Agenda and draft minutes

Prior to the formal business of the meeting, the Chairman raised the following:

Re-burial of Matthew Flinders

The Chairman referred to the recent re-burial of Matthew Flinders in Donington and invited Councillor J King (part of the team who had worked very hard to arrange the event) to speak.  Councillor King started by thanking all those involved with the event – many had given their time to assist in all aspects of ensuring that the event was a success. She thanked Councillor Redgate, who had assisted in securing UKSPF monies (overall, the cost of the event had been between £80,000 and £90,000, or which £35,000 had been provided through UKSPF funding), Councillor Bingham who had provided free plants to decorate the village, and those members who had provided donations for the event in the park.  The project to bring about the reburial of Matthew Flinders in Donington had taken five years, and had involved much hard work, but had been a great success.

Recent events in Southport

The Chairman referred to the recent tragic events in Southport.  The Council’s thoughts were with all those affected by this tragic event, and to a wider degree, all affected by knife crime.  

To sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 15 May 2024  (copy enclosed).

Consideration was given to the minutes of Full Council held on 15 May 2024.

Members also agreed that there was no requirement to discuss the content of the exempt minutes from the meeting of Full Council on 15 May 2024, included later in the agenda.

DECISION:

1)    That the minutes of the meeting of Full Council on 15 May 2024 be signed as a correct record; and

2)    That the exempt minutes from the meeting of Full Council on 15 May 2024 be signed as a correct record.

(Where a Councillor has a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest the Councillor must declare the interest to the meeting and leave the room without participating in any discussion or making a statement on the item, except where a Councillor is permitted to remain as a result of a grant of dispensation.)

There were none.

The Chairman reminded members that details of events that he had attended as Chairman could be viewed under the Chairman’s Log on the Council website.

The Chairman advised of the following forthcoming events:

·       Saturday 10 August 2024 – Give-it-a-Go Day – Carter’s Park, Holbeach

·       Thursday15 August 2024 – Race Night – Spalding Yacht Club

·       Saturday 24 August 2024 – Variety Show – South Holland Centre, Spalding

·       Sunday 29 September 2024 – Civic Service – All Saints Church, Moulton

The Leader made the following announcement:

The Leader had recently received a letter from the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for MHCLG (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) highlighting changes to National Planning Policy and other Housing policies.  The letter was at a high level, and further details would be forthcoming over the next few months.  The key areas detailed were:

·       Increases to planning fees and greater freedom for councils to set planning fees;

·       Greater flexibilities in the use of Right to Buy receipts;

·       Commitment to consult on wider reforms to Right To Buy eligibility and discounts;

·       Changes to housing targets (this would affect many district councils however SHDC were currently, and had been for a few years, above target);

·       More of a focus on councils giving planning permission than developers building out sites that have permission;

·       Councils would need more powers and funding to address sites that sat empty, stalled and were not built out;

·       The Government was retaining a brownfield-first approach;

·       A strong focus on accelerating Local Plans;

·       Reintroduction of Strategic Planning and Spatial Development Strategies (there was no policy detail available yet)

The Government had launched an 8-week consultation on the key changes, and the deadline for this was 24 September 2024.  The Leader and the Planning Department would keep members updated on any further details as they emerged.

The Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing, Conservation and Heritage and Tourism made a number of announcements:

·       At SHDC, work was already underway on a carbon reduction plan which would outline the authority’s current baseline in terms of carbon emissions and set out how to reduce these as part of its net zero ambition.  This was a useful exercise in helping to unlock future external funding opportunities to decarbonise operations and hopefully reduce operating costs at the same time.

·       The Partnership’s Home Energy Advice and retrofit team had been nominated for an APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) service award, for the best building and housing initiative.  This was in recognition of the team’s performance in delivery of home upgrade grants for energy efficiency to local residents, as they were the top performer in the entire Midlands region in 2023/24.

·       The start of SHDC’s programme of renovation and restoration of the war memorials in the Ayscoughfee Hall Gardens was announced.  There had already been a thorough clean of both the WW1 Lutyens memorial and the stone of remembrance, and the more recent WW2 memorial.  Work would shortly begin on repainting all of the names on both memorials (although the WW2 memorial’s names had never been painted, only incised and were currently difficult to read).  In addition, sympathetic repairs would be undertaken to the wall and pillars of the original edifice using heritage stonemasons and craftsmen.  This work would be carried out over the new few months and should be completed in the early part of next year.

The Portfolio Holder for Community Development announced that as part of ‘Love Your Parks Week’ the Communities Team  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

There were none.

Question to: Councillor Bingham

Question from: Councillor Gibson

Subject: Ayscoughfest at Ayscoughfee Gardens

Councillor Gibson commented on the recent music festival (Ayscoughfest), held in Ayscoughfee Gardens, which had been very successful.  He thanked all those that had organised the event and assisted in any way.  Would the Portfolio Holder – Assets and Strategic Planning be happy to look into this becoming a yearly event?  Councillor Bingham responded that due to its success, he would be happy to support any event that brought people into the town of Spalding, and to use the fantastic resource of Ayscoughfee Gardens.

Question to: Councillor Casson

Question from: Councillor Beal

Subject: Graffiti removal and CCTV

Councillor Beal asked for clarification on the procedures for removal of graffiti, and asked how effective CCTV was in deterring and capturing perpetrators. Councillor Casson agreed that graffiti was a problem in many towns.  Initially, a warden would undertake an inspection of the locations.  If the site was owned by another service (e.g. gas board, County Council), they would be notified.  If it was located on Council property, Waste Services would be notified to deal with its removal.  If it was located on other buildings/shops, those at the site would be spoken to initially to identify who was responsible for it.  Once they had been identified they would be asked to remove the graffiti but if this did not happen, the warden could serve them with a fixed penalty notice.  Over the last few months, 8 incidences of graffiti had been reported and since removed.  With regard to CCTV cameras, Councillor Casson believed these to be a good deterrent.  This year, 118 incidents had been captured and from this, there had been 8 prosecutions.  It was acknowledged that with regard to incidences of graffiti, it was difficult to identify individuals on CCTV, and the Police were not always notified immediately.  CCTV was currently monitored in Boston, but in the last few months, there had been a volunteer in Spalding Police Station monitoring CCTV covering Spalding for 2 days a week. 

Question to: Councillor Casson

Question from: Councillor Booth

Subject: Promotion of CCTV cameras to parishes

Councillor Booth asked if acquisition of CCTV cameras by parishes was being actively promoted.  If so, when would this be rolled out?  Councillor Casson commented that this had only recently been added to his Portfolio, although he was aware that there had been discussions around whether parishes would wish to have CCTV.  He would look into this question and provide a response in due course. 

Question to: Councillor Astill/Councillor Redgate

Question from: Councillor Barnes

Subject: Management of budgets/spend

Councillor Barnes commented that at a recent meeting of the Performance Monitoring Panel, consideration had been given to a Sustainable Products Policy.  Upon discussion around procurement and stationery, it was concerning that no clear response had been received on what the spend on stationery was over the year.  Councillor Astill commented that this issue was likely to sit with Councillor Redgate.  The Leader commented that budgets were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

To receive the minutes of the following Committees and Panels:-

a)    Joint Performance Monitoring Panel and Policy Development Panel - 18 April 2024

b)    Planning Committee - 8 May 2024

c)    Performance Monitoring Panel - 22 May 2024

d)    Planning Committee - 12 June 2024

e)    Governance and Audit Committee - 13 June 2024

f)     Planning Committee – 17 July 2024

The minutes of the following Committees and Panels be noted:

·       Joint Performance Monitoring Panel and Policy Development Panel – 18 April 2024

·       Planning Committee – 8 May 2024

·       Performance Monitoring Panel – 22 May 2024

·       Planning Committee – 12 June 2024

·       Government and Audit Committee – 13 June 2024

·       Planning Committee – 17 July 2024

To consider the recommendations of the Cabinet in respect of:

·        23/24 Outturn Report & 22/23 Abbreviated Outturn including Audit Update (Cabinet minute 18) (Cabinet agenda item 11).

(report of the Cabinet enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Cabinet which sought approval for the Cabinet’s recommendations.

23/24 Outturn Report & 22/23 Abbreviated Outturn including Audit Update

In the absence of the Portfolio Holder – Finance, the Leader presented the report and highlighted the following areas:

The outturn report and reserves position in 2023/24 were more positive as a result of the excellent work that had been undertaken by the Finance team and which continued to be built on in 2024/25, with the team closely monitoring budgets and savings and efficiency targets.

General Fund revenue outturn

At 31 March 2024, the General Fund outturn position was an underspend of £116,000 against an overspend of £340,000 at Quarter 3 – the Leader highlighted this significant and positive change, and thanked the Finance team and Portfolio Holders for their work in achieving this.

The largest changes since the Q3 forecast were:

·       Planning and Strategic Infrastructure saw a £114,000 improvement since Q3;

·       The Wellbeing and Community Leadership position improved by £118,000 from the Q3 forecast due to proactive management of demand in the Homelessness Service and additional income for private Sector Housing

Treasury management return on investment continued to perform well, with the general fund receiving £327,000 interest in excess of the full year budget.

The 2023/24 budget included an efficiency target of £877,000 and £695,000 (79%) was achieved against that target.

In Quarter 2, a release from reserves of £300,000 of the National Homes Bonus had been received, and this had been included in the outturn position.

HRA revenue outturn

At 31 March 2024, the HRA had a surplus of £701,000.

Capital

Table 5 detailed the general fund capital outturn position with spend of £7million against a revised budget of £9.2million (being 76% of planned spend).  Table 7 detailed the revised 2024/25 budget with the inclusion of slippage from 23/24, which formed one of the recommendations to Full Council.

The HRA capital outturn was detailed in Table 8, at 31 March £16.5million had been spent against the approved budget of £23.9million (69%). Table 10 illustrated the revised 2024/25 budget with the inclusion of slippage, which was also a recommendation to Full Council.

The following issues were raised:

·       Agency Staff was mentioned as reason for overspend in a number of areas - was the Authority actively trying to do something about this, and attempting to reduce this kind of excess expenditure?

o   The Leader responded that the Authority was continually looking at how agency staff were used, particularly in Waste Services, attempting to reduce their use wherever possible.

·       Leisure and Culture showed a negative variance of £35,000 relating to the South Holland Centre, and card misuse was quoted – how much of the £35,000 was card misuse and what was meant by card misuse.

o   The Leader was unable to provide an answer on this and would provide a response in due course. 

DECISION:

1)    That the reserves transactions and balances as set out in Appendix A of the Cabinet report (Appendix B of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

Consideration was given to the Key Decision Plan.

DECISION:

That the Key Decision Plan be noted.

To provide Members with a review of Treasury Management performance and activity during 2023/24 to ensure best practice is maintained (report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Corporate Development) & S151 enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Deputy Chief Executive (Corporate Development (S151) which provided members with a review of Treasury Management performance and activity during 2023/24 to ensure best practice was maintained.

In the absence of the Portfolio Holder – Finance, the Leader presented the report and highlighted the following areas:

Each year a comprehensive report on the Council’s treasury activities came before Council.  This complied with the CIPFA Code of Practice for Treasury Management

The following headlines (this data had already been reported throughout the year to the Governance and Audit Committee) were provided:

• Investment income earned was £2.4million, £545,000 greater than budgeted with an average rate of return of 5.17%;
• £2.35million interest was paid on the Council’s HRA borrowing at a rate of 3.48%. This was a £67million loan over a 38 year term;
• £23.5million of capital had been invested within the District across the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account;
• Most of the Council’s investments were with banking institutions, for fixed term periods and for periods under 1 year;
• Economically the focus has been on bringing down inflation to provide the possibility to reduce interest rates

DECISION:

That the Annual Treasury Management Review 2023/24 at Appendix A be received and approved, as required by the Local Government Act 2003, following scrutiny by the Governance and Audit Committee at its meeting on 18 July 2024.

To receive, from political groups, nominations for any changes to Committees and other seats and to consider any proposed changes to the Constitution.

The following proposed committee change was reported to Council:

·       Councillor N Chapman to stand down as a member of the Governance and Audit Committee, leaving a vacancy on the Committee.

To provide South Holland District Council with an update following the latest meeting of the Health Scrutiny for Lincolnshire Committee (report of Councillor Glynis Scalese enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of Councillor Scalese in respect of Health Scrutiny for Lincolnshire.

DECISION:

That the report be noted.

There were none.

DECISION:

Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public were excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act

To seek member approval to deliver a Regulatory Service Review (including public protection and building control) (report of the Assistant Director – Regulatory enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director, Regulatory which sought member approval to deliver a Regulatory Service Review (including public protection and building control).

The Leader presented the report.

DECISION:

That the recommendations detailed within the exempt report be approved.