York Council’s existing planning system is holding up applications for new homes

Friday, 12 September 2025 23:44

By Joe Gerrard

a senior councillor has said amid claims a new bookshop would not have been approved under proposed changes.

Cllr Michael Pavlovic, the council’s Labour planning spokesperson, said the amount of time it was taking to decide some applications was delaying the processing of others, including for new homes.

But Liberal Democrat Cllr Christian Vassie said Museum Street’s new Topping & Company store would have been refused if changes proposed to speed up decision-making were already in place.

The comments follow the unveiling of proposals to shake-up the way planning applications are handled by the council.

Proposed reforms would see the council’s Planning Committee B scrapped, with its functions rolled into Planning Committee A.

The latter would be renamed the Planning Committee and become the council’s sole body for councillors to debate and vote on applications.

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