Agenda and minutes

Venue: Princes Theatre - Town Hall, Station Road, Clacton-on-Sea, CO15 1SE. View directions

Contact: Ian Ford 

Link: Audio Recording - 6 February 2018

Items
No. Item

118.

Apologies for Absence

The Council is asked to note any apologies for absence received from Members.

 

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Broderick, J A Brown, Bush, Cawthron, Ferguson, Gray and King.

119.

Minutes of the Last Meeting of the Council pdf icon PDF 243 KB

The Council is asked to approve, as a correct record, the minutes of the Council Meeting held on Tuesday 23 January 2018.

Minutes:

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the ordinary meeting of the Council, held on Tuesday 23 January 2018, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

120.

Declarations of Interest

Councillors are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests, or other interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

 

Minutes:

With regard to the Council’s consideration of the budget and Council Tax proposals the Chief Executive reminded Members of the following advice that had been recently circulated to them by the Council’s Monitoring Officer -

 

“In accordance with the Council’s Member Code of Conduct adopted in November 2013, paragraph 8.2 (vi) confirmed that Members do not have a disclosable interest which relates to the function of setting the Council Tax under the Local Government Act 1992.  Therefore, under the declarations of interest agenda item, you are not required to disclose an interest based on the fact you live in the District and therefore have to pay Council Tax.

 

However, Members are reminded of section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, which provides that any Member, who is in arrears by at least 2 months with their Council Tax payments cannot vote on matters concerning either the level of, or administration of, Council Tax.  It is important to note that this also covers Council Tax liabilities outside of the District and property which may not be your main residence. If present at the meeting, a Member to whom this provision applies must disclose the fact and may speak on the item, but cannot vote.  Non-compliance with this section is a criminal offence.  Therefore, should this provision apply to any Member, this should be disclosed at the declarations of interest agenda item.”

 

There were no declarations of interest made at this time.

121.

Announcements by the Chairman of the Council

The Council is asked to note any announcements made by the Chairman of the Council.

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Will Lodge, the Council’s newly appointed Communications Manager, to this his first meeting of the Council.

 

Members welcomed Will with a round of applause.

122.

Announcements by the Chief Executive

The Council is asked to note any announcements made by the Chief Executive.

 

Minutes:

The Chief Executive formally reported that, on 29 January 2018 and in accordance with the wishes of the Leader of the Conservative Group, he had exercised his delegated powers and had appointed Councillor Watson to serve on the Licensing (General Purposes) Sub-Committee in the stead of Councillor Massey.

 

Council noted the foregoing.

123.

Statements by the Leader of the Council

The Council is asked to note any statements made by the Leader of the Council. 

Councillors may then ask questions of the Leader on his statements.

 

Minutes:

The Leader read out the following statement –

 

“As Members will recall this Council recently applied to the High Court for permission to judicially review the Planning Inspector’s decision on the Sladburys Lane appeal, whereby he granted planning permission for the development of 132 homes.

 

We have received notification from the Planning Court that unfortunately permission has not been granted to seek a judicial review and the Council has been ordered to pay the Secretary of State’s costs.

 

The Judge’s reasons for her decision, taken without holding a hearing, are that there has been no error of law and consideration of the planning merits and planning judgements exercised by Inspectors are not appropriate for judicial analysis.

 

Our external Counsel has reviewed the Judge’s refusal and confirmed that whilst disappointing, the Planning Court have, over the last 6-12 months, been very dismissive of any claims which stray into the planning merits at all, even if there is an arguable error of approach or law. There is no increased prospect of success in persuading the Court that an arguable error of law exists by proceeding further.

 

When we decided to take legal action to challenge the Inspector’s decision it was done based on solid reasons and it is unfortunate that on this occasion we have not been successful. The Inspector’s decision was based on the specific information presented to the Inquiry about this particular application and I am determined that it will not alter the Council’s resolve to present robustly the housing land supply position and defend its decisions as necessary.

 

I have requested that Officers circulate a detailed briefing note as soon as is practicable providing more information on this case.”

124.

Statements by Members of the Cabinet

The Council is asked to note any statements made by Members of the Cabinet (Portfolio Holders).

Councillors may then ask questions of the Portfolio Holders on their statements.

 

Minutes:

There were no statements by members of the Cabinet on this occasion.

125.

Report of the Cabinet - A.1 - Executive's Proposals - General Fund Budget and Council Tax 2018/2019 pdf icon PDF 258 KB

To present to Council the Cabinet’s General Fund budget proposals including the Council Tax for District and Parish/Town Council Services for 2018/19.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Council gave consideration to the Cabinet’s General Fund budget proposals for 2018/19 and the amount of Council Tax for District and Town and Parish Council services for the financial year 2018/19, for each category of dwellings within the District of Tendring, to support the proposed level of expenditure.

 

Members were aware from Minute 135 (A.3) of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 19 January 2018, that the Corporate Director (Corporate Services), in consultation with the Leader of the Council and the Finance and Corporate Resources Portfolio Holder, had been authorised to submit a report to this meeting in respect of the formal draft resolutions necessary to implement the Cabinet’s budget proposals, together with any late information, or notifications received from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, as may necessarily affect the budget.

 

The Council was advised of all the resolutions made by the Cabinet on 19 January 2018, together with the additional recommendations necessary to set the Council Tax levy. Those resolutions and recommendations were before the Council, as contained within item A.1 of the Report of the Cabinet.

 

The Council was aware that the Cabinet’s proposed budget had been subject to the Council’s Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules, which had included scrutiny by the Council’s Corporate Management Committee.

 

Members were also aware that the Town and Parish Councils within the District had met to set their precepts and those precepts were contained within Appendix G to the Report of the Cabinet, which detailed the Precepts on the Collection Fund. The Council was also aware from Appendix F that the average District and Parish Council Tax for a Band D property would increase to £198.96.

 

The Leader of the Council (Councillor Stock) made the following budget statement - 

 

“When I introduced the budget last year, I explained that our underlying principle when we put together the budget each year was always to protect front line services wherever possible. Up until this year our focus has been on working more efficiently and reducing our staffing and overhead costs alongside modest changes to service delivery. This approach has seen in excess of £13 million being taken out of the budget over recent years with only minimal impact on front line services.

 

I also went on to say last year that given the scale of savings required over the coming two years, this line would be increasingly difficult to hold.

 

About 9 to 10 months ago, when we sat down to discuss the budget for 2018/19 – when we started to plan this budget - we were presented with a savings target of £3.4 million over two years. In the context of protecting frontline service we had a choice - accept what felt like a bit of a fait accompli given the traditional short-term approach to the budget that Local Authorities normally take, or to think quite differently.

 

I am glad we were brave enough to choose the latter course as otherwise the budget presented tonight would have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 125.

126.

Urgent Matters for Debate

The Council will consider any urgent matters submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rules 2(viii), 11.3(b) and/or 13(q).

Minutes:

There were none on this occasion.