A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Council and councillors

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting - Zoom - https://zoom.us/j/93336834775

Contact: Joanna Morley  01572 758271

Items
No. Item

550.

APOLOGIES

Minutes:

There were none.

551.

RECORD OF MEETING

To confirm the record of the meeting of the Growth, Infrastructure and Resources Scrutiny Committee held on 13 February (previously circulated).

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on the 13th February 2020 were agreed unanimously by the Committee.

552.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Act 1992 applies to them.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

553.

PETITIONS, DEPUTATIONS AND QUESTIONS pdf icon PDF 110 KB

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from members of the public in accordance with the Virtual Meetings Regulations (s1 2020 392) and the subsequent RCC Procedure Rules agreed at Council on 20 May 2020.

 

Section 3 (Public Participation) of the Procedure Rules states:

 

Members of the public will be able to participate in virtual meetings in the following ways:

 

i.     Public statements, questions, deputations and petitions can be submitted in advance of the meeting in writing by no later than 12 noon on the second working day before the meeting is to take place;

 

ii.     Public statementswill be made available to all members of the virtual meeting however members of the public will not be able to present their statements in the virtual meeting;

 

iii.     Public questions will receive a written response. No supplementary questions will be permitted;

 

Public petitions will be noted as being received by the Chair of the meeting without debate and sent to the relevant executive member, committee or council officer for a response.

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee were informed that a deputation had been received from Mary Canham, a resident of North Luffenham, and that this had been uploaded on to the website. It was confirmed that this had also been circulated to members of the Committee prior to the meeting.

The Chair announced her intention to take questions relating to the deputation during item 8 on the agenda.

 

554.

QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE FROM MEMBERS

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule no. 218 and no. 218a.

Minutes:

There were none.

555.

NOTICES OF MOTION FROM MEMBERS

To consider any Notices of Motion from Members submitted in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No. 219.

Minutes:

There were none.

 

556.

CONSIDERATION OF ANY MATTER REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE IN RELATION TO THE CALL IN OF A DECISION

To consider any matter referred to the Committee for a decision in relation to a call in of a decision in accordance with Procedure Rule 206.

Minutes:

There were none.

 

557.

LOCAL PLAN - UPDATE ON TIMETABLE AND CONSULTATION pdf icon PDF 320 KB

To receive Report No.83/2020 from the Interim Strategic Director for Places.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor G Brown, as the Portfolio Holder for Environment, Planning, Property, and Finance introduced the report and explained that a review of the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) at this time would allow progress with the Local Plan consultation, and enable the Regulation 19 consultation (and subsequent stages) which had been approved by Council in February 2020, to take place.

Councillor G Brown explained that the SCI was not a development plan document and noted that there was no statutory requirement to consult on it. It was however considered good practice to undertake informal consultation on the proposed changes. Following this, Cabinet would be asked to approve the draft review for a four-week consultation; it was proposed that the consultation on the revised SCI would run from August - September 2020.  It was further noted that there were three stages of consultation that had taken place in the preparation of the Local Plan which were highlighted in the report and the recommendation would enable the statutory consultation on the Plan to progress.

Deputations from members of the public:

The Chair explained that a deputation from a member of the public had been submitted and had been published on the website and circulated to Members of the Committee. In relation to the deputation, a number of questions were asked by the Committee. In response to the questions asked, Councillor G Brown confirmed the following:

 

a)     In relation to those who are unable to access the internet (to respond to the consultation) this is expected to be a relatively small number of people as the list of those being shielded in the county indicates only 10% have no direct access to the internet. However, there would be substantial communications via the web, radio, press and through Parish/Town Councils to residents, and those unable to access the web would be able to access a bespoke phone service at the County Council offices.

 

b)     Despite the Youth Council having not met during the Covid19 pandemic, it was noted that social media would be used extensively to engage with the younger residents.

 

c)     Whilst it has been recognised that some campaign groups have not been able to meet during the pandemic, alternatives could have been explored, demonstrated by Parish Councils and others using Zoom/Skype and other virtual meeting platforms.

 

d)     Open engagement in market towns was not a viable option as there would be issues and concerns about social distancing and the sanitisation of printed documents.

 

e)     The Secretary of State had emphasised that there was a need to focus on web-based consultation and not paper consultation.

Councillor G Brown thanked the member of the public for their deputation noting that the questions posed had been well considered and appropriate. In accordance with the procedure rules a full response to the deputation has been appended to the minutes.

Timeline of the consultation:

The Portfolio Holder confirmed, in response to questions and comments about the proposed timetable, that although a proposal had previously been made  ...  view the full minutes text for item 557.