Agenda item

Review of the Council Constitution Part D8 - Planning Committees Terms of Reference

To consider the review of Part D8 of the Constitution.

Decision:

Resolved that the Constitution and Governance Committee was asked to:

1)     Review and comment on the proposed changes to the following parts of the Council’s Constitution:

               i.         Part D8 – Planning Committee Terms of Reference with an addition to 8.8f to accommodate deferrals from Parish and Town Councils where possible.

              ii.         Appendix 1 – Code of Good Practice for Planning

2)    Support the proposed changes from the Constitution Working Group – Planning Committees and recommended them for approval by Full Council on 22 May 2024.

Minutes:

The Head of Planning, Alison Blom-Cooper, introduced the report which set out the proposed amendments to Part D8 of the Constitution which was discussed as part of the review.

 

During the discussion, the following points were raised:-

·       Councillors were disappointed that the survey responses were not attached to the report, as it would have been good to see the results detailed in an appendix to the report.

The Head of Democratic Services and Governance apologised and advised that the survey results had been shared with the workshop and could add them to the final report for Full Council.

·       Councillors raised concern on Rights of Way applications being taken to Strategic Planning Committee for decision. 

The Head of Democratic Services and Governance advised that Rights of Way and Village Green applications were placed under the Strategic Planning Committee when the Constitution was originally set.  The review had not picked up this change.  The Lead Member for Economic Development, Planning and Assets further advised it had not been raised as part of the review, but she was happy to take this point away and look for a more appropriate committee for those applications to be determined.

·       Concern was raised on how the review had been carried out and councillors queried who had been involved in the process.

The Head of Democratic Services and Governance advised which councillors had been involved in the review and that the process and membership had been approved by the Constitution and Governance Committee.  The Lead Member for Economic Development, Planning and Assets further advised the councillor involvement in the working group and workshop and that it had been well attended.

·       Councillors queried the Applications in Principal section and did this include lawful development and prior approval certificates and whether they would be sent out to division councillors.

The Legal Advisor advised that this was a new process, it did not include the other certificates and was an alternative consent route for retaining planning permission for housing led development.

·       Councillors queried the change to the local councillor referral process and whether this happened at the first stage or at the 14 days’ notice stage.

·       Concern was raised on Waste and Mineral Applications being changed to go to the Strategic Planning Committee.

The Legal Advisor advised that the applications were not limited to any one area of the county, which was why they were being added to the Strategic Planning Committee.

·       Councillors raised concern on the proposed reduction in committee members for the Planning Committees and that the quorum should be 5 members.

·       Councillors requested that when referring to local councillors in the document, it was made clear that it was local unitary councillors.

·       Councillors requested clarification on major applications going to committee.

The Head of Planning advised that all major applications would automatically go to committee.

·       Concern was raised on removing the wording under 8.8f on Town and Parish Councils requests for extensions to the referral process.

The Head of Planning advised that there had been a lot of debate on this point.  The reason it had been removed was due to the Planning Guarantee process and the pressure of the government timescales and that extensions could be applied for on an ad hoc basis.

·       Councillors queried why Town and Parish Councils were only given 21 days to responds instead of 28 days.

The Planning Manager advised that the legislation required that consultations were run for 21 days, and that the unitary councillors were keen to see the responses from the Town and Parish Councils prior to submitting their own responses.

·       Councillors queried why the Local Plan had not been discussed at the Strategic Planning Committee.

The Head of Planning advised that they had split the policy work away from the regulatory work carried out by the Planning Committees, so all policy work was debated by the Planning and Transport Policy Sub-Committee.

·       Councillors queried the division councillor referral process and that the proposal within the report was to drop the referral but councillors queried why this had been proposed and that this should be the same as for the Town and Parish Council referral process.

·       Councillors raised concern that local division councillors only had 2 days to go back to the Chairs of Planning with any requests for referrals. Councillors expressed major concern that this was too short a period of time for councillors to respond.  Councillors suggested that they should be given 4 days to go back with a referral request.

The Head of Planning advised that the work carried out by the working group proposed a more simplified process, as currently there was not a timescale stated.  She advised that they were unable to extend the timeframe due to the tight time restraints within government legislation and the Planning Guarantee scheme.  She further advised that all local councillors had the 28 days prior to this stage to refer to committee, they did not have to wait until the 2-day stage of the process.

·       Councillors thanked the officers for the hard work carried out on the review and highlighted that a review could be added to the work programme for next year.

 

Councillor Mandy Chilcott proposed an additional recommendation, which was seconded by Councillor Sue Osborne, to include the following wording to 8.8f: to accommodate deferrals from Parish and Town Councils where possible.

 

Resolved that the Constitution and Governance Committee was asked to:

1)     Review and comment on the proposed changes to the following parts of the Council’s Constitution:

               i.         Part D8 – Planning Committee Terms of Reference with an addition to 8.8f to accommodate deferrals from Parish and Town Councils where possible.

              ii.         Appendix 1 – Code of Good Practice for Planning

2)    Support the proposed changes from the Constitution Working Group – Planning Committees and recommended them for approval by Full Council on 22 May 2024.

Supporting documents: