Warwick district councillor receives apology over delays in recording of planning decisions

A concerned councillor this week received an apology over procedural delays to Warwick District Council’s recording of planning decisions.

Councillor Bill Gifford (Lib Dem, Leamington Milverton) queried why the authority’s planning committee – the panel of elected members tasked with deciding major or contentious applications for development – had been presented with minutes from six meetings in one go.

While it is far from the most pulsating element of the decision making process, the minutes are the official record of what happened when, and sometimes exactly how decisions were taken.

One example of the importance of these minutes came through Warwick District Council last year when a change of circumstances led officers – the planning experts employed by the council – to have a change of heart over outline permission for 83 homes near Warwickshire Police’s headquarters in Leek Wootton.

It was queried, based on the minutes, whether councillors had added in reasons that they wanted to rely on in recommending refusal to a planning inspector.

Recalling all of the important details of cases that can sometimes be discussed for more than two hours can be challenging enough, but to do so up to four months after those conversations took place presents the potential for pitfalls.

Cllr Gifford said: “I feel it is not fair on us or the public to be having minutes four months late, or that we should be looking at all these minutes at this stage.

“We should, ideally, be having minutes from the previous meeting rather than be looking at minutes from September in January.”

Civic and committee services manager Patricia Tuckwell cited staffing issues in her response.

“Just to reassure you, that is very much our intention now that our team is fully staffed," she said.

“We are very sorry.

"I totally agree with you, we should aim to bring them to the next meeting.”