Agenda item

Planning Members' Code of Conduct, Public Speaking Rules, Delegation Scheme and Call-In Procedure

The Planning Improvement Action Plan adopted at the 13 November meeting of the Planning Committee contains a number of actions that involve changes to the practices and procedures around the consideration and determination of planning applications.  This report seeks the adoption of a new range of procedures that directly relate to the work of the Planning Committee.  These take account of comments and recommendations in the Planning Peer Challenge report – October 2017 and of changes in the law and the latest advice on best practice from the Local Government Association and the Planning Advisory Service.

Minutes:

The Planning Improvement Action Plan was agreed by the Planning Committee at a special meeting on 13 November 2017.  The plan contained a number of actions to implement changes to the practices and procedures relating to the consideration and determination of planning applications.  The Committee were asked to consider updated versions of the Code of Conduct and Delegation Scheme that had been compiled taking into account comments and recommendations from the Planning Peer Challenge report, changes in the law and best practice from the Local Government Association and the Planning Advisory Service.

The Head of Place Development emphasized the importance of Member engagement with the planning process and highlighted the purpose of the changes was to facilitate the sharing of information with members, particularly for major applications in the pre-app stage. 

The Committee discussed the relevance and appropriateness of the proposed 28 day deadline for call-ins, and whilst it was acknowledged that the new procedure was more restrictive than at present, it was felt that 28 days was an adequate period of time in view of the 21 days allowed for public consultation, and in addition it would facilitate the development of a more efficient committee process. 

On the subject of predetermination, predisposition and bias it was stressed that as an essential part of their role members would always be encouraged to fully engage with residents and listen to their concerns on planning applications. However in order to protect themselves and the Council from misunderstandings that could result in costly legal action, the protocol should be viewed as a framework to assist members in avoiding situations where their opinions or involvement could be interpreted as pre-determining an application.

The protocol for public speaking was discussed and it was agreed that aspects of the procedure needed further consideration, as recommended in paragraph 4 of the report.   It was noted that in the interim officers will ensure that applicants are made aware that should an application go to Committee there was a possibility that an objector could request to speak on the evening of the Committee.

Having considered and discussed the report, the following amendments were agreed:

 

Page No.

Paragraph

Amendment

51

Title

Add title:  ‘Model Code of Practice for Members in respect of planning matters

57

First paragraph, second sentence

To read:  ‘If a Ward Councillor attends such a meeting in the belief that others have been invited but finds that no other persons are present, apart from the developer, s/he should decline to take part in any discussion of the scheme.’

59

Third bullet point

·                 The request must be on relevant planning grounds or merit intervention to have the application placed before the Planning Committee.

59

Fifth paragraph

Delete ‘All ‘call-ins which are late will be invalid’.

59

Fourth paragraph

To read: ‘…the decision of whether the grounds are justifiable will be at the discretion of the Head of Place Development, in consultation with the Chairman of Planning and the members concerned.’

60

Planning Applications made by Members and Officers

Reverse bullet points to read:

·                 Advise the Monitoring Officer of the application

·                 Take no part in the processing and determination of the application

60

Planning Applications made by members and Officers – first sentence

To read: ‘When a planning application is submitted by a Member or by a close relative, the Member will:’

62

Monitoring and reviewing of decisions second paragraph

To read: ‘Arrangements will be made for Members to visit a sample of implemented planning permissions…’

63

Training – first bullet point

It was agreed that a six month refresher training would be mandatory in addition to the annual training session.  Therefore last paragraph under Training to read: ‘…and it will be the responsibility of each member to ensure they have attended at least the annual training and the six month refresher to enable them to sit on the Planning Committee’

67

Planning Scheme of Delegation

It was agreed to add a definition for the term ‘major

’ It was agreed to add a definition for the term ‘major’

Add footnote as follows:

“Major Development” is defined under The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015 as:

(a) the winning and working of minerals or the use of land for mineral-working deposits;

(b) waste development;

(c) the provision of dwellinghouses where—

(i) the number of dwellinghouses to be provided is 10 or more; or

(ii) the development is to be carried out on a site having an area of 0.5 hectares or more

and it is not known whether the development falls within sub-paragraph (c)(i);

(d) the provision of a building or buildings where the floor space to be created by the

development is 1,000 square metres or more; or

(e) development carried out on a site having an area of 1 hectare or more;

68

Paragraph d.

To be modified to reflect the changes agreed on page 59.

Accordingly, the Committee:

(1)            Adopted a revised ‘Model code of good practice for members in respect of planning matters, attached at Annexe 1 to supersede the (ACSeS) Model Code of Good Practice currently in the Constitution and recommend to Council that the Constitution be updated accordingly;

(2)            Approved the revised Delegation Scheme attached at Annexe 2;

(3)            Approved the revised Members’ call-in procedure set out in the revised Delegation scheme

(4)            Approved the delegation of the determination of applications regarding small-scale development on Council land to Officers unless such applications are outside the delegation scheme in operation at the time.

Supporting documents: