Flintshire councillor’s motion demands probe into scrapped planning votes
Flintshire County Council will debate a motion on Tuesday calling for an investigation into why roll-call voting was scrapped at Planning Committee, according to papers published ahead of the meeting.
The Notice of Motion, submitted by Cllr Sam Swash, who represents Hawarden & Mancot for Flintshire People’s Voice, asks the council to establish who authorised the change to roll-call voting, under what authority, and whether Planning Committee itself was ever consulted. It appears on the agenda for Tuesday’s Full Council meeting.
The motion follows a Planning Committee meeting at which members considered amendments to a Castle Green Homes development on Ash Lane. In a public Facebook post after that meeting, Cllr Swash said he had asked the developer to attend in person over what he described as an incomprehensible mess of amendment documents.
Cllr Swash said the committee chair, Cllr Richard Lloyd, offered the developer more speaking time than the rules allow, and interrupted him four times as he tried to raise concerns about a Welsh Water report warning of what Cllr Swash described as significant detriment to the drainage and sewerage network. He said the report existed four months before the application was approved but was not given to committee members at the time.
Cllr Swash said fellow FPV councillor Gillian Brockley, who represents Hawarden & Aston, was also repeatedly interrupted, and that Hawarden Community Council representative Cllr Connor Wynne was removed from part of the meeting over a declared interest relating to a different, unrelated application.
He also said one committee member left for most of the debate before returning to vote in favour of the amendments.
Roll-call voting, which records and publishes how each committee member votes, was not used at the meeting. Cllr Swash said he understands the decision to stop recording votes was taken by the Planning Strategy Group, a body that meets in private and does not publish its agendas or membership.
The motion, if passed, would refer the roll-call issue to the Constitution and Democratic Services Committee, which would report back to Full Council on who made the change and whether it followed proper process. It would also trigger a review of public access to the Planning Strategy Group.
Under new procedural rules also going before Tuesday’s meeting, only five motions can be debated per Council meeting, meaning Cllr Swash’s motion is not guaranteed to be reached.
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