Agenda and minutes

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

Contact: Andrew Randell Email: a.randell@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

55.

Apologies

56.

Minutes of the previous meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on 8 January (attached) pdf icon PDF 475 KB

    To approve the minutes of the previous meeting of the Committee.

    Minutes:

    (Minutes of the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on 8 January circulated with the agenda)

     

    Resolved that the approval of the minutes of the Scrutiny Committee held on 8 January be deferred until the meeting on 5th February.

57.

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.)

    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 S Coles

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr C Ellis

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr J Hunt

    All Items

    SCC

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Lisgo

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr D Mansell

    All Items

    Wiveliscombe

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr H Prior-Sankey

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr G Wren

    All Items

    Clerk to Milverton PC

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

     

58.

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.

    Minutes:

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

59.

East Quay Wall, Watchet - Maintenance Report. Report of The Localities Manager (attached). pdf icon PDF 358 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The report set out the situation with the East Quay wall, Watchet and the options that the Council had to maintain this asset into the future. It did not seek approval of a permanent solution for the repair at Splash Point, this would be dealt with separately once possible design options were established, but did request financial approval of the design work for this permanent repair.

     

    For the East Quay wall survey works identified that the wall was not at imminent risk of failure but would benefit from maintenance with some reinforcing in the central and northern sections to ensure that operations could continue into the future, and that a programme of monitoring be put in place for the entire length of the wall. The report challenged the economic advantage of undertaking the reinforcing work to the northern section and proposed alternative options.

     

    The East Quay wall served as part of the structure to create the marina, protects Watchet as a sea defence, and stabilised the East Quay itself. This area was used for boat storage, as a lifting facility for the marina, and a tourism offering. 

     

    The timing of the report was unrelated to the granting of the lease to the Onion Collective as the report identified that this development had a negligible impact on the wall structure and no works to the wall were required to enable the development.

     

    The report identified a budget need for design work and a maintenance solution, therefore a budget request was made for £740k to design a permanent solution to the Splash Point failure and reinforce the central section of the East Quay wall with the associated professional costs. 

     

    From the survey information provided, the southern section required no substantial maintenance works, however a plan for monitoring was required.

     

    It was recommended that the central section would be reinforced to allow for vehicle movements into the boat storage area and crane operations which were a condition of the lease to the marina operator. These could continue at high tide but advice would be provided to the marina operator and Onion Collective concerning low tide. Undertaking this work would also provide for longer term stability for the operation of the marina. 

     

    It is recommended that the northern section is excluded from the reinforcing programme and officers are instructed to work with the marina operator to limit the impact of this decision.

     

    The Authority will undertake a robust procurement activity to ensure that the best options and value are established. We recommend to Members that we further instruct specialists to create the necessary engineering designs for both Splash Point and the central section of East Quay.

     

    We then recommend that the design is put to market with a minimum lifespan requirement. With this quality aspect already set we can then run a procurement activity weighted in favour of price.        

     

                Upon approval of the recommendations the design and procurement will begin, with works being undertaken on site in 2020 / 21, and completed to a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

60.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) - Business Plan Review. Report of The Director of Housing (attached). pdf icon PDF 756 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Business Plan contained the financial model of the service for the next 30 years. A number of largely external changes meant that a full refresh of the Business Plan was necessary. This report identified the changes and the impact of these.  The report also set out a new vision for the Housing Service and plans for growth in the number of new homes we plan to build. The report also proposed a new rent policy following the end of a period of four years of imposed rent reduction, this would provide a refreshed income position on which to build future plans set out in this report.

     

    Officers worked with external housing and business planning advisers Savills to create a new structure and approach to modelling future financial planning. The proposed Business Plan represented the current established position, it incorporated assumptions concerning future projected substantial growth and gearing primarily to invest in new homes, that have been accommodated within the plan. This substantially increased level of investment was possible due to the imposed debt cap on the business having been removed, and represented higher levels of investment and borrowing than the service had previously undertaken.  This created substantial opportunity to do more, but also would increase risk, factors which would need to be balanced carefully by the Council in the coming years.

     

    The assumptions made within the business plan were prudent without being excessively restrictive; they provided for inflation on income and costs at prevailing rates which were aligned, allowed a considerable investment in existing stock, a substantial investment in new homes leading to a net increase in properties, whilst debt forecast at elevated levels to today at the end of 30 years.  The peak debt of the plan was £164.4 million in year 11, which would not have been possible under the previous HRA regime with a debt cap of £115.8million.

     

    Somerset West and Taunton Council owns and manages affordable housing of over 5700 homes mostly at social rent levels.  This “business” within the Council had a turnover of £26M.  Income was derived mostly from rents from tenants but also from service charges and other fees.  Expenditure was made up of Council staff delivering services to tenants along with repairs and maintenance and other improvements to existing homes and investment in new much needed homes, and the repayment of borrowing.

     

    The finances of the Housing Service was held within a ring-fenced account called the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which was separate from all other Council finances in that the money was only to be used for providing services to tenants.

     

    In 2012 the Council moved away from a national subsidy system, which meant an annual payment from the HRA to central government, to be ‘self-financing’. As part of the self-financing agreement, a mandatory one-off payment of £85.12m was made to government, in return for being able to retain all income locally to manage and maintain the housing stock. The total debt in the HRA at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

61.

Corporate Performance Report. Report of the Business Intelligence and Performance Manager (For Information) (attached). pdf icon PDF 262 KB

    Minutes:

    The report was submitted for information and provided a brief summary of current performance on a selection of key indicators.

    As part of the Councils commitment to transparency and accountability the report provided an update on a range of performance indicators.  The format of the report would be developed further from the start of the 2020/21 financial year in order to monitor progress of the Councils Corporate Strategy and to reflect the new Directorates. 

    The table set out in Appendix 1 included a number of the councils Key Performance Indicators and shows how the council had performed for the first 8 months of 2019/20.  Some of the targets were still being finalised to take account of performance across the new council. 

    Two performance indicators that were reported as red were:-

    ·        Percentage of complaints responded to in 20 days

    ·        Percentage of Freedom of Information Requests responded to in 20 days

    Debate

     

    ·        The figures around Planning appeals were questioned. Clarification of the number of successful appeals would be provided.

    ·        Issues around delays with fly tipping complaints were being resolved. Clarification was requested around turnaround target for complaints with the website stating a five day resolution. Councillors would be provided with an update on the target in due course

     

    Resolved that:- The Scrutiny Committee noted the report.

     

62.

Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 340 KB

    To receive items and review the Forward Plan.

    Minutes:

    (Copy of the Scrutiny Committee 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.

     

    Resolved that the Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan be noted.