Issue - meetings

A Planning Protocol was adopted as part of the Constitution by the Council in February 2009.  Since that time, revisions to the document have been made, the previous version of which came before Standards Committee on 27 September 2010. 

The Strategic Planning Board considered the amended Planning Protocol at their meeting of the 20^th April 2011, and resolved that the amended version of the Planning Protocol should be recommended to the Standards Committee and the Constitution Committee for adoption by the Council and inclusion in the Constitution.  The Committee is invited to consider the document.  

The Council had adopted a Planning Protocol in February 2009 with a view to refreshing the document at a later date following receipt of updated guidance and to reflect emerging operating practices of the Council’s three Planning Committees. 

Standards Committee had considered a revised document in September 2010 since when it had been subject to detailed consideration by the Constitution Committee.  Having made some changes to the form of the document, the Protocol was submitted to Strategic Planning Board on 20 April 2011 which resolved that the amended version should be recommended to both the Standards Committee and Constitution Committee for adoption by the Council and inclusion in the Constitution.

The document set out the rules governing public speaking, stipulating that non-committee members should not communicate with Committee members during meetings.  Reference was made to an apparent absence in the protocol of rules which governed speaking at site inspections.  It was confirmed that this matter had been addressed under the Council’s Site Inspection Protocol but, as the Planning Protocol would need to be amended again in light of the Localism Bill, the inclusion of a secondary reference could be reconsidered at that time. 

Paragraph 13.1 of the Protocol stated that “you should attend the mandatory planning training prescribed by the Council before you participate in decision-making at meetings”.  It was considered that use of the word ‘should’ was at variance with actual practice as Members were not permitted to take part in meetings until they had undergone the training.  It was proposed that the sentence should be amended with the word ‘should’ being replaced with ‘must’.      

RESOLVED: That a) the comments of the Standards Committee concerning the amended Planning Protocol be submitted for consideration by the Constitution Committee; and b) subject to these comments the Protocol be commended for inclusion in the Council’s Constitution.