Parish Services

Eaton Parish Council and planning applications

The way planning applications are dealt with at Melton Borough Council has changed recently and the Parish Council would like to make you aware of their role in the process.

Approximately 95% of applications to Melton Borough Council are now decided under delegation ie. a planning officer decides the fate of the application without going to the planning committee. Contentious applications are decided by a committee, these are generally applications that have at least 5 separate letters of objection (5 signatories on 1 letter counts as 1 objection).

Eaton Parish Council is a statutory consultee, ie. it has to be sent copies of the plans and be consulted, for all planning applications within its villages: Eaton, Eastwell & Goadby Marwood. The Parish Council always feeds back its views to Melton Borough Council and the comments are considered along with all other correspondence by the Planning Department before a decision is made.

It has to respond to Melton Borough Council (MBC) with feedback on an application within 3 weeks of receipt to achieve the target timings for planning applications that MBC is trying to achieve.

Anyone wishing to comment on an application may forward a copy of their letter to Eaton Parish Council so that the issues they have raised can be considered for inclusion in the letter to the Planning Department from the Parish Council. Eaton Parish Council can receive comments from residents either concerned by or supportive of an application and can also review the application independently of any comments.

In reviewing applications, the Parish Council often plan a short site visit, where a number of parish councillors visit to view the site or property from the outside to understand how the proposals would impact the surroundings.

As a Parish Council, we commit to try and give the applicant a courtesy phone call or will drop a card through the door if at all possible to advise the time that we plan to view the site. It is not necessary for the applicant to be available, but we would welcome applicants meeting the councillors if that was preferred to help explain the proposal.