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Access to Information

SUMMARY OF PUBLIC'S RIGHTS TO ATTEND MEETINGS AND TO INSPECT AND COPY DOCUMENTS

 

These rules do not affect any other more specific rights to information contained elsewhere in the Council's Constitution or in law.

1. Rights to Attend Meetings

Members of the public may attend all meetings of the Council, the Cabinet, Scrutiny and Overview Committees, Standards Committee, Planning Committee, Regulatory Committees and Sub-Committees unless notice has previously been given that the business to be dealt with at the meeting will be considered in private.

 

2. Notice of Meetings

The Council will give at least five clear (working) days' notice of any meeting by posting details of the meeting at the Council Offices, White Cliffs Business Park, Dover (the designated office) and also at the Area Offices at Aylesham, Deal, Dover and Sandwich.

 

3. Access to Agenda & Reports Before the Meeting

The Council will make available for inspection at the designated office copies of the agenda and those reports which are open to the public, at least five clear days before the meeting. The agendas and reports will also be available for inspection at the Area Offices and at public libraries in Deal, Dover and Sandwich. If an item is added to the agenda after it has been printed, the revised agenda will be open to inspection from the time the item was added. Where reports are prepared after the summons to the meeting has been sent out, the designated officer will make each of these later reports available to the public, provided that they are not confidential or exempt, as soon as the report is completed and has been sent to Councillors.

 

4. Supply of Copies

The Council will supply copies of the following documents to any person on payment of a charge for postage or other costs as listed below:

1. any agenda and reports which are open to public inspection
2. any further statements or particulars necessary to indicate the nature of the items on the agenda
3. if the proper officer sees fit, copies of any other documents supplied to Councillors in connection with an item.

 

Photocopying charges are: 50p for the first sheet and 10p per sheet thereafter.

Council Agendas (including reports open to public inspection) - £5.00
Planning Agendas (including reports open to public inspection) - £3.50
Other Agendas (including reports open to public inspection) - £3.00

5. Attendance at Meetings

In addition to attendance at meetings in order to listen to the business, members of the public may, under certain conditions, take part in meetings of the Council and of the Planning Committee.

 

Meetings of the full Council

Local government electors for the District may ask questions of Cabinet Members at ordinary meetings of the Council. Questions will be asked in the order in which they were received but the Chairman may group together questions which are similar.

 

A member of the public who wishes to ask a question must give notice in writing or by e-mail to the Democratic Services Section at the Council Offices, White Cliffs Business Park, Dover CT16 3PJ or democraticservices@dover.gov.uk no later than five clear working days before the day of the meeting. Each question must give the name and address of the questioner and must name the Cabinet Member to whom the question is to be put.

 

A question may be rejected by the Democratic Services Manager if:

 

The Democratic Services Section will enter each question in a book open to public inspection and will immediately send a copy of the question to the Member to whom it is to be put. Rejected questions will not include reasons for rejection.

 

At any one meeting a person or organisation may only submit one question and a maximum of three minutes will be allowed for the question to be read. A total period of 15 minutes is allocated to public questions. The Chairman will invite the member of the public to read the question to the Member of the Cabinet named in the notice and, if the person who submitted the written question is unable to be present, he or she may ask the Chairman to put the question on their behalf. The Chairman will then decide whether a written reply will be given or whether the question will not be dealt with.

 

A member of the public who has put a question in person may also put one supplementary question, without notice, to the Cabinet Member who replied to the original question. A supplementary question must arise directly out of the original question or the reply and the Chairman may reject the supplementary question if it falls within the reasons for rejection (I) to (iv) shown above.

 

Any questions which cannot be dealt with during public question time, either because of lack of time or because of the non-attendance of the Member to whom it was to be put, will be dealt with by a written answer.

 

Unless the Chairman decides otherwise, no discussion will take place on any question but a Councillor can move that a matter raised by a public question should be referred to the Cabinet or appropriate Committee. If another Councillor seconds this motion it will be voted on without further discussion.

 

Meetings of the Planning Committee

In 2001 the Council introduced a trial scheme of public speaking at Planning Committee which only concerns matters relating to deferred items and individual planning applications contained in the Planning Agenda and not to other matters such as Tree Preservation Orders or Enforcement matters.

Any person wishing to speak at the Committee should submit a written request using a form provided by the Council and indicating whether the speaker is in favour of or opposed to the planning application. The form must be returned to the Council not later than two working days prior to the meeting of the Planning Committee.

 

Speaking opportunities will be allocated on a first come first served basis but with the applicant being given the first chance of supporting the scheme. Where more than one person wishes to speak in support of or objection to an application, they will be asked to decide on one person to speak on behalf of all. The identified speaker may defer to another at the discretion of the Chairman of the Committee.

One person will be allowed to speak in favour of and one person allowed to speak against each application. The maximum time limit will be three minutes per speaker and each person will speak once only, even if the application is considered on more than one occasion. [This does not affect a person's right to speak at a Site Visit if the Committee decides that one should be held.]

 

In addition to the above arrangements District Councillors may be permitted to address the Planning Committee for three minutes in relation to planning applications in their Ward. In the interests of balance, a further three minutes' representataion on the contrary point of view will be allowed from the identified speaker or an additional speaker.

6. Access to Minutes etc. after the Meeting

The Council will make available for inspection copies of the following documents for a period of six years following the date of the meeting:

1. the Minutes of the meeting or, in respect of meetings of the Cabinet, the record of decisions taken, together with reasons.
2. a summary of any proceedings not open to the public where the Minutes open to inspection would not provide a reasonably fair and coherent record
3. the agenda for the meeting
4. reports relating to items considered when the meeting was open to the public

 

7. Background Papers

The proper officer will set out in every report a list of those documents (called background papers) relating to the subject matter of the report which in his/her opinion:

 

(a) disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based

(b) which have been relied upon to a material extent in preparing the report.

 

but do not include published works or those which disclose exempt or confidential information (as defined in paragraph 7 below). In the case of Cabinet reports this includes the advice of a political adviser.

 

The Council will make available for public inspection for a period of four years after the date of the meeting one copy of each of the documents on the list of background papers.

 

8. Exclusion of the Public from Meetings

Confidential information - requirement to exclude public

The public must be excluded from meetings whenever it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that confidential information would be disclosed. Confidential information means information given to the Council by a Government Department on terms which forbid its public disclosure or information which cannot be publicly disclosed by Court Order.

 

Exempt information – discretion to exclude public

The public may be excluded from meetings whenever it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that exempt information would be disclosed. Exempt information means information falling within the 15 categories shown in the table on the following pages and subject to the conditions shown in that table.

 

These categories are laid down in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972, Section 100 (A) (4)

 

	Category	Condition
1.	Information relating to any individual.	Provided that information shall only be exempt information if and so long as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
2.	Information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.	Provided that information shall only be exempt information if and so long as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
3.	Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).	Provided that information shall only be exempt information if and so long as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.   Information within paragraph 3 is not exempt information by virtue of that paragraph if it is required to be registered under – (a) the Companies Act 1985; (b) the Friendly Societies Act 1974; (c) the Friendly Societies Act 1992; (e) the Building Societies Act 1986 or (f) the Charities Act 1993.   Information is not exempt if it relates to proposed development for which the local planning authority may grant itself planning permission pursuant to Regulation 3 of the Town and Country Planning General Regulations 1992.
4.	Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the authority of a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office holders under, the authority.	Provided that information shall only be exempt information if and so long as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
5.	Information in respect of which a claim to legal profession privilege could be maintained in legal proceedings.	Provided that information shall only be exempt information if and so long as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
6.	Information which reveals that the authority proposes – (a) to give under any enactment a notice under or by virtue of which requirements are imposed on a person; or (b) to make an order or direction under any enactment.	Provided that information shall only be exempt information if and so long as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
7.	Information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime.
7A	Information which is subject to any obligation of confidentiality   (Regards must be had to any Statutory Guidance issued by the Standards Board)
7B	Information which relates in any way to matters concerning national security   (Regards must be had to any Statutory Guidance issued by the Standards Board)
7C	The deliberations of a Standards Committee, or of a Sub-Committee of the Standards Committee, established under Part 3 of the Local Government Act 2000 in reaching any finding on a matter referred under Section 60(2) or (3), 64(2), 70(4) or (5) or 71(2) of the Act   (Regards must be had to any Statutory Guidance issued by the Standards Board)

 

Provided that in the case of information falling within paragraphs 1-7 only information shall only be exempt information if and so long as, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

 

Reports containing exempt information

When reports which contain exempt information are written they will have the following text in the heading: “NOT FOR PUBLICATION by reason that this report contains information which is exempt by virtue of the provisions of paragraph …of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.” The reports will be printed on pink paper and be attached to the end of the agenda.

 

On the agenda itself, prior to the list of such reports, will be written “MATTER(S) WHICH THE MANAGEMENT TEAM SUGGESTS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED IN PRIVATE AS THE REPORT(S) CONTAIN EXEMPT INFORMATION AS DEFINED WITHIN PART 1 OF SCHEDULE 12A OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 AS INDICATED” and each report listed in this section will also show the relevant category, from the 15 shown above, which explains why the report is private.

When the meeting has reached the part of the Agenda at which reports which will be considered in private a Motion will be passed to exclude the press and public from the rest of the meeting. Once Councillors have agreed to the exclusion, all members of the press and public will be asked to leave the meeting room.

 

9. Definitions

The designated office:	The offices of Dover District Council at the White Cliffs Business Park, Dover, Kent.
Agenda:	Document showing the date, time and place in respect of a meeting of the Council, a Committee or Sub Committee of the Council and the business which is to be conducted during the meeting.
Reports:	Documents attached to the agenda which provide all the details which Councillors will need to consider when reaching a decision.
Summons:	The part of the Agenda for a meeting of the full Council which officially summons a Councillor to the meeting.
Designated officer:	The officer responsible for a report.
Proper officer:	Listed at the end of the Constitution, showing which officer(s) have specific responsibilities for Council business.
Minutes:	Written public record of the decision made at a meeting comprising the preamble (details of any extra information) and the resolution or decision made by the Councillors.
Record of decisions:	Written public record of the decision made at a meeting of the Cabinet.

 

Source: Access to Information Procedure Rules Council's Constitution

 

 

Contact Democractic Services

E-mail: democraticservices@dover.gov.uk

 

 

 

 

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