Staffordshire county councillors have approved changes to the authority’s constitution to comply with new national planning rules, despite continuing to voice concerns about the changes.
From 31 October, a new mandatory national scheme of planning delegations will come into force, placing tighter requirements on which planning applications can be considered by councillors rather than determined by planning officers.
The majority of planning decisions in Staffordshire are taken by borough and district authorities and delegated to council officers. Staffordshire County Council deals with applications relating to minerals and waste, such as quarry proposals, as well as local authority maintained schools.
Members of the county council’s Audit and Standards Committee refused to endorse proposed changes to the authority’s constitution at their meeting on 29 September.
But at the full council meeting on Thursday 8 October, councillors were advised that the authority was legally required to make the changes.
Members spent more than an hour and a half debating the issue before voting by a majority to approve the amendment.
Council leader Martin Murray told councillors that he would raise concerns about the changes with Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Staffordshire MPs.
He said
“Adopting this change to our constitution is an act of legal necessity, not choice. If we had a choice, I suspect many of us here would vote against it.
“What this Government want to do is centralise planning decisions, stripping local people of their voice. That’s an affront to the very concept of representative democracy, and that in my view is fundamentally wrong.
“But we have no choice but to adopt these changes, because not doing so would put Staffordshire County Council into a state of structural illegality. It would create huge governance and financial risks to the council and undermine our ability to deliver the vital services our residents rely on, we should not impose those kinds of consequences on the people of Staffordshire.
“A vote to pass this change is not a sign of support. It is a demonstration of our ability, whatever party we belong to, to make the difficult decision in difficult circumstances to keep the authority legally compliant.”
Councillor Philip White, leader of the opposition, said he would vote against the changes.
He said
“This is a terrible example of Government overreach into one of the basic functions of councils, determining what will be built and what will not be built in our local area.
“We here on the Conservative benches can’t go along with this. We need to give voice to our opposition for this, we need to give voice to our residents who will be horrified that these decisions are being taken away from us.
“There are councils up and down the country who are voting against this. They are well aware that the Government can overrule them, but they are voting against this.
“The more of us who do it, the harder it is for the Government to steam roller over us and do this. This is a decision that can be reversed if we stand up for our residents and have the courage of our convictions.”
Councillor Ian Cooper said
“Today I am deeply frustrated. Not because I want Staffordshire County Council to break the law, not because I oppose change, but elected members have been placed in an impossible position.
“We are being asked to choose between surrendering democratic authority or suffering the consequences. That is not a choice, that is compulsion.
“I am asking that this vote should not take place. It should be deferred, members given full information, the publication of the complete audit trail of these decisions and the advice received.
“This proposal has history and members are entitled to see it, members deserve absolute clarity on the record in front of the public.”
The vote went ahead, with councillors present voting by a majority to amend the constitution to reflect the new planning rules.
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1 comment
Leslie John Pritchard
I am totally against what this government is doing to negate the powers of democratically appointed councillors. I firmly believe that the Government are acting illegally and as such we in Staffordshire should contact every single council in the country with a view in “all” taking this government on in court. This government did not when ellected have a mandate to take away the right of the people to determine how their towns, villages and cities should develop. It is clear that we have a government that is sadly lacking in the expertise and nouse to run a country both effectively and for the common good of it’s citizens. Finally it’s not hard to find this governments failings in their management of financial affairs e.g
1/. The increase in employers National Insurance – this resulted in many many businesses closing in fact it was reported as many as 3 a day had shut their doors
and it still carries on with many long established businesses going into receivership.
2/. Independant schools having to add VAT to their school fees. This as resulted in an abnormal amount of independant schools closing the result of which is that 30,000 additional places in state schools has to be found.
3/. Finally, in 2025 farmers suffered the second worst year on record for the production of crops and animal foodstuffs. Not the governments fault but what assistance did they give to the farmer – not a lot. I’m sure many of the readers of this will remember the Staffordshire farmer who in December 2025 had to sell his herd of 800 cattle. The reason, he couldn’t afford to feed them. Due to the dry weather a sowing of maize for winter feed failed as the seed didn’t germinate and fields of grass that he normally harvested as silage failed again due to the dry weather. He had to sell the cattle as the cost of winter field would have been in the region of £250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand pounds).
Not the governments fault one would say however, the government didn’t learn the lesson – to be prepared. In 2025 this country only produced 50% of its food needs and it’s currently looking that in 2026 we will have only produced 40% of our needs which doesn’t help our balance of payment defecit. Why have I bored you to tears mentioning this well it’s simple really. First of all this government doesn’t recognise Green Belt land – lets build on that, it doesn’t seem to think that it’s important to keep prime arrable land nor does it think it important to keep prime grazing land – lets build on the lot. I actually wrote to my MP Leigh Ingham about my concerns regarding this very subject. I actually said that we shouldn’t be building on these types of land and I also suggested that the government should build disalination plants along the south east and south west coasts to supply water for our growers. What I didn’t know at the time is there is a desalination plant somewhere on the east coast and for some unkown reason to me it was never “fired up” during the very hot and dry summer of twenty twenty six – WHY?
Please contact other councils round this once Green and Pleasant Land of ours and lets take this reckless government of ours to the courts. Oh its rather ironic this lot