Agenda and minutes

Apologies noted (see above).

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 31 May 2023 as an accurate record.

The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 31 May 2023 were confirmed and signed as an accurate record.

Councillor Paul Haslam had requested that his apologies be recorded in the minutes.

All Members are invited to declare at this point any interests, including the nature of those interests, or lobbying in respect of any items appearing on this agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice (including the text of the question/statement) to Harriet Clarke of Democratic Services via democraticservices.har@northyorks.gov.uk by midday on Thursday 20 July 2023. Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item. Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak:-

·       At this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matter which are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes).

·       When the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.

If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not wish to be recorded, please inform the Chairman who will instruct anyone who may be taking a recording to cease while you speak.

The Chair advised that one notice had been received from a member of the public who wished to ask a question at this meeting.

The following public question was read out by Adele Laurie-Wilson:

I was in attendance at the previous planning meeting 31 May 2023.

Missing information in draft minutes

I am concerned about the brevity and lack of detail in the published draft minutes arising from that meeting. In my opinion, they fall well below the standard that a public body accountable to the electorate should maintain.

Due to technical issues the meeting was not live streamed, disappointing given the huge number of local objections raised against the controversial planning application, which was the only application on this agenda.

Given the usual livestream was unavailable, and no alternative recording was made and the huge numbers of parties interested in this planning application, I would expect more detailed minutes would have been taken.

Omitted content

I have read the minutes, but where is the summary of the speakers’ content, there is nothing recording what councillor Haslam spoke about, neither anything giving any clue as to what Messers Readman, Bowen and Hesmondhalgh covered in their speeches.

The minutes omit any content of the fairly tense debate that took place, including what I consider to be undemocratic manipulations of the voting process by the council solicitor and Mr Turpin.

The motion to reject the application was put forwarded and seconded, is not noted in the draft minutes? It was not voted on due to the intervention by the council solicitor and Mr Turpin. There isn’t any indication of the solicitor being in attendance, therefore I cannot even refer to him by name.

I am aware that there were at least two observers in the room that made detailed notes of the meeting.

Inaccuracies

In addition, due to the speakers no longer being able to question anyone, I wish to bring to your attention two errors in the information that was provided to the planning committee, which may have swayed the Committee:

1 Nick Turpin is recorded in the minutes as saying “No residential development is proposed on the SLA itself” This in wrong, H2 is all in the SLA, so the previous planning appeal is very relevant as it is the same SLA.

2 The planning committee were told by the Planning officer that all the land that might be contaminated would be removed offsite so the issue is not relevant. Dr Bowen wished to make the point that the correct method is to test on site, to determine if there are any contaminants, this will then determine any safe removal methods. Otherwise, the local residents could be put at risk.

Minute taking guidance.

The UK Government “Guide to minute taking “ states:

”The minutes should set out the names of all those attended, distinguishing between the members…others invited to attend….the secretaries.”

“The first purpose of a minute is to set out the conclusions reached so that those who  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Report of Corporate Director – Community Development.

Considered :-

The Corporate Director of Community Development Services sought determination of a planning application for change of use of a Building from a Building Society to an Adult Gaming Centre at 30 High Street, Knaresborough, HG5 0EQ.

During consideration of the above application, the Committee discussed the following issues:-

·       Members debated the merits of the application and discussed matters such as the suitability of having a site such as this in that area of Knaresborough.

·       Officers were asked whether noise from the site could be monitored and if agreed levels of noise were breached what powers the Council would have to enforce the noise conditions. Officers explained that the Council would respond to any concerns raised about the level of noise and could take enforcement action if there was a breach.

The decision :-

That planning permission be GRANTED subject to conditions detailed in the Committee report and an amendment to condition 3 as set out below.

Voting Record

A vote was taken and the motion was declared carried with four votes for and two against.

Amended Conditions

Condition 3 - The development shall not operate between 21:00 and 09:00 hours.

Reason: In the interests of residential amenity.

Any other items which the Chair agrees should be considered as a matter of urgency because of special circumstances.

There were no urgent items of business.

Tuesday, 29 August 2023 at 2.00pm.

Tuesday, 29 August 2023 – Harrogate Civic Centre