Training for Councillors (England and Wales)
A Briefing on Development Control for Town & Parish Councils
Our popular half day briefing session, aimed especially at Parish and Town Councillors and Clerks. The aim of the session is to help make a more effective contribution to the Development Control process.The session aims:
- to familiarise participants with the overall framework of the planning system and where development control fits into this
- to explain the basic components of the development control process and where Parish/Town Councils fit in
- to explain some key concepts of the development control decision-making process, to enable Parish/Town Councils to relate to these effectively
- generally to clarify the potential for, and the limitation of, Parish/Town Council input.
The session overall will be conducted in a structured but informal manner, with the opportunity for questions. Concepts will be applied to one or two cases to reinforce key points. This workshop is designed to last half a day with a refreshment break. However the timings can be varied. For example, we have run sessions in the morning, afternoon or evening and also repeated the session several times over a series of days. We do insist on enough time being allocated to cover the relevant material properly in a user friendly manner.
We use a variety of techniques, including:
- presentations, supported by visual aids as appropriate
- group discussions based on pre prepared case studies
- question and answer sessions
- straightforward course documentation.