Agenda and minutes

Venue: The John Meikle Room - The Deane House. View directions

Contact: Clare Rendell Email: c.rendell@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

28.

Apologies

29.

Minutes of the previous meeting of the Executive pdf icon PDF 152 KB

30.

Declarations of Interest

    To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

     

    (The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

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

     

    Name

    Minute No.

    Description of Interest

    Reason

    Action Taken

    Cllr C Booth

    All Items

    Wellington and Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr J Lloyd

    All Items

    Wellington & Sampford Arundel

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr F Smith

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr F Smith-Roberts

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr B Weston

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr L Whetlor

    All Items

    Watchet

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr G Wren

    All Items

    Clerk to Milverton PC

    Personal

    Spoke

     

31.

Public Participation

    The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

     

    For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

     

    Temporary measures during the Coronavirus Pandemic

    Due to the temporary legislation (within the Coronavirus Act 2020, which allowed for use of virtual meetings) coming to an end on 6 May 2021, the council’s committee meetings will now take place in the office buildings within the John Meikle Meeting Room at the Deane House, Belvedere Road, Taunton. Unfortunately due to capacity requirements, the Chamber at West Somerset House is not able to be used at this current moment.  

     

    Following the Government guidance on measures to reduce the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19), the council meeting rooms will have very limited capacity.  With this in mind, we will only be allowing those members of the public who have registered to speak to attend the meetings in person in the office buildings, if they wish (we will still be offering to those members of the public that are not comfortable in attending, for their statements to be read out by a Governance and Democracy Case Manager).  Please can we urge all members of the public who are only interested in listening to the debate to view our live webcasts from the safety of their own home to help prevent the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). 

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    No members of the public had requested to speak on any item on the agenda.

32.

Executive Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 122 KB

    To receive items and review the Forward Plan.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Copy of the Executive Forward Plan, circulated with the agenda).

     

    Councillors were reminded that if they had an item they wanted to add to the agenda, that they should send their requests to the Governance Team.

     

    ·       Councillor Lloyd questioned the Longforth Masterplan item and whether it would be deferred to the New Year?

    ·       The Leader requested this to be clarified

     

    Resolved that the Executive Forward Plan be noted.

33.

Access to Information - Exclusion of the Press and Public

    During discussion of the following items (Item 7, Appendix 2 only and then Item 8) it may be necessary to pass the following resolution to exclude the press and public having reflected on Article 13 13.02(e) (a presumption in favour of openness) of the Constitution.  This decision may be required because consideration of this matter in public may disclose information falling within one of the descriptions of exempt information in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.  The Executive will need to decide whether, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption, outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. 

    Recommend that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the next items of business (Item 7, Appendix 2 only and then Item 8) on the ground that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 respectively of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, namely information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    RESOLVED that under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public be excluded from the next items of business (Item 7, Appendix 2 only and then Item 8 in totality) on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, namely information relation to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

34.

Single Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Accommodation Strategy & Delivery Plan pdf icon PDF 296 KB

    This matter is the responsibility of Executive Councillor for Housing, Councillor Fran Smith.

     

    The Strategy identifies the demand, splits this down by specific need, and puts in place an end-to-end process of interventions, from early help through to tenancy support.  The delivery plan looks at the accommodation and support requirements and identifies how these may best be delivered, whether that is through partner providers or whether this is through direct intervention by SWT.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    During the discussion, the following points were raised: -

    ·       A query was raised as to how confident officers were of obtaining investment from partners?

    ·       Partners had reassured the Council they were happy with the investment but there are risks to SWT. The model had worked for many years previously and new partners were seeking to join. The Government had encouraged SWT to bid for more funding and officers were confident, but there were challenges around the market and timing.

    ·       Concern was raised around the confirmation of Right to Buy receipts in supporting the Delivery Plan.

    ·       It was confirmed that this was why the delegation to the s151 Officer had been built into the recommendations.

    ·       Further detail was requested as to the Community Scrutiny’s concerns regarding the Equality Impact Assessment.

    ·       Officers clarified that the concern ranged largely on the issue of female accommodation and the additional responsibilities on Local Authorities under the Domestic Abuse Act, for example, you now cannot place domestic abuse victims in a bed and breakfast.

    ·       It was confirmed that Gender Re-assignment was not presenting across SWT at the current moment but that in place was an Assessment and Referral panel to discuss complex cases on a weekly basis.

    ·       The Leader stated that this was an ambitious strategy in line with the Government’s aspirations, and SWT could be proud of this work due to its impact in turning people’s lives around.

     

    RESOLVED that the Executive recommended to Full Council to;

     

    a) Adopt the Single Homelessness & Rough Sleeper Accommodation Strategy (SHRSAS) (Appendix 1) and associated Delivery Plan (Confidential Appendix 2).

    b) To approve the virement of £1.17m and a supplementary General Fund capital budget of £0.38m to support the capital investment of £1.55m as set out in section 6 and Confidential appendix 2.

    c) To delegate authority to the Section 151 Officer to make the final funding decision for any capital budgets used in the GF or HRA, including any reallocation of part of the capital budget (b) from the General Fund to the HRA.

    d) For members to note the predicted increase in revenue costs 2022-2025, and to delegate authority to the Section 151 Officer to agree the revenue funding allocations 2022-2025 through a combination of homelessness earmarked reserves, future successful bids for government grant, and Better Care Fund grant (subject to Health and Wellbeing Board approval on 22nd November 2021).

     

     

35.

Levelling up Bid

Minutes:

RESOLVEDthat the Executive approved the recommendations within the confidential report.