Hart Borough Council Council Meeting

The Minutes of the meeting of 28^th July 2022 were confirmed, with the removal of the words “Doesn’t like cabinet will do” from question 5 in Appendix A of the 28^th July draft minutes signed as a correct record.

Apologies were received from

Councillor Bailey

Councillor Harwood

Councillor Lamb

Councillor Southern

Councillor Wright

Councillor Dorn joined remotely. A pointof orderwas raisedas tothe validityof joining remotely. It was clarified that under normal circumstances councillors were required to be in the council chamber for Full Council meetings, however exceptions could be given and had been on this occasion, for councillors to observe but not take part in the meeting if they could not attend due to illness.

No declarations made.

A presentation was given by Colin Ive, Chairman of Yateley Sports and Community Interest company, about the building of the new sports pavilion on the Sean Deveraux Park in Yateley.

No questions from the public had been received.

A pointof orderwas raisedby CouncillorFarmer requestingan explanation as to why the questions that had been raised by a member of the public had not been accepted. The Joint Chief Executive explained the background to the rejection but confirmed that the questions could be received at the November Full Council meeting. 

Under rule 12.6 the rejected questions are recorded in Appendix A of these minutes.

Questions were received from Councillors Dr Crampton and Forster. These questions and their replies are detailed in Appendix B of these minutes.

The Chairman gave a vote of thanks to Janet Stanton who was retiring as the Fleet Town Council Clerk.

The meeting was informed about the charitable donations made in the name of former Councillor the Late Sharon Wheale. £1,363 had been given to each of the following; Victoria’s Promise, Church Crookham Men’s Shed and Vision for Youth Yateley. The other charity that Councillor Wheale supported was The Base in Hook.  Unfortunately this charity has not run for a number of years, the money for it will be retained in the Chairman’s fund.

The Chairman informed the meeting that she was looking at supporting Magic Breakfasts Hook, and hopefully rolling this out over the District.

The D of E Scheme for children with additional needs, is progressing. A business plan is in place and connections have been made with Hart Voluntary Action and Hart and Rushmoor Young Carers Group as well as with some corporate groups to provide funding.

The meeting was informed that plans for the Civic Service and the Civic Day are progressing.

The Chairman also announced she would be reinstating the Volunteer awards.

The Leader of the Council congratulated Hart staff for the showcase that had happened that afternoon in the Harlington Centre. He also informed the meeting that he would shortly be meeting with the leader of Hampshire County Council to discuss the next wave of funding.

The Cabinet Member for Finance thanked Ms Isabel Brittain for all her help and work as Section 151 Officer.

The Cabinet Member for Place made the following announcement:-

“Our Planning Policy team is currently working on a number of projects, and I can update Members on some of them:

• Hart’s Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan or “LCWIP” has been jointly commissioned with Hampshire County Council.  Sustrans were the successful consultants.  We expect that the LCWIP will take about 12 months to finalise.  Once complete, and endorsed by the Council, it will be used as a major part of the evidence base for the Green Grid. By encouraging modal shift to cycling and walking for shorter, local journeys, we will be helping the district towards being net carbon zero. We have also provided consultation responses to our Basingstoke & Deane and Rushmoor on their LCWIPs.
• The Odiham and North Warnborough Conservation Area Appraisal will be reported to Cabinet in November, where we will seek to endorse it and use it as a material consideration in the determination of planning applications.
• Winchfield Parish Council has started a review of the 'made' Neighbourhood Plan and we will be providing our comments on that as it progresses.
• One of our ‘business as usual’ tasks is to complete and publish our Annual Monitoring Statement by 31^st December. The Overview & Scrutiny panel have asked to see a draft of this report and that will be with them for their December meeting.
• Our Housing Land Position Statement and Housing Trajectory were both published in August and demonstrated a 10-year housing land supply. This means that we can continue to use our Local Plan policies to robustly defend areas from inappropriate and unsustainable development.
• Members will recall that the Cycle and Car Parking standards Technical Advice Note was published in August which updates our previous standards. This is a prelude to a full supplementary planning document.

Finally, as a result of the changes in the Council’s senior management team, responsibility for Flooding and Emergency Planning are both moving into the Place service and the responsibility for the administration and monitoring of S106 developer contributions will come into the Place service as well.

The Cabinet Member for Regulatory told the meeting that some of the newer councillors had been invited to go on some licencing visits. They had all enjoyed the experience and gave their thanks.

The Cabinet Member for Environment thanked John Elson, who is retiring at the end of October, for all his work during the many years he has been at Hart District Council; stating that he couldn’t have asked for better help from an officer and that John exhibited the values that the council should exhibit to residents.

The Cabinet Member for Commercialisation and Corporate Services made the following statement, "I announce that Hart District Council have agreed terms for a lease with Age Concern to take over the operation of the Care and Wellbeing centre on the Frogmore campus in Yateley.  We have been working extensively with the new tenants to provide a modern, well-equipped facility that will continue to provide day care and support services to residents, and it is great news for the District that we have been able to secure such a mutually beneficial deal. The new centre will formally open on Friday 4th November 2022”.

The Joint Chief Executive reported that as part of rebuilding links with the local community, post covid, Mrs Hughes was absent from the meeting as she was attending an event at RAF Odiham on the Council’s behalf.

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

A query was raised about not being able to access via Modern.gov exempt papers for the Cabinet Meeting 4^th Aug. Councillor Clarke was asked to work with officers to resolve this issue. Members in return were asked to log any further issues that they may experience.

The Leader of the Council Councillor Neighbour proposed to the Council that Graeme Clarke be appointed as the Council’s Section 151 Officer from 1 November 2022. This was seconded by Councillor Radley and voted for unanimously.

Decision

Graeme Clarke be appointed as the Council’s Section S151 Officer from 1 November 2022.

The Joint Chief Executive, Daryl Phillips, left the Meeting

Full Council was asked to agree to move to a single CEO model and bring the arrangement into full effect at the earliest opportunity (and that some of the estimated annual revenue budget savings achieved potentially be reinvested to create additional capacity in Tier 3 manager posts to increase operational capacity/Monitoring officer provision) 

Proposed by Councillor Neighbour and Seconded by Councillor Radley.

Clarification was asked for about an apparent ambiguity in the reports concerning when the shared model arrangement should be put in place. The report from SOLIS had quoted a 2 year timescale for this to happen.  However, it was confirmed that Staffing Committee and Cabinet had agreed to progress to a shared CEO model by the end of the 2022/23 municipal year. 

A query was raised as to what level savings would be achieved in the current financial year if the model was adopted. It was explained that as this was the start of the process specific figures could not at this stage be confirmed.

A question was asked about keeping the organisation a ‘lean’ organisation. The meeting was told that for transparency purposes it should be made clear the there may be a need to backfill some resources that are currently being taken out of the staffing structure as the Council had just lost a Head of Service and would now be losing a Joint Chief Executive (JCE). Therefore, there may from a capacity point of view be a requirement for some replacement resources.

Decision

Full Council unanimously agree that the Council adopt a single chief Executive Model and that it should be brought into full effect at the earliest opportunity (and that some of the estimated annual revenue budget savings achieved potentially be reinvested to create additional capacity in Tier 3 manager posts to increase operational capacity/Monitoring officer provision).

There was no feedback from Outside Bodies.