Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the District Executive meeting held on 4^th March 2021.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 4^th March 2021 were approved as a correct record and would be signed by the Chairman.

There were no apologies for absence.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (as amended 26 February 2015), 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.

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. 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. 

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

There were no questions from members of the public.

The Chairman welcomed Karen Watling as the Council’s Section 151 Officer to her first District Executive meeting and said she looked forward to working with her.

The Chairman said officers were looking at how Councillors could return to in-person meetings following the Government’s announcement not to extend the regulations which allowed virtual Council meetings to be held beyond 7^th May.  She confirmed at Councillors would be updated on this very soon. 

The Chairman, as Portfolio Holder for Strategy and Housing, introduced the report which she said was well written and she invited the Director to outline the detail to Members.

The Director for Commercial Services and Income Generation said this was a large and complex document but the recovery touched every part of council business and the community and so was necessarily lengthy.  It covered the whole of the South Somerset area and every Council objective, work stream, focus area and resource required.  The strategy was also aligned with the work of the Council’s partners including the County Council, other District Councils and the NHS so they would be working to achieve similar outcomes. 

The Income and Opportunities Manager reminded Members that this was a refresh of an existing Strategy which learned lessons from the pandemic and aligned with the Council’s Plan and internal economic, environment and digital strategies.  Further engagement with community and business leaders was planned to help co-design and deliver some on the wider strategies in the plan.

The Scrutiny Committee had considered the report earlier that week and had suggested an Executive Summary document to accompany the Strategy for easier public viewing.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee noted that several questions had been raised during consideration of the report and officers had responded to them.  He said they acknowledged the work which had gone into putting the Strategy together and said an Executive Summary would be useful.

The Chairman proposed the recommendations and they were seconded by Councillor Peter Seib and unanimously agreed by all Members.

At the conclusion of the debate, the Chairman thanked the Director, Income and Opportunities Manager and officers involved in the compilation of the Strategy for their work. 

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services advised that the powers allowed Council’s to conduct surveillance linked to the Council’s enforcement powers, including by covert and social media surveillance.  The Policy and procedures were required to be reviewed and approved by the District Executive annually.  He noted that the powers had not been used that year and he asked that Members note the report.

In response to a question, the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services confirmed that Members would be advised if the surveillance powers were used but only after the event in the annual report.

Members were content to note the report.

The Chairman, as Portfolio Holder for Strategy and Housing, advised that the report asked Members to agree that the Council submit an application to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) for all rural parishes in South Somerset district with populations of under 3,000 to be designated as rural under section 157(1) of the Housing Act 1985.  She said there was need for small numbers of affordable homes in rural communities.

The Specialist for Strategic Planning advised that the application to MHCLG was a procedural matter which would bring SSDC in line with other local authorities with similar designations. The designation was used by the Government to set national planning policy and guidance particularly to developments providing rural housing.  It enabled local authorities to set a lower threshold of affordable housing in rural areas so they could be provided in smaller developments of less than 10 dwellings.  This would ensure affordable housing delivery was not overridden by National Planning Policy.

In response to questions from Members, the Specialist for Strategic Planning advised:-

·         The current threshold for providing affordable dwellings within a development was 10 houses or more so often planning applications were submitted for 9 or less to avoid providing them.

·         The Council’s approach to rural exception sites would be considered through the emerging Local Plan.

• A settlement role and function study was currently under way to underpin the settlement strategy approach including villages in the preferred options document of the Local Plan review.  The rural designation would add to this where it was appropriate to have a lower threshold of affordable housing in those villages.
• The MHCLG had advised that the designation could take 6 months to be agreed by the Secretary of State and have a Statutory Instrument confirming the parishes included.
• Other Council areas around South Somerset who had recently applied the designation were introducing or had introduced a lower threshold for housing.

During discussion, the following points were made:-

·         Rural exception sites should be included for affordable housing as often the Parish Council could nominate local people in need of housing.

·         This designation would reflect the needs of the area as there was a great rural housing need and the report was welcomed.

·         Families on the housing waiting list should not be penalised for refusing to accept a property in a rural village due to transport or access issues.

·         This should allow people who have grown up in a village to be able to afford to stay living there if they wished.

·         The rural designation must allow Parish Councils to be able to nominate local people to the houses.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee said they had sought clarification on community engagement to gather evidence for the designation, the effect which the designation would have on the supply of houses in rural areas and if the phosphate issue would have any effect upon this.  He said the report had been welcomed by the Committee. 

At the conclusion of the debate, the Chairman proposed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 285.

The Chairman noted that there would be a Special District Executive meeting on 15 April to discuss the Council’s response to the Governmentconsultation on Local Government Reform for Somerset, followed by a Full Council meeting in the evening.

It was requested that the Leader write to Minister for Communities, Housing and Local Government (MHCLG) to express the Council’s concerns at the cessation of on-line Council meetings and also that members of the public may also be reluctant to attend in person, whilst Parliament continued to allow hybrid meetings for themselves.

The Chairman agreed to do this.

Members noted that a Special meeting of the District Executive would take place on Thursday 15^th April 2021 as a virtual on-line meeting using Zoom meeting software commencing at 9.30 a.m.