MORE key planning decisions look set to be made by councillors from across the borough instead of just from the local area in a bid to improve efficiency.
A massive shake-up of the council's planning systems department is under way to speed up decision making, reduce the workload of officers and ensure that the correct decisions are taken.
Proposals have been put forward to create two new committees which will have councillors across the borough on it and will be deciding controversial planning applications from across the borough.
Plans are also in the pipeline to "delegate" smaller applications for items such as conservatories to an outside body for a decision.
The sweeping changes are to be introduced to replace the council's existing area-based planning system.
At present applications not decided by planning officers are decided by a development control committee. It then in effect delegates some of its powers to four area-based committees linked to Haslemere, Farnham, Godalming and Cranleigh, which decides some applications. If an application is particularly controversial, or the councillors' views differ greatly from that of officers, then the application is referred back to the development control committee for a decision.
On top of this any major application which needs even more scrutiny can be referred on to full council for a final decision.
The current system has been criticised for being too complex and a review was ordered to bring about a shake-up to quicken decision making in order to meet the government targets.
Proposals due to be examined on Monday by the council's environment and leisure overview and scrutiny committee suggest scrapping it in favour of the two borough-wide committees.
Development control committees one and two would be made up of between 15 and 20 councillors from across the whole borough and be of equal status and power. They would meet every six weeks to create a three-weekly cycle of planning meetings. Site visits would take place as a matter of course before the meeting and any decisions which need to be scrutinised would be referred to the opposite committee. The two committees would join together for applications of major importance such as the East Street regeneration in Farnham.
"The office of the Deputy Prime Minister has concluded through its research on planning performance that a common characteristic of a failing authority is an area committee system," the report said.
"This is commonly associated with higher servicing costs, parochial views dominating over a wider borough view and inconsistency in decision-making."
To ensure the local councillors maintain their input, it is suggested that more emphasis would be placed on pre-application discussions to address problems before the application goes to committee.
As well as the sweeping changes to the committee system, changes are also planned behind the scenes.
Problems recruiting experienced planning officers had led to officers having too many applications to deal with at any one time – slowing down the decision-making process.
A range of options being considered by councillors including relaxing permitted development rights and recruiting more trainees. However it is reported that the favoured option to delegate smaller applications, making up the bulk of the workload, to outside contractors would be heard at next week's meeting. The contractors would then make the decision in the same way as officers currently do under delegated powers.
Although the proposals are expected to improve efficiency, the plans are not expected to be given a universal warm welcome by councillors who have already expressed concern that decisions are not being made at a local level.