Once a Planning Application has been lodged with St Albans District Council and before a decision is made to approve or refuse an application there is a period of consultation, during which Redbourn Parish Council is sent details of all applications within the Parish.

These are considered at Planning Committee meetings held every 3 weeks on a Tuesday evening at 7.30 pm and the agenda for each meeting is posted on Parish Council notice boards, website and you can also contact the Deputy Clerk for more information.

Members of the public are welcome to attend these meetings and allowed three minutes to have their say on a planning application.

The Redbourn Planning Committee makes a recommendation to the District planning officers based on planning policy and their local knowledge. Their view is only advisory, but SADC's planning officers do take note of the Parish Council's comments when they make their decisions.

All planning applications submitted to St Albans District Council can be found on the online planning portal

Tips on using the online planning portal:

• The easiest way to find the application you want to view is to search the portal using the planning reference number.
• When entering a postcode, please add the space ie AL1 3JE. For some more complicated addresses you will need to use the Advanced Search and a wild card.
• To view the application details, click on the blue text, which is a hyperlink to the application.
• Use the Documents tab to view plans and other documents.
• For comparing plans, you can right click to open plans in a new tab/window. The measuring tools can on the left-hand side can also be used. Remember to set the correct scale indicated on the plans first.

For more detailed instructions can be found in the guidance notes

Issues discussed and decisions made at Planning meetings are recorded in agenda's and minutes which can be found in our council Meetings Calendar. Here you will find all papers associated with each meeting linked to the calendar entry.

Alternatively all of our documents are stored in our Document Management System (DMS) so you can also view our agendas and minutes this way too. You can set the filter to select documents of interest.

During the consultation period, there is also a process whereby a contentious planning application is "called in" by a District Councillor who can demand that it goes before Plans North. This is a committee made up of District Councillors who make the final decision to grant or refuse the application. Anyone can ask a District Councillor to call in an application but the Councillor will only do so if they feel there are reasonable grounds. The Planning Committee occasionally asks a District Councillor to call in an application if it concerned that the Planning Officer might reach a decision that it strongly disagrees with.

Plans North meets every four weeks at the Civic Centre in St Albans. Members of the Public can speak by contacting the District Council on the day the committee meets. You will be given three minutes to argue your case, for or against. A Redbourn Parish Councillor will also speak if appropriate. If you can't attend but have internet access, the meeting is webcast at www.stalbans.ukcouncil.net/site/.

To find out in more detail about what the Planning committee is responsible for please click on the Terms of Reference document below