Agenda item

To consider the  comments of the Regulatory Committee on the establishment of a separate Strategic Planning Committee with a Planning Sub Committee and a separate Licensing Committee with a Licensing Sub Committee and the decommissioning of the Regulatory Committee for the municipal year 2021/22.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced the report which provided feedback from the Regulatory Committee and asked the Standards Committee to make recommendations to Full Council on the proposed changes to the Committee structure, namely for the Regulatory Committee to be formally reconstituted as two separate Committees – a Strategic Planning Committee and a Licensing Committee.

It was explained that the Regulatory Committee had considered the proposals, which were set out in detail in Appendices 1-4 to the report, at a working group meeting on 11 February 2021 and at the Regulatory Committee meeting on 25 February 2021. It was noted that the Regulatory Committee had formally endorsed Option 3, which proposed the establishment of a Planning Committee called the Strategic Planning Committee, with a Planning Sub Committee, and a Licensing Committee, with a Licensing Sub Committee.

The Democratic Services Manager explained that the Regulatory Committee had welcomed the fact that the existing policy and performance reports would continue to be reported to the Strategic Planning Committee and would be reported to the Licensing Committee. It was considered that it would be appropriate to have the same number of members for the Strategic Planning Committee and the Planning Sub-Committee. It was also suggested that, instead of having three set members for the Licensing Sub-Committee, there would be a Chair and the remaining members would be appointed from a pool of members from the Licensing Committee. It was also noted that, as the Strategic Planning Committee and Licensing Committee would be parent committees, there would be no need for Full Council to act as a parent committee in the unlikely event that an application was referred up.

It was noted that the Regulatory Committee had commented on the need to refer to Building Control functions in the terms of reference for the Strategic Planning Committee and it was highlighted that it was proposed to make this change after consultation with Legal Services. There had been some discussion about changing the name of the main Licensing Committee to the Strategic Licensing Committee. However, it was noted that a number of other boroughs had a Licensing Committee and it was acknowledged that this reflected the terminology used in legislation.

In summary, it was noted that the Regulatory Committee and the relevant planning, licensing, and legal officers had agreed with the changes to the committee structure and the Council’s Constitution. If the Standards Committee agreed with these recommendations, they would be presented to Full Council for approval in March 2021.

On behalf of the Standards Committee, the Chair thanked the Regulatory Committee and officers for their excellent, collaborative work in recommending updates in relation to the Regulatory Committee and the Council’s committee structure.

RESOLVED

1.    To note the endorsement of Regulatory Committee to Option 3, set out at Appendix 1 to the report, which was the deletion of the Regulatory Committee for the 2021/22 Municipal Year and establishment of a separate main Planning Committee called the Strategic Planning Committee, with a Planning Sub Committee, and the establishment of a separate main Licensing Committee, with a Licensing Sub Committee.

2.    To recommend to Full Council the implementation of these changes to the Committee structure, set out above, to take effect from the 2021/22 Municipal year, as set out in section 6.6 of Appendix 1 to the report.

3.    To recommend resultant changes and additions to the Constitution, Part 3 Section B (Full Council and Non-Executive Functions and protocols), which are attached at appendices 2 to 4 to the report, to Full Council for approval on 18 March 2021 and to take effect from the start of the new Municipal Year, May 2021/22.

4.    To delegate any further required minor amendments to appendices 2 to 4 to the report and other resultant changes to the Constitution that may be necessary before submission of the Standards Committee report to Full Council on 10 March 2021 to the Monitoring Officer after consultation with the Chair.