On 7 February 2019, we agreed changes to the way that decisions are made on planning applications and this has been in force from 8 February. Decisions on applications validated after that date will follow the new scheme.
A scheme of delegation gives officers decision-making powers on behalf of members. There are three main reasons for changing the scheme:
- Firstly, to reduce the amount of householder applications dealt with by Committee to allow members to focus on bigger cases with a wider local interest.
- Second, to give more prominence to objections or support comments from community councils when they are statutory consultees.
- Third, to tidy up and clarify certain issues in the previous scheme such as the status of petitions and small changes to approved schemes.
These changes are part of our plan to improve our performance. The main changes agreed are:
- Planning officers can now grant planning permission for householder development (house extensions and alterations) with up to 20 material objections.
- Planning officers can now grant listed building consent for householder listed building applications with up to 20 material objections.
- Planning officers can now refuse planning permission, listed building consent, advert consent, etc. for any application with up to 20 support comments.
- A Committee decision is needed where there are unresolved objections from statutory consultees, including community councils where they have that status.
- A Committee decision is needed where the recommendation is at odds with the views of the community council as a consultee.
We will monitor the operation of these changes and put a report to Planning Committee next year as part of a review of the scheme.
Full details of the scheme of delegation can be found on our website.
Planning Edinburgh 
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