Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the District Executive meeting held on 3^rd December 2015.

The minutes of the District Executive meeting held on 3^rd December 2015, copes of which had been circulated, were taken as read and, having been approved as a correct record, were signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Henry Hobhouse and Peter Gubbins.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (adopted July 2012), which includes all the provisions relating to Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI), personal and prejudicial interests, Members are asked to declare any DPI and also any personal interests (and whether or not such personal interests are also "prejudicial") in relation to any matter on the Agenda for this meeting. A DPI is defined in The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 No. 1464) and Appendix 3 of the Council’s Code of Conduct. A personal interest is defined in paragraph 2.8 of the Code and a prejudicial interest is defined in paragraph 2.9.

Members are reminded that they need to declare the fact that they are also a member of a County, Town or Parish Council as a Personal Interest. As a result of the change made to the Code of Conduct by this Council at its meeting on 15th May 2014, where you are also a member of Somerset County Council and/or a Town or Parish Council within South Somerset you must declare a prejudicial interest in any business on the agenda where there is a financial benefit or gain or advantage to Somerset County Council and/or a Town or Parish Council which would be at the cost or to the financial disadvantage of South Somerset District Council.  If you have a prejudicial interest you must comply with paragraphs 2.9(b) and 2.9(c) of the Code.

There were no declarations of interest made.

Questions, statements or comments from members of the public are welcome at the beginning of each meeting of the Council. The total period allowed for public participation shall not exceed 15 minutes except with the consent of the Council and each individual speaker shall be restricted to a total of three minutes. Where there are a number of persons wishing to speak about the same matter, they should consider choosing one spokesperson to speak on their behalf where appropriate. If a member of the public wishes to speak they should advise the committee administrator and complete one of the public participation slips setting out their name and the matter they wish to speak about. The public will be invited to speak in the order determined by the Chairman. Answers to questions may be provided at the meeting itself or a written reply will be sent subsequently, as appropriate. Matters raised during the public question session will not be debated by the Council at that meeting.

There were no members of the public present.

The Chairman advised that he had attended a meeting of the Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) where it had been announced that the Government were preparing primary legislation to allow the Rivers Authority to become a separate precepting body.  In the meantime, Council Tax would be allowed to rise by 1 ¼ % to raise ringfenced funding for the work of the SRA.  Each District Council in Somerset would be asked to confirm their agreement to this at their budget setting meetings in February 2016.  If the increase was agreed then it would be carefully explained in the Council Tax leaflets. 

During discussion, it was noted that the County Council were also being allowed to raise their precept to fund Adult Social Care and concern was expressed at the possible large increase and its effect on SSDC taxpayers.  The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) confirmed that the combined increases in Council Tax on a Band D property would equate to approximately an additional £65 p.a.

At the conclusion of a short debate, it was noted that this would be discussed further at Full Council on 25^th February 2016.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services thanked the Scrutiny Task and Finish group for their work in reviewing the Council Tax Reduction Scheme.  He said many different approaches were tested including the effect of Universal Credit and some were rejected because of this.  He outlined the four proposed changes, two of which were not supported and he noted that the Hardship Scheme had been set at £30,000 for the year. 

The Scrutiny Chairman noted that the scheme had been considered in great depth by a Task and Finish Group and she drew attention to a small error within the report which would be corrected before presentation to Full Council.

In response to questions from Members the Portfolio Holder, Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) and the Revenues and Benefits Manager confirmed that:-

·         The proposal to reduce the amount of savings held whilst remaining in receipt of council tax support had been supported by the majority of consultation respondents and those affected by the proposal was on a sliding scale as capital between £16,000 and £6,000 is currently taken into account.

·         The Somerset Rivers Authority levy would increase the amount of council tax support claimed and the impact to SSDC would be less than £200,000.

·         The respondents to the consultation process were a representative cross section of people who were in receipt of council tax support and those who were not.

·         None of the assertions in the consultation were taken at face value but had been calculated to identify how many people they would affect. 

The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) agreed to provide a briefing note on the Council Tax Support Scheme for Town and Parish Councillors. 

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to recommend the Council Tax Support Scheme for 2016/17 to Council for approval.

This item was deferred to the next District Executive meeting on 4^th February 2016.

The Chairman advised that this item was being deferred to the next District Executive meeting on 4^th February 2016 for further equalities information to be included with the policy documents.

The Chairman, as Portfolio Holder for Strategy and Policy, reminded Members of the previous proposal to convert the property into a day centre with accommodation.  However, the P4A project was no longer in operation and the conversion work had never started.  Similar projects at Goldcroft and Mirrolds in Chard had brought empty properties back into the rental market and it was now proposed to do the same with this property using the same local developers.

The Environmental Health Manager advised that the proposal would ensure that SSDC had an increased asset after the 15 year lease, and, as SSDC would have nomination rights for the tenants of the flats, then people on the housing waiting list would be re-homed. 

The Scrutiny Chairman asked if the Council would receive New Homes Bonus funding for the flats and it was confirmed that this would be £8,000 per flat plus the council tax payments.  It was also confirmed that planning permission for the conversion had already been granted and the developer would be the responsible landlord for the flats when completed. 

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to confirm the recommendations of the report. 

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services introduced the report to Members and drew their attention to the announcements in the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, particularly noting the removal of all Revenue Support Grant by 2019/20 and the review of the New Homes Bonus scheme.  He also noted the work undertaken to investigate the proposal made at Full Council in July 2015 to change the SSDC Car Parking Policy to allow a free period of up to two hours free car parking to encourage shoppers to the market towns.  Although there had been little evidence to support a discounting period of parking due to the forecast drop in car parking income, officers would continue to investigate the proposal.  

In response to questions from the Scrutiny Committee and other Members, the Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) advised that:-

·         The outcome of the proposal to join with Sedgemoor DC was not yet known but if SSDC decided to engage a new CEO officer then this would be considered ‘in year’.

·         The vacant posts removed were mainly part time hour adjustments and would not impact upon service delivery.

·         As the Governments Revenue Support Grant figure was not known, it had been agreed at District Executive in October 2015 to use balances where appropriate to achieve a balanced budget.

·         The optimum reserve balance was between £3.4m and £3.8m to meet the Council’s key risks and £1.6m was being used to support the revenue budget in future years. 

The Interim Chief Executive advised that a Transformation Business Case report would be presented to District Executive in February and some Members Workshops may be held to explain this new approach to service delivery to Members. 

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to confirm the medium term financial plan and capital programme as presented. 

The Assistant Director (Communities) advised that:-

·         5 new properties had been added to the register of assets of community value within the last 3 months and SSDC was currently reviewing the arrangements for adding properties to the register to ensure it was simple, effective and complied with legislation.

·         Representations had been made on the recent DCLG survey and changes to the legislation were anticipated.

·         Agents for the Church Commissioners had requested a copy of the SSDC Compensation Scheme relating to Barrington Primary School.

In response to a question from the Scrutiny Committee, the Assistant Director (Communities) confirmed that any church currently in use could be nominated and placed on the register, however, although Church of England churches could be nominated there was separate legislation which covered these.  She also agreed to check how many successful Community Rights to Bid to buy an asset had occurred as none had taken place within South Somerset.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to note the report and agree the Council’s ‘Compensation Scheme and Procedure for the Community Right to Bid’.

Members were content to note the monthly news snapshot information.

Members noted the following additions to the Executive Forward Plan:

•      Transformation Business Plan – February 2016

•      Review of SSVCA Funding – February 2016

•      Consultation on New Homes Bonus – closing date 10/03/16 – SSDC response to be discussed at District Executive – March 2016

•      Somerset Waste Partnership New Waste Collection Model – moved to March 2016

Members noted that the next scheduled meeting of the District Executive would take place on Thursday 4^th February 2016 in the Council Chamber, Council Offices, Brympton Way, Yeovil commencing at 9.30 a.m.

The Strategic Director (Operations and Customer Focus) advised that because the energy performance of the Brympton Way building had not been known at the time of the previous urgent decision taken to install the photovoltaic array on the extension and council chamber roofs at Brympton Way, the amount of Feed in Tariff to be received was unknown.  The building had now been rated as category D and so a higher rate of Feed In Tariff would be received.

The Scrutiny Chairman asked if it would be possible to include the interest which the capital sum would have earned if not allocated to the project.  The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) confirmed that it would have been £2,900 and agreed to include it in future reports.   

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to note the urgent decision taken by the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder.