Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence and to note any substitutions.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors C Manning (sub Cllr Whitby), M Storey (sub Cllr Dickinson) and B Lawton (sub Cllr J Rust).

The Chair thanked the substitutes for attending the meeting.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.  He advised the Committee that the meeting was being broadcast live on You Tube.

The Democratic Services Officer then conducted a roll call to confirm attendees.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on an item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

Councillors Bubb, Crofts, Kirk and Whitby declared that they were members of the King’s Lynn Internal Drainage Board.

To consider any business, which by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposes to accept, under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act, 1972.

There was no urgent business under Standing Order 7.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chair of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before a decision on that item is taken.

The following Councillors attended under Standing Order 34:

P  Gidney, J Collop, S Collop, P Kunes, R Lawton, C Morley, A Holmes, M de Whalley

To receive any Chair’s correspondence.

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The Chair reported that he had received correspondence, which had been passed to the officers to respond to.  He invited the Assistant Director to address the Committee at this point.

The Assistant Director explained that an email had been received from Councillor Joyce, which advised that he would be proposing deferral of the application because of a procedural irregularity over the length of time the report had been published, that it had not been published five clear days ahead of the meeting in accordance with the Local Government Act 1972, Section 100B.

Officers had looked at this and that in order to avoid any concern or a challenge by way of judicial review, his advice to the Committee was that it would be sensible to defer the item for a short period to allow the five clear days to pass.

The Chair then invited Councillor Joyce to outline his reasons for deferral of the application.

Councillor Joyce explained that the application should be deferred for a few days. The reason was to allow the Planning Committee to regularize its procedures.

He added that the Borough Council was both the local Planning Authority and also the applicant, and so it had to be fair to all - the applicant and anyone who was opposed to the application.  He referred to the Local Government Act 1972 and the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information), (England) Regulations of 2012, where section seven stated that documentation should be published  five clear days, and the report had not been published for that amount of time.  Therefore he proposed that the application be deferred for those reasons. 

Councillor Parish seconded the proposal to defer the application.  He asked what the length of deferment would be as it could allow for further public consultation to be carried out.

The Chair added that the length of time that the application would be deferred for was not known at this stage.

The Democratic Services Officer then carried out a roll call on the proposal to defer the application which was carried (14 votes for, 1 against and 1 abstention).

RESOLVED:  That the determination of the application be deferred to allow five clear days to pass.