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.

70a        Declarations of substitutes

70.1       Councillor Bagaeen was present in substitution for Councillor Theobald and Councillor Druitt was present in substitution for Councillor Mac Cafferty. It was noted that Councillor Janio had given his apologies.

70b       Declarations of interests

70.2       Councillor Druitt declared a prejudicial interest in respect of Item E, BH2019/03091, Lace House,39-40 Old Steine, Brighton by virtue of the fact that he had submitted a letter of support in his capacity as a Local Ward Councillor. He would address the Committee and having done so would withdraw from the meeting and take no part in the discussion or decision making process.

70.3       Councillor Yates referred to applications linked applications C, BH2019/02290 and D, BH2019/02273, 218 Dyke Road, Brighton. He was aware of the initiatives taken by the local community group in connection with returning “the Dyke“ public house to use on twitter, but had not expressed an opinion, remained of a neutral mind and would remain present at the meeting during consideration and determination of the application. Councillor Littman also referred to applications C, BH2019/02290 and D, BH2019/02273, 218 Dyke Road, Brighton. The application site was in his ward and he was also of the initiatives by the local community to return the site to use as a community asset. He expressed an opinion, remained of a neutral mind and would remain present at the meeting during consideration and determination of the application.

70.4       It was noted that Members of the Committee had been lobbied and had received communications in respect of applications C and D as referred to above, and remained of a neutral mind.

70c        Exclusion of the press and public

70.5       In accordance with Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 (“the Act”), 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.

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

70d       Use of mobile phones and tablets

70.7       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 ‘silent mode’.