Agenda item

To consider the recommendations of the Constitution Review Working Group held on 1 March 2023.

As requested at its previous meeting, the Committee received a further report from the Constitution Review Working Group regarding provisions within the Constitution relating to the scheme of delegation to the Planning Committee. It was explained that, after the previous meeting, the Working Group had met again on 01 March 2023 to further review the matter in the light of discussion at the Committee on 16 February 2023. The options developed for discussion were included within a full report which had been circulated to the Committee prior to the meeting within an Agenda Supplement. The Chairman of the Planning Committee and senior Planning and Legal Officers had been closely involved in bringing together options for a complex range of issues and were present at the meeting to advise the Committee and respond to detailed questions.

It was explained that the first of these key areas was the representation referral process which, if the threshold were met, would require a planning related application to be considered by Planning Committee provided the intended Officer decision was contrary to 20 or more relevant representations relating to that application. The second area was the mechanism relating to the ability of a Councillor to call-in an application to Planning Committee but specifically within that, the time period within which a Councillor could exercise that call-in.

The Committee received advice about the effect and implications of a range of options.

RECOMMENDED that: -

(a)  the amendments in the Constitution identified in option 2 and Appendix 2 as set out in item 6 of the agenda of Audit and Governance Committee dated 9 March 2023 be adopted subject to:

(i)              the replacement of paragraph 2.2.8 as below but in relation to sub-paragraph (f) of that replacement paragraph either option 1 or option 2;

(ii)            the addition of a new paragraph 2.7 as below; and

(iii)          further amending part of the wording of paragraph 2.5.2 b) as below.

The wording of those further changes being as follows:

(i)       Add replacement 2.2.8 with (f) being either as option 1 or option 2:

2.2.8  applications where there have been 20 or more representations from third parties  provided that to count toward that number, a representation must:

(a)            identify on the representation that it has come from a residence which is believed by the case officer (at the time of deciding whether the matter needs to go to Planning Committee) to be within one mile of any point measured from the relevant application site red line boundary;

(b)           be received by the Council within the initial or any subsequent representation period as identified on the posted planning site notice relating to that application or any other related representation period provided by the Council if no planning site notice is posted;

(c)            identify one or more issues that the case officer considers to be of material planning relevance to the application to which it relates;

(d)           not have been withdrawn by the person making the representation prior to the time of deciding whether the matter needs to go to Planning Committee;

(e)      be contrary to the intended case officer recommendation; and

Option 1 (no change from current restriction in the Constitution):

(f)        not come from the same residence;

Option 2 (scope for further multiple representations from the same household to count toward 20 representation total)

(f)       provided that any additional representation from the same residence may be counted if in the opinion of the relevant senior planning officer in consultation with the Chair of Planning it raises any different relevant material planning issues to those already contained in other representations from that residence;

(ii)      And new 2.7 as follows:

2.7    For the avoidance of doubt, for the purposes of the 20 representation process identified in 2.2.8 above, a representation that identifies more than one name on it (including a petition) shall only be counted as one representation in calculating whether the 20 representation trigger has been reached. 

(iii)     Amend part of wording to 2.5.2 b) as follows:

2.5.2 b) … is received no later than 4pm on the seventh calendar day after ….”

(b) any necessary and consequential technical and formatting related updates and revisions to the Constitution be made by the Monitoring Officer in accordance with the powers delegated.