Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors S Inch, Councillor Parker and Mr Rice.

Confirmation of the minutes held on 8 May 2018.

It was proposed by Councillor A Inch, seconded by Councillor James and –

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 8 May 2018 be agreed and signed as a correct record.

(Vote: For 7, Abstentions 2)

Matters Arising

Minute 97 - Cornwall County Council Rolling Investment Fund / Community Land Trusts

Councillor James’ presentation on Community Land Trusts will go to Full Council in August.

Minute 70 - Compulsory Purchase Strategy

The Chair reported that the Leader of the Council will attend the next meeting to give an update.

The Lead Member for Housing provided further information in relation to the Old Creamery, Torrington.  Devon County Council had put the former Manager’s House on the market, subject to the buyer being responsible for the demolition.

Minute 86 – Joint Task & Finish Groups

The Planning and Economy Manager will attend the next meeting to give an update on the Economy Strategy.  Interim figures were tabled at the meeting.

Members with interests should refer to the agenda item and describe the nature of their interest when the item is considered.

Members were reminded that declarations of interest should be made as and when the specific agenda item to which they related was under discussion.

There were no urgent matters brought forward.

There were no Part II items.

To receive the report of the Strategic Manager (Resources).

No questions had been received prior to the meeting.  The Strategic Manager (Resources) presented the highlight pages, which gave detailed information on performance, income and out-turn position against budget.  The following proposals and comments were made on the report:

·         The remainder of the surplus would be put towards:

 project management.

·         The new GDPR legislation had required additional resource.

·         To address the vacancies within IT and Property Services, agency services had been sourced.

·         A contingency reserve had been set aside to accommodate any unforeseen expenditure. 

·         A transfer had been made to the Transition in Government Funding Reserve.

The following points were noted in respect of the Capital Programme:

·         Purchase of new Refuse Depot - £4.67m.  As at 31st March 2018 the Council had still to secure a permanent location for its new depot.

·         Replacement Vehicles in support of the revised Refuse Collections Rounds £2.5m.  As at 31st March 2018 only two of these vehicles had been delivered; the majority of the vehicles will be delivered in the financial year 2018/19.

·         Caddsdown Phase 3 - additional office accommodation £0.85m. The Council was awaiting LEP funding of £175k before this scheme could proceed.

·         Wilkey's Field Car Park - £0.275m.  Work on this had slipped due to delays in the land being transferred to the Council.

·         Torridge Pool Biomass Boilers - £0.28m.  Upon further review the installation of Biomass Boilers at Torridge Pool had not proved to be cost effective.

Members expressed concerns about the time taken to process land charges. The Strategic Manager (Resources) said he would get updated figures which he would circulate.

Discussions took place about the Devon Business Rate Pool, affordable housing and Community Land Trusts.  The Strategic Manager (Resources) said he would bring back detailed information about monies received form Westward Housing for house sales but it was noted that the money funded the rest of the Capital Programme.  The Lead Member for Housing added that the rural communities were no longer interested in community led housing and were, in fact, having difficulty letting houses.  Members were reminded that Economic Regeneration was currently the Council’s chief priority and if there were a desire for priorities to change, the Member workshop planned for July would be the correct forum for further discussion.

To receive a verbal update from Mr Dengate.

Mr Dengate presented a written update on his recent meeting with the Planning & Economy Manager and the Senior Solicitor.  They had reviewed a flow chart covering 10 key steps of the S106 application process.  A few issues had been raised and actions to address these had been agreed.   The main issues were:

·         The Heads of Terms Agreement – early notification to Ward Member of S106 consideration

·         Delegated function, on the basis of no call-in

·         Variations to S106 – information needs to be improved

·         Public website to be reviewed  – Guidance notes were misleading and the log was inaccurate

·         Application of Funds – Every effort needed to be made to ensure that a return of the monies to the developer did not occur due to the S106 not being implemented.

·         Community Infrastructure Levy – No levy had been adopted to date and the use of S106 alongside CILs was acknowledged.

Members discussed their involvement in the process and it was apparent that they were often not notified, as had been highlighted by the review.

To receive a verbal update from  the Strategic Manager (Resources).

A meeting of the Task & Finish Group had taken place on 30 May when the current schedule of grants paid out had been reviewed.  The Group had expressed the wish to look more closely at what organisations were being asked to provide to TDC.  Any changes to funding of organisations could not be implemented until 2020/21.

The Planning & Economy Manager was scheduled to attend the meeting on 7 August to provide a further update.

The Joint Task & Finish Group had considered the Government’s report on the effectiveness of Overview & Scrutiny, acknowledging that most of the recommendations were already being followed by TDC.  One area for consideration was to allow public speaking at Internal Overview & Scrutiny. 

A full report was to be presented to the next meeting of the Task & Finish Group which, once agreed, would then come back to Internal Overview & Scrutiny.

Training was discussed and it was noted that the Governance Manager had already drawn up a training plan

The Forward Plan was reviewed and duly updated.

Members were advised by the Strategic Manager (Resources) that the National Planning Policy changes were a matter for Full Council rather than Overview & Scrutiny.

Councillor James made Members aware of a conference in Bristol at the beginning of July on CLTs and Exception Sites.