Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from the following Members:

Councillor Dixon, substituted by Councillor Dellar;

Councillor Bambridge, substituted by Councillor Partington;

Councillor Parsons, substituted by Councillor Bayford.

Councillor Jaye-Jones was present to occupy the UKIP seat made vacant due to recent changes in political membership.

The Chairman advised the meeting that a request for public speaking by Ms Jennifer Maidman, representative of the Save Manston Airport (SMA) had been granted. Councillor David Saunders reminded the meeting that the purpose of the call-in was to review the procedure that was used by Cabinet to make the decision on 29 October 2015.

One Member requested that a RiverOak representative be allowed to speak at the meeting. Mr Tim Howes, Director of Corporate Governance & Monitoring Officer advised the meeting that he had reservation about allowing RiverOak representatives to speak at the Panel meeting. This was because RiverOak were intending to enter into a commercial contract with Thanet District Council (TDC). It followed therefore that RiverOak had an interest in the outcome of the Panel meeting. This meant in his view that it was therefore inappropriate to let the RiverOak representative speak at the meeting. Tim Howes indicated that there were other appropriate processes and methods that RiverOak could use to communicate their views to TDC.

Another Member said that they fundamentally disagreed with the view to disallow RiverOak representative to speak at the meeting and that the Panel could invite anyone they so wished to come and speak at the meeting. The Chairman said he was minded to allow RiverOak representative to speak at the meeting. Tim Howes requested that it be noted that the decision by the Chairman to allow RiverOak to speak at the Panel meeting was contrary to advice given by the Monitoring Officer. Madeline Homer, CEx said that the decision to allow RiverOak to speak could have implications at a judicial review (if there was to be one). The Chairman assured the meeting that he would keep the public speaking to points that related to the Cabinet decision under review.

The Chairman said the reason for the call-in was on the basis of ‘a presumption in favour of openness;’ that although the report was well presented, in the opinion of a significant number of Members, the report may be read as being loaded to achieve the outcome. He reminded Members that the purpose of the meeting was to review the decision making process, highlighting the flaws and then making recommendations. The Chairman advised the Panel that in addition to the options highlighted in the covering report, Members could refer the issue to Full Council. He then asked if Members of the Panel had been ‘whipped’ for the purposes of this extraordinary meeting and he received no positive response.

The Chairman called upon Ms Maidman representing the Supporters of Manston Airport to speak. She said that the information provided to the extraordinary Cabinet meeting had been made contrary to the access to information rules, (the five clear working day rule).

The Chairman then invited Claire Fielding, RiverOak representative to speak. She said that RiverOak had circulated a report to the Overview and Scrutiny Panel members (outside a meeting), stating their position and said that RiverOak was a credible real estate investor. RiverOak had provided an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.