Agenda and minutes

7.1             The evacuation procedure, as set out on the Agenda, was taken as read.  

8.1             An apology for absence was received from Independent Member, Mr Martin Jauch.  

9.1             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.

9.2             There were no declarations of absence on this occasion.

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.

11.1           The Chair proposed, and it was 

                  RESOLVED          That, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act                               1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following                              items on the grounds that they involve the likely discussion of                                     exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the                               Act. 

(Exempt –Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 – Information relating to any individual) 

To consider an update on complaints received.

                  (Exempt –Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 – Information relating to any individual) 

12.1           The Committee considered an update report on complaints received.