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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Severn

Contact: Democratic Services Tel: 01684 272021  Email:  democraticservices@tewkesbury.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

33.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

33.1           Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J H Evetts, A S Reece, T A  Spencer, R J E Vines and M J Williams.  

34.

Declarations of Interest

Pursuant to the adoption by the Council on 26 June 2012 of the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct, effective from 1 July 2012, as set out in Minute No. CL.34, Members are invited to declare any interest they may have in the business set out on the Agenda to which the approved Code applies.

Minutes:

34.1           The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 26 June 2012 and took effect from 1 July 2012.

34.2           The following declarations were made:

Councillor

Application No./Item

Nature of Interest (where disclosed)

Declared Action in respect of Disclosure

P W Awford

Item 10 – Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation.

Is a Gloucestershire County Councillor.

Tewkesbury Borough Council representative on the Lower Severn Internal Drainage Board.

Member of Severn and Wye Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.

Member of Wessex Regional Flood and Coastal Committee.

Life Member of the National Flood Forum.

Had received a dispensation to speak and vote on this item.

R A Bird

Item 10 – Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation.

Is a Gloucestershire County Councillor.

Had received a dispensation to speak and vote on this item.

K J Cromwell

Item 10 – Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation.

Is a Gloucestershire County Councillor.

Had received a dispensation to speak and vote on this item.

R E Garnham

Item 10 – Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation.

Has a pecuniary interest through his business which is linked to development and planning.

Would not speak or vote and would leave the Chamber for the consideration of this item.

M A Gore

Item 10 – Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation.

The Member owned a small parcel of land which was within the Borough but was not within the preferred options version of the Borough Plan.

Had received a dispensation to speak and vote on this item.

A Hollaway

Item 10 – Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation.

A close family member owned land which was adjacent to land within the preferred options version of the Borough Plan but neither the Member or her family owned land within the Plan.

Had received a dispensation to speak and vote on this item.

V D Smith

Item 10 – Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation.

Is a Gloucestershire County Councillor.

Had received a dispensation to speak and vote on this item.

P D Surman

Item 10 – Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation.

A close friend owned land which was contained within the preferred options version of the Borough Plan.

Had received a dispensation to speak and vote on this item.

34.3           There were no further declarations made on this occasion.

35.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 234 KB

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2018.

Minutes:

35.1           The Minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2018, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Mayor.  

36.

Announcements

1.   When the continuous alarm sounds you must evacuate the building by the nearest available fire exit. Members and visitors should proceed to the visitors’ car park at the front of the building and await further instructions (during office hours staff should proceed to their usual assembly point; outside of office hours proceed to the visitors’ car park). Please do not re-enter the building unless instructed to do so.

 

      In the event of a fire any person with a disability should be assisted in leaving the building.  

 

2.   To receive any announcements from the Chair of the Meeting and/or the Chief Executive.

Minutes:

36.1           The evacuation procedure was advised to those present.  

37.

Items from Members of the Public

a)   To receive any questions, deputations or petitions submitted under Council Rule of Procedure.12.

 

(The deadline for public participation submissions for this meeting is 20 September 2018).

 

b)   To receive any petitions submitted under the Council’s Petitions Scheme.

Minutes:

37.1           There were no items from members of the  public on this occasion.  

38.

Member Questions properly submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rules

To receive any questions submitted under Rule of Procedure 13. Any items received will be circulated on 26 September 2018.

 

(Any questions must be submitted in writing to Democratic Services by, not later than, 10.00am on the working day immediately preceding the date of the meeting).

Minutes:

38.1           There were no Member questions on this occasion.  

39.

Lead Member Presentation

To receive a presentation from the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management – Councillor Ron Furolo. 

Minutes:

39.1           The Mayor invited the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management to make his presentation.

39.2           The presentation covered the following main points:

·         The Finance and Asset Management Portfolio – covered a wide variety of services: Financial Strategy and Reporting; Investments; Procurement; Council Tax and Business Rates; Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction; Land and Property Asset Management; and Facilities Management.

·         Who Provides the Services? – three teams: Finance Team with equivalent of 7.3 full-time staff; Asset Management Team with equivalent of 9.7 full-time staff including the Council’s cleaning staff; Revenues and Benefits Team with equivalent of 21.3 full-time staff. The Operational Teams were supported by Head of Finance and Asset Management and Head of Corporate Services.

·         What is the Core Service – Finance: collection of £5 million of sundry debt each year (includes trade waste, licences and rentals); payments to 4,500 creditors each year; investments of £162 million each year and allocation of £100 million income each year (includes £55 million of Council Tax and £36 million of Business Rates of which the Council retained £3.8 million of Council Tax and £2.2 million of Business Rates); 3,000 payroll payments made each year; production and management of £9 million net budget; and production of an 80 page Statement of Accounts each year. Asset Management: management of property valued at over £64 million (over £40 million was the Council’s commercial portfolio); management of land totalling over 400 acres; management of 14 play areas and 10 car parks; management of tenants with an income of £2.8 million each year; management of the Public Services Centre with an average of 110,000 visitors per year (staff, tenants and visitors); and management of over 400,000 visitors to car parks each year. Revenues: collection of Council Tax from 41,040 dwellings; collection of £58.7 million in Council Tax; and collection of £35 million in Business Rates from 2,923 business premises (known as hereditaments) with a total rateable value of £91.3 million. Benefits: administers housing benefit – caseload of 3,466 and Council Tax reduction – caseload of 4,303; processed claims for Discretionary Housing Payments – 299 awards in 2017/18 totalling £131,752; provision of personal budgeting support and assisted digital support to residents claiming Universal Credit; and investigation of cases of possible fraud and provision of single point of contact for the Department for Work and Pension’s Single Fraud Investigation Service.

·         Achievements – two retail units in Clevedon purchased in 2006 then 10 years later purchased G4S building near Junction 9 of the M5. Building on that success, Lambert Smith Hampton appointed to source and secure further properties for the commercial property portfolio - £39.5 million investment to date in property across the country. £2.37 million gross rent per year with a 6% yield on investment and £1.55 million net benefit to budget currently. Properties were managed in-house with support from Lambert Smith Hampton and rental income was now the third biggest financing stream behind Council Tax and New Homes Bonus. The Public Services Centre had been refurbished  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

40.

Audit Committee Annual Report 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 676 KB

The Council is asked to approve the Audit Committee Annual Report 2017/18.

Minutes:

40.1           Attention was drawn to the report, circulated with the Agenda, at Pages No. 9-18 which Members were asked to consider and approve. The Mayor invited the Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee to present the Committee’s 2017/18 annual report to the Council.

40.2           The presentation covered the following key points:

·         The Role of the Audit Committee – very important role of assurance and to ensure the Council’s internal control environment, including risk and governance, was operating effectively. Assurance mainly came from internal audit, external audit and the Finance Team. The Audit Committee was not a finance Committee as the bulk of the Work Programme was focused on governance.

·         Not Just About Finances – the Committee had responsibility to approve the Council’s Statement of Accounts but was also the catalyst for changes to the garden waste scheme which generated nearly £800,000 income and was a direct result of an internal audit report and the Audit Committee asking for improvements; Ubico client monitoring following an internal audit report that had required immediate improvements on how the Council monitored the contract; tree inspections had previously been paper-based but now had a cloud-based solution; and the complaints framework had been redesigned as the previous framework was not effective.

·         Sources of Assurance – Internal Audit – this was a small but effective team which gave the Audit Committee an independent viewpoint. An external peer assessment of internal audit in 2017 had concluded it was compliant with Public Sector Internal Audit Standards. During the year, the Committee had received internal audit reports on a wide range of Council activity e.g. the Public Services Centre refurbishment, cemeteries, land charges, absence management etc. Overall, audit opinions issued during the year had been positive with 37 out of 39 opinions showing either ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ levels of control. 27 audit recommendations had been made during the year with only two categorised as ‘high’ and 10 audits having no recommendations.

·         Sources of Assurance – External Audit – the Council’s external auditors, Grant Thornton, gave the external opinion on how well the Council was performing. The external auditors had provided a positive conclusion on the Council’s statement of accounts, finding them to have been produced in a true and accurate manner with no amendments required, it was satisfied with the improved arrangements for the monitoring of the Ubico contract and had concluded that the Council had proper arrangements in place to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness of resources.

·         Annual Governance Statement – Audit Committee Effectiveness -  the Council had a statutory requirement to produce an Annual Governance Statement which provided a high level overview of its overall governance arrangements and identified areas for improvement including risk management.

·         Audit Committee Effectiveness – similar to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Audit Committee sought to maximise its value and emerging ideas included: the introduction of a six-monthly newsletter; changes to the Committee’s Terms of Reference and its name; building on training already received; more challenge to Officers; and a formal review of effectiveness.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

41.

Overview and Scrutiny Review of Water Outage pdf icon PDF 513 KB

At its meeting on 4 September 2018, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommended that the Council adopt the Scrutiny Review of Water Supply Outage report. The Committee also agreed that the actions would be reviewed in February with partners to be invited to see how they were progressing.

 

(Since the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, the action sheet has been further updated and that revised copy is attached for the Council’s information).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

41.1           Attention was drawn to the Overview and Scrutiny Review of Water Outage report, circulated with the Agenda at Pages No. 19-64. Members were advised that, at its meeting on 4 September 2018, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had recommended that the Council adopt the report and that the actions contained therein be reviewed in February with partners being invited to see how they were progressing.  Members were also advised that, since the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting, the action sheet had been further updated and the revised copy was attached for the Council’s information.

41.2           In proposing the report, the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee explained that the water outage had significantly affected the Borough’s communities in December 2017 and the subsequent review was probably the highest profile undertaken by the Committee in recent years. The whole Committee had been involved as a Task and Finish Working Group and it was hoped that the content of the report showed the amount of work that the Committee and supporting Officers had put into the review. The review had sought to understand the impact on the community and local businesses, including agriculture, through consultation with businesses, the Citizens’ Panel and Parish and Town Councils and that information, together with obtaining a full picture of how the incident had occurred and the response from all relevant agencies in managing the incident, had enabled a detailed set of scrutiny questions to be put to partners at the public inquiry which had been held on 24 April 2018. The work had established a set of learning points which had been captured in the action plan at Appendix 3 of the report; that action plan would be taken back to the Committee early in the New Year to ascertain progress in implementing the actions. The actions related to key areas such as maintenance and infrastructure, water distribution, communications and impact on businesses. Overall, the Chair felt the review was an excellent piece of work and he thanked his fellow Committee Members and Officers for their contributions. He also thanked the representatives of Severn Trent Water, Gloucestershire Police, Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service and Gloucestershire Local Resilience Forum for their participation and the open and transparent manner in which they had responded to questions.

41.3           The proposal to adopt the report was seconded and the Mayor invited questions from Members. A Member thanked the Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the brilliant piece of scrutiny which had been undertaken. Referring to the review of the 2007 floods, he felt the resultant actions had not been followed-up effectively in all cases and he hoped partners would know that, if there were any actions left incomplete this time, the Committee would be going back to question them. In response, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chair confirmed that lessons had been learnt since 2007 and he completely understood the need to follow-up on action plans as did all of those involved in the review.

41.4           Accordingly, it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

42.

Preferred Options Tewkesbury Borough Plan Consultation pdf icon PDF 282 KB

To approve the preferred options Tewkesbury Borough Plan for consultation purposes.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

42.1           The report of the Head of Development Services, circulated at Pages No. 65-283, sought Council approval to publish the Preferred Options version of the Tewkesbury Borough Plan for public consultation under Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012.

42.2           In introducing the report, the Head of Development Services explained that the Tewkesbury Borough Plan was a second tier plan that sat under the Joint Core Strategy (JCS) which provided the higher level strategic plan. The Borough Plan set out more locally specific policies, and proposed smaller scale development. The policies in the Plan were required to ensure sustainable development in the Borough and covered a wide range of issues including employment, housing, retail and town centres and rural and urban areas. The Head of Development Services explained that the Plan was a planning framework to provide further growth aspirations and a positive plan for the future development of the area at the same time providing a wide and sufficient choice of housing and a prosperous and competitive rural and urban economy which helped to sustain vital urban areas. The full consultation process would be held through October and November with all representations being considered and, where appropriate, changes made. The pre-submission version of the Plan would be the final stage before submission to the Secretary of State for the examination in public.

42.3           The Chair of the Tewkesbury Borough Plan Working Group indicated that the Group had worked with Officers to oversee the development of the Plan and had undertaken detailed discussions as well as site visits. Members felt the Plan was the right way to ensure sustainable development throughout the Borough and, on behalf of the Working Group, he proposed that the Plan be approved for public consultation. The Lead Member for Built Environment seconded the proposal.

42.4           A Member indicated that there was no reference in the report to specific consultation with the ‘un-housed generation’ of 25-40 year olds and he felt this was of concern as a lot could be learnt from their view and what they expected the Council’s future housing policy to be. In response, the Planning Policy Manager explained that this was a good point and one of the things the Borough Plan sought to do was provide a range of sites with anywhere from 10 to 110 dwellings at varying locations across the Borough but also provide flexibility for other areas to grow. Policies on housing mix were important in terms of the size of dwellings to meet future demographics. The consultation would be open to all and it was the intention that the message would be circulated as widely as possible, including to the younger generation to get their views. Another Member expressed concern that the document she had seen previously had contained numbers of dwellings attached to Service Centres and Villages and she questioned whether this would be attached to the background papers if not directly to the Borough Plan. In response, the Planning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

43.

Separate Business

The Chairman will move the adoption of the following resolution:

That under Section 100(A)(4) Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Minutes:

43.1           The Mayor proposed, and it was  

                  RESOLVED          That, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act                               1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following                              items on the grounds that they involve the likely discussion of                                     exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12(A) of                             the Act.

44.

Separate Minutes

To approve the separate Minutes of the meeting of the meeting held on 24 July 2018.

Minutes:

44.1           The separate Minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2018, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Mayor.