Confidentiality and Conflicts of Interest
To ensure a professional and reliable forum for discussion at meetings, it is important that appropriate levels of confidentiality are maintained, particularly for proposals at pre-application stage. Panel members are expected to adhere to the Panel’s protocol on confidentiality. Panel members who are, or have been, personally or professionally involved with a particular proposal under discussion, or who may otherwise be considered to have a conflict of interest, are requested to notify the ODRP Panel Manager in writing in advance of the review.
Where a conflict of interest arises at the Panel meeting, any Panel members who have declared a prejudicial interest in a particular item will leave the meeting when it is being considered and will not take part in the Panel’s discussions on the proposal concerned.
Where the developer requests the review as part of a pre-application discussion the report may remain confidential, unless otherwise agreed. When considering schemes that have already been submitted for planning approval, the panel’s report will become publicly available.
Accountability and Transparency
The Panel’s report is included on the Council’s website as a public document once a proposal is registered as a valid planning application.
The matter of accountability and public scrutiny is met through the City Council being open about the work the ODRP does and through it reporting on the advice it receives from the Panel. This is principally met through the officer’s report to the Planning Committee, when the proposal comes before the City Council for determination.
The Panel is established to give impartial advice to all parties. The City Council ensures that the ODRP Panel should be seen to be free and independent from both the developer and itself.
The above list should be used as guidance for the representatives of the developer team. This scheme description will form part of the agenda papers for a Design Review, which will be sent out to panellists in advance to help preparation and enable panellists to declare any conflicts of interest.
Design review principles
The Oxford Design Review Panel operates under the nationally accepted Key Design Review Principles.
Design Review is focused on outcomes for people. It explores how a building or place can better meet the needs of the people who will use it and of everyone who will be affected by it. It does this by constructively endeavouring to improve the quality of architecture, urban design, landscape and highway design.
For Design Review to succeed, it must be carried out using a robust and defensible process. It must also offer consistently high standards in the quality of its advice which were defined by the Design Council, the Landscape Institute, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Royal Town Planning Institute in the “Ten Principles of Design Review”. These standards are summarised in the following ten principles:
- Independent: the panel members are independent, and their report is compiled through the design review. The members are unconnected with the scheme’s promoters and decision makers, and where a potential conflict arises the individual member stands down and an alternate is appointed. For example, a member of the panel would not be precluded from working in the locality (i.e. Oxford) but would not join a panel reviewing the member’s designs.
- Expert: the review is undertaken by leading designers who have an acknowledged standing and expertise.
- Multidisciplinary: the panel combines the different perspectives of architects, urban designers, planners, landscape architects, engineers, and other specialist experts to provide a complete, rounded assessment.
- Accountable: the panel and its advice must be clearly seen to work for the benefit of the public. The panel reports will be published and publicly available where the scheme is the subject of a planning application.
- Transparent: the panel’s remit, membership, governance processes and funding are in the public domain (Oxford City Council website).
- Proportionate: Design Review will be used for major projects and projects whose significance warrants the investment needed to provide the service.
- Timely: it should take place as early as possible in the design process, because this can avoid wasted time. It also costs less to make changes at an early stage.
- Advisory: the panel does not take planning decisions, but it offers impartial advice for the Local Planning Authority, who does Oxford City Council.
- Objective: the panel appraises schemes according to reasoned, objective criteria rather than the stylistic tastes of individual panel members.
- Accessible: the findings and advice are clearly expressed in terms that design teams, decision makers and clients can all understand and make use of.
A full Terms of Reference for Oxford Design Review Panel is being compiled and will be available on our website soon.
Contact the Oxford Design Review Panel
If you have any questions about the Oxford Design Review Panel, please contact the ODRP Team.
