Most planning applications in Kendal will no longer go before councillors after a major change to the way development decisions are made across Westmorland and Furness.
From 31 October 2026, the former South Lakeland planning committee was abolished and replaced by a single 13-member Planning Committee covering the whole council area, from Appleby to Barrow. However, national rules mean that most applications will be decided by council officers, with councillors involved only when a scheme is considered significant enough to be referred.
The change applies to every planning application in Kendal because the town is outside the Lake District National Park. It means ward councillors can no longer call in applications for a committee hearing, and objections will not automatically trigger a public decision by councillors.
How planning decisions will be made
The new arrangements follow the Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026, signed by housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook on 15 July.
The rules create two broad groups of applications. Some must always be decided by officers, including householder extensions and alterations, minor commercial development, schemes of between one and nine homes on a site smaller than half a hectare, and applications involving the discharge of conditions, non-material amendments, lawful development certificates or prior approval.
Reserved matters for an outline permission covering fewer than 500 homes must also be decided by officers. Larger schemes of 10 or more homes, listed building consent, advertisement consent, works to protected trees, retrospective applications and applications submitted by the council, a councillor or an officer will also go to officers unless they are referred.
Referral requires agreement from both the council’s nominated officer and nominated member. The application must also raise either an economic, social or environmental issue of significance to the local area, or a significant planning matter under the development plan.
If the two decision-makers cannot agree, the application remains with officers. Government guidance says referral should happen only exceptionally, while schemes that broadly comply with a detailed local-plan site allocation are unlikely to meet the required test.
What has changed for Kendal residents
Under the previous system, a ward councillor could call in an application so that the committee considered it. That power has now gone. The council’s report also says that referrals triggered by a number of public objections are not allowed.
Residents can still submit comments to the case officer, and objections remain material considerations. But the number of objections will no longer force an application to be heard in public.
Anyone seeking a committee hearing must instead persuade the nominated officer and the chair of the new Planning Committee that the proposal meets one of the two national tests. The council says the detailed procedure for this route will be developed over the coming months.
The council says the right to comment on applications and public-speaking arrangements at committee will not change. It will also publish a record of every case considered for referral, together with the reason for the decision, in an annual report to the committee.
Recent Kendal schemes under the new system
The new process could have changed how several recent Kendal decisions reached councillors. The 160-home Kendal Parks development was approved by the Strategic Planning Committee on 17 September, while the Arnold Clark self-storage scheme was considered by the South Lakeland committee on 10 September.
Under the new arrangements, both schemes would have reached councillors only if the chief planner and committee chair had agreed that they met the referral tests.
A further major application remains pending: Persimmon’s proposal for 143 homes west of High Sparrowmire is still with council officers. Because the site is allocated for development, that status will be relevant when the new referral tests are applied.
Westmorland and Furness Council agreed the new structure at a Full Council meeting on 24 September. The nominated officer is the Development Management Service Manager, with area managers as substitutes. The nominated member is the chair of the new Planning Committee, with the vice-chair as substitute.
The committee has 13 members, the maximum permitted under the regulations, allocated between the parties on a 7:3:2:1 basis. All members and reserves must complete training and a competency assessment before taking part.
The council estimates that removing three committee chairs’ allowances will save £23,507 a year. Its report also warns that residents may perceive a reduction in local democratic representation and that one council-wide agenda could become overloaded.
The regulations must be reviewed by the government by 31 October 2028.