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:
(a) Mr Alan Debenham asked the following questions;
Previous Questions put to full SWAT Council 22nd May with follow-up put in writing to the Scrutiny Committee meeting of 12th June re the undeveloped Firepool site in Taunton. “Can I assume, as do many local residents, that this newly elected Council will now revoke this whole ex-Tory hotel proposal forthwith and replace it with a much more positive and meaningful alternative? In line with the recently resolved declaration of “Climate Emergency” by the Shadow Council, could this be the construction of a visitors’ centre for “PEACE” ( People’s Environmental Action for Climate Emergency ) which would incorporate lively hands-on educational experiences, backed by a full library of publications and displays etc. like the WeTheCurious centre in Bristol harbourside - of course, plus a visitors ‘promotional’ vegetarian cafe-restaurant overlooking the river, a cycling centre, and a general repair and waste reduction-recycling large workshop?”
1. What is the latest state of the Council’s thinking and planning re the above, especially now that the proposal for a hotel appears not to have been deleted as I was led to believe, but merely its financing and operation changed from Council to private provision? And what has happened to my proposed and well thought out inclusion of a very innovative visitors’ PEACE centre as replacement for the hotel, or otherwise?
Previous Question put to full SWAT Council 22nd May which has yet to be properly answered, especially with reference to County Gazette’s recent follow-on reports of urgent staff recruitment being necessary to fill vacant Council posts wrongly made so by expensive overdone redundancies. The massacre of staff by the ex-Tory administration has left several departments struggling to efficiently fulfil their duties, especially in Planning and Building Control, and therefore, in the name of good management, I ask the new administration to conduct a thorough staffing review ASAP to redress these failings.
2. What is the latest position in the embarrassing filling of posts related to the overdone redundancies, and what is the total cost to the Council of this whole blunder, and who is taking responsibility for it? Also how is it, in the reported horrendous £5.6 million total redundancy pay-outs – especially for the ex-CEO and other top officers getting six figure amounts – that most of these posts still exist and as such, how on earth can they be treated as redundancies at all and how does this redundancies debauchery tie-in with the Council’s suffering severe government imposed austerity for the past decade?
3. Now the government at last has released Councils from the previous borrowing cap on funding for new building of Council houses for rent, what does this now mean, both in monetary terms regarding the maximum new funds made available and in the numbers of Council rented houses completed, that the new administration now plans for the current year and those ahead? Also regarding the purchase of land for Council house building - a very worthy community cause at this time of rented housing crisis – will the Council be able to buy this at a very fair ‘existing use value’ under compulsory acquisition if this proves necessary as final resort AND, if not, why not?
(4) In terms of CO2 concentrations and climate records, nothing higher than 280 ppm (parts per million) existed for the whole of human existence until the industrial revolution. The last time CO2 levels were at their current 415 ppm was 3 million years ago, and sea levels were 10 to 20 metres higher. This might very reasonably suggest a sea level rise of 10 to 20 metres is already locked into the global climatic systems. Given that the Government, as well as this new Council, have declared "Climate Emergencies", surely Planning Committee must now make climate change mitigation an immediate material consideration in all planning and building regulation matters? And with all existing planning and development permissions no longer fit for purpose, surely these MUST be reviewed ASAP for large uplifted sea level rises?
The Leader Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts thanked Mr Debenham for his questions, and allocated his questions various Portfolio Holders and Officers.
In relation to question 1, Councillor Farbahi responded that the concept was disliked in terms of taxpayer funding element, but that didn’t mean that the Council could not explore opportunities. In terms of the environment, this was at the top of the Council’s Agenda. We were going to work with partners to deliver an Innovation Centre and work with local stakeholders such as Universities on issues such as greenhouse gases and plastics. Firepool has to be financially viable and so all options had to be explored.
In relation to question 2, James Hassett responded that the confirmed figure in the accounts of £5.6 million as reported in the press with a £600,000 contingency which has largely realised for an overall figure of £6.2 million in line with what was reported. The reasoning for this figure was the inclusion of the Direct Labour Organisation in the restructuring programme. This added a large number of staff, many of whom were in the 55+ bracket which made it more expensive, and more took up the Voluntary Redundancy (VR) scheme than had been expected. The option to go with a VR Scheme was made by the previous Council. The legislation made provision with the dissolution that the Chief Executive of the previous Councils was entitled to redundancy.
In relation to question 3, Councillor Francesca Smith responded that the Council was going to take up the opportunities afforded by the lifting of the borrowing cap to develop existing Council properties using our own land and if necessary purchasing land. 6000 properties in the old Taunton Deane Area were managed by the Council and the housing stock in West Somerset was controlled by Magna. Social Housing would be developed with a view to the whole area, depending on need. A clear steer had been given to the Officers to seeing more Social Housing being developed.
In relation to question 4, Councillor Mike Rigby responded that the thread of Climate Change was running through the manifesto. A review of the Local Plan had been instigated and this would encompass policy for the entire new district. Climate Change would be more centrally focused in the new Local Plan, and will take around two years to come into being. We had very ambitious plans for Carbon Neutrality that will feed into the planning policies being brought forward over the next two years.