The National Scheme of Delegation
New government legislation came into force on 31 October 2026, known as the National Scheme of Delegation.
This sets out who should determine planning applications within councils; qualified planning officers or elected members. Currently over 95% of planning related applications in Dartford are determined by professionally qualified planning officers under the Council’s delegated powers.
The new rules apply to all local planning authorities nationally and they limit the types of planning applications which can be determined by the Council’s planning committee.
The legislation requires that all applications fall into a certain category - either Schedule 1 or 2.
Each application will be identified by the Council as Schedule 1 or 2 when the planning application is accepted.
Full details of the schedules can be viewed online.
Schedule 1
All householder applications, planning permission, condition submissions, lawful development certificates (LDCs) and minor residential schemes of one to nine houses, will fall within Schedule 1.
Schedule 1 applications will always be delegated to planning officers to make the decision on behalf of the Council as the local planning authority.
Schedule 2
Schedule 2 applications include major development, commercial development, changes of use, tree preservation order (TPO) applications, applications for advertisement and other applications.
These applications might be determined by Council planning officers or they might be determined by elected members of the Dartford Planning Committee (previously known as the Development Control Board).
All Schedule 2 applications will be triaged to determine whether they should be delegated to officers or referred to the next stage – the gateway meeting. The Council’s agreed triage criteria for referral to the gateway meeting is:
- major development not identified in the Local Plan;
- major development in the Green Belt;
- where there are six or more representations contrary to the recommendation;
- Members request that a Schedule 2 application be considered for referral
- any development considered by the Nominated Officer to raise significance issues
As such, if the Schedule 2 application meets any of the above criteria, it will be referred to the gateway meeting.
Own-interest applications are those applications that are made by the Council itself, or by elected Members of Dartford Borough Council or officers employed by the Council. This might be considered at the gateway meeting and might then be reported to the Dartford Planning Committee.