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  Peter, the answer to those questions is yes . . . no . . . and maybe!
  
  As I understand it, and I'm sure some of our elected DDC members on here will correct me if wrong, the basis of the process is that officers are the first level of scrutiny and look at the applications on a technical and legal basis, and they can then be passed by them and rubber stamped by the planning committee if they are advised that there is no legal reason to reject and no objections have been recieved during the advertising process. Other applications will automatically go before the committee because of their nature or size.
  
  A ward councillor can I think 'call in' an application to the committee if they think a decision by an officer is wrong, and a conscientious one will look at all the applications in their ward at least weekly - I do that as a lowly parish councillor and a lot can be learned about the process by going through the plans online in full, including how officers have dealt with them up to that stage. Things obviously can go wrong which is why there are checks and appeals in the system, but it's wrong to say as some do that the system or organisation is bad because you don't agree with some decisions.
  
  Having said that, putting up a garage or installing double glazing is a totally different kettle of fish to something like DTIZ, and I've thought from the start that it should have been a non-starter for DDC to get involved in that. The job of councils should be to provide the infrastructure and environment for developers to want to flood into an area, not to get into buying land and getting involved with the development themselves.

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