Development Management Committee Substitutes Protocol

At its meeting on 19 December 2019, the Council decided that Group Leaders be given the ability to nominate Substitute Members to serve on the Development Management committee. Substitute members would be drawn from the Overview and Scrutiny Panel membership.

This would initially be for a trial period for the remainder of the 2019/20 Municipal Year,

Appointed Substitute Members:

Cllr O'Callaghan (Lib Dem Group);
Cllr Reeve (Conservative Group);
Cllr Rose (Green Party Group);
Cllr Smerdon (Conservative Group);
Cllr Spencer (Conservative Group);
Cllr Sweett (Green Party Group);
Cllr Thomas (Lib Dem Group);

Protocol:

Appointed Substitute Members for the DM Committee must have attended the appropriate Planning Training sessions before they can take part in the planning decision-making process. The Head of Development Management must be satisfied that they have attended this training. Appointed Substitute Members will also be expected to attend planning training refresher sessions as and when they are provided;
A Substitute must be appointed from the same political group as the Member who is unable to attend the Committee meeting. They must be appointed from the membership of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel;
To enable their attendance at the DM Committee Site Inspections, the Leader of the Political Group concerned must give notice in writing to Democratic Services by 12 noon on the Friday before the Committee meeting is held. The Substitute Member will then be invited to attend the site inspections in advance of the Committee meeting;
A Substitute must be appointed for the duration (and not part) of a meeting;
A Substitute will have full voting rights at DM Committee meetings;
A Substitute Member cannot take part in any deferred applications which were deferred at a previous DM Committee meeting unless the Substitute Member had been a voting Member of the Committee that originally deferred the application;
At the start of any meeting for which a substitution has been arranged in accordance with these Rules, the Democratic Services representative at the meeting shall announce that the absent Member apologises for his/her absence and that the named Member has been appointed to serve as their substitute.