Standards Committee agenda papers, in a section on lobbying of councillors:
“Points made and questions raised during discussion on the report included
The use of the word ‘developer’ should be replaced with ‘applicant’ as this was considered more appropriate – most people tended to associate the word developer with large scale developments.”
Click to access 290915standardscombinedagenda.pdf
Well, We don’t know about you but we are pretty clear on the difference: an applicant is someone who (usually) lives in the property they want to change and isn’t asking to build more properties, a developer (usually) doesn’t live in the property and includes the words ” lack of 5 year land supply” in the documentation!
East Devon Watch 
More to the point, an “applicant” is someone who has actually made a planning application. A “developer” is someone who may or may not have submitted a planning application yet.
So by changing “developer” to “applicant” they are opening the doors to lobbying by developers prior to submission of an application. This is NOT a good step.
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So now they take refuge in Semantic spin. Are they any good at elevating pancakes!
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