Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Cathy Bakewell, Mike Beech, John V Chainey, Pauline Clarke, John Dyke, Tony Fife, Marcus Fysh, Anna Groskop, Henry Hobhouse, Mike Lewis, David Norris, Sue Osborne, Paul Thompson, Kim Turner, Barry Walker and Rina Singh (Strategic Director).

To approve and sign the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday, 11^th December 2014.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 10^th December 2014, copies of which had been previously circulated, were approved as a correct record of the meeting and signed by the Chairman.

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 questions from members of the public present.

The Chairman reminded Members that a Special Meeting of Full Council would be held on Thursday 5^th March 2015 at 7.30pm to consider the adoption of the South Somerset Local Plan (2006 – 2028).

The Chairman also advised that Agenda Item 13, Motion submitted by Councillor Andrew Turpin, had been withdrawn from the Agenda. 

Councillor Andrew Turpin thanked the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee for agreeing to present his proposal to review the planning scheme of delegation to the Scrutiny Committee on 3^rd February 2015.  He also thanked the Councillors who had supported him in his request to review the scheme and the officers for facilitating his request. 

Councillor Sue Steele, as Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee, confirmed that Councillor Turpin’s request would be put to the Committee but stressed that it was for them to decide whether to take it forward to a Task and Finish review.   

The list of Chairman’s Engagements was noted.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Spatial Planning advised that this was the annual review of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme which had been reviewed by the Scrutiny Committee.  He drew Members attention to the executive summary to be included at the beginning of the policy document and the recommendation to keep the Hardship Scheme at the current level of £30,000.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee confirmed that a Scrutiny Task and Finish group would reconvene shortly to work on the 2016/17 scheme.

At the conclusion of the discussion, Members were content to confirm that the Council Tax Reduction Scheme for 2015/16 be adopted by Council. 

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Spatial Planning advised that the widespread flooding during 2014 had highlighted that certain specific circumstances were not covered by the Council Tax Reduction Scheme and so not eligible for relief.  The proposed policy formalised discretionary awards in certain circumstances, including flooding.  He noted that during discussion at the District Executive meeting it had been agreed to amend Recommendation C to delegate decisions on individual applications to the Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Spatial Planning (rather than the Revenues and Benefits Manager). 

During discussion, it was noted that some minor grammatical corrections were required before publication of the final policy document.  With the above amendment to recommendation C and the minor corrections to the policy document, Members were content to agree the recommendations of the report.

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

The Assistant Director (Legal and Corporate Services) advised that this was the final report of the Community Governance Review for Lopen to increase the number of Parish Councillors from 5 to 7.  He noted that there had been no further public responses to the second public consultation and the increase in Councillors would take effect from May 2015.

The Portfolio Holder for Regulatory and Democratic Services regretted the complexity of the process to effect a simple increase in the number of Parish Councillors.

There was no debate and Members were content to confirm the recommendations of the report. 

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

The Leader of Council advised that he would be writing to the Chief Executive and Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council to offer his regrets following the arson attack on their main office building the previous day. 

In response to a question, he confirmed that SSDC had a disaster recovery plan and it was currently being reviewed to ensure it dealt with a range of situations. 

The report of Executive Decisions was noted.

There was no meeting of the Audit Committee during December 2014.

The report of the Audit Committee was noted.

The Scrutiny Committee met on 6^th January to consider and comment upon the District Executive reports of 8^th January 2015.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee reported that the Budget Task and Finish Review had been completed that day and she thanked the Chief Executive, both Strategic Directors and the Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) for their assistance in completing the review.

The report of the Scrutiny Committee was noted.

The Motion submitted by Councillor Andrew Turpin had been withdrawn by him earlier in the meeting.  No other Motions had been submitted. 

There were no questions submitted under Procedure Rule 10.

There were no questions submitted under Procedure Rule 10.

Members noted that the next scheduled meeting of the Full Council would take place on Thursday, 26^th February 2015 in the Council Chamber, Brympton Way, Yeovil commencing at 7.30 p.m.