Issue - meetings

Report CSD21068

At the last meeting it was recognised that a large proportion of Code of Conduct Complaints related to planning matters.  It was therfore agreed that the Chairman of the Development Control Committee and the Assistant Director for Planning should be invited to the next meeting of the Standards Committee on 15 July 2021.  It was further agreed that the discussion should centre around the report of the Planning Advisory Service and the Council’s existing Planning Protocol.

The Chairman welcomed Councillor Alexa Michael (Chairman of the Development Control Committee) and Mr Tim Horsman (Assistant Director for Planning) to the meeting.

The Chairman of the Development Control Committee confirmed that practically all of the initial recommendations from the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) had been accepted and a Local Planning Protocol had been developed, endorsed by Full Council and now formed part of the Council’s Constitution.  The Chairman of the Development Control Committee addressed each of the recommendations made by the PAS and provided an update on the progress that had been made.

The Chairman of the Development Control Committee was pleased with the revised format of committee agendas and the improved quality of committee reports.  Progress had also been made in reducing the number of applications being referred to Committee. 

The principle of Officer presentations had been accepted but had not been advanced as much as it could have been.  The PAS had confirmed that they considered that this would be of benefit and was therefore something to be developed.

The Committee noted that planning training for Members was provided but this stopped short of being mandatory.  The Chairman of the Development Control Committee stated that in her opinion when Members chose to sit on a planning committee they should take all the available training.

The Assistant Director for Planning highlighted that Appendix 9 of the report (Page 85) provided a useful up-to-date summary of the current position with respect to the recommendations from the PAS.  It was also noted that the PAS were currently undertaking a further review.

A Member noted that Planning Committees were a difficult “grey” area for Members to navigate as decisions were often subjective and it was not possible to please all those party to a planning application.  There was a need for the Standards Committee to focus on the issues of Member integrity and the public perception of Member integrity.  It was noted that there had been a number of challenging applications and there was a need to improve the public perception of the planning system in Bromley.

A Member noted that the PAS report contained some very strong recommendations yet there appeared to be very little reference to these recommendations in the Local Planning Protocol.  The Chairman of the Development Control Committee responded that the intention had been for the Local Planning Protocol to address the recommendations in the PAS report.  It was noted that the Protocol could be revised where Members felt that there were areas that could be strengthened.  The Chairman  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6