Minutes:
At the request of Member Panel on the Constitution at its meeting held on 23rd February, 2005, the Director of Law and Corporate Governance had drawn up a draft public participation scheme as an alternative to the current informal planning meetings which were cumbersome to administer and had a number of procedural drawbacks.
The Director of Law and Corporate Governance submitted for consideration a copy of the draft public participation scheme which had been approved by the Member Panel on the Constitution on the 15th March 2005. Details of how the scheme would work together with copies of the letters and other documents which would be issued under the scheme were submitted to the Committee.
The Members were of the view that although it was likely that the public participation scheme would lengthen the duration of the Planning Committee meetings its advantages over informal planning meetings outweighed this drawback. In particular attention was drawn to the fact that the public participation scheme would allow those Members of the Planning Committee taking a decision on an application to be present when representations were made; the scheme allowed all interested parties to have a say and was relatively simple to administer.
Resolved –
(a) That the Committee concur with the Member Panel on the Constitution that the Public Participation Scheme now submitted replace the Informal Planning Meetings Procedure contained in paragraph 9 of the Planning Code of Conduct for Members and Officers.
(b) That, subject to the approval of the Council, the Council’s Constitution be amended accordingly.