PROTOCOL FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING AT PLANNING COMMITTEE
The Chairman will announce, at the start of each item being considered, the title of the application and whether public speaking will take place and will introduce you to the Committee by name and invite you to make your way to the public speaking chair to address the Committee.
(a) On items where there is public speaking, the Planning Officer will be asked to present the plans to the Committee.
(b) The Chairman will call upon the person registered to represent all objectors to come forward to speak for a maximum of three minutes. The person will return to the public gallery.
(c) The Chairman will call upon the person registered to represent persons supporting the application to come forward to speak for a maximum of three minutes. The person will return to the public gallery.
(d) Any ward Councillor who is not a member of the Planning Committee may make representations on cases affecting their ward. They will each be allowed three minutes to make their representations.
(e) The Planning Officer will comment on any factual matters raised by any speaker during stages (b) - (d)
(f) Councillors will then debate the application/ask questions of officers in the usual way and reach a decision.
(g) The Chairman in their discretion may decide to allow points of clarification to be raised by Planning Committee members to the developer. This is intended to resolve factual issues and produce better outcomes in decision making. Where the Chairman decides to allow further points of clarification, they will take into account the need for overall equality between the parties and may ask the objectors to comment on the further information.
(h) After the debate a decision will be made by the Committee, either by a formal vote or by way of consensus and the Chairman will then announce the decision which has been made by the Committee so that this decision may be formally minuted.
In the event of any dispute over these procedures or protocol the Chairman's decision is final.