Last Updated on 13 October 2025
Members of the public may know that the Society expressed its strong opposition to the proposed development of the golf course lands by the All England Lawn Tennis Club, during its “pre-application consultation” phase in the early months of 2021. And of course subsequently.
During that time, the Society discovered that the Council had had some 40 pre-application meetings with the All England, prior to its submission of the planning application in September 2021.
The Society, using a Freedom of Information request, asked the Council to make public the Minutes of all these pre-application meetings attended by the Council and the All England, together with letters, and records of phone calls.
The Council’s response was that “the Council’s Development Management and Building Control Team have re-checked their records, and advised that they do not hold any meeting records”, and they also said “It is not Council Policy to keep Minutes of meetings as part of the Council’s Pre-application service, and no Minutes were kept”.
The Society considered that the failure to keep a proper record of meetings, to show what advice was being given, and how these significant matters were being addressed, could be seen as possible maladministration. Accordingly the Society referred the matter to the Ombudsman, who referred the matter back to the Council for further review.
Having investigated the matter further, the Council came to the view that the Society’s complaint was upheld and that “the planning team’s lack of policy to keep Minutes from Pre-application meetings/discussions does not reach the standards that one would expect from the public service” . Also, that “there was a need for the service to be improved”.
The Council has now agreed to provide applicants with a written summary of advice given at all pre-application meetings, (except for very minor proposals).
However, this is in the context that “it is (still) not Council Policy as such to keep Minutes of meetings as part of the pre-application service, given that it is not mandatory”.
Accordingly, the Society has asked the Council to consider two further issues.
1. Given that it is recognised that proper record keeping is a prerequisite in the public service, the Council should now formally adopt this policy (of properly minuting pre-app meetings) forthwith.
2. That the Council should now consider adopting the same policy followed by some other Councils (eg City of Westminster), of publishing all records of pre-application discussions on their website, once a planning application is formally registered.
Interestingly, when the All England met with the GLA in February 2021, the GLA record of the pre-app meeting ran to three full pages, and was made fully public.
The Council’s response is awaited.
Our letter can be viewed here
