Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

No declarations of interest were made.

On 19 November 2009, the Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning, Growth and Human Resources made an executive decision relating to the East of England Plan to 2031.  In accordance with the Constitution this decision was published on 20 November 2009.  On 24 November 2009, Councillors Sandford, Fower and Trueman submitted a request to call-in this decision on the following grounds:

(i)                The decision is Key but it has not been dealt with in accordance with the Council’s Constitution.

(ii)              The decision does not follow the principles of good decision making set out in Article 12 of the Council’s Constitution, specifically that the decision maker did not:

(a)     realistically consider all alternatives and, where reasonably possible, consider the views of the public;

(b)     understand and keep to the legal requirements regulating their power to make decisions; and

(c)     follow procedures correctly and be fair.

In support of the request to call-in Councillor Sandford made the following points:

·                     He apologised for the need to call a special meeting to consider this issue but he had been reassured in the past that procedures had been put in place to prevent this happening.

·                     The request to call-in was on the grounds of process and not the contents of the response.  It had not been made on party political grounds but the Cabinet Member should have had oversight of the process.

·                     The East of England Plan was a very important document for the City and he had concerns that no members other than the Cabinet had been involved in the development of the response.

·                     The consultation period had been between 1 September and 24 November but the Cabinet Member Decision Notice (CMDN) had only been published on 20 November which gave no time for call-in if some Members felt that there was a problem with the response.  Technically the Council could not submit its response until after the call-in period had ended.

·                     What had caused the delay between 27 October and 20 November?

·                     This had also occurred with the response to the East Midlands Plan.  Councillor Sandford had raised the issue at Full Council and had been given assurances that procedures would be put in place.  The Solicitor to the Council had also given similar assurances.

·                     The decision should be referred back to the Cabinet Member to make the point that procedures needed to be followed.  A report should also be submitted to Council on what will be done to tighten procedures.

·                     The issue seemed to be that there needed to be a proper oversight of the process.  With consultations it was important that scrutiny was involved.

In response to Councillor Sandford’s points, the Head of Delivery made the following comments:

·                     The East of England Regional Assembly (EERA) was consulting on a revision to the Regional Plan.  This was the start of EERA’s process and there would be lots of opportunities to comment in the future.

·                     On 14 September, a public consultation event had been held in the Town Hall which had had a good  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Monday 18 January 2010

Monday 18 January 2010