Issue - meetings

Establishment of a Planning Review Working Party

Meeting: 16/11/2020 - Cabinet (Item 288)

288 Establishment of a Planning Review Working Party pdf icon PDF 147 KB

 

This report seeks the Cabinet’s permission to establish a cross-party Working Party to consider the recommendations from the forthcoming presentation on the Planning Review by Sean Hannaby (of Hannaby Planning Solutions Ltd) which will take place shortly.  

Decision:

The Cabinet

 

            RESOLVED – That

 

(1)  the establishment of a Planning Review Working Party based on the following terms be supported: 

 

(a)       Terms of Reference – to consider the findings and examine the recommendations from the Planning Review (when presented) so that the Council can agree which recommendations it wants to accept and establish a monitoring process to ensure that recommendations are followed through.  The Working Party will report to Cabinet, who will report to Full Council;

(b)       Size of the Working Party – the seats on this Working Party will be politically balanced and 8 in size (3/LD, 3/Cons, 1/Ind, 1 G).

(c)       Nominations to the seats – to be confirmed by the relevant Group Leaders immediately if the proposal is accepted by Cabinet;

(d)       Proposals for the allocation of seats if vacancies occur – to be for the relevant Group Leader to fill the vacant seat and report this information to the next Full Council meeting;

(e)       Timescale for the work to be undertaken – over the next few months following receipt of the forthcoming presentation and publication of the report (establishing the Working Party now means that the Council will be ready to conduct this work speedily); and

(f)         To report back to Cabinet as soon as possible to enable the Council to progress with any recommendations it supports.

 

(2)  If established, the Working Party can then:

 

(a)      Review its terms of reference at its first meeting and recommend any change back to Cabinet;

(b)      Make any recommendations to Cabinet based on the terms of reference – it will have no decision-making authority; and

(c)       Meet in private unless it agrees that it will work to the Meeting Procedure Rules at Part 5 of the Council’s Constitution.

 

Minutes:

The Chairman, Councillor Dr Walsh, presented this report highlighting that it would be in the Council’s best interest to respond to the Planning Review undertaken quickly when presented. Dates were being finalised and a presentation for Members would hopefully be held on 24 November 2020.

 

Councillor Dr Walsh outlined that as soon as the presentation had been received by Mr Hannaby, Members would need to consider his recommendations. It was felt that it would not be appropriate for the Development Control Committee to lead on this, although they would have an input.  The proposal within the report was to create a small Working Party of Members in advance, so that Officers could prepare dates for these meetings and provide Members with notice.  This Working Party would then report to Cabinet and Full Council.

 

The establishment of a cross party Working Party made up of 7 Members, in political proportionality was proposed by the Chief Executive.  However, Councillor Dr Walsh believed that the Working Party would need to be slightly larger in size and so he proposed a size of 8 by putting forward an amendment to the Officer Recommendation 1 (b) to read ”politically balanced and 8 in size to consist of 3 Liberal Democrats; 3 Conservative; 1 Independent and 1 Arun Independent or 1 Green...”.

 

            In debating this item, the Cabinet confirmed that it was looking forward to receiving the presentation from Hannaby Associates and agreed that this was the most sensible way forward to look at whatever may be presented.  Cabinet completely understood the rationale behind the cross party Working Party as opposed to the Development Control Committee acting as lead and was interested to learn if measures would be put into place to restrict Development Control Members sitting on the Working Party, which would go against the purpose of it.  Councillor Dr Wash agreed that it would not work if Members from Development Control were to be the judge and jury in their own case and that it was important for other Councillors to have the opportunity to be involved in the overview and scrutiny of the report.  He confirmed that Member would be appointed to the Working Party by their respective Group Leader to ensure that Development Control duplication would not happen, although a mix of Development Control Member and other non-Development Control Members would probably be ideal, providing some planning experience to the Working Party..

 

            Comments made by non-Cabinet Councillors were that the establishment of the Working Party was welcomed but that it had been hoped that the size of the Working Party would have been similar to that for the Covid-19 Recovery Working Party which had a much fairer balance of support.  There were some Councillors who did not agree that it would be inappropriate for Development Control Members to sit on this Working Party as to exclude Councillors with extensive planning knowledge was a short-sighted move.

 

Following some discussion,

 

            Cabinet

 

                        RESOLVED – That

 

(1)          support be given to the establishment of a Planning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 288