It appears that all may not be rosy in the garden at East Cambridgeshire District Council’s planning committee.

Things have come to such a pass that a proposal has been tabled by the leader of the council, no less, to this evening’s Full Council meeting, to set up an arbitration mechanism to resolve disputes between the council’s professional planning officers and the chairman of the planning committee.

The proposal, which applies solely to the planning committee, is that if the planning officers want to amend a draft planning committee agenda and the committee chairman disagrees, the matter is referred to the Chief Executive of the council for him to resolve in conjunction with the leader of the council.

What on earth has been going on behind the scenes that matters should have come to such a state?