At its meeting on 22 November 2016 the Standards Committee considered amendments to the Protocol for Councillors and Officers Involved in the Planning Process and RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL that the revised Protocol be ADOPTED, subject to the following amendments:

·         Appendix A – Planning Obligations Officer Working Group – Terms of Reference – point 4 - amend to read ‘…on the draft Heads of Terms for major applications…’.

·         Appendix B – Summary Guide of Do’s and Don’ts – First point under ‘Do’ – amend to read ‘Do always involve Officers and structure ensure that any discussions with developers are structured and involve Officers’.

·         Appendix B - Summary Guide of Do’s and Don’ts – Point 12 under ‘Do’ – remove wording ‘Do use Meetings to show leadership and vision’.

·         Procedure for Planning Committee Site Visits – Paragraph 1.3 - amend to read ‘…visits subject to the this protocol….’

·         Procedure for Planning Committee Site Visits – Paragraph 3.2 – fifth bullet point – amend to read ‘Local Ward Members (see 2.1) will be asked to highlight any local issues relevant to the site visit’.

70.1           At its meeting on 22 November 2016 the Standards Committee considered amendments to the Protocol for Councillors and Officers Involved in the Planning Process and recommended to Councilthat the revised Protocol be adopted, subject to the following amendments:

·      Appendix A – Planning Obligations Officer Working Group – Terms of Reference – point 4 - amend to read ‘…on the draft Heads of Terms for major applications…’;

·      Appendix B – Summary Guide of Do’s and Don’ts – First point under ‘Do’ – amend to read ‘Do always involve Officers and structure ensure that any discussions with developers are structured and involve Officers’;

·      Appendix B - Summary Guide of Do’s and Don’ts – Point 12 under ‘Do’ – remove wording ‘Do use Meetings to show leadership and vision’;

·      Procedure for Planning Committee Site Visits – Paragraph 1.3 - amend to read ‘…visits subject to the this protocol….’; and

·      Procedure for Planning Committee Site Visits – Paragraph 3.2 – fifth bullet point – amend to read ‘Local Ward Members (see 2.1) will be asked to highlight any local issues relevant to the site visit’.

70.2           The report that had been considered by the Executive Committee had been circulated with the Agenda for the current meeting at Pages No. 93-176.

70.3           In proposing the recommendation, the Standards Committee Chair advised that, in May 2016, the Council had approved, with some slight amendments, the continuation of the Scheme of Public Participation at Planning Committee following its successful trial period. The Protocol for Members and Officers Involved in the Planning Process had been comprehensively reviewed in 2015 and had now been given further consideration in light of the continuation of the Public Participation Scheme. He therefore proposed that the Protocol, which was attached at Appendix 1 to the report, together with the additional amendments which were listed on the Agenda, be approved. He confirmed that the recommended Protocol took into account the views expressed by individual Members and by the Planning Committee which he felt was important.

70.4           During the discussion which ensued, a Member questioned whether it had always been the case that the Development Manager had the discretion to refuse a Member’s request for a site visit. In response, he was advised that this approach had been in operation since the new Protocol had been implemented in April 2015. In practice this had not happened to date; if it did happen, and the Member did not agree with the decision of the Development Manager, there was no formal appeals process in place but the Member could bring the issue to the attention of the Corporate Leadership Team and they would investigate. Referring to Paragraph 3.4.4 of the Protocol, a Member indicated that he was not aware of written records of formal meetings undertaken between Officers and developers. In response, the Borough Solicitor confirmed that this was designed to protect Councillors against claims of pre-determination. It did not apply in the same way to Officers as it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70

To recommend the revised Protocol to the Council for adoption.  

10.1           The report of the Monitoring Officer, circulated at Pages No. 1-84, asked the Committee to consider the proposed amendments to the Protocol for Councillors and Officers Involved in the Planning Process, along with any comments made by the Planning Committee, and recommend it to the Council for adoption.

10.2           The Monitoring Officer explained that the current Protocol had been adopted in April 2015 with a review due after 12 months. In order that the review be undertaken, a Standards/Planning Working Group had been set up and that Group had met in September. There were two main changes proposed which related to the section on Planning Committee site visits but there were some other minor typographical and formatting amendments also suggested. The revised Protocol was attached to the report at Appendix 1 and a version showing the track changes was attached at Appendix 2.

10.3           Referring to the main amendments, the Monitoring Officer explained that these related to the site visits and, in particular, the fact that, to date, Parish Councils had been allowed to attend the visits to point out matters of note. This had not really worked as anticipated because the representatives that attended usually wanted to offer opinions on the application which was not the intention of the visit. This resulted in concerns about transparency in this regard as the appropriate time to debate the application was at Committee, with all parties present, not at a site visit which was just an opportunity for Members to see the site and allow them to get a sense of the application. The second point was about the ‘advanced sites briefing note’ which was included on the Agenda for each Committee meeting; this had not really been successful since its introduction as it was never known with certainty which sites would be visited in advance. It was therefore recommended that the requirement for this be removed.

10.4           The Monitoring Officer advised that a similar report had been considered by the Planning Committee that morning and Members had agreed those amendments. In addition, the Monitoring Officer explained that, prior to Planning Committee earlier that day, there had been an incident whereby Members had been provided with a note detailing someone’s particular view of the outcome of a Court case that they and the Council had recently been involved in. Members were concerned about the position in which the note had put the Council, and in particular one of the Planning Officers, and questioned whether there was anything that could be added to the Protocol to stop this happening in future. In response, the Monitoring Officer explained that there was nothing that could be done to resolve the issue within the Protocol.

10.5           During the discussion which ensued, a Member drew attention to Page No. 39, Planning Obligations Officer Working Group, and questioned whether it was correct to state that all planning obligations must meet the test of the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Regulations. In response, the Monitoring Officer explained that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10