Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mike Best, John Clark, Henry Hobhouse, Alex Parmley (Chief Executive) and Nicola Hix (Director).

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 members of the public present.

The Chairman noted that the first in-person Full Council meeting was being held that evening and she reminded Members to keep to social distancing rules.

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

The Portfolio Holder for the Chard Regeneration Programme said their aim was to boost the economy and make Chard a more attractive and engaging place and also providing a leisure centre, swimming pool and soft play area.  He noted that the new leisure centre was nearing completion and the next focus was on the town centre improvements to the public realm and pedestrian areas.  The areas to be improved were Fore Street Guildhall area, Holyrood Street, Boden Street, the eastern gateway and Marketfield car park entrance. The scheme had attracted £1m funding from Historic England as a High Street Heritage Action Zone and it was intended that the improvement works for Boden Street and Marketfield car parks would be completed by 31 October to allow the opening of the leisure centre.  Despite the best efforts of officers, construction industry costs had risen and so he asked Members to support the increased budget for the project.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services, addressing points raised by Scrutiny Committee members, said that some of the Council’s reserves were identified for projects and some were for general use.  It was intended to use the general reserves which would reduce funding available for income generation and other contingencies but it would not impact on any other project.  Nor would the loss of anticipated profit on the Marlborough development affect the project.  He said this was an unavoidable situation and the commitment was needed to complete the regeneration project.

During discussion, the following points were made:

·         The project was affordable and SSDC were committed to regenerating Chard, Yeovil & Wincanton.

·         Whilst the Scrutiny Members questions were in depth, it was a worthy project.

In response to questions from Scrutiny Committee Members, officers responded:-

• None of the additional costs were attributed to access issue problems with the Marketfield car park.
• The two car park junction improvements required for the leisure centre to open had been included in the wider public realm project because they were geographically connected and it made business sense to undertake all the improvements at the same time. 

·         The urgency in bringing the report forward was to complete the works in time for the opening of the leisure centre, and also, some of the grant money spending was time limited.

·         Alternative approaches were considered and negotiation with the contractor to reduce costs did take place.

·         The additional funding was specifically for the town centre work.

·         Once the contract was signed then the costs would be fixed and there was also a small but appropriate contingency included in the requested additional budget, to be held back by SSDC.

·         The Heritage Action Zone Board reported to the Chard Regeneration Board.

·         The amount required for future maintenance was being sought from SCC.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members unanimously confirmed the recommendations of the report. 

Members noted that the next meeting of the District Executive would take place on Thursday, 5^th August 2021 as a virtual meeting using Zoom meeting software commencing at 9.30 a.m.