Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive) To report the attendance of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was noted that Councillor B Rolfe was substituting for Councillor R D’Souza.

To declare interests in any item on the agenda.

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

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.

Confidential Items Commencement: Paragraph 9 of the Council Procedure Rules contained in the Constitution require:

(1)        All business of the Council requiring to be transacted in the presence of the press and public to be completed by 10.00 p.m. at the latest.

(2)        At the time appointed under (1) above, the Chairman shall permit the completion of debate on any item still under consideration, and at his or her discretion, any other remaining business whereupon the Council shall proceed to exclude the public and press.

(3)        Any public business remaining to be dealt with shall be deferred until after the completion of the private part of the meeting, including items submitted for report rather than decision.

Background Papers:  Paragraph 8 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules of the Constitution 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 (as defined in Rule 10) and in respect of executive reports, the advice of any political advisor.

Inspection of background papers may be arranged by contacting the officer responsible for the item.

            RESOLVED:

That, in accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below as they would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act indicated and the exemption is considered to outweigh the potential public interest in disclosing the information:

Agenda Item              Subject                                   Exempt Information

No:                                                                              Paragraph Numbers

5                                  Appeal No: 2/2008                   1 and 2

6                                  Appeal No: 4/2008                   1 and 2

To consider a restricted report.

Members were advised that following the decision of the Panel at its meeting the previous week to commence all future meetings at 2.30 p.m. the appellant in this case had been notified of the revised time for consideration of her appeal.  Unfortunately, she had advised that she could not attend at the earlier time as she had already a meeting at work which could not be re-arranged.  As a result it had been agreed with the Chairman of the Panel that consideration of this appeal would be deferred and would be considered at a future meeting.

            RESOLVED:

            That the decision to defer consideration of this appeal be noted.

To consider a restricted report.

The Panel considered an appeal against a decision made by officers under delegated authority to refuse permission for a vehicular crossover to the appellant’s property.  The appellant attended the meeting to present his case accompanied by his wife.  Mr D Barrett (Area Housing Manager) attended the meeting to present his case.  Mr A Hall (Director of Housing) attended the meeting to advise the Panel as required on details of the national and local housing policies relative to the appeal.  The Chairman introduced the members of the Panel and officers present to the appellant and his wife and outlined the procedure to be followed in order to ensure that proper consideration was given to the appeal.

The Panel had before them the following documents which were taken into consideration:

(a)         copies of documents submitted by the appellant, namely:

(i)            a copy of the application to the Housing Appeals and Review Panel dated 24 September 2007 including a letter with that date and a photograph showing the existing footpath and the area of green required to be removed in order to provide a vehicular crossover;

(ii)     letter dated 24 August 2007 from the Assistant Head of Housing Services (Operations) to the appellant and his wife;

(iii)    copy of the appellant’s application for a vehicular crossover dated 18 June 2007;

(iv)    further photographs circulated at the meeting by the appellant and retained by the appellant;

(b)         the background to the case;

(c)         the case of the Area Housing Manager.

The Panel considered the following submissions in support of the appellant’s case:

(a)     the existing footpath leading to the appellant’s property only needed to be widened by taking a triangular shaped piece of grass verge approximately 2.5 metres x 2.5 metres x 1.5 metres adjoining the footpath immediately in front of the appellant’s property which would have a minimal effect on the appearance of the grass verge;

(b)     nearly all of the households in the road in which the appellant lived now owned two vehicles and if the appellant and his wife were able to park their vehicles off?street it would benefit their neighbours by easing parking congestion on the highway, especially at weekends;  the trend was for older occupiers to move out of properties in the locality and for younger people to move in with more vehicles;

(c)     if the appellant and his wife were able to park off-street they would benefit from cheaper car insurance premiums; they had both had their vehicles damaged recently by careless drivers when their vehicles had been parked on-street;

(d)     residents in the locality already took vehicles across the grass verge in an attempt to alleviate parking problems on the highway and as a result the grass verge had been damaged;

(e)     the submitted photographs showed access arrangements for other properties in the locality which resembled what was already in place with the footpath to the appellant’s property; in at least one case the width of the hard surface was narrower than the existing footpath to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 111.