Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on 29 November 2022. The draft minutes can be viewed at: http://modgov.southsomerset.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CId=141&Year=0

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 29 November 2022 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Karl Gill, Paul Maxwell and Robin Pailthorpe.

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.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no members of the public present at the meeting.

This is an opportunity for Members to question the progress on issues arising from previous meetings.  However, this does not allow for the re-opening of a debate on any item not forming part of this agenda.

The Chairman reminded members that at the previous meeting they had considered a report on the District Executive agenda for December regarding Performance and Key Performance Indicators. At that time members had raised a concern particularly about the Council Tax Support statistics and had asked for an interim update. He had received the updated information which he shared with members, this included:

·        The August figures had been detailed in the December report and indicated 98 days for the processing of new claimants.

·        For September the figure went down to 92 days, and for October the figure was at 87, and November down to 77.

·        The trend was showing positive and was improving. Having spoken to officers there was more work underway and he requested the Director (Service Delivery) for the information to be circulated to Scrutiny members.

A member noted he had raised a couple of questions at the previous meeting regarding item 6 and the absence of performance data for the Lufton site, and also detail regarding a line in item 7 (appendix A) regarding capital expenditure for Home Farm, Somerton. At the previous meeting the Lead Specialist (Finance) and the Director (Support, Strategy & Environmental Services) had noted they would provide a response but as yet he had not received any information. In response, the Director (Service Delivery) noted she would follow up on the queries with the relevant officers.

There were no announcements from the Chairman.

There were no verbal updates on reports considered by District Executive at the December meeting. A verbal update regarding monitoring of the processing of new claims for Council Tax Support had been provided at item 5 on this agenda.

Members considered the reports within the District Executive agenda for 5 January 2023 and raised comments and questions as detailed below. Responses to many questions and comments were provided at Scrutiny Committee by the relevant officers – except any marked by an asterisk.

Agenda item 6: Yeovil Refresh Scope Change Request (Pages 4 - 13)

·        Para 2 Regarding allocation of the 891k, does this effectively mean it is being moved from one account to another?

·        Recommendation a, what is the source of the Yeovil Refresh Transport workstream fund of £1.2m, and is this new money, or money that has already been allocated to Yeovil Refresh?

·        *When this originally came to Full Council 2 years ago the borrowing term was set at 50 years – is this still correct?

·        Concerns that this project has had bad press and costs have risen significantly. Is there a risk that this is going to be stopped due to budgetary pressures?

·        Many trees have been lost through this project. Will these be replaced in future Yeovil Refresh public realm works?

·        How can we be assured that there is enough money in the budget to complete this project if it hasn’t gone out to tender yet?  Do we have a discrepancy here?

·        Recommendation b regarding the redesign of middle street - why is a redesign being done?

·        Para 11 Is there a risk of further cost increases and subsequent funding shortfalls for the other public realm works in Wyndham Street, Westminster Street?

·        Para 16 Regarding the risk identified with utilities, could this have been forseen?

·        Recommendation c – one member queried whether there was potential for the unlikely risks to become more likely?

·        *Para 16 What is the total amount of all the compensation claims against utility companies at this time?

·        Para 12 Regarding future applications for funding from the Future High Street Fund, is there a significant risk that these will not be secured?

Agenda item 7: Update on Section 106 Schemes (Pages 14 - 23)

·        Appendix A appears to show that the total amount of unpaid S106 contributions across the district is around £5.4million. That amount of money is a significant contribution to the local economy – how can we ensure that this money is paid out?

·        *How do the 10 Year expiry periods work? Will extension of time be granted where money is not claimed?  Some of this data appears to be very close to this expiry period.

·        Appendix A Regarding Land at Tanyard Broadway, what does OS mean?

·        *Appendix A Regarding Land south of Kit Hill, money passed to British rail? What does this mean?

·        *Appendix A Is there a risk that there is some data missing from this data set? Would it be a good idea to capture any missing data by asking for feedback from area committees?

·        One member proposed that that this report and Appendix A, in its current form, should be circulated to all members via area committees to seek assistance in identifying any missing data. This proposal  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

There were no updates on matters of interest.

There were no updates or discussion. Members were content to note the Work Programme.

Members noted that the next meeting of Scrutiny Committee was scheduled for Tuesday 31 January 2023 at 10.30am, in the Council Chamber, SSDC Council Offices, Brympton Way, Yeovil.