Planning committee chairman Steven Bashforth made the ruling ahead of the single-item meeting, set for February 23.
He said the council’s constitution allows three minutes each for just one supporter and one objector to speak to a planning application.
That is followed by an unlimited amount of time given to one ward councillor to speak on the issue, before it is thrown open to debate before a decision by councillors to approve or refuse the planning application.
Councillor Bashforth said: “We spoke to our legal services to see if we could increase the time from three to five minutes and to increase the number of objectors and supporters from one to three.
“We were told that without changing the council constitution, we can’t do it,” he said.
“We don’t want to stifle public debate, but the planning committee is not a forum for public debate. We are not there to discuss the rights and wrongs of renewable energy, we are there to consider the planning application.
“It may seem cold and uncaring, but it isn’t. We have to deal with each application consistently and fairly, and I know we will be criticised for it, but we have got to stick to the rules that are laid down.”
He also defended the choice of the council chamber at the Civic Centre to hold the meeting against a plea by environmental campaigners to use a bigger venue.
Councillor Bashforth said extra seats would be brought in to allow as many members of the public as possible to attend, but it was important to keep the meeting formal in a setting where councillors could concentrate and where the acoustics were good.
The decision has angered environmental campaigners battling to prevent seven 365ft-high turbines being built on greenbelt land above Denshaw.
Alan Roughley, the chairman of Saddleworth Moors Action Group, said he accepted the council had its rules, but the application had 3,000 objectors, which he said was extraordinary for any planning application in England.
He said: “We are surprised that when there have been so many objections to this application there will be little opportunity for the case to be heard by the committee from either the objectors or the supporters.
“It has taken two years to prepare the details, and the developers, the planning department and the objectors have all had to hire specialised consultants in order to cope with the wide variety of issues which have been raised by the application.”
Saddleworth parish councillor Ken Hulme and an objector to the scheme branded the decision “absurd”.
He said: “I am sure it is possible to get round the constitution to facilitate public participation.”
Councillor Bashforth predicted a public inquiry whether local planners refused or approved the plans.
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