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.

87a       Declarations of substitutes

87.1      There were none.

87b      Declarations of interests

87.2      Councillors Childs stated that he had been lobbied in respect of applications B, C and F and Councillor Fishleigh stated that she  had been lobbied in respect of applications A, B,  E and F confirming that they remained of a neutral mind and would therefore remain present during the debate and decision making process.

87.3      Councillor Shanks referred to application F, stating that she had discussed this with her husband but had not expressed an opinion in respect of it, remained of a neutral mind and would therefore remain present during the debate and decision making process.

87.4      Councillor Osborne declared a prejudicial interest in application A stating that he would withdraw from the meeting during consideration of it and would take no part in the debate or decision making process.

87.5      Councillor Henry declared a prejudicial interest in application E, stating that having spoken in his capacity as a Local Ward Councillor he would withdraw from the meeting and would take no part in the debate or decision making process.

87.6      Councillor Yates declared a prejudicial interest in applications J and K as he was speaking on both in his capacity as Local Ward Councillor following which he would withdraw from the meeting and would take no part in the debate or decision making process. He had also been lobbied in respect of applications B and F but remained of a neutral mind.

87.7      Councillor Littman declared that he had been lobbied and had, had a site visit on G but remained of an open mind.

87c       Exclusion of the press and public

87.8      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.

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

87d      Use of mobile phones and tablets

87.10    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’.