Agenda and minutes

            No apologies were reported.

Restricted Item                     No declarations of interest were recorded.

            The information contained in the following report is restricted in accordance with Part 1 of Schedule 6 of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

            The Committee was reminded that, at its meeting on 17th January, it had agreed to defer consideration of the report so that the Committee could provide further feedback on the proposed changes to the Development Engagement Manager and that the following points could also be considered:

·        3.9.1 – Advising all Members within the DEA of any planning application request for referral to the Committee and the outcome of the request;

·        3.9.1 – The ability to trigger planning application referrals to Committee at any stage of the process;

·        3.9.2(a) i – Current housing scheme limits to remain (any developments over 4 dwellings to be referred to Committee); and

·        Possibilities of how to deal with, or remove from the Committee agenda, those applications that fall outside of the Scheme of Delegation (such as employee applications, Council interests, etc.) but are not deemed to be controversial.

            The Committee considered the report which outlined the rationale for the proposed changes to the powers delegated to the Director of Planning and Place in the Council’s Scheme of Delegation. This took account of feedback which had been provided by Members at the Planning Committee Workshop on 15th December, 2016, and individual feedback which had been received following the Committee meeting on 17th January 2017, together with the associated appendices.

            The Development Engagement Manager informed the Committee of the proposed revised changes, as follows:

“APPENDIX 3 – PROPOSED REVISED CHANGES

3.9            DIRECTOR OF PLANNING AND PLACE

The exercise of the following functions, in line with relevant Council policies, is delegated to the Director of Planning and Place and the relevant reporter, unless otherwise stated:

Planning

3.9.1       An elected Member of the Council may request that an application that relates to a site within their District Electoral Area or within an adjoining District Electoral Area or within the City Centre[1] is referred to the Planning Committee provided that the request is made in writing or by email to Democratic Services within 21 days of the application being publicly advertised. The Member shall clearly state their reason/s for requesting referral of the application to the Planning Committee, which must be material planning considerations.  The Director of Planning and Town Solicitor shall determine whether the reason/s are material planning consideration/s and of significant weight to allow the application to be referred to Committee. The Director of Planning and Place will advise the relevant Member of their decision. If the decision is not to refer the application to the Planning Committee, then the decision shall be delegated to the Director of Planning and Place. Democratic Services will notify all Members within the DEA to which the application relates as to the outcome of the request to refer the application to the Planning Committee. Where an application is referred to the Planning Committee under this provision the Planning Service shall notify the applicant and any objector at least five calendar days before the application is discussed by the Planning Committee.

3.9.2       The functions listed below in relation to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.