Five objections will no longer force a Harlow planning application to committee from 31 October. The council fought the change and was overruled.

Until this week, five people objecting to a Harlow planning application was enough to guarantee it a public hearing. That rule has gone.

Harlow Council has rewritten the section of its constitution that decides which planning applications go to councillors and which are settled by officers behind closed doors. The new wording was published in the council’s constitution on 18 September, the day after it went to Full Council.

It replaces five separate routes to a committee hearing with one test, and that test can only be triggered by two people: the chair of the planning committee and the council’s chief planning officer, and both have to agree.

The council did not want the change. It said so in writing, twice, to the government. It was overruled.

What the old rule said

Harlow’s constitution up to 24 July 2026 sent an application to the Development Management Committee if it was any of the following (Chapter 6, paragraph 3.3):

  • subject to five or more objections for valid planning reasons from members of the public, where officers recommended approval
  • called in by a councillor under the planning application call-in protocol
  • a major development as defined by the 2015 development management order
  • submitted by or on behalf of the council for its own development, unless it was minor and drew no objections
  • submitted by a Harlow councillor, a director-level officer, an MP, anyone closely connected to them, or anything officers thought likely to be of significant public interest

What replaces it

The new paragraph 3.4 is three lines long. The committee now has power to hear pre-application presentations, to determine applications “referred to the committee in accordance with the DM OPS”, and to consider anything else the chief planning officer sends it (Chapter 6, 18 September 2026).

DM OPS is the Development Management Operational Protocols and Standards document. It is where the real rules now live, and it works like this.

Every planning application falls into one of two schedules set by the new regulations.

  • Schedule 1 applications must be decided by an officer. There is no discretion at all. These are the routine ones: house extensions, shop fronts, small commercial extensions, discharge of conditions, lawful development certificates, most reserved matters.
  • Schedule 2 applications are the larger ones: major residential schemes of 10 homes or more, listed building consent, applications to vary an existing permission. These still go to an officer by default.

A Schedule 2 application only reaches the committee if it passes the Gateway Test. To pass, two named people must both agree that it raises either an issue of economic, social or environmental significance to the local area, or a significant planning matter.

Those two people are:

  • the Nominated Member, which in Harlow is the chair of the Development Management Committee, Councillor Michael Garnett, or in his absence the vice-chair, Councillor Sue Livings
  • the Nominated Officer, which is the chief planning officer, defined in Harlow’s constitution as the Director of Planning and Garden Town, or a nominee

If either one says no, the application is decided by an officer.

What changes about Harlow planning decisions on 31 October 2026 Before, five routes sent an application to the Development Management Committee: five or more public objections, councillor call-in, major development, council's own development, and applications by councillors, officers or MPs. After, Schedule 1 applications must be decided by officers, and Schedule 2 applications reach committee only if the committee chair and the chief planning officer both agree the Gateway Test is met. How a Harlow application reached the planning committee The five automatic routes are abolished on 31 October 2026 and replaced by one two-person test UNTIL NOW: five automatic routes 1. Five or more public objections, where officers recommended approval 2. Call-in by a councillor 3. Any major development 4. The council's own development, unless minor and unopposed 5. Applications by a councillor, a senior officer, an MP, a close connection, or anything of significant public interest Any one of these was enough. All five are removed. FROM 31 OCTOBER: one gateway Schedule 1 application Officer decides. No committee, ever, unless the council is the applicant. Schedule 2 application Officer decides, unless BOTH agree it meets the Gateway Test: • the committee chair • the chief planning officer Either one can keep it off the agenda. A "triage" list can also keep whole categories with officers automatically. Source: Harlow Council constitution Chapter 6, the 24 July and 18 September 2026 versions; and the Development Management Operational Protocols and Standards document, Cabinet, 14 September 2026. Graphic by Harlow Online

The council objected and lost

This is not a Harlow decision. It is the Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026, made on 15 July 2026 and coming into force on 31 October 2026. They apply to every local planning authority in England.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government consulted on the proposals in May 2025, and on the draft regulations in March 2026. Harlow Council’s report to Cabinet records what happened next in one sentence:

“The council responded to those consultations to make clear it did not support the proposed changes. Nevertheless, councils are now legally required to implement the changes.”

The report also sets out why the council did not simply carry on as it was. Keeping the old local call-in procedures or referral triggers, it says, would leave the council’s decisions “potentially unlawful and subject to legal challenge, which could include judicial review” (Cabinet report, 14 September 2026).

On the loss of call-in, the report is blunt:

“Local planning authorities can no longer operate discretionary Member call-in mechanisms or other local referral triggers (such as where there are more than a certain number of objections to an application) to divert planning application decisions away from Officers and into the DMC.”

And: “There is no longer any discretion in this respect.”

Two things worth watching

The rules can now be changed without a vote of the council. The Cabinet report says Harlow will be able to “quickly and efficiently alter its approach to these issues through changes to the DM OPS made by the Chief Planning Officer in consultation with the DMC Chair”. Full Council adopted the document. Amending it afterwards does not require Full Council.

A “triage criteria” can take whole categories off the table. The regulations let councils write a list of Schedule 2 application types that stay with officers without the Gateway Test being applied at all. Harlow’s report says its list is “likely” to include schemes that comply fully with a Local Plan allocation where no significant new planning issues have emerged. That list has not been published yet. When it is, it goes in an appendix to the DM OPS.

Harlow has a great many Local Plan allocations. The Harlow and Gilston Garden Town alone accounts for around 10,000 homes.

What it means for you

Objecting still matters, but it no longer books a hearing. Your objection goes to the case officer and must be taken into account. What it will not do, on its own, is put the application in front of councillors in public. Numbers no longer count for that purpose.

If an application does reach committee, you can still speak. The DM OPS keeps public speaking rights, and they are reasonably generous:

  • up to three objectors, three minutes each
  • up to three supporters, three minutes each
  • the applicant or their agent, three minutes
  • up to three ward councillors, three minutes each
  • if you cannot attend, a written statement of up to 450 words can be read out

To qualify you must have submitted what the document calls a Planning Objection. That means it relates to a publicised application, it is not anonymous, it gives your name and postal address, you live or work in the district, it arrives within the consultation period, and it raises at least one material planning consideration. You then have to confirm to Democratic Services by email that you intend to speak, before 5pm on the working day before the meeting.

There is a transparency backstop. The council has to record, in the committee report or the delegated decision notice, why the Gateway Test or the triage criteria produced the outcome it did. It also has to record “the extent to which any lobbying has occurred” over that decision. That record is the thing to ask for when an application you care about is settled without a hearing.

Where to look. Applications, decisions and the weekly list are on the council’s planning register, and we track the notable ones on our Harlow planning news page.

One thing we could not confirm

Full Council met on Thursday 17 September and the constitution changes were item 11c. As of today, the council has published no minutes and no decision sheet for that meeting, so there is no document that records the vote.

What we can show is that the council republished its constitution on 18 September with the new committee terms of reference in Chapter 6, and that the committee’s own page on the council’s democracy site now carries the new wording. We have taken that as evidence the change was adopted. If the minutes say something different when they appear, we will correct this page and say so.

Cabinet’s part is on the record. On 14 September it resolved to recommend adoption to Council, under decision reference 1254.

Sources