| Topic: | Re::Re: STENCH of the TORIES PREVAILS | |
| Posted by: | Phil Andrews | |
| Date/Time: | 24/09/11 00:13:00 |
| "I would suggest that it wasn't legal because the Tory Chair permitted the Tory Lead Member to leave the room before the second vote, allegedly to go to the toilet. When she returned she led her party members to change their votes and vote approval. I was under the impression that voting members could not leave the room." Just so the rationale behind this requirement is clearly understood, the point is that for any Committee member to be able to cast a vote it is incumbent upon them to have heard the whole debate from start to finish, and every argument that has been put by every party therein. If a Committee member leaves the room during the debate then pertinent facts could have been introduced into the discussion during their absence that had they heard them may have caused them to vote differently. Therefore, whilst any Committee member is perfectly entitled to leave the room at any time, once they have returned they should take no further part in the discussion and should exclude themselves from any voting on that particular application. I would have expected the Lead Member for Environment, who after all is in charge of planning, to have known this. More so still the Legal Officer who was seated at the table and who had been so keen to stress the local authority's legal obligations when it had looked like the application was going to be rejected. However she said nothing. Why this should be so will always remain a matter for conjecture. |