Agenda item

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 18 June 2014.

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The draft minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 18 June 2014 had been circulated to Members with the agenda.

Councillor Owen Thomas referred to page 4 on the Crematorium application for Northop and said that Councillor Neville Phillips had proposed that paragraph 6.02 of the report be removed, but it appeared to have been reinstated.  Councillor O. Thomas also queried why the application had not been considered by the Committee even though Members had resolved to hold a Special meeting to consider the application. 

            The Democracy and Governance Manager said that the minutes accurately reflected his advice to Councillor Phillips that his proposal had not been valid.  A letter had been issued to advise Members of a provisional date for the meeting but as officers had not been in a position to submit the application to Committee, a letter was subsequently sent out to cancel the provisional date. 

            The Chief Officer (Planning and Environment) said that a resolution to hold a special meeting had been sought at the previous meeting as at that time, only one application for a crematorium site had been received.  A second application from a different applicant had now been submitted.  The central point of the original application was that there were no suitable alternative sites available but an application for an alternative site had now been received.  The second application had been validated and was being assessed. 

            Councillor Phillips felt that the resolution to hold a special meeting was nothing to do with an alternative application being submitted and that the report was for one application not two.  He said that the Committee needed to know what was going on and asked when ‘as soon as possible’ would be. 

            The Democracy and Governance Manager said that it was taking longer to submit the application to committee because of the changed circumstances.  The letter detailing the provisional date had indicated that the meeting may not happen.  More work needed to be done on the new application and this was still ongoing.  It was still intended to bring the Northop application to Committee ‘as soon as possible’. 

            Councillor Richard Jones felt that it was not fair to the original applicant to continue to delay the determination of the Northop application because of other applications that had been received.  The Democracy and Governance Manager reiterated his comments that officers were still working on bringing the Northop application to the Committee but advised that there was a need to evaluate whether there were any suitable alternative sites.  

            In response to a question from Councillor Mike Peers about why it had taken 12 months to process the application, the Chief Officer (Planning and Environment) said that the application had been delayed for a number of reasons and the information needed assessing.  It had been deferred twice and late responses that needed to be considered had been received.  He felt that the stance that had been taken was reasonable and reminded Members that the applicant could appeal on the grounds of non-determination. 

            Councillor Carol Ellis referred to page 10 of the minutes and asked what the next steps were for the Field Farm Road application and whether enforcement would be implemented.  The Development Manager said that he understood that the applicant was appealing against the decision but was also considering submitting a further application in the next few weeks.  If nothing happened in the longer term, then the expediency of enforcement action would need to be considered as the development was currently unauthorised.  Councillor Ellis felt that the dwellings had not been built in accordance with the planning permission and therefore did not see why enforcement action could not be commenced immediately.                  

RESOLVED:

That the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.