Agenda and minutes

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services to note any changes to the membership

1.1      It was noted that Councillor Paul Swaddle was substituting for Councillor Mark Shearer.

To receive declarations by Members and Officers of the existence and nature of any pecuniary interests or any other significant interest in matters on this agenda.

2.1      There were no declarations of interest.

To sign the minutes of the meeting held on 5 June 2024.

3.1      RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 June 2024 be signed by the Chair as a correct record of proceedings.

4.1      The Committee was presented with a report providing details of a complaint submitted by a tenant through the Council’s complaints process. Following this complaint, a compensation payment of £5,670 was recommended to be paid to the tenant from the Housing Revenue Account.

4.2      The Committee noted the contents of the report and discussed its details. Disappointment was expressed over the extensive delays to the repairs and the subsequent poor communication, but it was hoped that lessons had been learnt from the case. The Committee was advised that following the review a dedicated Customer Advocacy Team had been introduced to maintain relationships with residents and ensure actions were tracked and monitored through to completion. The Committee was also pleased to note that the introduction of household support reviews had been implemented to provide a reliable mechanism to review household circumstances at various touch points. In addition, Members were advised that several discretionary repairs had been carried out in recognition of the impact of the delays on the household and to re-build trust with the residents. The Committee recognised the importance of finding solutions that didn’t involve unnecessary works and costs to the residents and noted that a further case review of the complaint would be completed by 30 September 2024.

RESOLVED: That the payment of compensation of £5,670 be noted and approved to comply with the Stage 2 complaint award.

5.1      The Head of Governance and Councillor Liaison introduced the report and confirmed that there were two elements to the report. Firstly, the Committee was being asked to assess options to reshape the whole planning committee structure and provide more direction and purpose to the overall system of committees focused on planning matters. Secondly, following the by-elections held on 19 September 2024 consideration was also required on the impact of these results on the political balance of the Council and the number of committee seats allocated to each party.

5.2      The Committee discussed the two planning structure options set out in the report. A concern was raised that reducing the number of committees would result in a lack of flexibility which would include members having to attend more meetings, therefore placing them under significant additional pressure. A query was also raised over whether introducing an informal planning members forum to discuss policy and legislation changes instead of at the Planning & City Development Committee would lead to a lack of transparency.

5.3      Members then discussed the proposal to introduce a smaller parent committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, with two sub-committees sitting underneath it. It was recognised that currently some planning members had to sit on two sub-committees yet only received one special responsibility allowance for doing twice the amount of work and this system had more potential to ensure there was a fairer distribution of work. The Committee noted that planning members would have to sit more frequently under this option but there would not be an increase in the number of applications coming before Members. In terms of introducing a members’ forum it was felt this would allow detailed member training to be held along with briefings on planning related matters including policy and legislative changes which it currently was not possible nor appropriate to undertake in a formal committee setting.

5.4      Following a detailed discussion the Committee agreed that Option 2 was the preferred planning committee structure. It was considered that creating a new parent committee with a primary role to determine applications and additional strategic functions akin to some of the listed functions fulfilled previously by the P&CD Committee, offered a more balanced and flexible approach which had the opportunity to produce better outcomes.

5.5      In terms of proportionality the Committee agreed that following the recent by-elections some remediation was required to ensure there was adequate political balance across all committees. As such, Members agreed that the Opposition Party would receive an extra seat on General Purposes, Audit and Performance and the Pension Fund Committees, totalling an additional three seats.

           RESOLVED:

1)             That Full Council be recommended to adopt Planning Option 2 as set out in the General Purposes Report, namely the creation of a Strategic Planning Committee with two Sub-Committees sitting underneath it, all consisting of three Majority Members and two Opposition Members, along with the adoption of the proposed terms of reference as set in Appendix B.

2)             That Full Council be recommended to adopt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.1      The Committee received a report and following discussions agreed the proposed programme of meetings.

RESOLVED:

1)        That the Council be recommended to approve the dates of full Council Meetings, as follows: 25 June 2025, 10 September 2025, 12 November 2025, 21 January 2026, 4 March 2026, 18 March 2026, 13 May 2026 (Annual); and

2)        That the Programme of other formal Meetings set out in Appendix A of the report be approved.