Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

A copy of the minutes of the previous meeting held on 14 October 2022 is attached.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 14 October 2022 were agreed by the Cabinet Member

There were no declarations of interest.

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to seek approvals to amendments to the Scheme of Delegation to ensure the Planning Committee time is utilised efficiently to deal with important, strategic or especially contentious applications as quickly as possible.

Recommendations

That the scheme of delegation for planning decision making be amended by:

(i)     The deletion of paragraph 53 of Part 2 Section 5B (Director of Regeneration) of the constitution; and

(ii)    The amendment of paragraph 57 of Part 2 Section 5B (Director of Regeneration) of the constitution so that the threshold applied to a requirement for Committee determination is where six or more adverse representations based on material planning considerations have been received. 

After an introduction by the Assistant Director for Planning & Economic Growth the Cabinet Member invited comments prior to making his decision.

Whilst he believed that the aspiration was for funding to be sourced to allow the option for additional Planning Committee meetings to be considered, Cllr Brent understood that this had been explored and that no funding was available.

The Cabinet Member:

RESOLVED that the scheme of delegation for planning decision making be amended by:

(i)           The deletion of paragraph 53 of Part 2 Section 5B (Director of Regeneration) of the constitution; and 

(ii)          The amendment of paragraph 57 of Part 2 Section 5B (Director of Regeneration) of the constitution so that the threshold applied to a requirement for Committee determination is where six or more adverse representations based on material planning considerations have been received.

These decisions had previously been the subject of a call-in, which had been considered and upheld by the Scrutiny Management Panel. Following this, a referral had been made by the Cabinet Member to the Governance & Audit & Scrutiny Committee for consideration in advance of the decision being taken. The decisions were therefore not subject to further call-in and took immediate effect.