The Committee considered amending the frequency of Planning Committee meetings to monthly from September 2022.

The Committee was advised that there were a number of issues with the current cycle. These included:

·                little time between meetings to allow productive work on cases, due to the short cycle, every week there was either a committee meeting, or draft or final reports were due each week which detracted from Officer ability to focus on other work;

·                Inconsistent meeting lengths/agenda sizes;

·                When they arise, short agendas were not time/cost efficient. 

The advantages of changing it to monthly included:

·                more consistent agenda sizes;

·                more time to make meaningful progress on cases between meetings;

·                a need for physical fewer meetings, reduced cost and time;

·                More cost efficient;

·                More environmentally friendly/sustainable in line with the Council’s draft Climate Change Strategy which in action CBP 1.0 stated that elected Members should seek to reduce transport through car shares, public transport, and online meetings

·                More predictability when meetings would be (i.e. always a certain part of the month)

·                Report preparation periods less likely to clash with Xmas and other events.

·                More time available for Member policy briefing sessions and training sessions which could be held remotely

In periods where there was significant business arising, extraordinary/special meetings of the Committee could be convened if necessary, though this was considered to be a relatively rare possible occurrence and was significantly more preferable than having meetings with limited business or that needed to be cancelled. Extraordinary meetings if required would be agreed with the Chairman and notified as far in advance as possible.

Subject to Committee approval, as many of the pre-existing dates would be used as possible. Only 4 new dates would need to be arranged, and 7 dates would be cancelled. All meetings up to the August 2022 break would remain unaltered.

                                                                                                                                                                           The revised calendar of meetings from September onward would be as shown in the table below (existing meetings shaded grey):

The 7 cancelled meetings would be 28 September,19 October,30 November,21 December 2022,8 February,1 March and 12 April 2023.

The Committee was supportive of the proposed changes for the reasons set out in the report. The benefits of being able to dedicate more time to policy discussions as well as relieving some of the pressure on officers were particularly welcome.

On a separate matter the Committee asked the CHDMBC to consider whether there was any suitable method of giving advance warning to Members of significant major planning applications which would be reported to Committee to give more preparation time in the lead up to meetings. The Committee also acknowledged that officers experienced pressures from the submission of late information and representations that made compiling the addendum challenging, however if this could come around earlier on meeting days this would be appreciated by the committee.

            Resolved that:

i)             the frequency of Planning Committee Meetings be amended to monthly with effect from September 2022;and

ii)            the calendar of Planning Committee meetings for the current municipal year be amended from September 2022 onwards as set out above