Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the District Executive meeting held on 1st October 2015.

The minutes of the District Executive meeting held on 1^st October 2015, copes of which had been circulated, were taken as read and, having been approved as a correct record, were signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Carol Goodall, Peter Seib and Rina Singh, Strategic Director.

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.

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. As a result of the change made to the Code of Conduct by this Council at its meeting on 15th May 2014, 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.  If you have a prejudicial interest you must comply with paragraphs 2.9(b) and 2.9(c) of the Code.

There were no declarations of interest made.

Questions, statements or comments from members of the public are welcome at the beginning of each meeting of the Council. The total period allowed for public participation shall not exceed 15 minutes except with the consent of the Council and each individual speaker shall be restricted to a total of three minutes. Where there are a number of persons wishing to speak about the same matter, they should consider choosing one spokesperson to speak on their behalf where appropriate. If a member of the public wishes to speak they should advise the committee administrator and complete one of the public participation slips setting out their name and the matter they wish to speak about. The public will be invited to speak in the order determined by the Chairman. Answers to questions may be provided at the meeting itself or a written reply will be sent subsequently, as appropriate. Matters raised during the public question session will not be debated by the Council at that meeting.

There were no members of the public present.

The Chairman reminded Members that SSDC telephone calls would be routed to the Taunton Deane Careline service from at 3.00pm that day to allow staff to attend the funeral of staff-member Janette McDougall.

Councillor Sylvia Seal reported that the Gold Star Awards had taken place the previous week at the Octagon Theatre where the capacity audience had enjoyed an evening of entertainment and awards to young people. 

The Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning (Place Making) commended the Policy Planner for her work in completing the Statement of Community Involvement.  She confirmed that it had been presented to a Portfolio Holder Briefing, a meeting of the Area Chairmen and had been subject to public consultation. 

The Policy Planner advised that the previous Statement of Community Involvement had been compiled in 2007 and was now out of date.  The new document now reflected the latest regulations and contained a section relating to Neighbourhood Planning to bring it up to date.

Councillor Sue Steele, as Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee said they had questioned whether the 6 week consultation period was adequate, but they had been informed that this was the standard period.

In response to questions from Members, the Assistant Director (Economy) and the Development Manager confirmed:-

·         The lead local flood authority were a main consultee and they would consult with the relevant Internal Drainage Board as appropriate, however SSDC would also consult Internal Drainage Board’s directly where it was felt necessary.

·         All local authorities would welcome a centralised method of calculating a five year housing land supply, rather than relying upon individual Planning Inspectors rulings.  Representations on this issue had been made to the Government through the Leader and the District Councils Network.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to endorse the recommendations for final confirmation by Full Council. 

The Chairman advised that the Strategy had been discussed at his Portfolio Holder briefing and it incorporated all the elements of the Environmental Health Service relating to private sector housing.

Councillor Sue Steele, as Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee, requested that in future Strategy documents be presented to the Scrutiny Committee as they could provide a valuable contribution. 

In response to questions from Members, the Chairman and the Environmental Health Manager advised:-

·         Although homelessness was currently under control at SSDC there was no guarantee that this would be the case in the future.  Somerset County Council had considered it a high risk category to include in the Strategy document.

·         The actions contained in the Private Sector Housing Strategy would be monitored by the Environmental Health Manager throughout the year and at Portfolio Holder briefings.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to endorse the Private Sector Housing Strategy 2015-19 for final confirmation by Full Council.

The Portfolio Holder for Property and Climate Change said the former toilets had not been used for some time and SSDC had sought to dispose of them.  A good price had been offered and so the recommendation was to dispose of them.

In response to a question, the Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) advised that Somerset County Council were offered the first option to purchase the building as they owned the surrounding land, but they did not express any interest. The property only benefitted from pedestrian access and would be sold with this right. 

The Assistant Director (Legal and Corporate Services) confirmed that the payment of legal and professional costs was as recommended by the District Valuer.

There was no further debate and Members were content to confirm the disposal of the freehold of the former Carrington Way Public Conveniences in Wincanton.

The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) confirmed that it was likely the revenue budget would be underspent and the end of the financial year and this underspend would be put towards the 2016/17 revenue budget.  She also noted that the Council Tax collection rate had improved and the Business Rate collection rate was still improving.  The discretionary housing payments budget may be overspent by the end of the financial year as the DWP contribution had reduced and if this occurred then she would request additional funding. 

There were no questions from the Scrutiny Committee and Members were content to note the report. 

The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) asked if Members were content to note the slippage over £50,000 in the capital programme as detailed in paragraph 8, and confirm that the projects not yet completed remain in the Capital Programme.

There were no questions from the Scrutiny Committee and Members were content to approve the recommendations of the report. 

The Portfolio Holder for the Crematorium confirmed that the transfer of the management arrangements was now complete, consultation on the service provided had taken place with funeral directors and staffing issues would be resolved by Christmas.  He recorded his thanks to the Environmental Health Manager and the Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) for their assistance in resolving operational and VAT issues. 

The Environmental Health Manager confirmed that since management of the crematorium had transferred to SSDC, a number of grounds maintenance and IT issues had come to light which he was supporting to resolve.  He said that he was looking at a more flexible approach to working to generate more income and provide a better service to the public.

In response to questions from Members, it was confirmed that the crematorium already benefitted from a sinking fund which was paying for the necessary upgrading works.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to note the update report.

It was noted that Castle Cary Town Council had written a letter of thanks to the Streetscene Service for their swift clean up of the town following the carnival evening.

In response to a question, the Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) confirmed that the Motion raised at Council in September to investigate the possibility of two hours free car parking would be part of the Budget update report presented to District Executive in January 2016.

It was also requested that the Government consultation on the Community Right to Bid be circulated to all Councillors for them to respond individually.

Members noted that the next scheduled meeting of the District Executive would take place on Thursday 3^rd December 2015 in the Council Chamber, Council Offices, Brympton Way, Yeovil commencing at 9.30 a.m.

Members noted that the next scheduled meeting of the District Executive would take place on Thursday 3^rd December 2015 in the Council Chamber, Council Offices, Brympton Way, Yeovil commencing at 9.30 a.m.

The Portfolio Holder for Property and Climate Change advised that the Feed In Tariff for renewable energy was due to be cut by the Government from 1^st January 2016 as take-up for the scheme had been higher than expected.  In order to take SSDC energy production up to 85% of usage on the Brympton Way building the additional panels needed to be installed and operating by 1^st January 2016, therefore the Interim Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of Council had agreed to authorise the ordering of the panels.

At the conclusion of a short debate, Members were content to note the urgent decision taken.