CHRISTCHURCH Town Council has been asked to appoint a new officer to ‘considerably benefit proceedings’ for the planning committee.

Councillor David Charles Jones, chair of the town council’s planning and regulatory committee, has suggested employing a planning officer on a contract basis.

In a letter to the resources committee, he said that he is currently the only one with “committee experience”.

When Christchurch Town Council was set up in 2019, several members had served on the borough council’s planning committee and benefited from planning training.

Cllr Jones said these “experienced councillors” had left over time, while the “importance of making defensible decisions has grown”.

He said in his letter: “It has been pointed out that if the LPA were to make a decision based on our recommendations as a statutory consultee to which no reasonable committee could have come, then the possibility of judicial review is opened up. This can be extremely expensive.

“Further, at least one member of the 2019-23 council declined to stand for the planning committee in this council because they did not feel that they had sufficient information to understand what they were voting on.”

Cllr Jones added that online planning training received by the committee last autumn was “helpful”, but that he “found it no substitute for a professional officer present at the meeting”.

He said in his letter: “While members are required to familiarise themselves with an application site, the basic problem is that members do not have the skills to identify problems, absorb all the policies, and select all those that could be applicable.

“In Christchurch Borough Council days, officer reports were extremely detailed, and provided both basic facts and then officer interpretation.”

Following discussions with the planning committee, it was agreed that the town council’s recourses committee would be addressed on the matter.

Addressing the costs, Cllr Jones said the planning officer would be employed on a sub-contracted basis as when required, avoiding the costs of a full- or part-time officer.

He provided a “very rough estimate” for a professional firm of consultants of £180 to £200 an hour, but said he wished to “explore the market”.

The recourses committee are due to consider the matter at their meeting on March 5.