Committee procedures
15.1 Decisions relating to planning applications (other than those matters dealt with under the Council’s Scheme of Delegation) are taken by the Council’s Planning Committee. The procedure for processing planning applications may be summarised as follows:
15.2 Reports are available to the public five working days before the Committee on request. The application files, containing all comments, are also available at that stage. Late letters and other information may be put to Committee and copies of these are normally available for inspection. The public (including applicants and objectors) can attend Committee meetings and may speak under the terms of the Council’s public speaking policy.
15.3 A guidance leaflet on public speaking and the process to be followed is made available. In essence, the officer will explain what is proposed and highlight the key planning issues. An individual or Applicant wishing to speak on an application canask to address the Committee for a defined time, ordinarily four minutes. Elected Members may than ask questions of that individual if they wish. If the applicant (or agent) wish to speak or respond to points raised, they can then do so. Elected Members will then debate the merits of the case and arrive at a decision.
15.4 It is important that Elected Members are present throughout all the debate on an item. If any Elected Member has to leave the Committee meeting for any reason, thereby missing any part of the proceedings, he/she should take no further part in the voting arrangements for the item(s) considered during their absence. Similarly if an item is deferred to a future Committee whether for a Site Visit or any other reason when the item is resumed at that Committee any Elected Members who were not present for all the proceedings relating to that item at the original Committee Meeting should also take no part in the discussion or voting on that item.
15.5 The Planning Committee may agree or disagree with the report and recommendation and having considered all the relevant planning matters, the Committee may:
- grant planning permission (usually with appropriate planning conditions) with justified planning reasons;
- refuse planning permission, with justified planning reason(s);
- defer the application for further consideration.
15.7 Decisions on Local Plan/Local Development Plan proposals are generally within the functions of the Neighbourhoods and Regulatory Services Committee, subject to Council approval as part of the Budget and Policy Framework.
15.8 The procedures governing the conduct of meetings are set out in the Council’s Constitution. However, the general public who attend these meetings will usually not be familiar with the Council’s Constitution, or this Code. It is therefore important that decisions are made on relevant grounds and that this is the impression left with the public who attend. Responsibility for this rests primarily with the Chairperson of the meeting, assisted where appropriate by Officers. To facilitate this:
- a briefing for the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Planning Committee will be held after the Officer reports and recommendations have been published. The purposes of these briefings is to inform the Chair and Vice-Chair of the issues, to ensure that the rationale for the Officer recommendation is explained, and to identify any potentially problematic or controversial items;
- one or more Chartered Town Planners will be present at all Planning Committee meetings at which planning matters are considered;
- a Legal Officer will normally also be present.
At a briefing and in order to ensure the proper conduct of the Committee meeting and to minimise any inconvenience, the Chair and Vice Chair may agree for an item(s) to be withdrawn if circumstances so require, the Committee being notified at the commencement of their meeting, of such withdrawal of the item(s) from the agenda.