To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 November 2015 (Minute Nos. 327 - 337), Extraordinary meeting held on 9 December 2015 (Minute Nos. 386 – 387) and Extraordinary meeting held on 5 January 2016 (Minute Nos.to follow) as correct records.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 November 2015 (Minute Nos. 327 – 337), the Extraordinary Meeting held on 9 December 2015 (Minute Nos. 386 – 387) and the Extraordinary Meeting held on 5 January 2016 (Minute Nos. 416 – 418) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chairman as correct records.

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.

The Head of Planning Services and the Cabinet Member for Planning have been invited to attend. Performance Review Plan attached.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Planning, the Planning Committee Chairman, the Head of Planning Services, the Development Manager and visiting Member to the meeting.

The Chairman explained that the Committee would examine the bullet point topics included on page one of the report and go on to gather information, receive feedback from officers, and determine the main issues that Members wanted to review and look into further.  The Chairman invited Members to add other issues to the list if they wished to.

Members commented on each of the bullet points, as follows.

The usefulness of reports received from Kent County Council (KCC) Highways

A Member requested that senior officers from KCC Highways and also from the Environment Agency (EA) be invited to give evidence and provide information on their input to the Planning Committee reports.  The Member suggested that further information be sought on the reasons why an organisation chose to comment ‘no comment’ on a planning application.  The Chairman advised that agencies could be invited to provide information for the review and the Member welcomed the inclusion of those agencies being further explored as the review progressed.

A Member considered that input in the Committee reports from KCC Highways was general and technical in approach and not in the true context of the particular area or application.  Another Member suggested that the Planning Committee be asked what comments they would like to see in a report; such as the cumulative impact of a development.  He considered KCC Highways’ comments were in isolation, and sometimes not there in time for the Planning Committee; he suggested more urgency was required.

The Head of Planning Services advised that KCC Highways were only a consultee; however, if Members were not minded to agree with their comments and this led to refusal of the planning application, KCC would not be available to defend the Members’ position at a Planning Appeal and the Council would need to provide its own evidence to support their position.  He advised that there had been changes at KCC in the last two years reducing the level of input from Highways on planning applications.  There was standing advice, and Planning Officers had to interpret this advice on applications up to five dwellings in size.  The Head of Planning Services reported that at Swale Borough Council (SBC) 88% of applications were determined by Planning Officers and 12% went to Planning Committee.  He further advised that KCC Highways were involved at the pre-application stage which often led to amendments to planning applications which as a consequence removed objections from the local community and were therefore not reported to Planning Committee.  A summary of their comments was always included on applicable items on the Planning Committee agenda.  The Head of Planning Services explained that if Members had a highway issue on an application, that they advised the Planning Officers early on in the process, so that the issue could be looked into more closely with KCC Highways.

A Member considered Ward  ...  view the full minutes text for item 421.

The Committee is asked to review the updated log of recommendations (attached).

The report was noted.

The Committee is asked to consider the Forward Plan with a view to identifying possible items for pre-decision scrutiny.

A Member suggested Faversham Members be involved in the Faversham Recreation Ground – Proposed Heritage Lottery Fund Bid item.

Resolved:

That the Forward Plan be noted.

The Committee is asked to consider any requests from Committee Members to commence a review.

There were no urgent business Requests to consider.

The Committee is asked to review and discuss the Committee’s Work Programme (attached) for the remainder of the year.

The Policy and Performance Officer suggested that the Development Management review should now be considered at the meeting on 10 February 2016, and the Leisure and Tourism review be considered on 10 March 2016.  Members agreed with this.

A Member queried whether the Elections Review had been completed; the Policy and Performance Officer undertook to look into this matter.

The Policy and Performance Officer reminded Members that the next Scrutiny Committee meeting was on Thursday 28 January 2016 and would be considering the draft Budget for 2016/17.  All Members had been invited to attend.

Resolved:

That the work programme with the above amendments be noted.