Meeting documents

TDBC Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 13th November, 2018 6.15 pm

If there are no documents available for this meeting, please click on Attendance details, as the meeting may have been cancelled.

Venue: Training Suite (Ground Floor) - The Albemarle Centre. View directions

Contact: Marcus Prouse 

Items
No. Item

26.

Apologies.

27.

Minutes of the previous meeting of the Scrutiny Committee. pdf icon PDF 333 KB

28.

Declarations of Interest.

    To receive declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or personal or prejudicial interests, in accordance with the Code of Conduct, in relation to items on the agenda. Such interests need to be declared even if they have already been recorded in the Register of Interests. The personal interests of Councillors who are County Councillors or Town or Parish Councillors will automatically be recorded in the minutes.

     

    Minutes:

    Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Member or Clerk of County, Parish or Town Council or any other Local Authority:

     

    Name

    Minute

    No.

    Description of Interest

    Reason

    Action Taken

    Cllr S Coles

    All Items

    SCC & Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr W Coombes

    All Items

    Stoke St Mary

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr E Gaines

    All Items

    Wiveliscombe

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr N Townsend

    All Items

    Kingston St Mary

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr V Stock-Williams

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke

     

29.

Financial Monitoring 2018/19 - as at 30 September 2018 pdf icon PDF 454 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Considered report previously circulated, which provided an update on the projected outturn financial position of the Council for the financial year 2018-19.

     

    The current revenue forecast outturn for the financial year 2018-19 was as follows:-

    ·         The General Fund Revenue Outturn was forecasting a net underspend of £13,000.

    ·         The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) was forecasting underspend of £356,000.

     

    The current capital forecast position for 2018-19 was as follows:-

    ·         The General Fund Capital Account was forecasting spend of £11,762,000 against a total Programme budget of £71,883,000 with £43,462,000 forecast to be spent in future years (£16,659,000 spent in previous years).

    ·         The Housing Revenues Account Capital Account was forecasting spend of £8,679,000 against a budget of £17,686,000 with £9,007,000 forecast to be spent in future years.

     

    During the discussion of this item, Members made comments and statements and asked questions which included:-

    ·         Concern was raised on the delay in the implementation of the Pay by Foot parking scheme and that it would introduce variations in the parking charges for each car park for ‘blue badge’ holders.

    ·         Members queried what factors had contributed to the £356,000 underspend on the HRA.

    The main variances were in responsive maintenance and staff vacancies.

    ·         Concern was raised on the Community Safety budget error of £42,000.

    When the previous budget was set, there had been an assumed amount that had been funded from the reserve, which had been carried forward.

    ·         Members queried whether the budget allocations in Appendix C would be held for the projects listed.

    Clarification was given on the allocations and the details of the projects would be distributed to the Committee.

    ·         Concern was raised on the risk that had been flagged on the DLO Trading Account.

    Due to work still being carried out on the account, officers did not have the full details, so were unable to report accurate figures, however, the forecasts were closely monitored and were subject to audit.

    ·         Members requested clarification on the HRA expenditure and what could be done to help divert money to help with the housing problems.

    A written response from the Housing Manager would be distributed to the Committee.

    ·         Concern was raised that the Council was not meeting its statutory function to provide homes for the homeless.

    The Interim Finance Manager would report their concern to the Housing Manager.

    ·         The Chairman reminded Members that the Homelessness Manager had attended the previous meeting of the Committee and it was suggested that a Members Briefing could be arranged for further detail on the homelessness policy.

    ·         Members suggested that other officers should attend meetings where financial reports were discussed so that any queries that related to the policies could be answered.

    ·         Members queried the reasons behind the Car Parks £89,000 overspend.

    The Car Parks overspend was a result of the delay in the Pay by Foot scheme, but once the project was implemented, officers expected an increase in income.

    ·         Members requested assurance that the upturn in parking income would happen once the Pay by Foot scheme was implemented.

    Officers had researched other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

30.

Report of the Task and Finish Group Review into Affordable Employment Land pdf icon PDF 404 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Considered report previously circulated, which set out the findings of the Task and Finish Group charged to review Taunton Deane Borough Council’s (TDBC) 2009 Affordable Employment Land Strategy, agreed by the TDBC Executive.

     

    There was no doubt that TDBC needed to create an appropriate balance between the number of homes and the number of jobs provided.  Taunton Deane was falling behind neighbouring conurbations in providing well-paid employment.  The Council must work in meaningful partnership to facilitate inward investment and encourage economic growth.

     

    During the discussion of this item, Members made comments and statements and asked questions which included:-

    ·         Members were pleased with the report and welcomed the cross party approach.

    ·         Members queried where the recommendations would be taken moving forward.

    The recommendations would be taken to TDBC Executive and then through the Shadow democratic process.

    ·         Concern was raised on the community engagement via the Town and Parish Councils and that the Un-Parished area of Taunton had not been involved.

    They were aware that community engagement needed to include a wider area with a broader aspect and agreed that this warranted further debate.

    ·         Members queried whether the group had looked at what methods could be used to help incubate businesses using different types of business models in particular co-operatives.

    Yes, they would need to look at co-operative work and investment in further detail.

    ·         Concern was raised on rural areas and their economies.  Members highlighted that more and more businesses were relocating to rural areas.

    Work was carried out on rural areas and they had looked into start-up businesses for those areas to move away from being Taunton-centric.  Due to the level of report, they were not able to go into too much detail on rural areas.  Resource was a concern which needed to be addressed prior to the New Council being formed so that new business opportunities were not missed.

    ·         Members queried what superfluity of land really meant for TDBC.

    When applications for larger developments had been brought forward, the applicants had stated that there would be mixed use properties but this had not always happened.  Quite often properties ended up being predominantly used for housing and employment land was often then placed on the outskirts of town. 

    ·         Officers advised that the challenge they faced was that the employment land that was retained by TDBC was deliverable.

    ·         Members queried how they could constructively enable work to be carried out and contribute to the project.

    The report had provided a good basis for work to be carried forward by Members and the sites held in the portfolio had good prospects.

    ·         Members queried whether there was a danger of the aspirations being repeated and were there any other areas that had carried out similar work.

    The Head of Strategy discussed the challenge that was involved in the work to ensure that the research and development centre did not compete with similar sites within the area and sites managed by other authorities.   The research sector needed to be explored through the Council’s strategy and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

31.

Time Extension.

32.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

    To consider excluding the press and public during consideration of the report if the press and public were present during this item, there would be likely to be a disclosure to them of exempt information of the class specified in

    Paragraph 3 pf Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended as follows:

     

    Agenda  item 7 contains information that could release confidential information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information). It is therefore proposed that after consideration of all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

     

    Minutes:

    Resolved that the press and public be excluded during consideration of item 33 on the grounds that, if the press and public were present during the item, there would be likely to be a disclosure to them of exempt information of the class specified in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended as follows:

    The item contained information that could release confidential information that related to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).  It was therefore agreed that after consideration of all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

33.

Confidential Update on the Leisure Procurement Project

34.

Scrutiny Work Programme. pdf icon PDF 339 KB