This meeting of the Corporate Committee was an extraordinary meeting called to make decisions on the membership of the council's Planning Sub-Committee. This included approving the existing membership of the sub-committee and confirming how any future changes to the membership will be managed.

Establishment and Composition of the Planning Sub-Committee

The main item on the agenda for this meeting was to approve the establishment and composition of the council's Planning Sub-Committee for the 2024/2025 municipal year.

The Corporate Committee is obliged to establish the Planning Sub-Committee under its terms of reference. The sub-committee's membership had previously been agreed at the Annual Meeting of the Council on 15 May 2024, but this extraordinary meeting of the Corporate Committee was called to note the membership of the sub-committee following a number of further revisions that had been made to the membership since the Annual Meeting.

The report identified that:

The Planning Sub-Committee membership, as listed at Appendix , is subject to approval at Full Council on the 27 November 2024

The Corporate Committee was asked to approve a motion that any further changes to the membership of the sub-committee during the current municipal year should be reported to the Corporate Committee for consideration.

The report noted that substitute members have been appointed to the Planning Sub-Committee and that:

Given the quasi-judicial nature of the Sub-Committee, and in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct, all members and substitutes appointed to the Sub-Committee are required to undergo training in regard to all aspects of planning law, and their duties in the determination of planning applications.

The report also set out that, based on the political makeup of the council, the sub-committee should have eight Labour councillors, two Conservative councillors and one councillor from the Hackney Independent Socialist Group. The sub-committee should also have seven substitute members; four Labour, two Conservative and one Hackney Independent Socialist Group.