STAND­ING ORDERS FOR THE CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK

AUTHOR­ITY PLAN­NING COM­MIT­TEE – SIXTH REVISION

ADOP­TED 20 SEPTEM­BER 2019

1. This paper sets out the pro­ced­ures which apply to meet­ings of the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity (CNPA) Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. These should be read in con­junc­tion with the Stand­ing Orders which have been agreed by the CNPA Board.

Fre­quency of Meetings

1. The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee will nor­mally meet every four weeks. The Com­mit­tee shall approve its pro­vi­sion­al meet­ing dates and ven­ues for each cal­en­dar year in advance. Spe­cial meet­ings may be called by the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or at oth­er times, giv­ing 7 days notice. The meet­ing ven­ue may be var­ied and this will be noti­fied with the agenda papers. Meet­ings may be can­celled where there is no busi­ness to be con­sidered and notice of such can­cel­la­tions will be giv­en at least 3 work­ing days in advance of the pre­vi­ously agreed date.

2. A decision to can­cel a meet­ing because of excep­tion­al adverse weath­er cir­cum­stances will be taken at least one day in advance and notice will be pos­ted at the CNPA offices in Bal­later and Grant­own-on-Spey and on the web­site www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk. CNPA staff will use their best endeav­ours to noti­fy the can­cel­la­tion to Com­mit­tee Mem­bers and to those with an expressed writ­ten interest in any item on the agenda for that meet­ing. In the event of a can­cel­la­tion, busi­ness will be car­ried for­ward to the next sched­uled meet­ing unless the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or calls a spe­cial meet­ing under 2 above.

Pre-Agenda Brief­ing Meetings

1. Pre-Agenda meet­ings to brief the Con­ven­or and Deputy Con­ven­or on forth­com­ing agenda items will be held at the dis­cre­tion of the Con­ven­or nor­mally dur­ing the week pri­or to the dis­tri­bu­tion of agenda papers.

Notice of Meetings

1. A notice giv­ing details of the meet­ing will be pos­ted at the CNPA offices and on the web­site www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk 7 days before the meet­ing. Notices of meet­ings will also be sup­plied to each of the loc­al author­it­ies with part of their area with­in the Nation­al Park for dis­play 7 days pri­or to the meet­ing. Applic­ants, object­ors and oth­er rep­res­ent­ees to plan­ning applic­a­tions will be noti­fied of the date time and loc­a­tion of the Com­mit­tee meet­ing which will determ­ine the applic­a­tion in which they have an interest. Noti­fic­a­tion will be sent as soon as pos­sible after a draft agenda is drawn up.

Agenda Papers

1. The Agenda and papers will nor­mally be sent to all Board Mem­bers 7 days before each Committee.

Quor­um

1. The quor­um of the Plan­ning and Com­mit­tee to allow a meet­ing to com­mence will be 10 Mem­bers. No busi­ness can be con­sidered at the Com­mit­tee unless a quor­um is present, unless a motion to sus­pend this stand­ing order has been agreed by the Com­mit­tee in accord­ance with this item of the Committee’s Stand­ing Orders. An item of busi­ness can­not be dealt with if, because one or more mem­bers declare an interest, less than a quor­um of mem­bers entitled to vote on an item remains. To pro­tect the effi­cient admin­is­tra­tion of pub­lic busi­ness and pro­vi­sion of ser­vices to the pub­lic, the Com­mit­tee may agree to sus­pend these quor­um require­ments for spe­cified items of busi­ness should it become appar­ent that num­bers may fall below quor­um levels for any reas­on. A motion to sus­pend stand­ing orders as regards these quor­um require­ments for spe­cified items of busi­ness must be made and agreed while a quor­um of Com­mit­tee mem­bers are present, and pri­or to com­mence­ment of con­sid­er­a­tion of the items of busi­ness in ques­tion. Mem­bers who have declared an interest in any spe­cif­ic items of busi­ness, includ­ing items that may be affected by a motion to sus­pend this stand­ing order require­ment for quor­um, do not have a con­flict of interest in a motion to sus­pend the quor­um require­ments of stand­ing orders and may there­fore par­ti­cip­ate in the decision on sus­pen­sion of quor­um require­ments. A motion to sus­pend stand­ing orders as regards quor­um of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee must include a require­ment that the num­ber of mem­bers present to con­sider any indi­vidu­al item of busi­ness must not be less than sev­en members.

2. If, thirty minutes after the time set for the start of a meet­ing of the Com­mit­tee, a quor­um is not present, the meet­ing will be aban­doned and it will be recor­ded that no busi­ness was con­sidered because there was no quor­um. If a quor­um is not present, the meet­ing will be adjourned to anoth­er time of the same day, or to anoth­er date and time as the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or may decide then or afterwards.

Plan­ning Applic­a­tions: Writ­ten Representations

1. Only rep­res­ent­a­tions which are received in writ­ing and/​or by email with­in 28 days of the date on which the applic­a­tion was called-in by the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee will be included in the Com­mit­tee papers or be put before mem­bers of the Plan­ning Com­mit­tee. Writ­ten rep­res­ent­a­tions must be made to des­ig­nated plan­ning officers at the Authority’s stated address or to the des­ig­nated plan­ning email address. Writ­ten rep­res­ent­a­tions received by mem­bers are not deemed to have been prop­erly received in terms of these stand­ing orders irre­spect­ive of the date of send­ing or receipt. On receipt of any such rep­res­ent­a­tions, mem­bers may inform the sender that the required pro­cess is to sub­mit writ­ten rep­res­ent­a­tions to des­ig­nated plan­ning officers at the Authority’s stated address or to the des­ig­nated plan­ning email address. Mem­bers may for­ward such rep­res­ent­a­tions to the appro­pri­ate plan­ning officer. Mem­bers may elect at their sole dis­cre­tion not to respond to someone send­ing a writ­ten rep­res­ent­a­tion and / or elect not to for­ward the rep­res­ent­a­tion received to plan­ning offi­cials. Such action does not sig­ni­fy any fail­ure of plan­ning pro­cess, as only writ­ten rep­res­ent­a­tions made to des­ig­nated plan­ning offi­cials with­in the timetable set out in these stand­ing orders are val­id rep­res­ent­a­tions for inclu­sion in Com­mit­tee papers or to be put before mem­bers of the Plan­ning Committee.

2. All oth­er writ­ten rep­res­ent­a­tions not meet­ing required cri­ter­ia set out in para­graph 9 will be regarded as ​‘late let­ters of rep­res­ent­a­tion’. Only in excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, where the con­tents of a late let­ter of rep­res­ent­a­tion is, in the opin­ion of the plan­ning offi­cials, of mater­i­al sig­ni­fic­ance to the recom­mend­a­tion for the applic­a­tion to which it refers, will an oral sum­mary of that rep­res­ent­a­tion be presen­ted to the Com­mit­tee by the plan­ning officer.

Plan­ning Applic­a­tions: Oral Representations

1. In rela­tion to the determ­in­a­tion of applic­a­tions called-in by the CNPA, any applicant/​agent/​supporter, object­or and Com­munity Coun­cil who has made a val­id rep­res­ent­a­tion on a plan­ning applic­a­tion qual­i­fy­ing under Sec­tion 9 of these Stand­ing Orders, who wish to make oral rep­res­ent­a­tions to the Com­mit­tee in respect of an agenda item must request to do so in writ­ing and/​or by email to plan­ning offi­cials at the Nation­al Park Author­ity. Requests must be received by plan­ning offi­cials no later than 7 cal­en­dar days pri­or to the meet­ing which will con­sider the rel­ev­ant item of busi­ness. The request must set out clearly the plan­ning reas­ons for wish­ing to address the Com­mit­tee and must be com­pet­ent in plan­ning terms. Such requests will be drawn to Mem­bers’ atten­tion when the item is presen­ted at Com­mit­tee. It will be at the Committee’s dis­cre­tion to determ­ine wheth­er to agree to each request. If such a request to make oral rep­res­ent­a­tions to the Com­mit­tee is refused the applic­a­tion will be determ­ined without that spe­cif­ic oral representation.

2. Requests to speak to the Com­mit­tee received less than 7 days pri­or to the planned com­mence­ment of the meet­ing which will con­sider the rel­ev­ant item of busi­ness shall not be considered.

3. Where there is a group of indi­vidu­als with sim­il­ar views and wish­ing to raise sim­il­ar issues, they will be asked to elect a spokes­per­son, or a max­im­um of two spokes­per­sons, to speak for the group in order to avoid repe­ti­tion. This will ensure that such rep­res­ent­a­tions can be dealt with effi­ciently with­in the form­al Com­mit­tee meeting.

4. Oppor­tun­it­ies to address the Com­mit­tee will be lim­ited to 10 minutes (in total) for the applicant/​agent/​supporter and 10 minutes (in total) for the object­ors. Com­munity Coun­cils that have made a request to speak will be giv­en 10 minutes (in total) to do so. The pro­ced­ure will be for the applicant/​agent/​supporter to speak first, object­ors to speak second, fol­lowed by the Com­munity Coun­cil. Mem­bers will have an oppor­tun­ity to ask ques­tions of any of the speak­ers after they have spoken. The pro­ced­ure is as fol­lows: a) Applicant/​Agent/​Supporters b) Ques­tions from mem­bers c) Object­ors d) Ques­tions from mem­bers e) Com­munity Coun­cil rep­res­ent­a­tion f) Ques­tions from members

5. At the con­clu­sion of this pro­ced­ure, and before any debate takes place, the Committee’s plan­ning officer or rel­ev­ant CNPA staff will be giv­en an oppor­tun­ity to respond to any issues raised.

Writ­ten and Oral Rep­res­ent­a­tions on Oth­er Agenda Items

1. Plan­ning Com­mit­tee meet­ings are typ­ic­ally under­taken in pub­lic, with papers avail­able for pub­lic scru­tiny pri­or to meet­ings. The Author­ity may receive writ­ten or oral rep­res­ent­a­tions on these papers or agenda items from inter­ested parties in the peri­od between pub­lic­a­tion of the papers and the meet­ing tak­ing place. The pre­sump­tion is that Authority’s busi­ness pro­cesses will have afforded appro­pri­ate oppor­tun­it­ies for inter­ested parties to make their views known pri­or to papers being final­ised and pub­lished. There­fore, offi­cials will not cir­cu­late such rep­res­ent­a­tions, or sum­mary notes of them. Offi­cials may con­sider reflect­ing the receipt of fur­ther rep­res­ent­a­tions since pub­lic­a­tion of papers with­in their present­a­tion of items of busi­ness to the Committee.

2. Where there are excep­tion­al reas­ons for cir­cu­lat­ing such rep­res­ent­a­tion or sum­mary notes of rep­res­ent­a­tions, the Authority’s offi­cials will agree this approach and the rationale for cir­cu­la­tion with the Con­ven­or, or with the Deputy Con­ven­or in the Convenor’s absence, pri­or to the meeting.

Site Vis­its

1. The nor­mal meth­od of apprais­ing Com­mit­tee Mem­bers of the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of any site which is on the agenda will be by means of video and/​or pro­jec­ted pho­to­graph­ic images. The images rel­ev­ant to each applic­a­tion will be shown, with any neces­sary com­ment­ary by offi­cials, pri­or to the hear­ing of any rep­res­ent­a­tions or ques­tions on that application.

2. A mem­ber may pro­pose a motion for a site vis­it where they deem this to be essen­tial to the effect­ive determ­in­a­tion of a plan­ning applic­a­tion. A motion for a site vis­it may only be pro­posed after the officers’ present­a­tion on the applic­a­tion and any points of cla­ri­fic­a­tion on the officers’ present­a­tion have been dealt with. Motions for a site vis­it must be seconded by anoth­er mem­ber. Once seconded, the Con­ven­or will identi­fy wheth­er there is unan­im­ous sup­port for this motion or wheth­er a vote on the motion is required. Requests for a site vis­it will not be accep­ted by request pri­or to the start of the meeting.

3. Where it is con­sidered neces­sary to carry out a form­al site vis­it by the Com­mit­tee pri­or to the determ­in­a­tion of an applic­a­tion the decision will be deferred and the vis­it will be arranged pri­or to the fol­low­ing month’s Com­mit­tee meet­ing. When a suit­able time has been arranged officers will form­ally noti­fy all Com­mit­tee Mem­bers, the applic­ants and object­ors or oth­er third parties in writing.

4. The Head Plan­ner in con­sulta­tion with the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or or Deputy Con­ven­or may also arrange a site vis­it pri­or to the mat­ter com­ing before Com­mit­tee in which case the same noti­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures will be followed.

5. Fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion of the applic­a­tion fol­low­ing the site vis­it will be made at a future Com­mit­tee meet­ing. When mak­ing site vis­its Mem­bers are not func­tion­ing as a Com­mit­tee. There is there­fore no require­ment for a quor­um and while applicants/​supporters, object­ors and Com­munity Coun­cils may attend they have no right to speak.

6. A site vis­it is man­aged by the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or. CNPA officers will provide a short present­a­tion on the pro­pos­al and point out any rel­ev­ant fea­tures of the site and its sur­round­ings. Mem­bers of the Com­mit­tee may ask, via the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or, ques­tions about mat­ters relat­ing to the site to officers, applic­ants or their agents, or object­ors. Non-Mem­bers present will only be allowed to speak on the dir­ec­tion of the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or and they will be per­mit­ted only to point out fea­tures of the site or build­ing, land own­er­ship and means of access. No dis­cus­sions on the mer­its of a pro­pos­al, or decisions, and no oral rep­res­ent­a­tions of any form will take place dur­ing site visits.

7. Mem­bers make them­selves famil­i­ar with sites in a num­ber of dif­fer­ent ways and non- attend­ance at a site vis­it will not pre­clude Mem­bers from tak­ing part in the decision pro­cess on an item at a form­al Com­mit­tee meeting.

Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Decisions

How motions and amend­ments are moved and decided on

1. Where the item of busi­ness involves a paper from offi­cials present­ing a recom­men­ded course of action, the recom­mend­a­tions set out in the paper shall be the ​“ori­gin­al motion” for all such items of busi­ness. The ori­gin­al motion arising from a writ­ten recom­mend­a­tion by offi­cials is estab­lished by the paper without need for any fur­ther action, with the ori­gin­al motion deemed to have been pro­posed and seconded. Oth­er than ori­gin­al motions estab­lished by the cir­cu­la­tion and present­a­tion of a paper by offi­cials, every motion and amend­ment must be moved and seconded. The terms of all motions and amend­ments will be stated imme­di­ately when they are pro­posed and before the Mem­ber speaks to the motion or amend­ment. At the request of a mem­ber and with approv­al of the Con­ven­or, or on the decision of the Con­ven­or of the meet­ing, the meet­ing may be adjourned to allow a mem­ber to seek pro­fes­sion­al or leg­al advice on the word­ing and / or com­pet­ence of a poten­tial motion or amend­ment. If the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or decides, a motion or amend­ment will be writ­ten down, signed by the mover and second­er, and giv­en to the Clerk who will read it to the meet­ing. Whenev­er there is a require­ment for a motion or amend­ment to be writ­ten down, signed and read back to the meet­ing, the Con­ven­or of the meet­ing shall adjourn the meet­ing until the writ­ten ver­sion of the motion or amend­ment has been pre­pared. This will only be read back to the meet­ing once the Con­ven­or has called an end to the adjourn­ment and recom­menced the Com­mit­tee meet­ing. Votes will be recor­ded by a roll-call.

2. An amend­ment that is con­trary to the officer’s recom­mend­a­tion shall include clear plan­ning reasons.

3. When a motion and one amend­ment only are before the meet­ing a vote will be taken between the motion and the amend­ment and the pro­pos­al receiv­ing a major­ity of the votes will become the decision of the Committee.

4. When a motion and two or more amend­ments are before the meet­ing, the vote will be taken on the last pro­posed amend­ment against the pre­ced­ing pro­posed amend­ment, each Mem­ber hav­ing one vote. If an amend­ment receives the sup­port of an over­all major­ity of the Mem­bers tak­ing part in the vote, that pro­pos­al will pro­gress to a fur­ther vote if neces­sary until all the pro­posed amend­ments have been dealt with. A vote will then be taken on the motion and the remain­ing pro­posed amend­ment and the pro­pos­al receiv­ing the major­ity of votes will become the decision of the meeting.

5. Motions or amend­ments which are not seconded will not be dis­cussed or recor­ded in the minutes. Except when the vote is taken by roll call, any Mem­ber who has moved a motion or amend­ment and who is in a minor­ity of one may ask for his/​her dis­sent from the even­tu­al decision to be recor­ded in the minutes.

6. A motion or amend­ment may be with­drawn by the mover if his/​her second­er agrees. Such a motion or amend­ment will not be inser­ted in the minutes.

7. A motion for the approv­al of a report of, or a minute of, a Com­mit­tee will be con­sidered as an ori­gin­al motion and any pro­pos­al involving alter­a­tion or rejec­tion of the report or minute will be dealt with as an amend­ment. This is irre­spect­ive of the tim­ing of any such motions with­in the Committee’s pro­ceed­ings. There­fore this para­graph takes pre­ced­ence over oth­er para­graphs in this sec­tion of the Stand­ing Orders regard­ing Com­mit­tee Decisions.

8. The Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or, if present, has the right to move approv­al of the report of, or minute of, that meeting.

9. The mover of an amend­ment and the mover of the ori­gin­al motion, where a mem­ber has spe­cific­ally moved and had seconded an ori­gin­al motion, each has a right to address the Com­mit­tee, in that order. Where there are mul­tiple amend­ments, the mover of the last amend­ment may address the Com­mit­tee first, fol­lowed by the mover of the second last amend­ment, as so on, until the pro­cess fin­ishes with the mover of the ori­gin­al motion address­ing the Com­mit­tee last. When the mover of the ori­gin­al motion has addressed the Com­mit­tee, the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or will close the debate, and no oth­er Mem­ber will be allowed to speak. The Clerk or the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or will announce the terms of the motion and amendment(s) and take the vote.

10. At any meet­ing of the Com­mit­tee, any mem­ber who has not spoken on a mat­ter being dis­cussed, may move a motion (without mak­ing a speech), ​“That the ques­tion be now put”, where at least 5 mem­bers (exclud­ing the movers and second­ers of the ori­gin­al motion and any amend­ments) have spoken on the matter.

11. On the motion being seconded, the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or shall put the same to the meet­ing without speeches or dis­cus­sion, and the vote shall be taken by a show of hands. If the motion for clos­ure of debate is car­ried, the mat­ter under dis­cus­sion shall be voted on in the ordin­ary way as set out in para­graph 33 to cov­er any amend­ments made to that point togeth­er with the ori­gin­al motion. If only the ori­gin­al motion has been put to the Com­mit­tee and this is not car­ried, the debate shall be resumed. Oth­er­wise, the decision reached by the vote shall be the decision of the Com­mit­tee and the item of busi­ness closed.

12. The Com­mit­tee will give plan­ning reas­ons at the meet­ing where the decision on a plan­ning applic­a­tion or oth­er mat­ter is con­trary to the officer’s recom­mend­a­tion. The pre­cise reas­ons for refus­al or full terms of approv­al, includ­ing con­di­tions and any leg­al agree­ments, shall there­after be agreed by the Head Plan­ner in con­sulta­tion with the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or or Deputy Con­ven­or. The Minutes will reflect those reas­ons and if con­di­tions or leg­al agree­ments required can­not be agreed then they will be brought back to Com­mit­tee for approval.

What hap­pens if votes are equal?

1. In the cases of an equal­ity of votes, the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or or per­son presid­ing at the meet­ing will have a second or cast­ing vote.

Pro­ced­ur­al Motions

Adjourn­ing a meeting

1. The Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or may adjourn any meet­ing for a reas­on­able inter­val if he/​she decides there is a good reas­on to do so.

2. The Com­mit­tee may adjourn any meet­ing for a reas­on­able inter­val or to anoth­er date as they may agree or, if no decision on a date, the Com­mit­tee Con­ven­or will decide then or after­wards. The vote on a motion to adjourn, on being seconded, will be taken without amend­ment or dis­cus­sion and by show of hands. A sim­il­ar motion to adjourn to anoth­er day will not be com­pet­ent with­in a peri­od of one hour after the decision on the earli­er motion.

Del­eg­a­tion of Responsibilities

1. The Plan­ning Com­mit­tee may del­eg­ate author­ity for dis­charge of its respons­ib­il­it­ies to plan­ning offi­cials. Routine oper­a­tion­al decision-mak­ing neces­sary to main­tain an effi­cient plan­ning func­tion, includ­ing but not lim­ited to pro­vi­sion of pro­fes­sion­al plan­ning advice, dis­charge of and com­pli­ance with con­di­tions, non-mater­i­al vari­ations and the call-in of plan­ning applic­a­tions, is del­eg­ated to offi­cials. The Chief Exec­ut­ive shall ensure an appro­pri­ate hier­archy of decision-mak­ing is estab­lished with­in the officer team for effect­ive dis­charge of these oper­a­tion­al functions.

Amend­ment of Stand­ing Orders

1. These stand­ing orders may be var­ied, revoked or added to only by the NPA Board, and any such altern­a­tion will require the con­sent of a major­ity of mem­bers vot­ing. Notice of the inten­tion to bring for­ward pro­posed amend­ments to stand­ing orders must be sig­ni­fied at the Com­mit­tee meet­ing pri­or to the Board meet­ing at which pro­pos­als will be con­sidered. Not­with­stand­ing this pro­vi­sion, no stand­ing order may be amended if this would con­tra­vene any stat­utory pro­vi­sion or dir­ec­tion made by Scot­tish Ministers.