Planning Applications Committee Councillor / Officer pre-meetings

Dear Merton Borough Council,

I understand there is a practice of the chair and vice-chair of the Planning Applications Committee holding a pre-meeting before every Planning Applications Committee meeting.

With regard to these pre-meetings please:

a) Explain why these meetings take place
b) Explain the roles of councillors and officers present including whether the officers include case officers, senior planning officers, greenspaces team members, tree officers, conservation officers or others
c) Clarify whether these meetings take place at councillor or officer request
d) Clarify whether any other PAC members are able to attend
e) Clarify the discussion framework including but not restricted to
a. Whether potential refutation of objections is discussed
b. Whether planning policies relating to the application are discussed
f) State when these meetings first started

For every such meeting for the last 15 months (or if they have been happening for less than 15 months for every such meeting that has taken place), please provide:

a) Attendance list – all councillors, all officers and any others present
b) Agenda – or a list of which applications were discussed, with both application number and its title, and what other matters were discussed
c) Notes of these meetings including formal or informal written notes
d) All email correspondence relating to these meetings

Yours faithfully,

Sandra Vogel

Dear Merton Borough Council,

I am writing to prompt you to respond to this request please as it is now overdue.

Yours faithfully,

Sandra Vogel

Dear Sarah Stevens,

Thank you for your reply.

You have not answered question f). Please can you answer that question.

Where I asked about meetings that have taken place for the past 15 months (and this now means the past 17 months as there have been nearly two months between the original request and this follow-up):

1) With regard to question a) for the attendance list. Your response lists PAC chair and vice chair, heads of services and development control team leaders. You have not clarified if other officers attend (for example the conservation officer). Can I ask you to please examine the email record and any other relevant records and produce, as requested, an attendance list for each of these meetings for the last 17 months.

2) Where I asked about meetings that have taken place for the past 15 months (and this now means the past 17 months for the reason given above), with regard to question b) for information on what was discussed. Your response does not answer the question. Please can you consult with colleagues, PAC members and the email record as well as, for meetings you have attended, your own records, and, as requested, provide, for each of the applications discussed at each meeting, the application number and title, and what was discussed in relation to those applications.

3) Where I asked about meetings that have taken place for the past 15 months (and this now means the past 17 months for the reason given above), with regard to question d) You have not provided me with email correspondence. Please can you answer the question by providing all email correspondence relating to these meetings.

Yours sincerely,

Sandra Vogel

Dear Merton Borough Council,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Merton Borough Council's handling of my FOI request 'Planning Applications Committee Councillor / Officer pre-meetings'.

I asked for a range of information relating to these pre-meetings for the last 15 months - rising this timeframe to the last 17 months due to slowness of response.

I was surprised to be given generic rather than specific answers to many of my questions, and to be told that there is no record of who has attended each of these meetings.

I ask please for the detail, per meeting of who attended on both the officer and councillor side, rahter than a general list of who might attend any of these meetings.

I was suprised to be told there is no record of the planning applications discussed at each meeting, instead being referred to the PAC agendas.

I specifically wish to know which planning applications were discussed in each meeting, and request that information is provided.

I asked for email correspondence relating to each of these meetings and was given a generic response rather than the emails themselves. The response I received was " Emails are principally in the form of the Democratic Service or the Section Head checking with members as to their availability and on occasion re-scheduling a meeting to suit members’ other commitments."

When I followed up on this response I was given another generic response which did not answer my questions on a per meeting basis, and I was not given the emails that I again requested.

The inference from the response is that there are emails. I ask please for all email correspondence relating to the last 17 of these meetings (as identified by the date of my request) to be provided.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/p...

Yours faithfully,

Sandra Vogel