Agenda item

Report CSD20047

The report presented the draft Planning Protocol to the Standards Committee seeking the views of the Standards Committee.

The Assistant Director for Planning attended the meeting and introduced the report explaining that the Protocol had been drafted in response to the findings of the review undertaken by the Planning Advisory Service.  The Protocol was designed to support the member decision making process and encourage a shift in member focus when considering planning application from a parochial perspective to a more strategic perspective.

Referring to the report produced by the Planning Advisory Service, a the Vice-Chairman suggested that the draft Planning Protocol under consideration was not as robust as the Planning Advisory Service may have envisaged and it therefore remained to be seen whether the Protocol would in fact address the issues that had been identified.  The Vice-Chairman expressed concern that councillors continued to call-in planning applications and seemingly ignore the recommendations being made by Officers.

The Director of Corporate Services highlighted that in considering planning applications members had to exercise independent judgement however, a key consideration was advice from officers.  This key consideration had now been codified in the Planning Protocol ensuring that the Planning Officer is the last person to speak on an application prior to the decision being put to a vote.  The Committee also noted that proposed amendments had been made to the Council’s Scheme of Delegations to further support this with the proposed amendments being considered by the Development Control Committee at its next meeting.

Turning to the issue of complaints regarding councillor conduct in relation to planning applications, following discussion it was agreed that the Standards Committee was the most appropriate committee to assume responsibility for  overseeing and managing this type of complaint as the Standards Committee was more remote from the planning process than the Development Control Committee.

Noting that the Standards Committee had not considered and discussed the complaints that had been received in relation to planning matters a member highlighted that the Committee had not be in a position to judge whether the required standard for member behaviour had been upheld or not.  In response the Director of Corporate Services highlighted that now two Independent Persons had been appointed it would be possible for the outcome of any first stage consideration of the complaint to be reviewed by an Independent Person prior to a response being sent.

The Chairman raised the issue of the most suitable way to monitor councillor substitutions on planning committees to ensure that any substitutions that were made were appropriate and did not result in any one particular ward being over represented on a committee.  The Assistant Director for Planning confirmed that this issue had been reflected in the report from the Planning Advisory Service however when the issue had been presented to the Development Control Committee some members had been reluctant to implement changes.  It was recognised that Plans Sub-Committees often considered applications from a number of wards across the Borough and this could present challenges in terms of manging substitutions on the Committee.

Members of the Standards Committee agreed that the draft Protocol should be strengthened to clearly emphasise that all decisions had to be based purely on material planning considerations – for example, point 1 of paragraph 2.1 should be amended to “1. They are subject to a written ‘call-in’, providing detailed planning grounds, by a councillor” and paragraph 7.4 should be amended to “The Chairman should be careful to ensure that additional conditions or planning reasons for refusal…”

It was also agreed that all councillors sitting on the Development Control Committee and its Sub-Committees should be fully conversant with the report of the Planning Advisory Service and the Probity in Planning document as these document clearly set out expectations for standards of behaviour.

The Committee also agreed that once the Protocol had embedded the Chairman of the Development Control Committee should also be invited to a Standards Committee meeting to discuss the impact of the changes.

It was agreed that following the meeting Dr Davey and Mr Palmer would be provided with a copy of the report from the Planning Advisory Service.

RESOLVED: That

1.  The draft protocol be strengthened to clearly emphasise that all decisions in relation to planning applications have to be based purely on material planning considerations;

2.  All councillors sitting on the Development Control Committee and its Sub-Committees should be fully conversant with the report of the Planning Advisory Service and the Probity in Planning document as these document clearly set out the expectations for standards of behaviour; and

3.  Once the Planning Protocol has embedded the Chairman of the Development Control Committee be invited to a Standards Committee meeting to discuss the impact of the Protocol.