Councillor Sandy Wallace, Aberdeenshire Council

[cj]

The problem is I need the catharsis of hard consonants

[andrew111]

Jul 14, 2021 9:42:14 GMT neilm said:

"They're a bunch of velvet pockets" is one I heard recently.

"cuckoo's nest" is traditional

[aargauer]

Apr 29, 2022 22:48:59 GMT @boogieeck said:

I had to basically yell at them. YOU CANNOT MANDATE THE NEXT COUNCIL TO GO ON A SITE VISIT. YOU CAN EITHER DEFER THE APPLICATION FOR THEM TO CONSIDER OR YOU CAN PASS IT OR YOU CAN REFUSE IT.

I take it you gave up on the politeness vow a while back.

[johnhemming]

Apr 29, 2022 22:48:59 GMT @boogieeck said:

I had to basically yell at them. YOU CANNOT MANDATE THE NEXT COUNCIL TO GO ON A SITE VISIT. YOU CAN EITHER DEFER THE APPLICATION FOR THEM TO CONSIDER OR YOU CAN PASS IT OR YOU CAN REFUSE IT. I persuaded the mover of the legally incompetent motion to withdraw it and then beat the legally incompetent amendment 8-3

I am not myself certain that you are right about this. A committee can decide to have a site visit. If the membership of the committee then changes it does not change the decision. Obviously the committee can then decide not to have a site visit. That, however, is separate issue.

[gwynthegriff]

Apr 30, 2022 17:28:38 GMT johnhemming said:

Apr 29, 2022 22:48:59 GMT @boogieeck said:

I had to basically yell at them. YOU CANNOT MANDATE THE NEXT COUNCIL TO GO ON A SITE VISIT. YOU CAN EITHER DEFER THE APPLICATION FOR THEM TO CONSIDER OR YOU CAN PASS IT OR YOU CAN REFUSE IT. I persuaded the mover of the legally incompetent motion to withdraw it and then beat the legally incompetent amendment 8-3

I am not myself certain that you are right about this. A committee can decide to have a site visit. If the membership of the committee then changes it does not change the decision. Obviously the committee can then decide not to have a site visit. That, however, is separate issue.

And, of course, nobody can mandate anyone to actually go on a site visit.

I went to very few on the basis that they were very rarely arranged because they were necessary or even justifiable but because the local member wanted to be seen to have "done something" or because they wanted to push a controversial decision to the other side of an election.

[london(ex)tory]

I used to enjoy planning committee site visits as an opportunity to chat to members from other parties in a more relaxed environment (usually on a Saturday morning) rather than in the formal setting of an actual meeting. And you could have a bit of banter with the officers too that wouldn’t be appropriate in a formal meeting.

In some cases it was helpful to the decision making process and in others it was utterly superfluous but you could probably say the same about some officer reports as well…

[No Offence Alan]

Apr 30, 2022 18:19:58 GMT gwynthegriff said:

Apr 30, 2022 17:28:38 GMT johnhemming said:

I am not myself certain that you are right about this. A committee can decide to have a site visit. If the membership of the committee then changes it does not change the decision. Obviously the committee can then decide not to have a site visit. That, however, is separate issue.

And, of course, nobody can mandate anyone to actually go on a site visit.

I went to very few on the basis that they were very rarely arranged because they were necessary or even justifiable but because the local member wanted to be seen to have "done something" or because they wanted to push a controversial decision to the other side of an election.

When I lived back in Worcestershire in the 1980s, I knew a Labour councillor (he later joined the Tories) who said site visits were a good excuse to have a nice lunch in a pleasant village pub, on expenses.

[The Bishop]

This thread has been "anchored" (no rhyming slang intended, honest) A rare honour.

[Defenestrated Fipplebox]

Jun 5, 2022 11:47:59 GMT @boogieeck said:

unherd.com/2022/05/dominic-cummings-i-dont-like-parties/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=6056ba324f&mc_eid=255bdae974

Whether you agree with what he said that is a very interesting article / interview. 

[pl]

Jun 6, 2022 13:35:35 GMT @boogieeck said:

You must have this bookmarked, its set to falling and I thought it was somewhere I could simply store stuff

If you view posts via "recently updated posts" the latest ones on this thread come up.