The minutes from the first meeting of the Planning Review Working Party are to be considered by Cabinet.  These will be circulated separately to this agenda.

The Cabinet

            RESOLVED

That the terms of reference for the Planning Review Working Party be amended to read:

To consider the findings and examine the recommendations from the Planning Review (when presented)  to only include those that relate to Members, not Officers 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.

The Cabinet

            RESOLVED – That

(1)  A further meeting of the Planning Review Working Party be convened for February 2021; and

(2)  That the list of recommendations from the Planning Review Report, as attached to the report as Appendix A, be pursued with the exception of the amendments made at the meeting – being that:

·         Recommendation 52 (i) [Amend the ‘call-in’ procedure to require the planning reason to be agreed by the Director of Place, in consultation with the Chair’ be removed along with points 3, 4 and 5, as set out in Appendix A; and

·         Recommendation 58 be referred back to the next meeting of the Planning Review Working Party for further consideration.

The Chief Executive presented the minutes from the first meeting of the Planning Review Working Party held on 8 December 2020 so that the recommendations proposed could be considered.

            The first recommendation was at Minute 4 [Terms of Reference] which sought a slight amendment to the terms of reference as agreed at Cabinet on 16 November 2020 which was to highlight that the Working Party would only examine the recommendations from the Planning Review that related to Members and not Officers.

            The Cabinet

                        RESOLVED

                        That the Terms of Reference for the Working Party be:

To consider the findings and examine the recommendations from the Planning Review (when presented) to only include those that related to Members and not Officers 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 would report to Full Council.

            Cabinet was then referred to the recommendations as set out in Minute 5 [Planning Review Recommendations] as set out in the Appendix attached to the minutes listing the recommendations that had been debated by the Working Party and the Working Party’s recommended action for Cabinet to consider.

            It was highlighted that in relation to Recommendation 52, that in addition to the Points (3), (4) and (5) which had been suggested should be removed, that point (1) also be removed.  This had been checked with Mr Hannaby who had confirmed that this already took place and could therefore be removed. 

Recommendation 57 had also been amended by the Working Party to have the words (the review should be with the Town and Parish Councils) added as it was felt that they should be involved. 

The Chief Executive therefore asked Cabinet if it could accept Appendix A as the process to take forward the list of recommendations debated by the Working Party.

Councillor Stanley then spoke as Chairman of the Planning Review Working Party and he confirmed that the meeting had been very constructive with everyone sharing widespread experiences.  There had been lots of support around training for Members and that there needed to be better understanding of both Member and Officer roles.  There had also been much support and the importance of parishes in this process acknowledged.  Discussion had also taken place on how Members felt that the Advisory Groups were working and the need to remove barriers for the public to enable them to interact and comment and to encourage public interaction and engagement.  It was hoped that this would be an item for discussion at the next meeting of the Working Party planned for early February 2021.

A non-cabinet Councillor then raised a concern to the amendment that had been made, but not mentioned, in terms of Recommendation 58 as it was his view that this required further investigation.  Following discussion, it was agreed that this recommendation would be referred back to the Working Party for further consideration. 

The Cabinet

RESOLVED – That

(1)    A further meeting of the Planning Review Working Party be convened for February 2021; and

(2)    That the list of recommendations from the Planning Review Report, as attached to the report as Appendix A, be pursued with the exception of the amendments made at the meeting – being that:

·         Recommendation 52 (i) [Amend the ‘call-in’ procedure to require the planning reason to be agreed by the Director of Place, in consultation with the Chair] be removed along with points 3, 4 and 5, as set out in Appendix A; and

·         Recommendation 58 be referred back to the next meeting of the Planning Review Working Party for further consideration.

The Cabinet confirmed its decision as per Decision Notice C/041/14122020, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.