FI14636

Request

Prior to the planning hearing for Betteshanger Country Park on 7th March 2024. Please can you tell me the following : The names of all councillors who have attended DDC ( or other professional bodies) planning training courses. The dates these training courses took place, who gave the training course ( whether in house or external ), where that course took place and the duration of the course. Please provide copies of any handouts or slides etc that were provided during this training.

Response

The Council’s Constitution (Article 13, Appendix E) requires that all members of the Planning Committee must undergo training prior to being allowed to serve on it.  The same requirement applies to councillors wishing to substitute on the Planning Committee.  This is important as it means that untrained councillors cannot serve on the Planning Committee. The training once undertaken is valid for the four-year term of the Council or any part of this period if trained at a later date. The Constitution requires that the training provider is the Head of Regeneration and Development (now called Head of Planning and Development) or a suitably qualified nominee or an accredited external provider. 

The Council, on the recommendation of the Head of Planning and Development, used Gilian Macinnes of Gilian Macinnes Associates to provide training for councillors on 30 May 2023. This was an evening training session starting at 6.00 pm. We do not hold the details of when that training finished but it would have lasted approximately 3 hours. 

Additional training was provided for Councillors Brivio, Cronk and Nee who were unable to attend the training provided on 30 May 2023. That training was delivered on 21 June by the Head of Planning and Development and the Planning Solicitor.  The trainer from the 30 May 2023 training session, Gillian Macinnes, permitted the Council to hold for a short period of time a recording of her training that was made available to those councillors unable to attend the training on 30 May 2023. The Council no longer holds that recording as per our agreement with the external trainer. We do not hold information on the duration of this training held on 21 June 2023, but it would have covered the same material as the 30 May session. 

A copy of the training presentation is attached along with guidance from the LGA, both of which were provided at the training sessions.

Attachments

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