Agenda, decisions and minutes

At the beginning of the meeting, with the agreement of all Members, the Chairman asked Councillor Martin Wale to join him as Vice Chairman for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mike Best, Nigel Gage, Henry Hobhouse, Andy Kendall, Jenny Kenton, Sam McAllister and Rina Singh, Strategic Director.

To approve and sign the minutes of the previous Council meeting held on Thursday, 17^th December 2015.

The minutes of the Council meeting held on the 17^th December 2015, copies of which had been previously circulated, were approved as a correct record of the meeting and signed by the Chairman.

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.

There were no declarations of interest made.

Mr N Whitsun-Jones, as Chairman of the South Somerset Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) asked the following question:-

In its 'Five Year Housing Land Supply Paper (September 2015)' the Council said as follows:

1.3. The Council recognises that the five-year housing land supply position should be updated annually; but is also mindful that the information in these reports only ever represents a ‘snap-shot’ in time. The five-year housing land supply position is volatile and constantly subject to change. Every house built, each planning permission granted, and every major change to the delivery timetable for a housing site affects the five-year housing land supply position. As such, the five-year housing land supply position will be regularly monitored and updated to ensure that significant changes in circumstances are captured and publicised.

Does the Council now have a 5 year supply of deliverable housing sites for the purposes of paragraph 49 of the National Planning Policy Framework?  If the answer is still 'No', then:

1. What, please, is the current evidence to demonstrate this lack of a 5 year housing land supply?
2. What steps has the Council taken, is taking, and will be taking to address this issue and within what definitive timescale?
3. Further, and in accordance with the Council Resolution of 17 September 2015 on the 'SSDC Five Year Land Supply', what investigations has the Project Management Board carried out to accelerate the Local Plan review process, and with what result?
4. Can the Council please post all this information on its website in an easily accessible format so that the public can be kept informed of the up to date position, with updates being made as necessary?"

Councillor Angie Singleton, as Portfolio Holder for Strategic Planning (Place Making) responded:

1.    As per the September 2015 report, it is the Council’s position that it does not have a five-year housing land supply of deliverable sites. Only four months has passed since that report was published and there is no evidence to indicate that the Council can demonstrate a five-year housing land supply.

2.    The Council continues to work with landowners, developers, agents and the community to ensure that development which is shown to be acceptable is approved without delay. This will help boost the future supply of homes in South Somerset. In addition, the Council is working with developers to agree and sign Section 106 Agreements, and other necessary approvals, so that development which has planning consent can commence and proceed as soon as possible. This is an ongoing and daily activity within the Council as it responds to the Government mandate to “significantly boost the supply of housing”. The evidence to update the five-year housing land supply position will be available after the end of the financial year (i.e. after the 31^st March 2016). A report will be presented to District Executive soon after this date, once the range of data and statistics have been analysed.

3.    In August 2015, the Council approved the latest Local Development  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Councillor David Recardo spoke as the SSDC appointed Governor to Yeovil District Hospital.  He updated Members on the new modular ward to be completed soon, a new multi-storey car park and access arrangements and the new Trust Chairman, Paul von der Heyde.  He advised that there would be a drop-in event on Tuesday 26 January between 2.30pm and 5.30pm at Yeovil Baptist Church to promote these future developments at the hospital.

Councillor Peter Gubbins advised that the Councillors Christmas dinner had been booked for Thursday 15^th December 2016 at the Yeovil Golf Club and he asked Members to note this date in their diaries.  .

The list of Chairman’s Engagements was noted.

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

Councillor Peter Seib, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Legal Services, advised that this was the annual review of the Council Tax Support Scheme which had been updated by a Scrutiny Task and Finish Group. He drew Members attention to the equality impact assessment which demonstrated the care which had been taken to isolate the effects of the changes in the policy on individual people and the recommendation to keep the Hardship Scheme at the current level of £30,000.

In response to questions from Members, the Scrutiny Manager and the Revenues and Benefits Manager advised that:-

·         The Task and Finish group reviewed all the measures in the original scheme, considering best practice and learning from the approach and experience of other Local Authorities.  In particular, the measure that introduced a minimum Council Tax contribution had been applied across many Authorities; some authorities that had introduced this measure at 25% or higher had found that their collection costs had increased and the amounts collected had reduced. 

·         The suggestion from Revenues and Benefits Managers across Somerset was to pursue a Council Tax Band C cap to calculate entitlement as it was considered that this better balanced the needs of the community.

·         The reference to the masculine ‘he’ throughout the policy document was generally accepted to cover both sexes in terms of legislation. 

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were pleased to confirm the proposed Council Tax Support Scheme for 2016/17.

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

The Leader of Council advised that the DCLG review of the flooding situation in 2013/14 gave a number of funding options and the decision of the Somerset Authorities was to request that the Somerset Rivers Authority become a precepting body.  The DCLG had agreed a ‘shadow’ precept for 2016/17 and this would be detailed as a separate amount on the Council Tax bills with an explanatory sheet or message.  The funding raised would be for additional flood prevention work and not for the replacement of existing pumping equipment.    

In response to a question, the Leader confirmed that all the Somerset Authorities had agreed to propose the 1.25% addition to their Council Tax which would sit outside the Government Cap on Council Tax increases.

At the conclusion of the debate, Members were content to confirm the recommendations of the report. 

(Voting: unanimous in favour)

The Leader of Council drew Members attention to the Portfolio Holder decision to withhold consent to dispose of a property in Curry Rivel.  He noted that this decision and another similar one at Donyatt had let Yarlington Homes to review their policy and increase their public consultation in similar circumstances. 

In response to questions from Members, the Leader of Council confirmed that:-

·         The Somerset District Authorities Regulatory Services Enforcement Policy 2015-2020 and the Environmental Protection Enforcement Policy 2015-2020 were under review as other Somerset Authorities were adding additional information to them and they would be re-presented to District Executive in May 2016.

·         A report on additional income streams for the Council would be presented to District Executive in March 2016.

·         He would ask Yarlington Homes to account for the income from rural properties disposed of by them, as they were supposed to be redeployed in the local area, however, Yarlington Homes were not obliged to provide the information.

At the conclusion of the debate the report of Executive Decisions was noted.

There has been no meeting of the Audit Committee since the last Full Council meeting in December 2015.

It was noted that there had been no meeting of the Audit Committee since the last meeting of Full Council. 

The Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee noted that the Scrutiny call-in of the Portfolio Holder decision to allow the disposal of a property in Rimpton had been dealt with amicably and the decision was now confirmed, however, the process of future property disposals would be reviewed.  She thanked the officers involved in the task and finish review of the Council Tax Support scheme and advised that there was a current task and finish review of the journey of exploration with Sedgemoor District Council.

The report of the Scrutiny Committee was noted.

There were no Motions submitted.

There were no Motions submitted.

The following question was submitted by Councillor Colin Winder under Procedure Rule 10:-

How much to date in direct and indirect costs has been spent on the Westlands Sports and Social centre by SSDC?

The Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture responded with the following points:-

• The direct cost of work undertaken prior to the 1^st October District Executive decision amounted to £7,213 whilst the direct cost of work undertaken since the District Executive decision amounts to £7,210
• No costs had been incurred on any pre-lease maintenance works. Until such time as the lease was agreed, AgustaWestland would undertake those at their own cost.

Note:

Members will remember that they were made aware in the 1^st October District Executive report (para 60) that the figures assumed that “the Council undertakes and completes both the detailed design work and prepares the supporting tender packages at risk whilst the proposal is determined by AgustaWestland”.

·         The Project Board had allocated up to £45,000 for these detailed design works to be undertaken whilst negotiating the Heads of Terms and Lease with AgustaWestland.  Of this £7,210 has been spent to date.

• The primary indirect cost is the staff time assigned to the project. However, the Council does not have a time recording system for projects and we therefore cannot provide any evidenced information for members to consider.

In response, Councillor Winder asked if the allocation of £45,000 would be sufficient as more work became apparent as the project went forward.

Councillor Seal replied that all the notes and paperwork from the project board meetings were open for all Members to scrutinise.

Members noted that the next meeting of the Full Council would take place on Thursday 25^th February 2016 in the Council Chamber, Brympton Way, Yeovil commencing at 7.30 p.m.