Agenda and minutes

This meeting is to be webcast. Members are reminded of the need to activate their microphones before speaking. The Democratic and Electoral Services Team Manager will read the following announcement:

“The Chairman would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live to the internet (or filmed) and will be capable of repeated viewing (or another use by such third parties).

If you are seated in the lower public seating area it is likely that the recording cameras will capture your image and this will result in the possibility that your image will become part of the broadcast.

This may infringe your human and data protection rights and if you wish to avoid this you should move to the upper public gallery.”

The Democratic Services Officer reminded everyone present that the meeting would be broadcast live to the Internet, and that the Council had adopted a protocol for the webcasting of its meetings.

To declare interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct.

(Chairman of Constitution Working Group) To consider the attached report on recommended changes to the Constitution for the Council’s Planning function, following the review by the Planning Advisory Service.

The Chairman of the Constitution Working Group, Cllr Lion,  presented a report on the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) Review, the restructure of Planning Committees and proposed changes to the Constitution.

Amendment 1

Cllr Sue Jones moved, and Cllr H Whitbread seconded an amendment to include the following as an additional paragraph to Part 3 – Scheme of Delegation, Appendix 3, CLD2 Development Management

An objection from a Local Council, material to the planning merits of the proposal is received and confirming in writing their intention to attend and speak at the meeting where the proposal will be considered.  Should the relevant Local Council fail to register to speak, or attend following registration, the application be referred (without any consideration of the merits of the development proposal) to the Service Director (Planning Services) for determination in accordance with Rule P2 (2) (Planning Applications) set out in Part 4 of the Constitution

The amendment was put to the vote and was agreed.

Amendment 2

Cllr Jon Whithouse moved, and Cllr Amos seconded an amendment that:

In recommendation 1(c) delete “nine” and replace with “eleven” so that the whole recommendation reads:

“(c) That the number of members on each Planning Committee be eleven, as laid out within the suggested amendments to Article 10 of the Constitution”

The amended was put to the vote and was not agreed.

Amendment 3

Cllr Jon Whithouse moved, and Cllr Amos seconded an amendment that:

Delete recommendation (f)

The amended was put to the vote and was not agreed.

Amendment 4

Cllr Jon Whithouse moved, and Cllr Amos seconded an amendment that:

Add at end of recommendation (h) add:

“except that Article 10 (2) should read ‘Newly elected members may be appointed to the Planning Committee at the next ordinary meeting of the full Council, provided they have suitable training and relevant experience.’”

The amended was put to the vote and was not agreed .

The recommendations of the report were put to the vote and agreed.

Resolved

That the Monitoring Officer be authorised to make the following changes to the Constitution, as recommended by the Constitution Working Group and set out in Appendix 1 of the report with the addition of amendment 1 , namely:

(a)        That the number of Planning Committees be reduced to two, titled Planning Committee A and Planning Committee B;

(b)        That the applications before each Committee be determined on the basis of agenda management, the definition of which was the agenda for each Committee to be compiled on the basis of ‘complexity, timing and the number of applications’;

(c)        That the number of members on each Planning Committee be nine, as laid out within the suggested amendments to Article 10 of the Constitution;

(d)        That the structure of the re-organised Planning Committees be reviewed after a period of nine months after the changes were implemented;

(e)        That all members of the new Planning Committees be required to undertake mandatory Planning Committee training;

(f)         That local Ward Members be afforded the right to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

Exclusion:

To consider whether, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press should be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below on grounds that they will involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) or are confidential under Section 100(A)(2):

The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, which came into effect on 1 March 2006, requires the Council to consider whether maintaining the exemption listed above outweighs the potential public interest in disclosing the information. Any member who considers that this test should be applied to any currently exempted matter on this agenda should contact the proper officer at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

Background Papers: 

Article 17 of the Constitution (Access to Information) define background papers as being documents relating to the subject matter of the report which in the Proper Officer's opinion:

(a)        disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based;  and

(b)        have been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report and does not include published works or those which disclose exempt or confidential information and in respect of executive reports, the advice of any political advisor.

The Council will make available for public inspection for four years after the date of the meeting one copy of each of the documents on the list of background papers.

The Council noted that there were no items of business which necessitated the exclusion of the public and press from the meeting.