Agenda item

Protocol for online meetings of the Planning Applications Committee

The Chair will outline the arrangements for online meetings of the Planning Applications Committee. The attached protocol is due to be considered at the meeting of the Policy Committee on 27 April 2020.

Minutes:

The Chair reported that the Coronavirus Act 2020 had paved the way for temporary changes to Regulations governing public meetings held by local authorities, including those held by local planning authorities, to allow the meetings to be conducted using media systems to be attended remotely by officers, members and the public and press during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

At its meeting on 27 April 2020, the Policy Committee had considered a report containing proposed protocols for holding online meetings of the Policy Committee, Planning Applications Committee and Licensing Applications Sub-Committees 1 and 2.  The Policy Committee had approved the online meeting protocols (Minute 90 refers) and a copy of the Planning Applications Committee protocol had been included in the papers for the Planning Applications Committee on 29 April 2020. 

The Protocol outlined some changes to facilitate successful online meetings of the Planning Applications Committee, by reducing the number of participants and the complexity of the meetings, including amendments to public participation and attendance.  The meeting would consist of ten members and would include members from all political groups represented on the Council. 

The Policy Committee had also agreed the following amendment to the Protocol:

That current members of the Policy Committee and Planning Applications Committee not included in the reduced memberships be entitled to act as substitutes on the Committee in place of a member of their Group; and where a Group had only one member of the Policy Committee or Planning Application Committee appointed in the current year (2019/20), the Group Leader be entitled to nominate a substitute member, in the event that their Group member was unable to attend the Committee and the Assistant Director of Legal & Democratic Services be authorised to appoint that Councillor as a substitute member of the relevant Committee (and this substitute provision be included in the meeting protocols for Policy Committee and Planning Applications Committee).

In order to reduce the amount of business required to be decided by the Planning Applications Committee during the pandemic, the Policy Committee had also approved an increase to officer delegations to determine some minor planning applications and Tree Preservation Orders, as set out in Appendix B to the Policy Committee report.  It had agreed that a schedule of those applications where delegations had been changed would be presented to each Planning Applications Committee for information. 

Resolved –    That the report be noted.

Supporting documents: