In accordance with Chapter 2, Part 2 (Rule 15) of the Council’s Constitution.

The Motion, as printed in the Agenda, was proposed by Councillor Pearce and seconded by Councillor Gledhill. The Motion read as follows:

“Along with the residents of Aveley and Uplands this council welcomes the decision by the Secretary of State to reject plans for 500 houses on the former firemans club site in Aveley. Further, this council extends its gratitude to Thurrock’s Member of Parliament Jackie Doyle-Price for her role in persuading the Secretary of State to review the application.”

Councillor Pearce introduced the motion, and in doing so explained that there had been two years of opposition to the development and thanked Teresa Webster on her part for helping common sense prevail. She felt that the Planning Committee should have rejected the application and believed that the Section 106 agreement was not fit for purpose.

The Mayor advised Members that the Monitoring Officer had received and accepted a proposed amendment to motion 1, details of which were provided on the desks in the Chamber. The Mayor asked Councillor Ray to move his proposed amendment.

Councillor Ray proposed his amendment to the motion, which was seconded by Councillor Aker, which read as follows:

“Along with the residents of Aveley and Uplands this council welcomes the decision by the Secretary of State to reject plans for 500 houses on the former firemans club site in Aveley on greenbelt land.”

In introducing his proposed amendment, Councillor Ray, felt that the wording of the last part of the substantive motion was inappropriate and incorrect. He felt that it was inappropriate to say that an MP could have persuaded a Secretary of State, and remarked that two Conservative Members of the Planning Committee had approved the application. He further reported that three MEP’s from the Eastern Region had submitted information to the Secretary of State for consideration and observed that two submissions had been received too late to be considered in the findings, which included the submissions from Sport England and MP Jackie Doyle-Price.

Councillor Aker felt that a local referendum should be triggered on contentious issues such as this and that residents in Aveley were left in an indeterminate state on this application for too long, which was why he supported Councillor Ray’s proposed amendment.

Councillor Gledhill expressed that that he would not be supporting the proposed amendment but wholeheartedly supported the idea of a local referendum. He felt that it was inappropriate to speak about the decision of individual members of the Planning Committee and emphasised that no pressure or outside influence should be placed on Planning Committee Members.

Councillor J. Kent informed Members that he had read the inspectors report and observed that it did not mention the work of the MP Jackie Doyle-Price and as the submission was too late to be considered it would be problematic to extend gratitude to the MP.

Councillor Coxshall stated that the MP Jackie Doyle-Price had submitted four submissions and that only the last submission had not been received on time. As a result he thought that the comments made were disingenuous.

Upon being put to the vote, 22 Members voted in favour of the amendment to the Motion, 16 Members voted against and 1 abstained, whereupon the Mayor declared the amendment to the motion was carried.

Following some clarification regarding the point of order for procedure of motions the Mayor conducted a vote in respect of the substantive motion, as amended.

Upon being put to the vote, 29 Members voted in favour of the Motion, 4 Members voted against and 4 abstained, whereupon the Mayor declared the motion to be carried.

RESOLVED:

Along with the residents of Aveley and Uplands this council welcomes the decision by the Secretary of State to reject plans for 500 houses on the former firemans club site in Aveley on greenbelt land.

At 9.25pm the Mayor proposed that Council Procedure Rule 11.1 be suspended to allow the meeting to continue beyond the 2 ½ hour time limit and enable the business on the Agenda to be completed.