FAQ's
Who should attend the design review meeting? At each Design Review Panel meeting, there will be at least five P anel members , including the Chair who will take the notes and draft the written feedback document . Officers who have been working on the scheme may attend the meeting; these may include planning case officers, urban design, conservation or highways officers. If there is involvement from another agency, such as Historic England or the county highways team, they may be invited to attend . If they cannot attend , their views can be provided in advance. We encourage elected members to observe design reviews so they can see the process in action and understand the discussion that led up to our report. Can design review happen without the local authority? The most important quality of our design review panel is our independence and therefore impartiality, this is for the benefit of both the scheme promoter and the the local authority . Therefore it is necessary that The Design Review Panel does provide the applicant with the option of booking a private design review panel session without informing the local authority; projects can be highly commercially sensitive . Furthermore, if a formal pre- application process has not begun, the local authority may not wish to expend the time to attend a design review panel session . In these circumstances the review will go ahead and the feedback document is provided to the organisation or person who made the booking with us. Notwithstanding the above it is preferable for, and we always encourage the applicant to invite, the local authority to participate in the sessions. More than one review? Larger projects usually benefit from more than one session. F or example a first review at the concept stage and another when more detailed designs have been developed. When a project is reviewed more than once we will try to ensure that a majority of the Panel are the same. For private houses hoping to gain planning permission via paragraph 79 (e) of the NPPF , we usually hold a number of reviews until the Panel are satisfied that the requirements under paragraph 79 (e) ha ve been met.
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