Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the District Executive meeting held on 02 February 2023.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 02 February 2023 were approved as a correct record and were signed by the Chairman.

There were no apologies for absence.  It was noted that Councillor Sarah Dyke joined the meeting remotely on-line (non-voting) from 10.05am.

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 reminded Members of the service of remembrance for the 5 Somerset Councils on Sunday 12 March at 3.00pm at Wells Cathedral which was open to all Members and staff.   She also reminded them of the SSDC Celebrates event on Thursday 23 March, from 3.00pmat Westlands, Yeovil.

The Specialist for Strategic Planning said that reflecting the cost of living increase had been their main focus and the Quarter 3 results had been impacted by the Christmas holiday break.  20% of all SSDC staff were involved in Local Government Review work with had also impacted on some work areas.  As requested by Members, two new performance indicators: LGR 22 and 23 were now included to record street cleaning inspections and the tonnage of waste collected.  Of the measures reported, 27 were ahead of or on target which was very positive. 

In response to a question from the Scrutiny Committee, the Director for Service Delivery advised that the legal documents were close to being completed with Entrade which would enable phosphate credits to be purchased by developers.  Depending upon the development location, this would allow the building of between 600 to 1,000 homes.  This was the first release of phosphate credits and more were planned.  

The Vice-Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee noted that other questions raised by them at their meeting had been answered by officers.

During discussion, the following points were made:-

·         It was unfortunate that the Quarter 4 achievements would be reported after SSDC had ended and its achievements could not be celebrated.

·         The council had achieved great success in its investment portfolio which provided a good income stream for which officers were thanked.

·         Pleased to see the time taken to process Council Tax support claims had reduced.

·         Surprised by the scale of help needed for vulnerable residents with over 20,000 clients having been assisted by SSDC funded organisations including CASS, Spark, South Somerset Families Programme, and 12 Food banks across the district due to the Cost-of-Living Crisis and financial hardship households are experiencing.

·         The uptake of Broadband vouchers remained high.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to note the Corporate Performance Report 2022-23: 3rd Quarter and the improved Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The Portfolio Holder for Economic Development advised that Abbey Manor Developments Ltd had made an offer to buy the Council’s interest in the Lufton 2000 Joint Venture in March 2022 and due to movements in the property market they had made a new offer which the Commercial Property, Land and Development Manager had advised was still a good offer.

The Commercial Property, Land and Development Manager had advised that commercial development land value was a volatile area and time had passed from the first offer to purchase the land.  Increased borrowing rates and a poorer economic outlook had impacted however, he felt the reduced offer price was supportable and was marginally better than what could be achieved on an open market.

In response to questions from Members, the Commercial Property, Land and Development Manager and the Director for Support Services advised:-

·         There was no significant difference in the land value and it was a fair price in the current market. 

·         There were management costs involved in retaining the land and if sold, there would be no further financial exposure to SSDC.

·         The income from the sale would be recorded in the Quarter 4 revenue budgets report.

The Vice-Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee thanked the Commercial Property, Land and Development Manager for attending their meeting and answering their questions.  She said the strength of the Council’s investment portfolio was in their officer’s sound investment advice.

It was then proposed and seconded that the recommendations be proposed to Full Council for agreement and his was unanimously agreed by Members.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services advised that the report detailed the level of spend on capital projects which had significantly reduced due to delays in projects.  A number of schemes had been paused and were now budgeted in future years as the number of staff involved in the Local Government Review programme increased.  He proposed that the recommendations be agreed.

The Vice Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee confirmed that they were content to note the report and support the recommendations.   

There was no debate and Members unanimously confirmed the recommendations of the report.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services introduced the report and advised that the revenue budget had been re-profiled during the year to protect the budget for the new Unitary Council.  He noted that an underspend of £417,00 was predicted, in part due to the half-yearly profit dividend from the battery storage investment.  Table 1 in the report estimated the variances of expenditure and income and provided a forecast outturn for 2022/23.

He proposed that the recommendations be agreed

The Vice-Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee advised that most of the budget reprofiling had occurred in previous quarterly monitoring reports and the Committee had been content to note the recommendations of the report.

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

The Chief Executive advised that the report was for noting only and she had taken an urgent decision to vire £219,829 from the Housing & Homelessness Reserve to the revenue housing budget to fund a 10-bed space hostel with support for single homeless people and rough sleepers for 2023/24.

In response to questions from Members, the Director for Service Delivery advised that:

·         the cost of housing people in B&B accommodation would be less than providing the hostel but the residents would not have 24/7 support to  help them re-habilitate and find suitable long-term accommodation. 

·         the housing team worked with individuals at Pathways Yeovil and 16 clients had been found alternative long-term accommodation.

·         further hostel accommodation was being sought.

·         the current Pathways Yeovil accommodation was part-funded by housing benefit received by the residents and a 10 bed hostel would receive less housing benefit funding than the 30 bed hostel.

·         the Pathways Yeovil site was owned by Bournemouth Churches and they would look to redevelop the site as part of the Yeovil Refresh with hopefully a grant from Homes England. 

The Portfolio Holder for Housing thanked the Director and the Housing team for their consciousness in finding the accommodation which could be staffed 24/7 to support the residents. 

During discussion, several members voiced their support for the new hostel

The Vice-Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee confirmed they had supported the decision and felt that making the investment now would save money later.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to note the urgent decision taken by the Chief Executive to protect the interest of the Council.

Members noted that Presentation on the Kickstart Scheme would be removed from Forward Plan as the officer was not well.

It was also noted that officers from across the 5 Councils would be providing a joint response to the consultations listed in the report.

The Vice-Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee noted that she had the pleasure of Chairing the final Scrutiny Committee meeting and she felt that their scrutiny of the executive reports had been conducted very well.

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.