Agenda and minutes

SWT Corporate Scrutiny Committee
Wednesday, 5th January, 2022 6.15 pm

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

Contact: Sam Murrell, Email: s.murrell@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk and Jess Kemmish, Email: j.kemmish@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

73.

Apologies

    To receive any apologies for absence.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Apologies were received from councillors Nick Thwaites, Danny Wedderkopp, John Hassall for whom Stephen Griffiths attended as a substitute, andMike Rigby who was due to speak on agenda item 12. Item 12 was therefore deferred to a future meeting of the committee.

74.

Minutes of the previous Corporate Scrutiny Committee pdf icon PDF 169 KB

75.

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 N Cavill

    All Items

    West Monkton

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr S Coles

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Lisgo

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr J Lloyd

    All Items

    Wellington & Sampford Arundel

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr D Mansell

    All Items

    Wiveliscombe

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr F Smith

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr V Stock-Williams

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr R Tully

    All Items

    West Monkton

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr B Weston

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr L Whetlor

    All Items

    Watchet

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr G Wren

    All Items

    Clerk to Milverton PC

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

     

76.

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 at the John Meikle Room, 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 at 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 member of the Governance team). 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:

    There was no public participation.

77.

Corporate Scrutiny Request/Recommendation Trackers pdf icon PDF 1000 KB

78.

Corporate Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 151 KB

79.

Executive and Full Council Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 237 KB

80.

Annual Infrastructure Funding Statement pdf icon PDF 331 KB

    This matter is the responsibility of Executive Councillor Mike Rigby, Portfolio Holder for Planning and Transportation

     

    Report Author: Rebecca Staddon, CIL/Community Engagement Officer

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Assistant Director for Strategic Place & Planning introduced the report and raised the below points:  

     

    ·        The report came based on the current Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) regulations whereby authorities who receiver Section 106 (S106) contributions or CIL must publish an infrastructure funding statement annually. This was a new requirement last year. This infrastructure funding statement was for 1st April-31st March 2021 and had been published on the council’s website. It sets out the CIL funds which were collected and spent in that period.  

    ·        Officers explained the difference between CIL and S106. S106 agreements were a legal mechanism to make developments acceptable in planning terms which would otherwise be unacceptable. Developers could also be asked to contribute to infrastructure by CIL which was a fixed charge.  

    ·        Funds from both CIL and S106 could be used for infrastructure.  

    ·        Parish councils in receipt of CIL also needed to produce a report for each financial year they received CIL. This information was included in the report for this committee as an appendices.  

    ·        The Funding Statement included information on the infrastructure project the authority intended to be funded at least in part by CIL, the amount of money spent on administration, details of the funds passed onto parish councils, summary details of receipt and expenditure of CIL used in the period. It also needs to contain a S106 report which sets out the obligations entered into, the funds received, allocated and spent.  

    ·        The Council uses the IT system to record all S106 and CIL charges as well as the collection and spend.  

    ·        All parish councils were notified of CIL and S106 funds collected in their area.  

    ·        CIL tariffs were introduced in what was formerly Taunton Deane in 2014. Tariffs were only charged on particular types of development.  

    ·        There would be a review of CIL and S106 as part of creating a new local plan for Somerset however this would not disadvantage West Somerset as many authorities had decided not to use CIL. Although South Somerset and Sedgemoor had adopted CIL, Mendip had not.  

    ·        The government was reviewing CIL and were considering introducing a national levy.  

    ·        As of 31st March 2021 the Council had collected £7.58m in terms of CIL.  

    ·        CIL funding had been allocated to the delivery of infrastructure projects based on the CIL allocation principles approved by Full Council. There would be a review of allocations as part of the budget discussions which were upcoming.  

     

    During the debate on the report the following points were raised:  

     

    ·        It was questioned why a council would not opt to use CIL. Officers responded that there was only one pot of money for each development, if CIL was used then there would be less S106 funding. CIL did not cover affordable housing so many authorities had opted to use only S106 to allow them to more easily fulfil their affordable housing requirements.  

    ·        It was asked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

81.

Access to Information - Exclusion of Press and Public

    During discussion of the following item 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.  Scrutiny 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 item of business 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 the public be excluded from the next item of business on the grounds that it involved 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). 

     

82.

Commercial Property Investment Strategy, Six Monthly Performance Review and Asset Management Strategy pdf icon PDF 370 KB

83.

Re-admittance of the Press and Public

84.

To consider reports from Executive Councillors - Cllr Mike Rigby pdf icon PDF 392 KB

    To consider reports from Executive Councillors on their respective Portfolios;

     

    i.                 Councillor Mike Rigby – Planning and Transportation

     

    3.2 of the Scrutiny Terms of Reference state that the Scrutiny Committee may review and scrutinise and ask questions of the Leader, lead Councillors, the Executive in relation to their portfolios.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Item 12 on the agenda was deferred to a future meeting of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee.