To receive declarations by members and officers of the existence and nature of any personal or prejudicial interests in matters on this agenda.
Minutes:
2.1 Councillor Robert Davis declared that any Members of the Majority Party who had or would make representations on the applications on the agenda were his friends. He also advised that in his capacity as Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Planning it was inevitable and part of his role that he got to know, meet and talk to leading members of the planning and property industry including landowners and developers and their professional teams such as architects, surveyors, planning consultants, lawyers and public affairs advisers as well as residents, residents associations and amenity groups. It was his practice to make such declarations. He stated that it did not mean that they were his personal friends or that he had a pecuniary interest, but that he had worked with them in his capacity as Cabinet Member for Planning.
2.2 Councillor Davis explained that all four Members of the Committee were provided a week before the meeting with a full set of papers including a detailed officer’s report on each application together with bundles of every single letter or e-mail received in respect of every application including all letters and e-mails containing objections or giving support. Members of the Committee read through everything in detail prior to the meeting. Accordingly, if an issue or comment made by a correspondent was not specifically mentioned at the meeting in the officers presentation or by Members of the Committee, because of the need to get through a long agenda, it did not mean that Members had ignored the issue as they will have read about it and comments made by correspondents in the papers read prior to the meeting.
2.3 Councillor Davis also declared that in his capacity as the Cabinet Member for the Built Environment with specific responsibility for planning he regularly meets with developers as part of the City Council’s pre-application engagement with applicants. This was wholly in accordance with normal protocols and the terms set out in the Localism Act 2011 and as amplified in the Communities and Local Government Act Guidance document “A Plain English Guide to the Localism Act”. Councillor Davis added that the meetings held with applicants and in some case objectors too were without prejudice and all parties were advised that a final formal decision was only taken when all the facts were before him and his Committee through the normal planning application process.
2.4 Councillor Davis wished to declare that in his capacity as Cabinet Member he knew a number of the directors of planning consultancy companies in Westminster. The planning consultancy companies were representing the applicants on a number of items on the current agenda, including Four Communications, Belgrave, Rolfe Judd, Gerald Eve, Hard Hat, GL Hearn and Turleys.
2.5 Councillor Davis then made the following further declarations as they related to the specific applications on the agenda:
Item 1 - That he had held a number of meetings with the applicants and had during the process got to know the Directors of the applicant company and had received hospitality from them.
Item 2 - That he had held a number of meetings with the applicants, knows some of the trustees of the Almshouses as well as some of the objectors to the application and the Directors of Gerald Eve.
Item 3 - That he knows the Directors of Belgrave, Turley and Alchemi. He also declared that the application had been considered by the committee previously and that he had attended a committee site visit the previous week.
Item 4 - That previous applications for the site had been considered by the committee and that he had attended a site meeting for a previous application. He also declared that he knows the architect for the scheme.
Item 5 - He knows the Directors of the New West End Company and had himself served as a director of the company but not for some years.
Item 6 - That he had held a meeting with the applicants, knows the Directors of Rolfe Judd and 4 Communications as well as the architects.
Item 7 - That applications for the site had been considered by the committee previously. He also declared that he knows representatives of GL Hearn and directors of the applicant company and had held meetings with them on previous applicatio select held n schemes.
Item 8 - He had held meetings with the freeholders of the hotel previously but not the applicants and these were unrelated to the application.
2.6 Councillor Tim Mitchell declared that any Members of the Majority Party who had or would make representations in respect of the applications on the agenda were his friends. He also advised that in his capacity as a Councillor for St James’s Ward, and as Cabinet Member for Finance responsible for the City Council’s property portfolio, he regularly met with members of the planning and property industry as well as residents’ associations and amenity groups. He also knew planning consultancy companies that were representing the applicants on a number of items on the current agenda, including Turleys, Belgrave, Four Communications and Rolfe Judd.
2.7 Councillor Mitchell then made the following further declarations as they related to the specific applications on the agenda:
Item 3 - That the application had been considered by the committee previously and that he had received correspondence from and engaged with both the applicants and objectors. He also declared that he had attended a committee site visit the previous week.
Item 5 - That he knows the Directors of the New West End Company.
Item 7 - That he had sat on the committee when it had considered a previous application for the Colonnades.
Item 8 - That the site is located in his Ward and he had received representations from the applicant.
2.8 Councillor Susie Burbridge declared that any Members of the Majority Party and Minority Party who had or would make representations on the applications on the agenda were her friends. She advised that she was Deputy Cabinet Member for Housing, Business and Economic Regeneration. She further advised in respect of items 3, 4 & 7 that she had sat on the committee when it had previously considered applications for these sites. In respect of item 1, she declared that she had spoken and listened to quite a number of people who had expressed varying views on the merits of the application but had not expressed a view to them on it.
2.9 Councillor David Boothroyd read out the following declaration:
“I am Head of Research and Psephology for Thorncliffe, whose clients are companies applying for planning permission from various local authorities. No current clients are in Westminster; if there were I would be precluded from working on them under the company’s code of conduct.
Some Thorncliffe clients have engaged planning consultants who are also representing the applicants tonight: Gerald Eve on items 1 and 2, Turley on item 3, Rolfe Judd Planning on item 6, GL Hearn on item 7, and Savills on item 8. However I do not deal directly with clients or other members of project teams, and planning consultants are not themselves clients.
On item 1, I live within the area consulted by the applicant and by the council on this application. I sat on the planning committee on 6 November 2012 which heard a previous scheme on this site. Several representations about this application have been made by people I consider my friends.
I am a councillor sponsor for the Notting Hill East Neighbourhood Forum, who have made representations; I am also a member of Westminster Labour Group and Hyde Park Branch of the Labour Party who have made comments, but in each case I played no part in guiding their views.
On item 3, I had the benefit of a report from Cllr Williams, who had replaced me, on the committee’s discussion on 15 November. I also attended the site visit last Thursday.
On item 7, I sat on the committee on 11 March 2014 which decided the main application for reconfiguration of The Colonnades.
On item 8, I am a member of the London Library, which owns several buildings near the site.”
2.10 Councillor Antonia Cox declared in respect of item 1 that the site is located in her Ward, she is the chairman of the Adults, Health and Public Protection Policy and Scrutiny Committee and is a Member of the Conservative Party and knows Members of the Majority Party in her capacity as a Westminster Councillor.
2.11 Sean Dwyer, Highways Planning Manager, declared in respect of item 1 that one of the letters of representation submitted in relation to the application is from his wife in her capacity as Director of Built Environment at the City of London. He clarified that they had not made any comments in relation to the application.