Issue - meetings

The report, which had been deferred at the previous meeting for consideration of some aspects by the Planning Committee, was presented to Members. It was noted that Planning Committee’s recommendation was appended to the report. Members discussed the content of the report and the recommended changes to the Constitution and were unable to agree on the majority of the points relating to the Planning Committee except for the start date for speakers registering being the date of agenda publication. All Members did not support the recommended change that a Member be prevented from voting if they had not heard the full debate, as they felt that during a long debate many Members had to have a comfort break, but this did not result in them missing an important part of the debate. They felt that to set out a proportion of time that they could be absent would be difficult to monitor and manage. It was suggested that the Ethical Governance & Personnel Committee be asked to consider whether any changes to the Planning Committee processes were required.

It was therefore

RESOLVED – the following changes to the Constitution be approved:

(i)         changes in paragraph 3.3 of the report relating to the service area of Environmental Health;

(ii)        changes in paragraph 3.4 of the report relating to the service area of Planning;

(iii)       the following changes to Part 4 – Procedure Rules, as set out in paragraph 3.5 of the report:

(a)        only members of the Licensing Committee may sit on a panel for a Licensing Hearing;

(b)        Paragraph 20 – only recording a Member leaving the meeting if they are absent for a decision;

(c)        Speakers at Planning Committee will not be able to register to speak until the agenda has been published (ie a week before the meeting);

(d)        changes resulting from the new Executive arrangements including replacing the Forward Plan with a rolling work programme of Executive decisions;

(iv)       updated role profiles in line with current responsibilities;

(v)        changes in paragraph 3.6 of the report regarding post titles and formatting;

(vi)       changes in paragraph 3.7 of the report regarding the remit of the Overview & Scrutiny function.