From 31 October, objections from councillors, residents' associations and amenity groups will no longer send an Ealing planning application to committee.

From 31 October, an objection from a ward councillor, a residents’ association or an amenity group will no longer be enough to send an Ealing planning application to a public committee hearing.

The change comes from new national rules. Full Council is asked on Tuesday 13 October to rewrite the council’s constitution to match them. The officers’ report is clear that councillors have no choice about the rules themselves, only about how Ealing applies them.

What goes

Ealing’s constitution currently sends an application to the Planning Committee in several ways. The report proposes deleting each of them:

  • a request from the committee’s Chair or Vice-Chair, with written reasons
  • a valid planning objection from a conservation area panel, local amenity group, registered residents’ association, ward councillor or statutory consultee, where officers are minded to approve and the Chair or Vice-Chair agrees
  • a senior planning manager’s decision that committee is the right place
  • a standing committee request, which let councillors pull back an application or a type of application for up to a year
  • size triggers, such as office or retail schemes over 2,000 square metres recommended for approval

The report says each of these “cannot independently override the National Scheme”.

What replaces it

The Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026 come into force on 31 October. They split applications into two groups:

Group Who decides Can it go to committee?
Schedule 1 Planning officers, always No
Schedule 2 Planning officers, normally Only through a “Gateway” check

The Gateway is a joint decision. In Ealing the nominated officer would be the Assistant Director for Planning, Design and Sustainability. The nominated member would be the Chair of the Planning Committee, currently Councillor Dee Martin. Both would have to agree that the legal tests are met and that a committee decision is justified, and the reasons would be recorded.

The report stresses that the Gateway “will not operate as a general call-in” process. Objections, petitions, “local controversy” and media interest can still matter, it says, but only where they point to a planning issue that meets the statutory tests. “They will not, by themselves, determine whether an application is referred to Planning Committee.”

How few applications reach committee already

Ealing already decides almost everything at officer level. We counted the applications on each Planning Committee agenda this year, from the council’s meetings list:

Meeting Applications
21 January 3
25 February Cancelled
18 March 5
8 April 1
17 June 2
15 July 1
19 August 1
16 September Cancelled

That is 13 applications across six meetings so far in 2026. The 21 October agenda has not yet been published. The minutes do not record how each case reached the committee, so we cannot say how many came through the routes now being removed.

What does not change

  • You can still comment on any application. The report says representations “remain relevant to the planning merits” and officers must take them into account.
  • Councillors can still raise planning issues and ask for a case to be considered for the Gateway.
  • Decisions still follow the Local Plan unless other planning reasons outweigh it, whoever makes them.
  • Enforcement, appeals and tree orders stay with officers, as now.

What it means for you

  • Write your objection on planning grounds. From 31 October, the number of objections alone will not move a case to committee. A specific planning issue, such as harm to a listed building, overlooking or highway safety, is what the Gateway test looks for.
  • Tell your ward councillor early if you think a scheme needs a public hearing. They can ask for a Gateway check but can no longer trigger one.
  • Search live applications on the council’s planning register. Our Ealing planning news page tracks the bigger schemes.
  • The meeting is public. Full Council meets at 7pm on Tuesday 13 October in the Atrium at Perceval House. The rest of the agenda, including the e-bike enforcement vote, is in Ealing council this week.

Sources