At the Ventnor Town Council meeting tonight, John Farrant passed round correspondence from Ventnor resident, Dennis Russell who had written requesting that the public be allowed time during Town Council Planning Meetings, to make representation before the applications are discussed by councillors.
This is pretty much the same as what happens at County Council Planning Committee meetings, whereby the public are allowed three minutes to speak on planning applications before decisions are made.
Brian Lucas, Jonny Fitzgerald Bond, Brenda Lawson and Robbie Mew were all absent from the meeting, but the remaining councillors after a brief discussion, were all in agreement that 15 minutes should be allowed at the beginning of planning meetings for the public to make representation.
It was agreed that any member of the public choosing to make a statement on a planning application – and it was made clear that it would be a statement only and no debate could be entered into – must be on the electoral roll in Ventnor and would only be able to speak for up to three minutes.
A common sense approach would be taken if large numbers of people turned up requesting to speak, and this would be done at the discretion of the Chairman, Colin Elvers.
It would have made more sense for the public representation to be made whilst the particular application was being discussed rather than at the beginning of the meeting, but in our view, it’s a good step forward, so all praise to the council for approving this request.
