Agenda and minutes
PDF 62 KBVenue: Council Chamber - Town Hall. View directions
Contact: Paulina Ford, Senior Governance Officer - 01733452508 Email: paulina.ford@peterborough.gov.uk
Note: Extraordinary Meeting
| No. | Item |
|---|---|
|
Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillor Maqbool and Councillor Over attended as substitute.
|
|
|
Declarations of Interest and Whipping Declarations At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.
Minutes: There were no declarations of interest or whipping declarations.
|
|
|
Additional documents:
Minutes: The purpose of the meeting was to consider the Call-In request that had been made in relation to the decision made by Cabinet on 24 February 2014 in respect of the Update on Proposed Ground Mounted and Wind Developments at Newborough, Morris Fen and America Farm – FEB14/CAB/16.
The request to Call-In this decision was made on 26 February 2014 by Councillor Harrington and supported by Councillors Sanders and Murphy. The decision for Call-In was based on the following grounds:
(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. (c) Take account of all relevant matters, both in general and specific, and ignore any irrelevant matters. (f) Follow procedures correctly and be fair.
The reasons put forward by the Councillors were:
1. There has been a significant change to the financial projections between consideration of the financial position in December at Scrutiny and the Cabinet report of 24 February. There was no explanation for that change and more importantly; no opportunity for the Wind and Solar working group, and therefore the public, to explore that change or to be given an opportunity to consider all alternatives (Article 11 (2) (a)).
2. By failure to refer consideration of the financial position to the Wind & Solar Working Group prior to the Cabinet meeting; the Cabinet has failed to follow procedures correctly and be fair (Article 11 (2) (a)).
There is a serious concern about the gird connection at America Farm and £3million has been set aside to meet any contingency arising but no explanation has been given about whether this is an appropriate amount for the risks around the grid connection. There is no justification for this figure and no opportunity has been given to the working group to examine this.
3. There has been a significant change to the quality of the land as set out in the Cabinet report (from grade 1 and 2 to 3a)). The public, in particular the tenant farmers, were not told of this until the report was issued. This has the potential to impact the tenant farmers and the Council’s own freehold interests and no consideration was given as to the commercial impact that this information could have; i.e. developing the land. The Cabinet has therefore failed to take into account all relevant matters before making their decision (Article 11 (2) (c)).
Outcome: Before any final decision is made by the Executive, the matter should be referred to the Scrutiny Committee and / or the Wind and Solar working group for an in-depth consideration of these issues with appropriate public involvement.
After considering the request to call-in and all relevant advice, the Committee were required to decide either to:
(a) not agree to the request to call-in, when the decision shall take effect; (b) refer the decision back to the decision ... view the full minutes text for item 3. |
|