Agenda item

To consider the attached report of the Monitoring Officer.

To seek Council approval of changes recommended by Cabinet following the review of the Development Control service, delegation of TUPE matters and to update Council on the Media Relations Protocol and Guidance on Amendments to Motions.

The Chairman presented a report which sought approval of the following areas of the constitution:

·         A revised Scheme of Delegation for Development Control (Part 3C)

·         A revised Planning Code of Good Practice for Members of Wiltshire Council (Protocol 4)

·         Minor extension to the Terms of Reference of the Strategic Planning Committee (Part 3 – paragraph 2.1)  

The above matters stemmed from the outcome of a review of the development control service which had been the subject of consultation and consideration by Cabinet. Council’s attention was drawn to comments made by members of the Standards Committee.

·         Amending the Financial Regulations (Part 9) and Contract Regulations (Part 11) to allow for the delegation of decisions to a particular threshold involving the transfer of staff in or out of the Council.

The above stemmed from a Cabinet request to avoid delays in the decision making process and make better use of Cabinet time.

The report also updated Council on matters which were left outstanding following the last review of the Constitution, namely the Media Relations Protocol and the Guidance on Amendments to Motions. It was noted that the Focus Group on the Review of the Constitution had been involved in the process to review the above mentioned documents, details of which were presented.

A lengthy discussion ensued on the proposed revised Scheme of Delegation for Development Control. During this discussion, an amendment was proposed to delete the following bullet point of the Scheme:

·         ‘make changes to conditions approved at committee (in the light of changing circumstances between the meeting and the issue of the decision) provided this is in line with the principles of the committee’s decision. Any such changes will be reported back to a subsequent committee for members’ information’

Concern was expressed that such a facility could potentially undermine decisions made by Councillors through the democratic decision making process at planning committees.

Cllr Sturgis, Cabinet member for Waste, Property and Development Control Services who presented and moved the proposals relating to planning, gave examples of situations when the facility described in the above bullet point would be used. He emphasised that this would be used to enable minor issues to be resolved in line with the principles of what a planning committee had agreed. This would prevent delays in issuing decisions and make better use of committee time.

On being put to the vote, the amendment was LOST and a recorded vote having been requested, the voting was recorded as follows:

For the amendment (19):

Cllrs Desna Allen, Trevor Carbin, Chris Caswill, Peter Colmer, Brian Dalton, Bill Douglas, Peggy Dow, Jon Hubbard, George Jeans, David Jenkins, Simon Killane, John Knight, Howard Marshall, Francis Morland, Christopher Newbury, Helen Osborn, Jeff Osborn, Judy Rooke, Ian West

Against the amendment (44):

Cllrs Richard Beattie, Chuck Berry, John Brady, Richard Britton, Alison Bucknell, Jane Burton, Nigel Carter, Richard Clewer, Christopher Cochrane, Linda Conley, Christine Crisp, Andrew Davis, Peter Davis, Fleur De Rhe Phillipe, Tony Deane, Mary Douglas, Peter Doyle, Peter Fuller, Richard Gamble, Howard Greenman, Mark Griffiths, Lionel Grundy, Robert Hall, Russell Hawker, Mike Hewitt, Charles Howard, Chris Humphries, Keith Humphries, Peter Hutton, Jacqui Lay, Jemima Milton, John Noeken, Jeff Ody, Leo Randall, Jane Scott, Jonathan Seed, Toby Sturgis, John Thomson, Dick Tonge, Bridget Wayman, Fred Westmoreland, Stuart Wheeler, Roy While and Christopher Williams.

Abstention (1):

Cllr Jose Green

A discussion ensued on the Planning Code of Good Practice for Members of Wiltshire Council.  It was agreed to provide Councillors with clarification on the position of claiming allowances for viewing sites outside of formally arranged site visits.  At the request of Cllr George Jeans, it was also agreed to circulate advice to Councillors on declarations of interests in the planning context.

Minor extension to the Terms of Reference of the Strategic Planning Committee which concerned the delegation of the function of revising and or setting planning fees to the Committee - Council considered that this should be dealt with as part of the setting of the Council fees and charges as part of the budget setting process.

Following detailed discussions, a number of changes were agreed to the Scheme of Delegation for Development Control Services. For the sake of clarity, these changes are shown as tracked changes at Appendix 2 to the minutes. A minor change was made to the Planning Code of Good Practice for Members of Wiltshire Council as shown in the resolution (a) (ii) below.

Following detailed discussion, it was

Resolved:

(a)       That Council approve the following:

      i.        Part 3C - Scheme of Delegation (Development Control) as revised (which include further revisions made at Council as detailed at Appendix 2);

    ii.        Protocol 4 – Planning Code of Good Practice for Members of Wiltshire Council amended as follows:

To delete the following from the end of paragraph 11(d)

“Where two members of the public wish to speak in support of an application, only the applicant or agent will be allowed to speak, not both.  If there is only one member of the public wishing to speak both the applicant and agent can speak.”

   iii.        to amend Part 9 – Financial Regulations and Part 11 – Contract Regulations to allow for delegation of matters involving the transfer of staff in or out of the Council as detailed at paragraph 16 of the report presented.

   iv.        Note the content and adoption of Part 4.3 – Guidance on Amendments to Motions (as presented).

    v.        That the Monitoring Officer be given delegated authority to further amend the Media Relations Protocol to include specific reference to Area Boards and to approve the document following consultation with members of the Focus Group on the Review of the Constitution and Cllr Chris Williams as PH for Area Boards (communities and housing) via email.

(b)       That the above decisions be incorporated into the Council’s constitution.