Agenda item

To confirm and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 3 October 2017

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 3 October 2017.

The minutes were moved by Councillor J Coxon and seconded by Councillor  M Specht.

Councillor J Legrys requested an amendment to the minutes and requested that the word ‘amendment’ in the penultimate paragraph on the third page of the minutes be replaced with the word ‘motion’.  He stated that he had not moved an amendment to the motion at that time but had moved a separate motion and therefore the wording was technically incorrect and therefore he objected to the wording.  He added that the paragraph also referred to speaking to the Monitoring Officer however his understanding was that advice had been sought from the Deputy Monitoring Officer. 

The Chairman clarified that the Deputy Monitoring Officer had sought advice from the Monitoring Officer and therefore he believed this point to be correct. 

The Chairman requested that Councillor J Legrys put his amendment in writing to enable officers to look into this matter further.  He stated that the minutes would be amended if Councillor J Legrys’ comments were correct.

Councillor J Legrys raised a point of order and formally proposed that the word ‘amendment’ be changed to ‘motion’ in the minutes.  The motion was seconded by Councillor M B Wyatt.

Councillor D Harrison stated that he could not recall whether this point was accurate as there had been a lot of debate and therefore he could not vote on this. 

Councillors J Hoult, G Jones and N Smith stated that they were absent from the last meeting. 

The Chairman stated that Councillor J Legrys’ comments had been duly noted, however the points raised needed to be verified with the voice recording as the officer these comments related to was not present.  The minutes would be amended in accordance with Councillor J Legrys’ comments if they were verified with the voice recording.

Councillor J Legrys stated that he did not agree with this approach and sought advice from the Legal Advisor as an amendment to the minutes had been formally proposed and seconded. 

The Monitoring Officer advised members that the paragraph that Councillor J Legrys sought to amend was the advice given by the Deputy Monitoring Officer to the meeting rather than Councillor J Legrys’ statement, which had been captured earlier in the minutes.   

Councillor J Legrys reiterated that at the meeting he had put forward a separate motion to defer the application which had been refused, however the word ‘amendment’ was used throughout the debate despite his protests.  He added that he did not dispute that this was what the advice given by the Deputy Monitoring Officer however he objected to the use of the word ‘amendment’.

The Monitoring Officer reminded members that consideration was being given to the accuracy of the minutes and there appeared to be agreement that the advice from the Deputy Monitoring Officer and the statement made by Councillor J Legrys had been recorded correctly. 

Councillor J Legrys stated that he felt the word ‘amendment’ was not the intention of his proposition at the meeting and therefore there needed to be an explanation in the minutes.  He suggested this matter be put to the vote. 

Councillor M Specht stated that he fully concurred with the comments made by Councillor J Legrys.

The Chairman then put the motion to the vote and it was

RESOLVED THAT:

Subject to the above amendment, the minutes of the meeting held on 3 October 2017 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.