Declaration of interests by Elected Members at Committee
11.1 Information regarding ‘your registerable and non-registerable personal interests’ is contained in the Code of Conduct for Elected Members and Co-opted Members.
11.2 Elected Members of the Planning Committee should consult the Code of Conduct for Elected Members and Co-opted Members to determine their registrable and nonregistrable personal interests to determine, what, if any, effect these interests could have at a Planning Committee meeting.
Pre-determination and Bias
11.3 Where you have been involved in campaigning in your political role on an issue which does not impact on your personal and/or professional life you should not be prohibited from participating in a decision in your political role as an Elected Member, however you should not place yourself under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might seek to influence you in the performance of your official duties.
11.4 At all meetings, when making a decision, you need to consider the matter with an open mind and on the facts before the meeting at which the decision is to be taken.
11.5 However, if an Elected Member, in advance of the decision-making meeting had taken a firm view on the planning matter (in essence they had ‘pre-determined’ the matter), either in meetings of the other body or otherwise, they would not be able to demonstrate that, in participating in a decision, all the relevant facts and arguments had been taken into account, they would have fettered their discretion. Were they to participate in a decision in those circumstances, they might place their authority in danger of Judicial Review.
11.6 There will be occasions when Elected Members will wish to press for a particular development which the Elected Member regards as beneficial to the development of the area. Should that Elected Member be able to vote on any planning application relating to that development? The appropriate action is not clear cut, and may depend on the particulars of the case. However, the general advice would be that an Elected Member in such circumstances may well be so committed to a particular development as the result of undertaking the responsibilities of furthering the development of the area, that he or she may well not be able to demonstrate that they are able to take account of counter arguments before a final decision is reached. Indeed, the Elected Member may be seen as an advocate on behalf of the authority for the development in question. In that sense, the Elected Member becomes almost the ‘internal applicant’. In such circumstances, the appropriate approach is likely to be that the Elected Member advocating for the development should not vote on the relevant applications.