor Chloe-Jane Ross, have also requested a statement on how the council coped with this summer’s heatwaves. They ask about the pressure on adult social care, highways, parks, waste collection and public health (request for statement).

The agenda also includes the Local Pension Board’s annual report for 2025/26. There are no other motions.

What it means for you

  • If you plan to apply for an extension: from 31 October your application will be decided by an officer. A councillor will no longer be able to take it to committee, for or against. Our planning applications guide explains the new rules.
  • If you object to a bigger scheme: ask your ward councillor early. They will have three weeks from the weekly list to request committee, and must say why the case meets the test.
  • If you want to watch: the meeting is streamed live from 7pm on Monday at bromley.gov.uk/councilmeetingslive.

This week’s other planning decisions, including the Creswell Drive padel centre in Beckenham, are in our report on Thursday’s Plans Sub-Committee.

Sources