Issue - meetings

Harvey Patterson, Monitoring Officer, presented his report in relation to a proposed revision of the adopted Planning Protocol to include “Public Speaking on Planning Applications” (as per new Clause 12 in Annex 2).

It was noted that in accordance with the Planning Protocol adopted by Council on 13 May 2010, the first sentence of Clause 13.6 of Annex 2 (formerly 12.6) – “Public Speaking at Site Visits” - should read:

“No public speaking will be permitted at site visits unless the Site Visit Chairman gives their consent.”

rather than:

“No public speaking will be permitted at site visits unless the applicant or his professional representative is present and the Site Visit Chairman gives his consent.”

It was further noted that the wording at the last bullet point under 13.6 (formerly 12.6) should be changed from:

“From any ward councillor who is present”

“From any District councillor who is present”.

Discussion took place, during which reference was made to the following two rules:

1. Speakers being chosen on a “first come first served basis”

Some Members suggested that the first applicant to speak was not always the most “appropriate”, e.g., the most “affected” by the planning application.

It was noted from the Monitoring Officer that whereas the rule could be open to a certain degree of manipulation on the part of developers and objectors, this method of selection appeared as fair as any other and did not require officers to make difficult decisions regarding the priority of applicants to speak.

The view was expressed that objectors to any application should be encouraged to communicate with each other in order to present a consolidated point of view through the selected speaker.

2. “.. One person (three in the case of a major planning application) raising points of concern”

It was suggested that the eligibility of a member of the public to speak should be restricted to:

a) those who are materially affected by the application – this was felt to be fairer than an initial suggestion that the speaker must reside in the ward to which the application relates, as those outside the ward boundary could still be materially affected;

b) those whose interest is similar to that as defined in the Declaration of Interest Form signed by Members at meetings of the Council:

“where the well-being or financial position of (the resident), members of their family (spouse; partner; parents; in laws; step/children; nieces and nephews) or people with whom they have a close association (friends; colleagues; business associates and social contacts that can be friendly and unfriendly) is likely to be affected by the business of their authority more than it would affect the majority of:

§ Inhabitants of the ward or electoral division affected by the decision (in the case of the authorities with electoral divisions or wards);

§ Inhabitants of the authority’s area (in all other cases).

On the proposal of Councillor Mrs Roberts, seconded by Councillor Green, it was AGREED:

I. that Simon Thomas, Planning ... view the full minutes text for item 39