Agenda item - Procedural Business

(a)  Declaration of Substitutes: Where Councillors are unable to attend a meeting, a substitute Member from the same Political Group may attend, speak and vote in their place for that meeting.

(b)  Declarations of Interest or Lobbying

(a)      Disclosable pecuniary interests;

(b)      Any other interests required to be registered under the local code;

(c)      Any other general interest as a result of which a decision on the matter might reasonably be regarded as affecting you or a partner more than a majority of other people or businesses in the ward/s affected by the decision.

In each case, you need to declare

(i)        the item on the agenda the interest relates to;

(ii)      the nature of the interest; and

(iii)     whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest or some other interest.

If unsure, Members should seek advice from the committee lawyer or administrator preferably before the meeting.

      (d)       All Members present to declare any instances of lobbying they have encountered regarding items on the agenda.

(c)  Exclusion of Press and Public: To consider whether, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, or the nature of the proceedings, the press and public should be excluded from the meeting when any of the following items are under consideration.

NOTE:  Any item appearing in Part 2 of the Agenda states in its heading the category under which the information disclosed in the report is exempt from disclosure and therefore not available to the public.

A list and description of the exempt categories is available for public inspection at Brighton and Hove Town Halls.

49a        Declarations of substitutes

49.1       Councillor Marsh declared that she was present in substitution for Councillor O’Quinn. Councillor Robins declared that he was present in substitution for Councillor Gilbey. It was noted that Councillor Janio had been scheduled to attend in substitution for Councillor C Theobald but had been unable to do so due to sickness.

49b       Declarations of interests

49.2       Councillor Morgan referred to applications A and B, BH2017/02680 and BH2017/02681, St Aubyn’s School, 76 High Street, Rottingdean and stated that he had visited the application site when Leader of the Council. Any views given had been general and did not relate to the applications before Committee that day (which had not been submitted then). He confirmed that he had not predetermined the application, remained of a neutral mind and that he would remain present during consideration and determination of the application.

49.3       Councillors Hyde and Miller also referred to applications A and B, BH2017/02680 and BH2017/02681, St Aubyn’s School, 76 High Street, Rottingdean, stating that as Ward Councillors they had received correspondence and had been lobbied both by those who objected to the applications and those who supported them, but had not expressed any view and remained of a neutral mind. During the course of discussion both expressed the view that it would be preferable for elements of the s106 contribution particularly for education to be provided to effect improvements to local schools. It was noted that Councillor Miller was a governor at Longhill School, also Councillor Hyde. The Committee were aware of that when making their deliberations and agreed that Local Ward Members be consulted further in respect of where it would be most appropriate for the agreed levels of funding to be allocated.

49c        Exclusion of the press and public

49          The Planning Committee considered whether the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any item of business on the grounds that it is likely in view of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during it, there would be disclosure to them of confidential information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act.

49.4       RESOLVED - That the public are not excluded from any item of business on the agenda.

49d       Use of mobile phones and tablets

49.5       The Chair requested Members ensure that their mobile phones were switched off, and where Members were using tablets to access agenda papers electronically ensure that these were switched to ‘aeroplane mode’.