The Chairman will advise the meeting of the evacuation procedures to follow in the event of an emergency. This is particularly important for visitors and members of the public who will be unfamiliar with the building and procedures.

The Chairman will inform the meeting whether there is a planned evacuation drill due to take place, what the alarm sounds like (i.e. ringing bells), where the closest emergency exit route is, and where the second closest emergency exit route is, in the event that the closest exit or route is blocked.

The Chairman will inform the meeting that:

(a) in the event of the alarm sounding, everybody must leave the building via the nearest safe available exit and gather at the Assembly points at the far side of the Car Park; and

(b) the lifts must not be used in the event of an evacuation.

Any officers present at the meeting will aid with the evacuation.

It is important that the Chairman is informed of any person attending who is disabled or unable to use the stairs, so that suitable arrangements may be made in the event of an emergency.

The Chairman ensured that those present were aware of the emergency evacuation procedure.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chairman will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Director of Corporate Services as Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

No interests were declared.

To consider the following application:

15/504264/OUT – Land at Perry Court, London Road, Faversham

Requests to speak on this item must be registered with Democratic Services (democraticservices@swale.gov.uk or call us on 01795 417328) by noon on Wednesday 30 March 2016.

Tabled paper uploaded Friday 1 April 2016.

The Major Projects Officer introduced the application.  He reported that Faversham Town Council reiterated their previous objection to the application as set out in paragraph 6.06 of the original committee report.

The Major Projects Officer reported that thirteen additional letters had been received, including one from the Member of Parliament, further to the one summarised at paragraph 2.7 on page 4 of the Committee report, one from CUT and CPRE Protect Kent.  The new issues raised further to the summary of comments at paragraph 2.6 on pages 3 and 4 of the Committee report were: the arguments put forward in the new Committee report in the ‘Appraisal’ section are not accepted, and planning permission should be refused; the summary of relevant policies in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) were considered to be “cursory” particularly with regard to those policies that deal with design issues, namely paragraphs 56 to 68; it was suggested that paragraph 6.4, which states that “development of poor design” should be refused was applicable and could be the basis for the refusal of this scheme; the Council should commission their own QC to advise them on the matter of air quality; do the Inspector’s Interim Reports in respect of the emerging Local Plan deal adequately with air quality?; while the Faversham planning area may need to accommodate additional development as a result of the eventual adoption of the new Local Plan, that does not justify development on the scale envisaged at Perry Court or the approval of this development now, in advance of the adoption of the new Local Plan; and if the development is to be approved, improvements should be made to it, particularly with regard to the A2, which should be widened to accommodate additional vehicular traffic and a cycle lane, and a spine road should be provided to link the Ashford Road and Brogdale Road, Faversham. 

The Major Projects Officer further reported that Kent County Council Archaeology had written stating that they raised no objection subject to the imposition of an appropriate condition.  The Major Projects Officer advised that this was already covered by condition (21) on page 14 of the Committee report.

The Major Projects Officer stated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 632.

The meeting was adjourned at 7.30pm and reconvened at 7.40pm.