Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Driver, substituted by Councillor King.

To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the extract from the Standard Board Code of Conduct for Members, which forms part of the Declaration of Interest Form at the back of this Agenda. If a Member declares an interest, they should complete that Form and hand it to the Officer clerking the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest received at this meeting.

To approve the Minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 22 October 2013, copy attached.

Councillor Campbell proposed, Councillor Hornus seconded and Members agreed the minutes.

Presentation by Councillor D. Green on the following topic:

"Provide a commentary on the implementation of TDC Housing Strategy for Thanet - to include the successes and challenges."

Councillor D. Green, Cabinet member for Housing & Planning Services gave the presentation on the current housing strategy and state of housing in Thanet. He said that Thanet District Council was aiming at providing good quality housing for Thanet residents. New housing would be provided in the context of the current housing strategy and the Local Plan which was being updated. Council was likely to approve the development of about 11,500 new houses over the duration of the Local Plan. The Housing Strategy would be developed later this year, in order to back up the new Local Plan.

The housing register was being revised. Currently there were 637 people in the register who could be said to be in need of housing. There was a backlog in processing the applications. This means that the figure may rise once the exercise to process all the applications has been completed; perhaps above 1,000. Councillor D. Green said that there were a number of approaches being used by Council to improve the housing situation in Thanet. These included the following:

1.  Margate Housing Intervention Project;

2.  Homes & Community Agency’s Empty Properties Project (Ramsgate);

3.  Selective Licensing.

Selective Licensing was meant to help control the quality of housing in the district. However at the early stages of implementation of the programme, Council encountered legal challenges, which delayed the start of the programme. Another officer had recently been employed to join the legal team to support the Selective Licensing Programme. The Council had reached decent homes standards on 99.7% of the housing stock.

East Kent Housing (EK Housing) was performing very well as regards managing void times. Customer satisfaction with EK Housing is improving. Council would continue to monitor the performance of East Kent Housing. The Council was learning good practices from other East Kent partners. He was however concerned with performance of the capital works especially the Disability Facilities Grants projects. Rent arrears were rising and they were £17,000 higher than last year’s.

Councillor Green reported that EK Housing had requested TDC to help upgrade the IT System. It was hoped that this would improve efficiency levels. EK Housing was also requesting Council to renew the contract with MEARS. Councillor Green reported that in 2012-13 Council had made a number of achievements that included the following:

1.  Development of 39 new homes by Orbit;

2.  184 empty units had been brought back into use as family units through the Cliftonville Intervention Project;

3.  The old Embassy Hotel has been renovated and 2x4 bedroom houses had been let to households on the Housing Register.

There was an intention to make better use of the Housing Revenue Account Assets. To this end, a garage audit had been carried out which reflected a 50% vacancy rate. Plans were currently being worked out to deliver 50 new homes on these garage sites. Council was proposing a capital programme for new build in 2014-18 amounting to £3.4million. The Housing Revenue Account financial plan was going to be re-worked in 2014/15  ...  view the full minutes text for item 371.

Cllr Poole, Deputy Leader & Cabinet Member Operational Services to be in attendance in order to respond to questions/queries from Members regarding the 2014/15 Parking Fees and Charges.

Councillor Poole, Cabinet Member for Operational Services led the discussion with a brief introduction of the subject. He said that Council had simplified the car parking charging regime and had also introduced free parking on Saturdays to support businesses in ailing town centres.

Members of the Panel asked whether the charging structure compared with similarly sized local councils to which Robin Chantrill-Smith; Civil Enforcement Manager said that Council charging compared favourably with Dover District Council and Canterbury City Council. Some Members queried the budget figures in the Council budget reports to be considered by Cabinet on 21 January 2014. They queried why the report highlighted a fall in income from car parking fees & charges of £99,000 yet an overall increase in fees & charges of £141,000 if reflected in the proposed budget for 2014/15. Officers agreed to clarify the issue with Financial Services and then advise Members accordingly.

Members wanted to know if there were any more areas that could be considered for parking facilities with pay meters. In response Councillor Poole indicated that there were such areas that might be suitable, but that a decision was made not to increase the number of areas with parking meters. Members asked whether the adoption of on-season and off-season for on-street parking was to increase revenue. In response, Mr Robin Chantrill-Smith said that whilst this approach would increase revenue, the objective of adopting the policy was to increase off street parking.

The report was noted.

Councillor D. Green introduced the item. He said that the Excellent Homes For All was a good project and a good news story for the district. There were risks associated with the project. However most of the risks would be borne by Kent County Council. The project was nearing completion.

Some Members of the Panel reported that they had been on a site visit to one of the projects and were impressed by the high quality of the development works done to the properties. Such projects offered good quality life style for residents as it offers them an opportunity to engage in social activities and encouraged independent living.

Councillor Nicholson proposed, Councillor Harrison seconded and Members agreed to recommend to Cabinet the following:

1.  To continue to participate in partnership with Kent County Council and the district and borough partners in the Excellent Homes for All Private Finance Initiative Project;

2.  To approve delegated authority to Corporate and Regulatory Services Manager in consultation with the Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Housing and to sign the Back to Back Agreement to share the benefits and risks of the project with Kent County Council and our District Council partners.

Councillor Harrison proposed, Councillor M. Tomlinson seconded and Members agreed to defer the item until the Panel meeting on 11 March 2014 in order to enable all TDC Members to forward their views on the subject to their respective Political Groups. The Groups would then forward the views to the Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel through Democratic Services.

Councillor Gideon, Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel advised Members that she met Mrs Betty Renz and Councillor Johnston to discuss the issues in the petition. Some Members said that if the Panel were to agree on setting up a task & finish group, then it was important to make sure that the terms of reference for that sub-group should reflect the issues of concern raised by the public in the petition received by Council. They said that the sub-group could focus only on issues relating to QEQM Hospital’s Accidents & Emergencies services.

Members asked if Council officers checked to verify the identity of the petitioners to ensure that they were Thanet residents. Mr Harvey Patterson, Corporate & Regulatory Services Manager said that the Council’s Constitution did not currently require the addresses to be checked and there were no resources to undertake a comprehensive verification. Rather officers conduct a cursory check for obvious non compliant submissions such as missing signatures. This cursory validation helps determine the size of the petition and how the petition should be progressed.

Councillor Nicholson proposed, Councillor Campbell seconded and Members agreed to establish a QEQM Hospital Accidents & Emergencies Review Task & Finish Group.

Councillor Hornus proposed, Councillor Campbell seconded and Members agreed the following membership:

3 Labour;

3 Conservative;

1 Independent

Members generally agreed that Councillor Gideon and Councillor Harrison will draft the terms of reference that will focus on addressing the questions from Mrs Betty Renz, the petitioner.

All Chairmen of Task & Finish Groups/Working Parties to present progress update report on their Sub-Group review activities.

Responding to a query from Members, Mr Patterson said that he would produce a report summarising the external legal advice received by Council regarding the Pleasurama Site Development Agreement. Members with an established need to know would be able to read the full text of the advice on appointment, but will not be allowed to take notes as this is still confidential advice.

Members noted the report.

Councillor Watkins proposed, Councillor Gideon seconded and Members agreed to add the following to the TDC Artefacts Management Review TFG terms of reference:

1.  To review possibility for improving linkages between signage in Margate (Old Margate Town) and the Margate Museum.

The Panel agreed that Councillor Matterface as the new Member to the Overview & Scrutiny Panel replaces Councillor Gibson on all the Panel sub-group activities.

The report was noted.