The council has to draw up a plan showing where proposed housing sites should be over the next 16 years and recommendations for this were discussed by councillors on the Planning and Infrastructure Overview and Scrutiny Committee over the three nights Tuesday 20 September to Thursday 22 September, including input from residents and local councillors. The papers for the committee give details of the sites that were recommended by officers and discussed by councillors.
Cabinet was due to decide on Tuesday 27 September on whether 594 homes a year should be set as the housing figure for the borough up to 2027 in this draft plan (known as the Draft Core Strategy of the Local Development Framework). The Cabinet was also set to consider which sites should be further investigated to go into this draft plan to go out for full public consultation in early February 2012. The meeting of the Cabinet had to be postponed but you can still view all the reports to that meeting which will now go to the rescheduled Cabinet meeting on Monday 17 October 2011.
Cancellation of the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday 27 September
The council operates under a set of rules called the constitution. If decisions are not made in accordance with the constitution they could be open to challenge. When the Cabinet had eight members, the constitution outlined that half of the Cabinet plus one was needed to make any decision, this is technically known as being ‘quorate’. This rule ensures that majority decisions are made. As the Cabinet has now reduced to seven, the Constitution could be interpreted as requiring five Cabinet members to take a decision. Only four members of the Cabinet were available to attend the meeting on Tuesday 27 September.
Chief Executive Tony Curtis said: “Three Cabinet members were unable to attend for personal reasons. Important decisions about proposed housing sites to go out to consultation were due to be taken at the meeting. This has understandably been a matter of public interest and debate. It could cause uncertainty for our communities if Cabinet were to take a decision that could be challenged at a later date. Therefore, it was decided that we should err on the side of caution and reschedule this meeting.”
