Planning

The role of Ropley Parish Council is to represent local views and should:

• provide local knowledge
• raise areas of concern
• inform, debate, and add value to the process
• contact and involve District Councillors if required.

Ropley Parish Council is a statutory consultee in the planning process for East Hampshire District Council (EHDC) and must be informed of all planning applications, and any amendments to those applications, within the Parish.

The Parish Council can only comment on these planning applications in the same way as any other member of the public, however, any comments by the Parish Council must be agreed during a properly called Parish Council meeting.

Members of the public attending a Parish Council meeting can comment, speak in support of or object to any application during the ‘public participation’ section of the meeting, but not during the council’s deliberations later. However, they may be asked to provide clarity on details of the application during the Parish Council’s deliberations at the invitation of the person chairing the meeting.

Comments agreed in the Council meeting are submitted in writing to East Hampshire District Council planning department.

Prior to the meeting members of the Parish Council will study the plans, forms and details submitted with the application carefully and can request the views of the statutory bodies e.g., English Heritage, Environment Agency, Highway Authority, etc. The local planning authority will almost certainly be bound by the advice of such statutory bodies.

Please remember that the Parish Council is only a consultee and counts as one opinion. The Parish Council can and will seek the views of residents of the Parish, particularly in controversial cases, and will reflect such local feeling during the deliberation process. However, the Parish Council will always encourage members of the public to send their own individually written letters or e-mails direct to the planning authority (in your own words rather than a circular type as these are more effective).

Ropley Planning committee are guided by EHDC guidelines and the Local Plan and may comment only on what is deemed “Material considerations”. Visit the Planning Portal for these.

Where possible the Parish Council can quote policies from the Local Plan as these are the starting point for considering the merits of any application.

Objections should be clear, concise, relevant, and accurate to stand a chance of being accepted. Any comments or objections made must have a genuine material planning consideration and matter of relevance to the development.

Whilst the local planning authority must consider the representations of the Parish Council, this does not mean that an application will be decided in accordance with the views of the Parish Council. In reaching a decision, the local planning authority is required to weigh up all issues associated with an application and comments made by the Parish Council may have insufficient weight to enable the application to be determined in line with the wishes of the parish.

Ropley Neighbourhood Plan was adopted in 2019.

Ropley Village Design Statement

Last updated December 2022