Hart Borough Council Council Meeting

The Minutes of the meeting of 28 November 2024 were confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Apologies were received from Cllrs Collins and Woods.

No declarations made.

No questions received.

A question had been received from Councillor Hale detailed in Appendix A.

The Chairman announced his engagements and added that a casino fundraising event in aid of the Chairman’s Charity has been organised for 12 March 2025 and encouraging all to attend.

The Leader of the Council, and Portfolio Holder for Strategic Direction, and Partnerships, Councillor Neighbour said that crossing works at Cove Road including vegetation cutting and some tree work were scheduled to happen over the February half-term week. The process to change the speed limit on the road, from 50 to 40 mph is underway. The principal contractor for the civil engineering works will be selected via the Hampshire County Council Gen 5 framework with construction works likely to happen over the Easter break, pending road time being available for traffic lights. There will need to be a complete road closure at a point during the works for resurfacing so completion will be dependent on a variety of factors.' This should be ready for promotion and communications sometime in spring.

The Media has been focused on devolution and local government reorganisation recently and the government has said that they would provide information to us. As of today, Hampshire has not received any information or criteria from the government. We understand this may be delayed until next week, so I apologise that there is no more information I can give today. Once more information is available a briefing session for Members will be held along with a question-and-answer session.

The Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Finance, Councillor Radley: had nothing to report.

The Portfolio Holder for Community Services, Councillor Bailey: informed Members that Hart has provided its first 4 bed homes for local people.

Last year Cabinet approved the allocation of some of our housing capital reserves to secure some much needed larger 4 bed homes for local families on the housing register. The first of these was advertised just before Christmas - the property had 62 expressions of interest. The second property purchase is being completed this week. Our thanks go to VIVID Housing Association who have been our partner in this project - with them owning and managing the homes and us at the Council having nomination rights to the homes in perpetuity.

The Portfolio Holder for Digital and Communications, Councillor Clarke explained changes that had been made to Fixmystreet. Hart’s website links to Fixmystreet. This enables residents to report and track issues in their neighbourhood to Hart or the relevant authority. The Communications team have re-organised and improved Fixmystreet categories under Hart’s control, adding sub-categories to make things more logical and improve user experience.

Message templates have been added to ensure that residents get relevant and timely responses. And when an issue isn’t Hart’s responsibility, we provide the link to the correct authority. These changes have been live for a month now.

In the coming weeks, a layer will be added on the Map to improve functionality further. This will show individual elements that are ‘owned’ by this council in detail. For example, residents should be able to identify an individual Hart-owned tree or waste bin, making it quicker and easier to report accurately.

Councillor Forster queried the implication that Fixmystreet should be used for all reporting, including HCC reporting.

Cllr Forster declared a non-prejudicial interest as a Hampshire County councillor at this point.

Cllr Forster stated that the HCC officers have requested that Fixmystreet is not used reporting issues to HCC. Fixmystreet reports are not always received in a usable format and cannot be easily tracked, The best way to report to HCC is to use the OurHants app or to use the Hampshire website or by phone. They are also trackable, with Fixmystreet residents do not necessarily receive an update. It was requested that a note to that effect could be added to the website to clearly state there HCC issues should be reported.

Cllr Clarke agreed to pass the suggestion to officers.  He advised that although Hart use Fixmystreet, we only have certain functionality that we can adjust. Discussions have taken place with HCC regarding reorganisation of some of the subcategories.

The Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy and Development Management, Councillor Oliver informed Members that he would make no specific announcements as although the government had made many announcements regarding planning, no detail had been provided at this stage that indicates how our planning system will need to be adjusted.

The Portfolio Holder for Regulatory, Councillor Wildsmith: had nothing to report.

The Portfolio Holder for Parking and Community Safety, Councillor Collins: No report was made in absence.

The Portfolio Holder for Climate Change and Corporate Services, Councillor Quarterman: updated Members about two important projects included in the Corporate Service Plan. The new finance system is a council-wide project to replace and modernise our accounting and financial management IT solution. About two thirds of staff are users so this is an important and business critical project. The project team have worked solidly for the last few months, and the project is on rack to hit the 1 April go-live date.

Working in partnership with Havant Borough Council a project to implement a replacement Payroll/HR system is progressing. This project is also on track to go live in March. These projects are the final legacy of the 5-Councils Capita contract systems, so we are continuing our path to bring our core systems back into Hart. 

The implementation of weekly food waste collections that will be commencing on 1 October this year is progressing. The new vehicles required to collect the waste were ordered by Hart jointly with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council (BDBC). Councillor Quarterman advised that he regularly meets BDBC and Serco and have been reassured about the implementation plans including the communications strategy and the recruitment of new operatives.

A member drop-in on waste that will be taking place before the Council meeting on 20 February and there will be a specific food waste briefing in March, date to be confirmed.  Members were encouraged to attend these briefings, as they relate to significant changes to waste collection services that will affect all residents in Hart.  

A Member queried what the new food waste bins would look like. They were advised that samples would be available for viewing on the 20 February drop-in session.

The Chief Executive encouraged Members to attend the LGA/Surrey Heath training session on conflict resolution being held on 3 February.

The Minutes of the following Committees, which met on the dates shown, were received by Council.

The Chairman explained that this item was to agree on the setting of the council tax base for 2025/26, advising that no questions had been previously raised requiring a debate.

Cllr Radley introduced the paper, explaining that this was the first stage of setting the budget.

Proposed by Cllr Radley; Seconded by Cllr Farmer.

Decision

It was agreed that in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Tax Base) Regulations 2012, the amount calculated by Hart District Council as its council tax base for the 2025/26 year shall be set at 43,072.16 (2024/25 - 42,690.97).

Cllr Worlock serving as the Vice Chair of the Standards Committee proposed to the Council that Mr. Matt Smith be appointed as the Council’s Designated Independent Person for Standards as outlined in the Localism Act 2011, for a three-year term.

This was seconded by Cllr Jones.

Decision

It was agreed that Mr. Matt Smith be appointed as the Council’s Designated Independent Person for Standards as outlined in the Localism Act 2011, for a three-year term

No feedback was given.