Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth presented the Protocol for the submission of Planning Application Representations report. She said that the proposal was to ensure that the Development Management Committee continued to operate in an efficient manner and to avoid delays in decision making.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that in most cases, representations were made and received during the consultation period and officers were able to consider them in full and formulate a committee report. She said that further representations were often made after the agenda was published and some representations were so substantive that it was difficult to fully consider them and provide advice to Members which sometimes meant the meeting had to be adjourned or reconvened.

The Executive Member for Planning and Growth said that the report proposed that the council adopt a position that all representations should be received by 5pm, three working days before the meeting. She said that this would give Officers two working days to consider all representations. She said that there was no intention to curtail the legitimate right of all stakeholders to submit representations but was to encourage all parties to act in a reasonable way so the committee can be correctly advised.

Councillor Goodeve proposed that the recommendation in the report be supported. Councillor Huggins seconded the proposal.

Councillor Goldspink said she supported the idea behind the proposals but proposed an amendment to the deadline for submitting representations. She proposed that the words “should be received by the council not later than 5pm on the third working day prior to” with “should be received by the council not later than midnight on the Sunday before the DMC meeting on the Wednesday”.

Councillor Dumont seconded the amendment.

Councillor Goodeve said that the addition of a Sunday deadline would not be transferable when a Development Management Committee was held on another weekday.

Councillor E Buckmaster said that he could not agree with the amendment and understood the substantial work that Officers and Members have when representations come in late.

Councillor Deering spoke as the Chairman of the Development Management Committee and said he was not supportive of the amendment. He said that it was crucial for officers to have enough time to consider the representation and to advise and guide Members. He said the proposal from Councillor Goodeve was sensible and reasonable.

Councillor Crofton said he was supportive of the original proposals. He said that in future it should be considered that more weight was given to local Members representations as they had local knowledge.

Councillor Kemp asked in what circumstances were late representations received and questioned how effective the protocol would be at stopping the late representations.

Councillor Goodeve said that it would not prevent late representations but it would send a strong message as to how the council would like things to operate. She said that she suspected that the late submission of representations was being used on purpose to frustrate or delay applications.

Councillor Goldspink  ...  view the full minutes text for item 316