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You are here: Home National Park AuthorityCommittees & MeetingsCommittees Planning Committee

Planning Committee

All Planning Committee meetings are held at South Downs Centre, North Street, Midhurst, GU29 9DH.

SDNPA officers visit every application site, sometimes several times, as part of the planning process, SDNPA Rangers  and Link Officers are also active and engaged with applications. Members of the Planning Committee have an officer lead visit to each application site before the application is heard at the Planning Committee meeting for determination.

The South Downs National Park is 1,600km2 and the majority of SDNPA planning meetings cover applications from across this area. Planning applications are time dependent and, in general, any attempt to group them by location, for example by dealing with applications only from one end of the National Park, could lead to unacceptable delays for applications from the other end.

For this reason it was decided to hold Planning Committee meetings in Midhurst, which is centrally located within the National Park and therefore offers a reasonable commute from all areas, which is important for people wishing to make representations. Midhurst is accessible by regular bus services linking to train stations in Chichester, Petersfield and Pulborough.

Please note that there is no public parking outside the Hall for attendees of these meetings. All vehicles should be parked at the North Street, pay & display car park across the road from the South Downs Centre. Blue badge holders, please call 01730 814810 to arrange parking outside the venue

The Planning Committee comprises the following Members of the South Downs National Park Authority:

  • Alun Alesbury (Chair)
  • Heather Baker (Deputy Chair)
  • Pat Beresford
  • Thérèse Evans
  • Barbara Holyome
  • Gary Marsh
  • William Meyer
  • Robert Mocatta
  • Ian Phillips
  • Diana van der Klugt

Ex officio Members for Planning Policy items only
(may participate on Policy Items but not vote, no participation on Development Management Items)

  • Margaret Paren

The Committees Terms of Reference are available in Appendix 4 of the Authority’s Standing Orders.

Local Protocol for Members and Officers Dealing With Planning Matters.

The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations are in force, giving a right to members of the public to record and report on proceedings at committee meetings. Please read our Filming, Recording and Reporting of SDNPA Meetings Protocol for more information.

Webcasting

We now broadcast all full Authority and Planning Committee meetings through our webcasting portal. You can watch the meetings live or on-demand for up to a year after the meeting. At the start of the meeting the Chair will make an announcement that the meeting may be filmed, recorded or photographed. Webcasting is undertaken in the public interest and in the exercise of our official authority, by entering the meeting room and using the public seating area you are consenting to being filmed, recorded and photographed. If you have any queries regarding this please contact committee.officer@southdowns.gov.uk

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