Agenda item

The Governance Working Group, at its meeting on 27 April 2018, had

a.     reviewed proposed amendments to the Scheme to support the principles of natural justice;

b.     considered the adoption of a Protocol for Registering Organisations for the purpose of speaking at Planning Applications Committee meetings; and

c.     reviewed the call-in Procedure for Planning Applications.

The Working Group had recognised that the Public Speaking Scheme for Planning Applications Committee allowed for public speaking on applications where thresholds for triggering the Scheme had been met, therefore facilitating speaking on an item where an application has generated a genuine interest in the community. The Scheme had also been designed with the intention that its operation reflects the principles of natural justice.

The Working Group had recommended that the Scheme be amended to clarify that an individual or organisation can only register to speak in accordance with the nature of the representation they had submitted, i.e. either in support of or in opposition to an application.  This would guarantee that the principles of natural justice were met by giving those in objection and those in support equal opportunities to speak.

It had also proposed that the Scheme be amended to ensure that an individual could only speak on an application once. This would mean that an individual would not be permitted to register both themselves and their organisation to speak on an application.  However a different member of the association would be able to speak on its behalf.

The Council was reminded that the Public Speaking Scheme currently provided for a Residents’ Association, Business Association or Amenity Society, previously registered under this scheme, which has submitted a representation in respect of the application and registered to speak, to be entitled to one of the speaking slots.  This enabled an established group to speak on behalf of a number of households, or a wider community area.  Groups were asked to submit a constitution, accounts and information on membership and key officer in support of their initial application.

The Working Group had considered a Protocol intended to make certain that these registered organisations remains, representative and current. The Protocol included criteria to make sure that

a.     the organisation represented a ‘genuine’ membership of an area;

b.     membership was open to all members of the relevant community;

c.     the organisation would consult its members on any views presented to the Planning Applications Committee on its behalf; and

d.     the organisation remained current and valid.

The Protocol recommended that, in order to ensure that the organisations remained current and valid, they be required to submit the signed minutes of their most recent Annual General Meeting which must have been held within the previous 18 months.

The call-in procedure for planning applications by Members had also been reviewed by the Working Group, prompted by the relatively large number of called-in applications on a recent agenda.

The Working Group had felt that the delegation to the Executive Head of Regulatory which referred to any request for an application to be called in to be supported by “broad planning reasons” was appropriate and proportional.  However, it had requested that, in future, the broad planning reason should be included in the Executive Head of Regulatory’s report to the Committee on the planning application. 

RESOLVED that

                             (i)            the Public Speaking Scheme for Planning Applications Committee, as set out at Part 4, Section E of the Constitution, be revised as set out at Annex A to the agenda report; and

                            (ii)            a Protocol for the Registration of Residents’ Associations, Business Associations and Amenity Societies for the purpose of Public Speaking at Planning Applications Committee be adopted, as set out at Annex B to the agenda report, and added to the Documents Which Support the Constitution.