Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors’ Rout, Proctor and G White.

In the absence of the Chair, a nomination was required to appoint a Chair for this evening’s meeting.

Resolved:     That Councillor Chris Spence be appointed as Chair for this meeting.

                        Councillor Chris Spence in the Chair.

To receive Declarations of Interest from Members on items included in this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest stated.

To consider the Minutes of the previous meeting.

Resolved:     That the minutes of the meeting held on 17 October, 2016 be agreed as a correct record.

To receive a presentation on the Lyme Lottery – How it will work and how it will replace the Community Chest.

The Chief Executive updated members on the current position regarding the Lyme Lottery.  There would be a launch event in June, 2017.

The lottery would be run externally by a company called Gatherwell.

Local ‘good causes’ wishing to benefit from the scheme would need to register to receive funding and people buying the tickets would then nominate which good causes they wished their ticket money to go to.

Tickets will cost £1 and fifty pence of this would go to good causes with 10p from every ticket sale going into a ‘general pot’ for distribution within  the local community.  

It was stated that the first draw should take place on the August Bank Holiday weekend and tickets would be available online or possibly over the telephone.

Resolved:     That the information be received.

To receive an update on enforcement matters including details of any prosecutions.

The Council’s Head of Planning advised Members that although the position had been advertised, there had been no applicants for the Senior Planning Officer for Enforcement despite adding a ‘market supplement’ to the post.

The Council was now looking at employing agency staff but this could prove costly.

Members were advised however that  Planning Practice Manager had now been employed  who would provide capacity for Senior officers to concentrate on the more practical side of Planning.  In addition, interviews had taken place earlier today for one of the vacant Planning Officer posts.

Resolved:     That the information be received.

To receive an update on how it is functioning.

The Head of Planning informed Members that there had been a serious problem with some of the information on the Website.  A lot of documents had to be taken off.  In addition, the recent cyber attack had meant that the website had to be taken town to attach a ‘patch’.  However, it was now working satisfactorily.

Resolved:     That the information be received.

To discuss whether Planning applications and decisions are being conveyed satisfactorily to Parish Councils.

The Head of Planning stated that decisions had not been supplied to Parish council’s in line with legislation.  However, this had now been sported and all staff had been informed of the legal requirement to send copies of decisions to Parish Councils which had been consulted with regard to particular applications.  Members were advised to inform the Planning Department if they still did not receive them.

All Parish Councils could automatically set themselves up to receive a link to receive a decision letter.  This would stop the need for Planning Officers to send out individual emails.  However, all Parish Councils would need to sign up for this.  

Resolved:     That the information be received.

To discuss the planning Committee’s guillotine on late representations to Parish Council submissions.

The Head of Planning informed Members of a decision made at the Planning Committee held on 25 April, 2017: 

(i)        That late representations from Parish Councils be

considered to be subject to the guillotine procedure, with immediate effect

(ii)        That Parish Councils be informed of this decision and reminded as to

the operation of the Committee’s policy on late representations.

The guillotine procedure had been in operation since 2008.

The Planning Committee would take into account any material considerations so late representations would be checked but may not be reported.

Resolved:     That the information be received.

Parish Councils had previously been provided with hard copies of applications within their area.  A consultation process had taken place to receive some electronically with the larger applications still being in hard copy format.

The local planning Authority had decided to bring the supplying of hard copies to a conclusion.  There was no legal requirement to provide them – just to give notification of applications received.

The matter had been discussed with the Portfolio Holder  for Planning and Housing and Parish Councils are going to be put on formal notice that they will cease on 1 October, 2017 giving the Parishes time to take steps.

Some Members stated that they did not have adequate facilities to view the  larger plans electronically and that one hard copy should be available.

Resolved:     That the information be received and the comment noted.

To discuss the tracking down of perpetrators.

The Chief Executive updated members on the current position regarding fly tipping.

The incident in Madeley had been down to ‘organised’ crime and had occurred during the daytime.  The County Council had picked up the ‘lions  share’ of the clean up operation.

Unfortunately, current legislation does not take into account organised crime and therefore, the Chief Fire Officer, of the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service – Rebecca Bryant is seeking changes in legislation as all fly tipping causes a fire risk.

Members suggested that the County Council be approached with regard to the items that some local recycling yards no longer accept without payment.

Resolved:     That the information be received.

To discuss funding methods to replace Lengthsman payments. (Possibly a County matter?)

This item is a County matter and should therefore be discussed with them direct.

To receive an update on the Joint Local Plan and new Strategic Housing Assessment.  Including the need for a Special meeting in July

A report would be going to a Special Cabinet meeting on 27 June and it was anticipated that a presentation would be made to this Group shortly afterwards.

It was hoped that a consultation exercise would be completed by Christmas 2017.

Resolved:     That the information be received.

To receive an update on the Parish Neighbourhood Plan

The Parish Councils updated each other with their current positions regarding their neighbourhood Plans.

Loggerheads had submitted theirs in October, 2016 and were still waiting.  They stated that they had lost public interest

Keele had had their first responses back and were now starting the consultation.

Madeley had just begun the process.

Resolved:     That the information be received.