Issue - meetings

There is no written report for this agenda item, which is for noting only.

In accordance with para 36 in section 4.5 in Part 4 of Chichester District Council’s Constitution, (a) the recent decision by the Cabinet in respect of this matter that it was to be taken as a matter of urgency and (b) the reason for that urgency are hereby being formally reported to the Council.  

At its meeting on Tuesday 8 January 2019 the Cabinet considered a report on the Gatwick Airport Draft Master Plan 2018. The report appears at pages 35 to 40 of the agenda and its two appendices at pages 137 to 140 of the (main) agenda supplement. All members have received those papers and have been requested to bring them to this meeting of the Council. The Cabinet accepted the recommendation in para 2.1 of the report. Having heard at the meeting from the Chairman of the Council, Elizabeth Hamilton, the Cabinet resolved furthermore to treat its decision on this matter as being urgent and so it would not be subject to Chichester District Council’s call-in procedure.

The Cabinet’s two-part resolution was as follows:

(1)  That the recommended response set out in appendix 2 to the agenda report be endorsed as Chichester District Council’s response to the consultation on the draft Gatwick Airport Master Plan.

(2)  That this decision is urgent and so is not subject to Chichester District Council’s call-in procedure, the consent of the Chairman of the Council having been obtained both that this decision is reasonable in all the circumstances and that it should be treated as a matter of urgency, having regard to the consultation’s closing date of 10 January 2019.

The Council is requested to note the following points:

(a)  The Cabinet considered the decision to be taken in respect of this matter was urgent and so should not be subject to the call-in process.

(b)  Any delay caused by the call-in process, if it were to be invoked with regard to this matter, would seriously prejudice Chichester District Council’s interest and/or the public interest, namely the opportunity to influence the emerging Master Plan for Gatwick Airport which has been prepared on behalf of the airport owners as an expression of intent for the future development of the airport. Given the potential implications arising from the draft Master Plan for Chichester District, including residents in the northern parishes, it was considered to be necessary to set out Chichester District Council’s position within the stipulated time-limited opportunity.

(c)  The consent of the Chairman of the Council was obtained that the decision was reasonable in all the circumstances and that it should be treated as a matter of urgency.

There was no written report for this item, the background to and nature of which was set out in the face of the agenda.

The Chairman said that this was the second of two consecutive agenda items the purpose of which was to comply with a constitutional requirement to report formally certain matters to the Council meeting. In consequence neither a discussion nor a decision was required by the Council. The narrative text was self-explanatory. In short, the Council was being informed of the reason for having treated as urgent a decision of the Cabinet taken on 8 January 2019 to approve CDC’s response to the Gatwick Airport Draft Master Plan 2018, which meant that the call-in procedure was dis-applied. </AI21>

Accordingly on behalf of the Council the Chairman noted that this matter had been reported to the meeting in accordance with CDC’s Constitution.