Members and officers should not discuss the application with the applicant, his/her agent(s) or members of the public on the site. A Member representing his/her Ward at the site inspection (but who is not a Member of the Site Inspection Group itself), and who may well be on site prior to the arrival of the Site Inspection Group, is excepted from this rule.

• The meeting will be chaired by the Chairman (or Vice-Chairman of the Development Control Committee, or, in their absence, a Member appointed prior to or at the site meeting);

• The Chairman will commence the meeting by identifying those present;
• The Chairman then invites the Chief Environment & Development Officer, or his representative, to outline the application by stating the purpose of the meeting; clarifying the site affected by the application; describing the proposal including showing appropriate plans; summarising the policy context; and then setting out the key issues arising from the officer’s conclusions (the Site Inspection Group will have been previously provided with the original report considered by the Development Control Committee);
• The Chairman will then invite any other officers and advisors, and the Town/Parish Council representative to present their views;
• The Chairman will invite questions by Members of the Site Inspection Group to the Chief Environment & Development Officer or his representative;
• A physical inspection of the site will take place;
• The principle of the planning system is that each case must be considered on its individual merit, therefore the Site Inspection Group will only consider the application site before them, and will not visit sites with a previous planning decision, unless others present believe they illustrate a specific point. The Site Inspection Group will however inspect sites immediately adjacent to the application site if requested by the affected landowner. However, the adjacent landowner must allow all present to visit the site. The landowner is not permitted to address the Group, who will move to a public place to progress its discussion;
• The Site Inspection Group will then discuss the application and the Chairman will invite a motion which, if seconded and passed by a majority of the Group, will become a recommendation to the Development Control Committee;
• In the event of an equality of votes, the Chairman is entitled to a casting vote in addition to any other vote he/she may have given;
• An application shall not be considered at a site inspection unless at least three Members of the Group are present;
• The Rules of Debate as set out in the Council’s Constitution shall apply at meetings of the Site Inspection Group.
• If members of the public are not permitted to enter the site, the sequence of the above stages of the meeting can be varied at the discretion of the Chairman of that meeting so as to allow as much of the discussion as possible to take place on the highway or other public area.
• Following the Site Inspection a report will be prepared by the Member Support Officer who attended the site inspection. The report will set out details of who attended and will summarise the matters discussed and record the recommendation. This report will be considered at the next meeting of the Development Control Committee, together with the original officer report.