Newark and Sherwood Council - Planning Committee - 28/05/2024

Planning Committee - Tuesday, 28th May, 2024 6.00 pm

May 28, 2024 View on council website Watch video of meeting

Transcript

objects, objectors, residents, parish council, an absolute plethora of people to come here and speak. Yet part of this is not going to be heard by the public. I think we need to be transparent and I can't for the life of me, except it says some exempt information, understand why we're trying to avoid the public. This is a very, very big application. It's very important to the people who live there and to hold it in private, I think, looks anything but transparent and that concerns me. When the council is considering its response to an appeal that is going to a public inquiry and discussing the nature of that response, it has to be held in private because we would be giving the other side, if you like, the appellant, our grounds for our arguments and that would not be in the best interest of this council, you or your constituents. I understand, but this isn't the appeal yet. This isn't the appeal tonight, is it? No, it's not the appeal that we're considering the appeal. The appeal has been lodged and it's been made and we're considering that. So how are we considering this tonight when we didn't consider the best storage application? That went straight off to appeal. We did consider it. But it was a different application, as I understand it. Yes, but we did consider that after the planning committee. It wasn't an exempt item but we discussed that and we were updated that that wasn't in the public because we were discussing matters for the appeal that this council was going to take. So it's not a really responsible contribution to this meeting to say that things that we should be discussing in private shouldn't be. Unfortunately, that's the way it is. So I'll move on. Thank you very much. So it is to be noted, any other questions or comments that don't relate to the appeal? OK, so agenda item four, sorry, agenda item, I want to get down to it. Agenda item five is exclusion of the press and public for the reasons to consider resolving that under section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in part one of schedule 12A of the Act. All those in favour? Any against? Thank you. That's unanimous. So I'm just waiting for YouTube to be turned off. I'll be back in a second.

AI Generated

Summary

The meeting focused on the council's response to an appeal going to a public inquiry. There was a discussion about the need for transparency versus the necessity of holding certain discussions in private to protect the council's position.

Appeal Response and Transparency

A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to discussing the council's response to an appeal that is set to go to a public inquiry. One member expressed concern about the lack of transparency, arguing that the public should be allowed to hear the discussion. They said, I think we need to be transparent and I can't for the life of me, except it says some exempt information, understand why we're trying to avoid the public.

In response, another member clarified that discussing the council's strategy in public would not be in the best interest of the council or its constituents. They explained, When the council is considering its response to an appeal that is going to a public inquiry and discussing the nature of that response, it has to be held in private because we would be giving the other side, if you like, the appellant, our grounds for our arguments.

Exclusion of Press and Public

The council then moved to exclude the press and public from the meeting under section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972. This was to prevent the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in part one of schedule 12A of the Act. The motion to exclude the public was passed unanimously.

Attendees

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