Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on 4 November 2014.

The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 4 November 2014 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Tim Inglefield, Tony Lock and Nigel Mermagen.

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. In the interests of complete transparency, Members of the County Council, who are not also members of this committee, are encouraged to declare any interests they may have in any matters being discussed even though they may not be under any obligation to do so under any relevant code of conduct.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no members of public at the meeting.

This is an opportunity for Members to question the progress on issues arising from previous meetings.  However, this does not allow for the re-opening of a debate on any item not forming part of this agenda.

There were no issues raised.

The Chairman reminded members there would be a presentation at District Executive in December by the Environment Agency about flooding trigger points. The item was open to all members and she encouraged anyone with an interest to attend.

The Development Manager provided a short verbal presentation highlighting statistics about the number of planning applications that had been lost on appeal. Reference was made to the number of appeals in the current financial year and in the past three years, and he indicated the reason why he believed there were more appeals now was probably due to the implementation of the National Planning Policy Framework.

It was noted that whilst the number of appeals lost reported in the quarterly performance monitoring reports was disappointing for the first six months of this year, the figure had improved since October with 70% of appeals being won. He felt the figures would be back on target by the end of the year.

During discussion the Development Manager responded to questions and comments raised by members. Members also made some suggestions including:

·         a workshop providing similar information would be very useful for members.

·         similar information should be included in the member induction process following the elections.

·         Would be useful to have copies of all appeals available in the members room for reference.

The Chairman thanked the Development Manager for attending the meeting.

ACTION:        Members to note the presentation.

The Scrutiny Manager updated members regarding the Task and Finish Broadband report that had been considered. District Executive had noted all Scrutiny comments made and agreed that a submission be made to the House of Commons Committee on Environment Food and Rural Affairs about the lack of effective communication and clarity of the broadband programme for rural areas, and to alert the Committee to this Council’s concerns about the Connecting Devon and Somerset’s approach. It had also been agreed to establish a working group and further details were included in the minutes for the District Executive meeting.

Presentation from the Environment Agency on Flooding Trigger Points – item 6

·         As no report no comments were made.

The Somerset levels and Moors 20 year Flood Action Plan – Proposed Somerset Rivers Authority – item 7

·         Members received a verbal updated report, including draft revised recommendations, from the Strategic Director (Operations and Customer Focus) and were pleased to note the progress being made.

·         Members sought clarification about who would have responsibility for the funding coming to Somerset from Government.

·         Scrutiny understood the time constraints involved with this fast moving issue and took the unusual step of voting on formally endorsing the proposals as explained by the Assistant Director, which was carried unanimously.

·         It was queried if the word ‘Authority’ could be used in the title without legislation.

·         Members of the Scrutiny Committee re-iterated the position reached by members attending the Portfolio Holder briefing on this matter in October: that the creation of a fully functioning Somerset Rivers Authority, backed appropriate legislation and sustainably long term funding arrangements – namely the ability to precept is fundamental to the successful delivery of the Flood Action Plan and should only be created if these conditions are met. Members were very conscious of the need to avoid creating a partnership with no real ‘teeth’.

Quarterly Performance and Complaints Monitoring Report – 2^nd Quarter 2014/15 – item 8

·         Members were pleased to note that the complaints figures remained relatively low.

Non Domestic (Business) Rate Pooling – item 9

·         Scrutiny made no comments.

Additional Revenues Team Resources – item 10

·         Scrutiny members did not raise any issues and were content the recommendations went forward. Scrutiny members accepted that without the additional resource, there would be serious implications for the future performance of this statutory service.

Community Right to Bid – Assets of Community Value – item 11

·         Scrutiny noted the report.

Monthly Performance Snapshot – item 12

·         Scrutiny noted the report.

District Executive Forward Plan – item 13

·         Scrutiny made no comments.

CONFIDENTIAL – Exclusion of the Press and Public

In accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), the Committee resolved that the press and public be excluded from the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information as described in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act, i.e. “Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

Delivery of the Car Parking Strategy (Confidential) – item 16

·         Members made comments in closed session

The Scrutiny Manager updated members on the progress of the current Task and Finish Review:

Budget

The group had completed its work and the draft report was being circulated and finalised.

The Scrutiny Manager updated members on several items:

·         Joint Waste Scrutiny – Somerset County Council were now providing the officer support  A meeting was due to be held shortly to which Councillors Sue Steele and Carol Goodall would be attending, and one if items to be discussed was proposed future changes to service delivery.

·         Flooding Steering Group – the group had not met since the last Scrutiny Committee meeting and were not due to meet for a while. It was noted there was much being done by other parties at the current time.

·         Task and Finish Reviews – due to Election timeframes the capacity to undertake any new Task and Finish work is likely to be reduced in the new year.

The Scrutiny Managed informed members that due to report deadlines and the Christmas break, the items on the Police & Crime Panel and Health Scrutiny would be re-scheduled for the February meeting.

ACTION:        Members to note the updates.

Members noted that the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee would be held on Tuesday 6 January 2015 in the Main Committee Room, Brympton Way.