Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the District Executive meeting held on 03 November 2022.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 3^rd November 2022 were approved as a correct record and were signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors John Clark, Peter Gubbins and Adam Dance.

It was noted that Councillor Jason Baker had joined the meeting remotely (non-voting).

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. 

Councillor Peter Seib noted that those County Council members had interests which overlapped with the new Somerset Council.  This included Councillors Mike Best, Nicola Clark, Sarah Dyke, Val Keitch Tony Lock and Peter Seib.

At the time the item was discussed, Councillor Sarah Dyke declared a personal interest in Agenda item 7: 22/23 Capital Budget Monitoring Report for the Period Ending 30th September 2022 and Revised Estimates for 2022/23, as a trustee of the Wincanton Sports Ground which was mentioned in the report.

The Committee were addressed by a resident of Yeovil who referred to the closure of the Pathways Project on 31 March 2023.  He was pleased to note that the Council were exploring options for smaller units to house homeless people and he asked what progress had been made to find alternative premises and what contingencies were in place if sufficient premises were not identified prior to the closure of Pathways?

The Director for Service Delivery advised that one suitable property had been identified of a smaller scale and one to one work with the current residents of Pathways to assist them to move on to longer term accommodation was underway with some success.  If suitable accommodation was not found prior to the closure of Pathways then temporary accommodation would be sought to help towards fulfilling the Council’s homeless duty.  She promised a fuller written response. 

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee advised that they had received a presentation from a member of the public during public question time at their meeting earlier that week regarding the Millers Garage car park in Crewkerne.  He confirmed that copies of the presentation had been shared with the Leader of Council and the Monitoring Officer.

The Chairman advised that there were some changes to meeting dates which had been notified to Members.

The Chairman, as Portfolio Holder for Strategy said she was pleased to see that call waiting times to the Council had decreased.

The Specialist for Strategic Planning said the overall report was positive despite significant pressure from the cost of living crisis and the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) work. 

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

·         Checking the health of trees was a KPI specific to the environment and a new data recording system had been procured to allow the capture of the information digitally.

·         PL2 and PL3 – the Council had a 5 year target set by Homes England to provide 177 new homes each year and the majority of the completions were expected in the last quarter of the year.

·         PL1 – number of planning permissions granted continued to be affected by the phosphates situation.

·         Fly tipping was the only KPI recorded in the report relating to work carried out by the Lufton site but other data was collected on tonnage of waste disposed and site inspections which could be provided.

The Chief Executive reminded Members that all senior staff were involved in the LGR work and it was therefore good to receive a positive report in spite of the increased workload.  She thanked staff for their exceptional performance during this period and noted that call waiting times had now reduced even further to 1.5 minutes.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to note the Corporate Performance Report 2022-23: 2^nd Quarter and the improved Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services advised that the report involved some budget re-profiling and adjustments to the delivery of some capital projects.  It also included some new Section 106 funded projects to be added, some projects which were substantially complete to be removed and some projects were to be cancelled.  He noted that to protect finances of the new Somerset Council, some revenue expenditure in the capital programme would be removed.  He proposed that the recommendations be agreed for proposal to Full Council

In response to questions from the Scrutiny Committee, the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services, the Chairman and the Director for Service Delivery advised:-

·         The five additional projects identified to be funded by Section 106 contributions were listed in table 8 of the report.

·         A written answer would be provided on the sites which the Section 106 funding was sourced from.

·         Reprofiling involved moving the time at which money was spent.  This was due to pressure on staff who were involved in the LGR programme and projects falling behind schedule.

·         Section 106 funding was for capital projects only.

·         Boden Mill site in Chard - building 11 was within the curtilage of a listed building.

·         A final report of the grants received towards decarbonisation of council buildings would be circulated to Members when completed.

·         The review of the capital programmes across the County would be reported to the SCC Full Council meeting in January 2023.

At the conclusion of the debate, the Chairman proposed a named vote be taken and it was unanimously agreed to propose the report to Full Council.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services introduced the report and advised it was linked to the previous Capital Budget report which would also be proposed to Council for approval.  He noted the significant change in interest rates since the Council had set its budget in February and the budget pressures listed in Table One within the report, followed by the proposed funding measures in Table Two.  He commended that only £66,950 was being requested from reserves to address the in year budget pressure and he proposed that the recommendations be agreed and recommended to Full Council.

The Chief Finance Officer advised that the figures were estimated and there could be further movement by year-end.  Given the significant change in budgets they required approval by Full Council.

In response to a question, the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services advised:-

·         The loan was taken out to protect the revenue position of the future Somerset Council rather than use the commercial investments risk reserve.  The revenue cost of the loan was less than the benefit of having the revenue tied within a project. 

·         The underspend on the Recycle More project represented a great financial saving to all partners as well as the environmental benefits.

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee advised that the majority of questions raised at their meeting had been answered by the Portfolio Holder.  He said they had noted the significant savings relating to staffing. 

The Portfolio Holder for Environment advised that discussions were taking place on extending the recycling to include soft plastics in the future. 

At the conclusion of the debate, the Chairman proposed that a named vote be taken and Members unanimously agreed recommendations (a) to (d) and proposed that Full Council agree recommendations (e) and (f) of the report.

This item has been withdrawn from the Agenda and will be presented to the next meeting of District Executive on 05 January 2023.

This item was withdrawn from the Agenda and will be presented in January 2023.

It was noted that the item had been withdrawn from the Agenda and would be re-presented in January 2023.

The following additions and amendments to the Forward Plan were noted:

·         Investment Asset Update Report – January 2023

·         Yeovil Refresh Scope Change Request – January 2023

·         Rename Octagon Theatre report to Somerset Flagship Cultural Venue

·         Update on Section 106 funding – District Executive in January 2023

The Director for Service Delivery confirmed that an annual statement was published on the Council’s website on Community Infrastructure Levy and the link would be shared with Members. 

The Portfolio Holder for Protecting Core Services requested that a Section 106 funding report be presented urgently to Members.  The Chief Executive assured Members that the report was in draft form and the quality of information available to Members would be significantly improved in the new year. 

Members noted that the next scheduled meeting of the District Executive would take place on Thursday 05 January 2023 in the Council Chamber, Council Offices, Brympton Way, Yeovil commencing at 9.30 a.m.

The Chairman asked Members to agree that the press and public be excluded from the following item and this was agreed without dissent.

The Chief Executive provided members with a brief verbal update on the progress of Local Government Reorganisation in Somerset and answered their questions on points of clarification.

The report was NOTED