Agenda item

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 29 January 2018.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 29 January be agreed as a correct record subject to amendments agreed at the meeting the final wording of which was delegated to the Town Clerk in consultation with the Chairman and Deputy Chairman.

21.         Any other Business that the Chairman considers urgent

The Chairman had been consulted and agreed in advance of the meeting that the following item be considered as urgent business the reason for urgency being that should delegation to Islington be agreed consultees should be advised in good time before the application is determined.  This is programmed for early March. A decision at the next Committee (26 March) would be too late for consultees to be advised and for Islington to process the delegated application. 

Richard Cloudesley School-Site

That the third paragraph (beginning with the words “The report recommended that the Planning….”) be deleted and replaced with the following:

The report recommended that the Planning and Transportation Committee request Court of Common Council to delegate the Planning and Transportation Committee’s function of deciding the application to the London Borough of Islington (subject to Islington agreeing).

A member pointed out that this matter had been added at agenda item 21 after 4 pm on Friday 26 January for a meeting which was held at 10 am on Monday 29 January. The member noted that the application had been filed five months earlier, and the possibility of the decision on it being delegated to Islington had existed since then. The member asked why this matter had therefore not been brought to this Committee at any of the Committee meetings which had been held since the application was filed, and was now being treated as urgent. The Comptroller and City Solicitor responded that this matter had not previously been brought to this Committee because the Corporation was unsure as to whether Islington would accept the delegation, and Islington had only clarified on 25 January that it would be prepared to consider doing so. The application was to be reported to its planning committee on 1 March. Another member stated that as it was still uncertain as to whether Islington would accept the delegation, and as the possibility of its doing so had existed for the previous five months, that explanation was unsatisfactory. In view of this, the member expressed concern over the matter being put on the agenda in this way. The Comptroller and City Solicitor replied that there was nothing untoward.