Agenda and draft minutes

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

Contact: Marcus Prouse Email: m.prouse@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

20.

Apologies

21.

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 S Coles

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr M Hill

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr S Lees

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Lisgo

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr H Prior-Sankey

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    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 and Voted

     

     

22.

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 requests had been made to participate by the public.

23.

Petitions

24.

Motions to the Charter Trustees

25.

Communications

26.

To answer questions under Standing Order 8

    A        A Charter Trustee may ask the Mayor any question upon an item which is under consideration by the Charter Trustees.

     

    B        Every question shall be put and answered without discussion. The person to whom a question has been put may decline to answer but shall give an explanation for declining to do so.

     

    C        An answer may take the form of:-

             

    1                 a direct oral answer; or

    2                 where the desired information is contained in a publication of the Charter Trustees, a reference to that publication; or

    3                 where reply to the question cannot conveniently be given orally, a written answer circulated to Charter Trustees.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    No Councillors present had requested to ask a question under Standing Order 8.

27.

Community Governance Review for Taunton - Stage 2 Consultation pdf icon PDF 1 MB

    The Charter Trustees for Taunton have been notified by the District Council of the publication of the commencement of the second stage of consultation of the review. The Charter Trustees are able to submit a collective response or alternatively respond individually as Councillors.

     

    At their meeting on 14th December 2021 the Charter Trustees collectively agreed to respond to the Stage 1 Consultation as follows;

     

    “We believe that a single Town Council should be set up to cover at least the whole of the currently unparished area of Taunton.”

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Charter Trustees for Taunton had been notified by the District Council of the publication of the commencement of the second stage of consultation of the review. The Charter Trustees were able to submit a collective response or alternatively respond individually as Councillors.

     

    At their meeting on 14th December 2021 the Charter Trustees had collectively agreed to respond to the Stage 1 Consultation as follows;

     

    “We believe that a single Town Council should be set up to cover at least the whole of the currently unparished area of Taunton.”

     

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

     

    ·       Concerns were raised around the impact of a significant jump in the precept on residents.

    ·       Discussion was held on the situation if there was divergent responses from across the locality.

     

    RESOLVED that the Charter Trustees would re-state their response to the Stage 2 Consultation as had been submitted to the Stage 1 Consultation, namely that:

     

    We believe that a single Town Council for Taunton should be set up to cover whichever boundaries are established, taking into account the results of the consultation.”

     

28.

Annual Internal Audit Report 21/22 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

29.

Assessment of Risk pdf icon PDF 2 MB

    The Charter Trustees resolved at their previous meeting;

     

    a)    That a Draft Action Plan and Draft Risk Register is circulated to the Charter Trustees and then taken to a Special Meeting of the Charter Trustees in July 2022 to ensure compliance for the 2022/23 Municipal Year.

     

    The Charter Trustees are invited to consider and approve the attached register, assess the risk facing the authority and suggest any further steps necessary to manage such risks.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Charter Trustees had resolved at their previous meeting;

     

    a)    That a Draft Action Plan and Draft Risk Register is circulated to the Charter Trustees and then taken to a Special Meeting of the Charter Trustees in July 2022 to ensure compliance for the 2022/23 Municipal Year.

     

    The Charter Trustees were invited to consider and approve the attached register, assess the risk facing the authority and suggest any further steps necessary to manage such risks.

     

    RESOLVED that the Charter Trustees:

    1.     Approved the Risk Register.

    2.     Assessed the risks facing the authority and suggested steps necessary to manage such risks.

     

30.

Appointment of Members of the Standing Cttee 22/23 pdf icon PDF 102 KB

    To appoint Charter Trustees, from nominations received from each group, to serve on the Standing Committee for the year 2022/2023.The proposed ‘Powers and Duties’ of the Standing Committee are set out in the attached document.If the Committee allocated politically proportionally as per the Standing Orders there would be 6 Liberal Democrats and 1 Labour seat, though it was within the gift of the political groups as to whether they took up their full entitlement.

     

    The current membership is as follows;

     

    ·        Cllr Simon Coles (Chair)

    ·        Cllr Chris Booth

    ·        Cllr Tom Deakin

    ·        Cllr Sue Lees

    ·        Cllr Martin Peters

    ·        Cllr Derek Perry

    ·        Cllr Libby Lisgo

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The clerk introduced this item which was to decided on the appointment of Charter Trustees, from nominations received from each group, to serve on the Standing Committee for the year 2022/2023.The proposed ‘Powers and Duties’ of the Standing Committee were set out in an attached document. If the Committee allocated politically proportionally as per the Standing Orders there would be 6 Liberal Democrats and 1 Labour seat, though it was within the gift of the political groups as to whether they took up their full entitlement.

     

    RESOLVED that the following Councillors were appointed to the Standing Committee of the Taunton Charter Trustees for 2022/2023;

     

    ·        Cllr Simon Coles (Chair)

    ·        Cllr Chris Booth

    ·        Cllr Tom Deakin

    ·        Cllr Sue Lees

    ·        Cllr Martin Peters

    ·        Cllr Derek Perry

    ·        Cllr Libby Lisgo

     

31.

Past Mayor's Street Naming Convention pdf icon PDF 103 KB

    It was raised with the Civic Office that there had apparently been a very longstanding custom of naming a road after Taunton and Taunton Deane Mayors as they passed away.

     

    SWT Council’s street naming and numbering team has not recently received any applications to register development addresses that had the names of Taunton Deane Mayors who have passed away.

     

    Name suggestions have mostly come from parishes but the team is always open to receiving street name suggestions for new developments with names of past Mayors who have passed away and will use them. Any request to name the street should be sent to the Council’s Street Naming and Numbering Officer using the email addressmanagement@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk

     

    Attached is SWT Council’s street naming and numbering guidance for more information on street and numbering.

     

    This item is for discussion and for the Charter Trustees to note for future reference.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The purpose of this item was a recent enquiry into the Civic Office that there had apparently been a very longstanding custom of naming a road after Taunton and Taunton Deane Mayors as they passed away.

     

    SWT Council’s street naming and numbering team had not recently received any applications to register development addresses that had the names of Taunton Deane Mayors who have passed away.

     

    Name suggestions had mostly come from parishes but the team was always open to receiving street name suggestions for new developments with names of past Mayors who have passed away and would use them. Any request to name the street should be sent to the Council’s Street Naming and Numbering Officer using the email addressmanagement@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk

     

    SWT Council’s street naming and numbering guidance had been provided for more information on street and numbering.

     

    This item was for discussion and for the Charter Trustees to note for future reference.

     

    RESOLVED that the Charter Trustees discussed and noted the matter and requested officers to explore putting forward the following names for new roads coming forward:

    -        Cllr John Meikle - a major roadway to recognise the outstanding Contribution of John Meikle as Mayor and Freeman (with over 50 years service as a Councillor).

    -        Cllr Ted Softley - Ward Councillor for Castle and Wilton which would have been in the Unparished Area, which is currently represented by the Taunton Charter Trustees and would have perhaps looked similar to the old Manor and Wilton Ward (Killams Development).

    -        Cllr Jean Hole - As a Councillor who used to reside in Trull Parish it was suggested that a road on the Orchard Grove Development may be an appropriate suggestion.

     

32.

Any items which the Mayor consider to be urgent business