Planning & Economic Development Committee Meetings

Chairman: Cllr Tim Nelson
Deputy Chairman: Cllr Tom King

Committee Terms of Reference

• The Committee exists as a virtual committee.
• The Committee will comprise all members of the Town Council.
• The Committee should meet formally at least twice a year (the first shortly after or at the Annual Meeting to confirm membership and appoint a Chairman).
• The quorum of the Committee shall be at least 4 Members.
• The primary purpose of the committee is to ensure that a corporate response is provided by the Council in relation to planning applications submitted to the Local Planning Authority within or touching the boundary of Newport.
• Responding to planning applications is time critical and as such prompt responses are required.  To ensure the timely turnaround of responses to the Local Planning Authority responses to all formal consultations on planning applications are delegated to officers of the Council.
• Committee members will be advised electronically of all planning applications notified to Newport Town Council, and they each can then provide comment to the officers with delegated powers.
• To ensure that large scale, novel or potentially contentions applications can be debated in public and fully appreciated by members, each committee member will retain the right to insist that any planning application received is considered and responded to at a formal meeting of the committee or tabled at a Full Town Council meeting.  Should a committee member insist that a particular application not to be handled by an officer, they should immediately inform the Town Council officer(s) (who will halt any work in preparing a submission) and the Chairman (or in their absence Deputy Chairman) of the Committee to confirm a suitable date for a meeting to be held.
• Where a planning application is taken to a formal committee meeting it will be the responsibility of the Chairman to prepare the submission of the Council’s response within 48 hrs of the meeting and forward it to the Deputy Town Clerk for formal submission.
• The Committee may form sub-committees or working groups, in an advisory capacity, for individual issues that have a limited life-span.