thorncliffeys

There were angry scenes at a planning committee in Camden the other week, as one of the objectors stormed off shouting obscenities. What can councils do about them?

Scenes like the one at Camden are unusual, but happen if residents feel unempowered, for instance from a lack of consultation from the council or developer, or from a lack of awareness from the resident. 

It’s also the case that our consumerist society makes it harder for some people to accept where they don’t get the planning outcome they want.  

Unfortunately, some councils will take the wrong message from this type of event, encouraging them to continue hybrid meetings where residents have to take part online. 

Ultimately, we should remember that planning committees are not public meetings, but meetings held in public, and it is incumbent on the chair to maintain good order. 

A certain amount of expression from the audience should be encouraged, including some cheering or booing, but councillors have a job which is to decide on applications, and they should be allowed to do that in a civil atmosphere.

The local election campaign formally kicks off today. It’s the largest test of democracy since the general election as we have two years of elections in one, including all the councils which were due to have elections in 2020.

In addition to the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru and GLA, all Police and Crime Commissioners are up for election, and the following councils.

County Councils: Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Worcestershire

Unitary councils: Blackburn with Darwen, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Derby, Durham, Halton, Hartlepool, Isle of Wight, Kingston-upon-Hull, Milton Keynes, North East Lincolnshire, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Shropshire, Slough, Southampton, Southend-on-Sea, Swindon, Thurrock, Warrington, West Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Wokingham

Metropolitan boroughs: Barnsley, Bolton, Bradford, Bury, Calderdale, Coventry, Doncaster, Dudley, Gateshead, Kirklees, Knowsley, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Oldham, Rochdale, Rotherham, St Helens, Salford, Sandwell, Sefton, Sheffield, Solihull, South Tyneside, Stockport, Sunderland, Tameside, Trafford, Wakefield, Walsall, Wigan, Wirral, Wolverhampton

Non-metropolitan districts: Adur, Amber Valley, Basildon, Basingstoke and Deane, Brentwood, Broxbourne, Burnley, Cambridge, Cannock Chase, Castle Point, Cheltenham, Cherwell, Chorley, Colchester, Crawley, Daventry, Eastleigh, Elmbridge, Epping Forest, Exeter, Fareham, Gloucester, Gosport, Harlow, Hart, Hastings, Havant, Hyndburn, Ipswich, Lincoln, Maidstone, Mole Valley, North Hertfordshire, Norwich, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Oxford, Pendle, Preston, Redditch, Reigate and Banstead, Rochford, Rossendale, Rugby, Runnymede, Rushmoor, St Albans, Stevenage, Stroud, Tamworth, Tandridge, Three Rivers, Tunbridge Wells, Watford, Welwyn Hatfield, West Lancashire, West Oxfordshire, Winchester, Woking, Worcester, Worthing

Directly elected Mayors: Bristol, Doncaster, Liverpool, North Tyneside, Salford

Combined authority Mayors: London, Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Tees Valley, West of England, West Midlands

Richard Patient, Managing Director of Thorncliffe | Your Shout:  “The government faces a problem.  To extend remote council meetings requires primary legislation – an Act of Parliament, but extending the Coronavirus Act – which expires on May 7^th – is highly controversial amongst its backbench members. 

“Jenrick acted quickly last year, but this year he’s been lobbied by an avalanche of councillors, council chief executives and planners to make remote meetings permanent. A possible solution is to push through a very simple one line Act, but parliamentary time is running out given Easter, local elections and a likely Queen’s Speech in May.

“Councils will find it very difficult to hold in-person meetings, and comply with social distancing.  What’s more many councillors are in the vulnerable categories and some councils have said the new zoom meetings are more efficient and effective, so there is great pressure to keep remote meetings for some time, if not permanently.

“There doesn’t seem to be much pressure from residents to bring councillors back to the town hall, so I suspect a way will be found.  Welsh councils allowed remote participation in meetings long before the pandemic, and the format has been shown to be successful this year.

“If the worst happens and MHCLG does nothing, expect more delegated decisions from officers and smaller council meetings.”

Thorncliffe today called for Harry Rich, The Registrar at ORCL – the government’s lobbying body, to set a standard or template for an industry code of conduct.

Richard Patient, managing director of Thorncliffe, said: “The template code can only be set by the government’s lobbying body – not by self-interested membership organisations, if it wants to support proper compliance with the lobbying industry.

“At Thorncliffe, we’ve had our own continually revised code of conduct since 2005, and last year, our code was given full independent approval by ORCL – the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists. It’s one of the best in the industry, precisely because it is fits our needs.”

“We accept independent adjudication for our code from an Adjudicator who is a member of the Bar Council or Law Society. We’re grateful to ORCL for guiding us last year on how to obtain approval for this externally-enforced Code of Conduct.”

“It’s really important that ORCL are the authority on codes of conduct. The actions of membership organisations – examples of which we’ve passed to ORCL, have shown in the past that they treat ORCL with a lack of respect so they are not best placed to bring unity to the industry.”

Key points within our code are:

1. Conduct within the code is overseen by an Independent Adjudicator, who is a member of the Bar Council or Law Society.
2. Thorncliffe’s Code of Conduct is part of all colleague’s employment contracts and has been operating since 2005, albeit continually being revised.
3. We have our own register to monitor our communications with national politicians and the UK Government
4. Our triple-lock means colleagues have to adhere to the law, their council code (if they are also councillors) and the company code.

Our Christmas charity this year is Lend with care.   

Lend with care is a charity to help people in low income countries to work their way out of poverty with dignity.

Lendwithcare brings together entrepreneurs in developing countries with people with the power to help them – people like us. Run by one of the world’s leading aid and development organisations, Lendwithcare is a revolutionary way for us to help people in the developing world to transform their lives. Thorncliffe lends money to a small business and once the money is repaid can choose to recycle the loan to support another entrepreneur.