At the budget council meeting on the 27th of Feb, Barnet’s Labour Council pushed through changes to the planning regimen that will potentially make it harder for residents’ voices to be heard at planning. The council increased the objection threshold from 5 to 10 which will potentially limit residents affected by planning applications from getting their voices heard.

Cllr Dan Thomas, Leader of the Opposition, said: ‘’This increase flies in the face of the Labour administration’s resident participation strategy, which commits them to increase the level of participation residents have with the council and councillor engagement with residents at committee.’’

Cllr Eva Greenspan, the Conservative Lead on Planning, said: ‘’The increase in the threshold will mean fewer items will be brought to planning committees which will lead to more decisions being made by delegated powers which exclude members of the public.’’

She stated further that: ‘’The council argues that councillors will still be able to call in applications so their threshold increase won’t result in any issue, but this is a question of resident participation which this measure will only decrease. So much for putting residents at the heart of the council’s decisions.’’