Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council has voted in favour of an amendment to its constitution to incorporate National Scheme of Delegation (NSD) reforms.

The changes – introduced by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and the Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026 –  will come into effect on 31 October.

Any application determined after this date will be subject to the new rules, regardless of the date on which it was submitted.

The regulations set out types of applications where decisions:

a) must be delegated to officers in all cases (Schedule 1)

B) are presumed to be delegated to officers unless (Schedule 2) unless a nominated member and nominated officer agree that it meets at least one of the criteria for referral to planning committee (the ‘gateway test’):

• the application raises an economic, social or environmental issue of significance to the local area
• the application raises a significant planning matter having regard to the development plan and any other material considerations

BCP’s head of planning operations is set to take on the role of nominated officer, with cover from other senior planning officers, while the chairs of the council’s planning committees are likely to take the nominated member roles.

BCP Council says  it that will be possible to retain its separate eastern and western planning committees although it may be necessary to consider their  amalgamation in the future given the expected reduction in the number of planning applications that will be heard by the planning committees.

The decision by BCP Council follows New Forest District Council, which approved the NSD changes into its constitution earlier this week.

It is important that there is a consistent approach across all cases. We watch closely how the different councils implement the news rules in practice.