Decision

At the meeting of Cabinet on the 27 November 2024, the Mayor in Cabinet decided to defer the decision on the redesignation of the neighbourhood forum for the Roman Road Bow Planning Area, pending resolution of concerns regarding community representation on the Neighbourhood Forum’s management committee. The Mayor in Cabinet delegated authority to the Corporate Director of Housing and Regeneration, in consultation with Lead Member and Mayor, to determine the redesignation application. Following consultation (details are set out in Section 5 and 7 of this notice) the Corporate Director has RESOLVED to:

Approve the redesignation of the Roman Road Bow Neighbourhood Forum as the designated neighbourhood forum for the Roman Road Bow Neighbourhood Planning Area.

Reasons for the decision

Tower Hamlets Council has received an application to renew the designation of the Neighbourhood Forum for the Roman Road Bow Neighbourhood Area.

The Council is required to determine applications for the designation of Neighbourhood Forums in accordance with the Town and County Planning Act 1990 (as amended) (‘TCPA 1990’) and the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 (‘the 2012 Regulations’). The Government’s Planning Practice Guidance ("PPG") on Neighbourhood Planning (Ref ID: 41-021-20140306) also provides guidance on the determination of such applications, which states that the role of the Local Planning Authority (LPA) is to take decisions at key stages in the neighbourhood planning process.

Under the modifications to the 2012 Regulations made by the Neighbourhood Planning (General) and Development Management Procedure (Amendment) Regulations 2016, the Council must make a decision on applications for neighbourhood forum designations within 13 weeks of starting a consultation on the application.

Council officers consider that the Neighbourhood Forum meets the legal criteria to be designated as a neighbourhood forum as set out is Section 61F of the TCPA 1990 as well as addressing member questions regarding the diversity of the Forum’s membership and its executive committee.

In their application, the Forum has specifically responded to Cabinet’s reason for refusal of their previous application. It has demonstrated how it has strengthened its diversity through wider publicity, outreach to specific segments of the community and translation of publicity documents into Bangla. This outreach has resulted to significant changes in the Forum’s membership, as visible in the list of names and the executive committee composition.

The public was notified of the Neighbourhood Forum’s application for redesignation and was invited to respond for a period of 6 weeks from the 28 August to the 10 October. 65 responses were received in support of the redesignation, and no responses were received that objected to the redesignation.

Alternative options considered

The decision maker may refuse the application for redesignation. Any reason for refusal must be in accordance with section 61F(5) of the TCPA.

Any decision reached by the LPA as to whether to designate the Roman Road Bow Neighbourhood Forum is subject to two legal tests, both of which may be open to challenge. The first test is whether the decision is correct in law. While the law allows the LPA to make a discretionary decision, a decision to refuse would need to be justified. This leads to the second legal test – that any decision reached by a local authority must be reasonable, and not an irrational decision, assessed on the Wednesbury Principle. The Wednesbury Principle establishes that, in order for the courts to overturn a decision of a local authority, the local authority must have made a decision so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could possibly have made it. The Wednesbury decision considers that giving undue relevance to facts that in reality lack the relevance for being considered in the decision-making process demonstrates irrational decision-making.

In this case, considering facts or considerations beyond the criteria established for assessing applications for the designation of neighbourhood planning forums, as set out in section 61(F)(5) of the TCPA could be considered unreasonable and open to challenge through the courts.