Agenda and minutes

When the continuous alarm sounds you must evacuate the building by the nearest available fire exit. Members and visitors should proceed to the visitors’ car park at the front of the building and await further instructions (during office hours staff should proceed to their usual assembly point; outside of office hours proceed to the visitors’ car park). Please do not re-enter the building unless instructed to do so.

In the event of a fire any person with a disability should be assisted in leaving the building.

3.1             The evacuation procedure, as noted on the Agenda, was taken as read.  

4.1             Apologies for absence were received from Borough Councillor, L A Gerrard; Independent Persons, M Jauch and P J Kimber; and Parish representative, D J Horsfall.  

5.1             The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 26 June 2012 and took effect from 1 July 2012.

5.2             There were no declarations made on this occasion.

To consider any applications for dispensation received in respect of the Tewkesbury Borough Local Plan. 

6.1             The report of the Monitoring Officer, circulated at Pages No. 1-3, set out the basis for the determination by the Standards Committee of applications for dispensation made by Members of the Borough Council in order to participate in the item of business on the Pre-Submission Tewkesbury Borough Plan to be considered by the Council on 30 July 2019. The Committee was asked to determine the applications for dispensation which had been received from Councillors in order to enable them to participate in the matter. The Committee also needed to agree the period of time for which the dispensations should last.

6.2             The Monitoring Officer advised that a number of applications had been received and the Committee was required to decide them on the grounds that granting the dispensation was in the interests of persons living in the authority’s area; or that it was otherwise appropriate to grant a dispensation. In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct those were the grounds on which dispensation could be granted – there were two other grounds, as set out in Paragraph 2.1 of the report, but they did not apply to the applications being considered today.  All five applications were from Members of the same political party. In terms of the length of time for which the dispensation would be granted, the Monitoring Officer suggested that the end of the current Council term i.e. May 2023 should be acceptable and, if any circumstances in regard to the interests declared changed, new dispensations would have to be applied for at that point.

6.3             The Monitoring Officer advised that there were three applications made by Borough Councillors who were also County Councillors as the County Council had land holdings and owned land which was allocated in the Plan; the Councillors had no direct pecuniary interest but it did fall within the definition of an ‘other’ interest. The interest was a consequence of them being an elected Member to the County Council. There was also an application from a Councillor who could equally have decided that they did not have an interest at all – land was owned by a family member which was adjacent to an allocation but was not itself allocated in the Borough Plan. The Member represented a two-Member Ward so she was not the sole representative of the area which was important to note. Members agreed all of these applications for dispensation should be granted as none had any direct interest in the sites in the Plan and that it was in the interest of person’s living in the Borough to be represented on this important matter.

6.4             The final application was from a Councillor who owned a share in land that may benefit from a proposed policy within the Plan – RES 4 – which promoted the principle of very small scale residential development in villages. The land in question was not allocated for development but the policy (applied to the land) could assist in any development gaining planning permission.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.