To consider any question of which notice has been given under Council Procedure Rule 11.2.
Minutes:
The following questions were submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11.2
1. Membership and Responsibilities
Question from Councillor L Harris to Councillor Lewzey, Chair of the Planning and Rights of Way Panel
Can you please explain the reasons why Councillor Shields who is not a member of the Planning Panel and has not been so for over a year, and who also has never acted as Chair of that Panel in the past, was parachuted onto the Panel and then acted as Chair, when the properly elected and appointed Deputy Chair of the Panel, Councillor Lloyd, was present and it was known that she was going to be present and was in attendance. Why was no apology given for the absence of the appointed and regular Chair of the Panel, Councillor Lewzey?
Answer
The vice chairs of Planning Panels had not yet received training in chairing meetings and so it was decided to arrange a chair with planning knowledge and experience of chairing complex meetings. Training has been arranged for vice chairs and it is intended that each vice-chair will take the chairing role of the Planning Panel in the future if the chair must give apologies.
I did give my apologies and I'm sorry that the reasons had not reached all panel members. I was at the graduation ceremony for my youngest child at Leeds University, which I hope would be seen as a satisfactory reason to give apologies.
2. Officer Attendance
Question from Councillor L Harris to Councillor Lewzey, Chair of the Planning and Rights of Way Panel
Why is the case officer of each planning application now never present and the cases are all presented by one planning officer on everyone’s behalf. This presenting officer will not have all the background information we might ask about, nor be able to find or have access to information as the office will be closed.
Answer
With the implementation of evening meetings, it is not considered an efficient use of time, for case officers to be on call for these items in case detailed questions should arise. Team Leaders are briefed in advance of the meetings and members are welcome to request information or ask questions of the case officer prior to the Panel meeting.
3. Temporary Resignations from Panels
Question from Councillor L.Harris to Councillor Lewzey, Chair of the Planning and Rights of Way Panel.
On the Agenda for the Planning Panel on Tuesday 16th September 2014 it states as follows:
"Item 10 apologies
It was noted that following receipt of the temporary resignation of Councillor Lewzey from the Panel, the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, acting under delegated powers, had appointed Councillor Shields to replace him for the purposes of this meeting.
As Councillor Lewzey had temporarily resigned for the purposes of this meeting, the Panel was required to appoint a Chair.
Resolved that Councillor Shields was elected Chair for the purposes of this meeting, the Panel was required to appoint a Chair."
Can you explain exactly what this means, as the term temporarily resigned is not clear? Why did the Vice-Chair not take over automatically? And as a person present at this meeting, I can recall none of this being discussed or disclosed at the time of the meeting.
Answer
The issue of the substitution of members on committees is not defined within legislation so common law conventions have grown up nationally over the years.
To avoid any confusion if a member is not able to make a meeting and the political party still wishes to retain its full allocation of voting members the convention is that prior to the meeting the member temporarily resigns from the committee, this automatically creates a vacancy and under the political proportionality rules this can only be filled by another elected member from the same party. There is no need for any of this to happen at committee, it is all done prior to the meeting and is a long standing operational convention used by all parties from time to time.
Post committee the reverse happens to reappoint the standing member.
Please see the answer to Question 1 in relation to the part about the Vice-Chair.