Issue - meetings

The Committee was informed that following a request from members of the Regulatory Services Committee, it had been proposed that a revision be made to the call-in procedure for planning applications brought before the Regulatory Services Committee. The proposal before the Committee was for the call-in of a planning application to be restricted specifically to the Councillors for the ward in which the planning application site is located.

Members noted that the intention of the amendment was to seek to limit call-ins which might have no real planning merit, but which would add to the burden on the Regulatory Services Committee which would have to deal with them.  Several Members expressed their unease with the restriction to that of the Ward councillors arguing that if the application in question was close to a Ward boundary, it could have more serious implications for that Ward than the ward the application was in.

The view was also expressed that councillors were not simply elected to a specific Ward, but had responsibilities across the whole borough and it was unreasonable to prohibit any councillor from exercising their discretion in the public interest simply because they were not directly connected with the Ward in question.

Having discussed the issues, the Chairman asked the Committee whether the report should be deferred to a later meeting in order that the views of Members could be more thoroughly ascertained.

The Committee agreed to defer the matter to a later meeting to allow further deliberation to take place.