Issue - meetings

To consider the proposed merger of the Planning and Rights of Way Committees, in the light of a report by the Governance Committee.

36.1     The Council considered the proposed merger of the Planning and Rights of Way Committees, in the light of a report from the Governance Committee (pages 35 to 60).

36.2     Resolved –

(1)        That the merger of the Planning and Rights of Way Committees be approved; and

(2)        That the proposed changes to the Constitution, as set out in Appendices 1 and 2 to the report, be approved to give effect to the merger.

Report by the Director of Law and Assurance.

The Committee is asked to consider the proposals in the report for endorsement to the County Council on 6 November 2020.

5.1   The Committee received a report by the Director of Law and Assurance (copy appended to the signed minutes), which concerned a recommendation to the County Council on 06 November that the Planning and Rights of Way Committee be merged.

5.2   The report was introduced by the senior adviser, Democratic Services who explained that it was the role of the Committee to consider the proposed revisions to the Code of Practice in Probity in Planning and Rights of Way.  The proposals set out in the report were noted to include changes to the name of the Committee to ‘Planning and Rights of Way’ throughout and to remove sections 10 to 13 which had not been used in 10 years and were therefore obsolete.

5.3   The Committee noted that the decision to merge the Committees lay with the County Council following endorsement of the proposal from the Governance Committee.

5.4   Resolved - that the proposed revisions to Part 5, Section 3 of the Constitution as outlined in the appendix to the report be supported for submission to the County Council for approval on 6 November 2020.

Report by the Director of Law and Assurance.

The Committee is asked to give further consideration to a proposed merger of the Planning and Rights of Way Committees, to improve customer service and to offset some of the costs of establishing the Fire & Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee agreed by Council in December 2019.

26.1     The Committee was asked to give further consideration to a proposed merger of the Planning and Rights of Way (RoW) Committees, to improve customer service and to offset some of the costs of establishing the Fire & Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee agreed by Council in December 2019, as set out in a report by the Director of Law and Assurance (copy appended to the signed minutes).

26.2     The Senior Adviser reminded members that the Planning and RoW chairmen spoke at the previous meeting and their views had been recorded.

26.3     With the permission of the Chairman, Cllr Urquhart advised that the RoW Committee’s workload had reduced over the previous three years due to the deregulation act and decisions being delegated to officers in consultation with the Chairman; and that neighbouring authorities reported that a merged committee works well. This, and other pressures being faced, made it difficult to justify the continued existence of separate committees.

26.4     The Committee was mostly supportive of the proposed merger, although noted that site visits could be problematic if several applications had to go to one meeting at any point. It was supportive because of the positive customer service impact; applications could be considered more frequently; and the experience of neighbouring authorities was known. The Committee believed that the merger should go ahead as soon as practicable after the decision is taken by the Council on 6 November 2020 because of this.

26.5     Cllr Walsh therefore proposed that (in recommendation (2)) the words, ‘from after the election in May 2021’ are deleted and ‘as soon as possible’ is inserted. He was seconded by Cllr Jones. A vote was taken and the amendment was agreed.

26.6     In response to members’ questions, the Senior Adviser commented that if the merger is to be brought into effect immediately, the next RoW meeting scheduled for early November would be the final meeting.

26.7     Resolved -

(1)        That the County Council be recommended to approve a merger of the Planning and Rights of Way Committees in the light of the improved customer service it would deliver to rights of way customers and the need to make savings as a result of establishing a Fire & Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee; and

(2)        That the Director of Law and Assurance be authorised to prepare the necessary revisions to constitutional documents for the County Council on 6 November 2020, to take immediate effect.

Report by the Director of Law and Assurance.

As requested at the last meeting, to consider possible options for the future of the Planning and Rights of Way Committees, to find ways of offsetting some of the costs of establishing the Fire & Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee agreed by Council in December 2019.

40.1     The Committee considered a report by the Director of Law and Assurance (copy appended to the signed minutes) which proposed options for achieving savings to offset some of the costs of a new Fire and Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee.

40.2     The Director of Law and Assurance introduced the report, advising that options were given for merging the Planning and Rights of Way Committees, or to merge the chairmanship, in line with the suggestions of the Scrutiny Review Group.

40.3     At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr Whittington addressed the Committee as Chairman of the Rights of Way Committee. He reported that the work of the Chairman of Rights of Way Committee was significant between meetings and benefitted from specialist knowledge, so in reality created a higher workload than might be expected from a Committee which met two or three times a year.

40.4     At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr High addressed the Committee as Chairman of the Planning Committee. He highlighted that Planning Committee had a high workload and a distinct mode of operation, such as site visits. He hoped that more consideration would be given to the potential impact of a merger other than the financial benefit.

40.5     The Committee noted that many other councils had merged their planning and rights of way committees, but wished to have a better understanding of the practical impact of the proposed options and also questioned what other alternative options might be available for offsetting the costs of the new Committee.

40.6     Dr Walsh, seconded by Mr Jones, proposed that option 1, to merge the committees, be endorsed for recommendation to the County Council. The proposal was lost.

40.7     Mr Marshall, seconded by Mr Bradbury, proposed that a decision be deferred until a more qualitative review of impact on functions and a quantification of alternative options to make savings in the Democratic Services budget be provided. The proposal was agreed.

40.8     Resolved – That decision on options be deferred until the Committee receives a further report giving more qualitative review of the impact on functions and a quantification of alternative options to make savings in the Democratic Services budget.