Agenda item

John Scarborough, the Head of the Legal Partnership, and Stephen Baughen, the Acting Head of Planning Services, jointly reported on proposed amendments to the Council’s Constitution, specifically two parts of the Planning Scheme of Delegation.

Mr Scarborough explained that the proposed amendments set out in the agenda had been considered – and approved – by the Constitution Review Working Party at its meeting held on 11 August. He added that there had been other proposed amendments to the Planning Scheme of Delegation which had been considered by the Full Council in April 2016 which had been referred back to the Working Party for further examination. He advised that these could all be dealt with under the Monitoring Officer’s delegated powers as and when required, and would be reported back to the Working Party. It was noted that two other amendments had been proposed at the Full Council meeting in April 2016 by Councillor Stewart; Mr Scarborough advised that these had been discussed direct with her and would be presented to the Working Party at its next meeting.

Stephen Baughen, the Acting Head of  Planning Services, provided the Committee with the background detail to the two proposed amendments set out in the agenda. With the first of these, Mr Baughen explained that the inclusion of the word ‘notifications’ as part of the councillor call-in rules presented significant risk that consent would be granted by default for these notifications. He added that this was because it was highly unlikely that a notification could be determined within the statutory time limit if called-in to a Planning Committee meeting. It was therefore proposed that it be removed from paragraphs 8.1 and 8.5 of Section 8 of Table 3 to Part 3 of the Constitution.

With the second proposed amendment, Mr Baughen advised that its intention was to ensure that the most significant planning decisions for approval were consistently taken by members of the Planning Committee and not under delegated powers by the Head of Planning Services. This specifically related to the proposed threshold for non-residential development, which it was proposed should be lowered from 5,000m² to 2,000m². Mr Baughen said that this could be achieved by amending paragraph 8.3(b) of Section 8.1 of Section 8 of Table 3 to Part 3 of the Constitution.

Independent member Mr Quigley, Chairman of the Constitution Review Working Party, said that these two proposed amendments had been thoroughly discussed at his meeting and, with a minor addition to the explanatory wording in relation to the first of these, had been supported by the Working Party.

Councillor Ms Palmer said that she was not supportive of the first proposal, on the basis that it was removing the ability of members to be able to call-in a notification.

Other members of the Committee accepted the rationale and explanation provided by Mr Baughen and supported both recommendations.

As this was the last meeting before Mr Scarborough left the authority, the Chairman thanked him for his support work, his professionalism and advice and for presenting the complaints process so clearly to members and the Committee, during his two years in post.

RESOLVED – That, in order to ensure the Constitution is up-to-date and provides for good decision-making, the Full Council be recommended to approve the following:

(a)    ‘Notifications’ – amend paragraphs 8.1 and 8.5 of Section 8 of Table 3 to Part 3 of the Constitution, as set out in paragraphs 2.11 and 2.12 of the report; and

(b)    ‘Non-residential threshold’ – amend paragraph 8.3 of Section 8 of Table 3 to Part 3, as set out in paragraph 2.15 of the report.