Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Chapple, Etholen, Marshall, Poll and Town. Members noted that Cllr Peter Brazier would be substituting for Cllr Chris Poll for this meeting.

The Chairman confirmed the appointment of Cllr Thomas Hogg as vice-chairman of the Growth, Infrastructure and Housing Select Committee for the ensuing year.

Cllrs Andrea Baughan, Tom Hunter-Watts and Stuart Wilson declared that they were one of the councillors who had supported the call-in request being considered at the meeting under agenda item 5.

That the minutes of the meetings held on 13^th April and 18^th May 2022 be confirmed as a correct record.

The minutes of the meetings held on 13^th April and 18^th May 2022 were confirmed as a correct record.

Contributors:

Mr Nick Graham, Service Director, Legal and Democratic Services

Cllrs Anders Christensen and Susan Morgan

Cllr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing and Resources

Mr Ian Thompson, Corporate Director, Planning, Growth and Sustainability

Mr David Pearce, Capital Projects Performance Manager

Supporting Papers:

Call In request

Call In notice

Extract of Buckinghamshire Constitution detailing Call In Procedure

Cabinet report and appendices considered at Cabinet on 7^th June 2022

Draft Pre-Consultation Summary report

The Chairman invited Nick Graham, Service Director, Legal and Democratic Services, to outline the process for hearing the call-in and to advise the Select Committee on the validity of the call-in request that had been received in relation to the decision on proposed residential development at the site of the former Buckinghamshire County Council Sports and Social Club land which was taken at Cabinet on 7^th June 2022.

Nick Graham noted that this was the first call-in request of the new Buckinghamshire Council. Making reference to the call-in guidance laid out in the Council’s constitution and included on p17 of the agenda pack, he summarised it as a three stage process as follows:

1)      The Monitoring Officer determines if the call-in request is valid and then arranges a Select Committee meeting

2)      The Select Committee, on advice of the Monitoring Officer, will initially decide whether to proceed with hearing evidence of the call-in

3)      After hearing evidence from both sides, the Select Committee decide whether to reject or uphold the call-in request. If the call-in is upheld the decision would be referred back to Cabinet for reconsideration.

Nick Graham went on to summarise the grounds for the call-in request which had been submitted by Cllr Anders Christensen, supported by a further 23 councillors.  Two grounds had been put forward – the first one was that Cabinet had not addressed the option of selling the site to a resident’s group or the Parish Council. The second ground was that not all relevant information had been considered by Cabinet, as the results of the pre-planning consultation were not published in the Cabinet papers.

The Monitoring Officer concluded that the first ground for the call-in was not valid because the Cabinet decision did not concern the disposal of the site at this stage.  It was noted that the pre-planning consultation would be a matter for the Planning Committee to consider. However, the Cabinet report of 7^th June indicated that Cabinet would consider the results of this consultation as part of this decision and the report was missing, therefore the second ground for the call-in was accepted as valid.  Nick Graham confirmed that the request was received before the deadline and was supported by the pre-requisite number of Members.

The Chairman invited any questions from Members on the conclusions of the Monitoring Officer.  A Member noted that paragraph 9.1 of the 7^th June Cabinet report stated that ‘The results of the pre-planning consultation process will be considered ahead of a final decision being made’ and queried if the Cabinet decision was the ‘final decision’. In response, Nick Graham clarified that paragraph 8.1 referred to the pre-planning application consultation and stated ‘The results of this consultation will be available prior to this report being submitted to Cabinet.’ Therefore although 9.1 refers to a ‘final decision’ it was not entirely clear if that was referring to this Cabinet decision or the decision of the Area Planning Committee when the outline planning application is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

There is a joint meeting with the Communities and Localism Select Committee on 13^th July 2022 at 10am in the Oculus.

A joint meeting with the Communities and Localism Select Committee will be held on 13^th July 2022 at 10am.