Nolan,councillors and planning

This article focuses on the role of councillors in planning. The views of the Nolan Committee, which were expressed in their third report, are set into the context of other reports, published during the 1990s, about the way councillors exercised their planning responsibilities. Two contrasting views of the planning system as a quasi‐judicial process and as an administrative/representative process are highlighted. The article concludes that the Nolan report is significant because it reasserts the representative role of councillors in contrast to the professional planning view that councillors should perform a quasi‐judicial role.