Eastleigh Borough Council Council Meeting

The Mayor welcomed everyone to the meeting and gave an overview of recent Council highlights:

·  The Mayoral year began with a packed diary of events to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and it had been lovely to attend street parties and celebrations across the Borough.

·  Sadly, only a few months later we were mourning the passing of Her Majesty and once again looking back on all she had achieved during her incredible reign.  Condolence books were opened across the Borough and hundreds of residents paid their respects. The Mayor was grateful to the Parish and Town councils and to The Point for the work they carried out hosting the books of condolence, and also to Eastleigh Borough Council Teams who arranged wreath-laying ceremonies and the Proclamation for our new King. The Deputy Lieutenant, Hugo Cubitt wrote to the Mayor to thank all staff who ensured that events were carried out with dignity and respect.

·  During the last few months, we were saddened to learn of the passing of Patrick Hallifax who was Mayor of Eastleigh in 1979/80 - and two Past Mayor’s Escorts:  Roy Sollitt who was Escort for Maureen Sollitt in 2001/02 and 2017/18 and Ray Jones who was Escort for Bobbie Jones in 1994/95. The Council sends its condolences to their families and friends.

·  The most welcome news recently was the Council’s huge success in winning the Overall Council of the Year Award from APSE – the Association for Public Service Excellence. The Direct Services team also won the category trophy for Best Transport and Fleet Maintenance Service – and teams involved in Eastleigh's Afghanistan evacuation response; the councils transition to alternative fuelled vehicles and equipment; This Girl Can Eastleigh and Plant Eastleigh were all recognised. The award is a testament to the hard work and talent of everyone at Eastleigh Borough Council.

·  The Mayor had been enjoying attending events and visiting groups across the Borough. The Mayor particularly enjoyed the Eastleigh Mela and Eastleigh Pride events;

·  This month the Mayor was honoured to take part in Remembrance events and it good to see how well attended they were.  It was good to see so many people enjoy the Christmas Light Switch-On event in Eastleigh Town Centre earlier this month. Thanks to the many staff and volunteers who made all these events possible.

·  Being Mayor, he had seen the great work that our residents do, and he like reminded Councillors that nominations were still open for the Citizens of Honour awards.

·  The Mayor was delighted to hear that Sally Garland had been awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for her work with Chandler’s Ford Help. Flight Lieutenant Matt Ingram from 1216 Air Squadron also recently received the Lord Lieutenant’s Award for his dedication in running Eastleigh Air Cadets, and Sychem - the provider of disinfection, sterilisation, and decontamination solutions, whose Head Office is in Chandler’s Ford, received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for their work in the International Trade category. The Mayor congratulated them all on their well-earned success.

There were no declarations of interest in relation to items on the agenda on this occasion.

RESOLVED -

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 May 2033 be agreed as a correct record.

The Leader gave the following report:

·  Put on record his thanks to all Council staff and Councillors for contributing to the success of winning the APSE Council of the year award; it was a statement of Team Eastleigh, that all were part of, and really strong recognition for the Council

·  That the six months since the last meeting had been turbulent including three Prime Ministers, four Home Secretaries, though two had been the same, four Chancellors, and four Secretaries of State of local government.

·  The turmoil illustrated the challenges faced by local government, after “Trussonomics”, the highest level of inflation in forty years, Kwasi’s disastrous mini-budget, and a record jump in interest rates and energy costs that have compounded the Cost of Living crisis.

·  A letter had been sent by the Leaders of Hampshire and Kent County Councils stating that there may come a time in the future where they could not set a legal budget that balances their finances and meets their statutory obligations to deliver core services, asking questions such as do they need to provide a library service at all, and could they ration more services such as school transport.  These were difficult times.

·  In Eastleigh, the Council had been largely protected over the last 12 years of austerity, thanks to making savings, taking a prudent approach to finance building up a large interest rate reserve, not using grants such as New Homes Bones for revenue services, and securing strong long-term income while ensuring most borrowing is at fixed long-term rates.  And in the process, being able to reduce the Council Tax in real terms, as a share of people’s expenditure, for 19 years in a row. That stability remained, as did the Council Tax commitment.

·  There was now a short-term need to make savings, as reported to Cabinet, primarily as a result of inflation and to a lesser extent by the spike over the next two years of interest rates above their long-term trends.  This likely two-year bubble of excess costs had required Cabinet and senior staff to look at both management costs, to save £3.5million, with a new slimmer senior leadership team, and some of the Council’s services where there was a need to either pause provision, or where the Council had been back-filling services of other public sector providers bring them to an end.

·  Given the council’s “can do” culture, this had not been as easy for Eastleigh as it had become for many other councils.  The Council had proceeded at pace and changes would form part of the budget in February.  There would inevitably be some staff leaving the Council: the hope is that the majority will be through natural turnover and not filling vacant posts.  The Leader placed on record his thanks to all staff who have responded to our Chief Executive’s consultation with their thoughts and ideas.  The Chief Executive would be in touch with everyone, individually, who had responded.

·  The Leader did not want to paint a picture of despondency, the council’s underlying finances remain exceptionally strong and stand the Council in good stead for the future.

·  It remained a busy time for the Council and for partnership working including: working with the Solent LEP and local businesses on the Freeport, successfully concluding the Judicial Review into the Council’s granting of planning approval to secure the future of the airport which was much needed for the regional economy, a busy summer at the Council’s Country Parks and Arts venues, our HealthWorks and SportsWorks programmes, much needed support for the Afghan Resettlement Project and Ukranian Support Project, work will start in the new year for new homes and businesses at the Old Post Office site in the town centre, new homes had been let at Bandstand Court and positive progress had been made with planning at One Horton Heath where work on the link road to Allington Lane will be able to go ahead and work due to start on the new homes next year.

·  For the wider environment, a lengthy and open consultation would take place on Stoke Park Farm which was now in Council ownership.  Land would be available for nitrate and phosphate mitigation to protect the River Itchen and plans would be brought forward elsewhere for a new solar farm to generate green energy.  Eastleigh Borough Council is continuing to work with Hampshire County Council on how they could catch-up with much of the country with better doorstep collection of recyclables. 

·  There were many positives, much to be proud of and keeping focused on what the Council could do to improve the quality of lives for Eastleigh residents in troubled times.

Consideration was given to the following Minutes:

(i)  Administration Committee – 24 October 2022

Hedge End Town Council Community Governance Review 2022/23 (Minute 35)

RESOLVED –

That the Administration Committee:

(1)  Considered the report and responses received to the second public consultation;

(2)  Agreed to the proposed changes to the warding arrangements for Hedge End Town Council and recommended to Council that these changes are adopted and a Reorganisation Order is made.

(ii)  Administration Committee – 24 October 2022

Independent Remuneration Panel Review of Councillors’ Allowances (Minute 36)

RESOLVED –

That the Administration Committee:

(1)  Considered the report of the Independent Remuneration   Panel;

(2)  Thanked the panel for their work; and

(3)  Make recommendations to Council that:

a)  The Basic Allowance for members of Eastleigh Borough Council for the year commencing 1 April 2022 should be unchanged ie. £7,330.40 but index linked to national pay awards which has been the practice since 2018;

b)  Special Responsibility Allowance payments continue as currently set and continue to be uplifted in line with national pay awards.

c)  The Chair of the Horton Heath Development Management Committee be paid the same rate as the Chair of the Administration Committee, and not the Local Area Committee (LAC) as recommended by the Panel as the role is not the same as an LAC Chair.  The Vice-Chair would be paid an appropriate scaled rate at half the amount of a LAC Vice-Chair.

d)  The scheme of allowances be updated to reflect the current position of the payment of Dependants Allowances including indexation and that prospective Councillors be made aware of these provisions;

e)  A passenger rate of 5p/mile be added to the Councillors’ Allowance Scheme for mileage claims. Public Transport rates to be paid on production of receipts. A rate of 24p/mile for a motorbike be introduced as well as 20p/mile for bicycles as per the Officers Scheme of Allowances. It is further recommended that a link to the claims process be established to allow ease of claiming.

f)  Councillors can claim reimbursement of the cost of eye tests upon production of appropriate receipts;

g)  Any index linking should be in line with national staff salary increases (NJC award) for a maximum of four years from 1 April 2022;

h)  It be noted that in 2021/22 just under 54% of Councillors received a Special Responsibility Allowance which is just above the suggested good practice of no more than 50% of Councillors, particularly when considering any reorganisation of roles.

i)  The Councillors’ Allowance Scheme should be re-drafted to pull together all the relevant information which is held in numerous documents.

RESOLVED -

That the recommendations contained in Minutes 35 and 36 be agreed.

RESOLVED –

That the the appointment of Councillor Maud Attrill, replacing Councillor Anne Buckley, on the Audit and Resources Committee for the remainder of the municipal year be approved.

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of HR which outlined the Local Pay Policy.

RESOLVED –

That Council formally confirmed its acceptance of the attached Pay Policy Statement which is in compliance with the Council’s obligation under Section 38 of the Localism Act 2011. This Pay Policy Statement will then be updated on the Council’s website for easy public access at any time.

Consideration was given to the report of the Monitoring Officer which outlined the annual review and updates to the Constitution.

RESOLVED –

That Council approved the proposed amendments to the Constitution as set out in appendix 1.

RESOLVED –

That the Cabinet Statements, as set out in the agenda pack, be noted.

RESOLVED -

That the Minutes of the following meetings be received: 

HORTON HEATH DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

26 September 2022