Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Collins, Connor, Constantine, Elenor, Game, Martin, Smith and Townend.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of Council held on 4 February 2016.

It was proposed by the Chairman, seconded by the Vice-Chairman and agreed, that the minutes of the Council meeting held on 4 February 2016 be approved and signed by the Chairman.

There were no announcements.

Councillor Day declared a significant interest in agenda item 5.a, Petition – Live Animal Exports.

Councillor K Gregory declared a significant interest in agenda item 5.a, Petition – Live Animal Exports.

Councillor Day and Councillor K Gregory left the meeting as they had declared an interest in this agenda item.

Mr Bell presented a petition containing 1440 valid signatures as follows:

“We the undersigned, petition the Council to:

1.  Reaffirm their opposition to the live export of animals for slaughter.

2.  Lobby Parliament and Thanet MP’s to introduce an amendment to the 1847 Piers and Harbour Clauses Act so that Ports can legally refuse live export trade.

3.  Designate a TDC Cabinet Member to be a permanent point of contact between the Council and Thanet Against Live Animal Exports.”

Mr Howes, Director of Corporate Governance and Monitoring Officer, provided clarification regarding the recommendation in the report.

Members debated the petition.

It was proposed by Councillor Stummer-Schmertzing, seconded by Councillor Potts and Members agreed the recommendation as shown in paragraph 4.1 of the report, namely:

‘That the Council take no action on the petition.’

The Chairman called for a short adjournment.

Councillor K Gregory returned to the meeting at the end of the item.

As Councillor Townend was unavailable for this meeting, Mr Kirkpatrick asked Councillor L Fairbrass the following question:

“Last July Cllr. Townend expected a report to Cabinet by this January regarding the future of the museum. A £50,000 bequest has not been accepted by Council six years after first offered to a previous Leisure Officer and others since, including the previous Leader. Why no action on both items?”

Councillor Fairbrass responded with the following points:

-  The Council had been required to seek expert legal advice to understand the Council’s status in respect of the bequest.

-  The Council had received and considered this legal advice and options on how to proceed would form a paper for Cabinet in due course.

It was noted that no questions had been received from Members of the Council in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 14.

It was noted that no notices of motion had been received from Members of Council in accordance with the Council Procedure Rule 16.

During his report the Leader covered the following areas:

-  The reasoning behind the proposed adjustment to the council tax increase;

-  Welcoming to the peer review team;

-  Activity at Ramsgate Port which had seen the arrival of two car ferries in the previous week. The area allocated for the pits at the Sprint Revival event on the port site had become unavailable and thanks were offered to everyone involved in successfully establishing an alternative location. 

-  Youth Cliftonville project’s ‘Find a Solution’ DVD was a finalist in the national youth crime beat awards. They were invited to show their DVD at the next Council meeting on 31 March;

-  TDC collaborated with East Kent Collage to organise a Thanet jobs fair in spring;

-  The second round of Manston airport soft market testing had closed with three parties confirming their interest;

-  Thanks offered to Mayor of Broadstairs Rosalind Binks, and Councillor Campbell who had encouraged links with enthusiastic residents in Broadstairs and Ramsgate.  The residents wished to volunteer to improve Broadstairs and Ramsgate sea fronts.

Councillor Bayford as Leader of the Conservative Party responded with the following points:

-  The Conservative group would not have increased council tax;

-  He hoped that the peer review members would see the significant improvements had been made;

-  What level of business could be expected from the car ferries at Ramsgate Port, and were long term options being considered for the site?

-  An offer of congratulations to those involved in the success at the Quarter Deck, Cliftonville, and the jobs fair in spring was good news;

-  It was positive that there was interest in the Manston site, however the longer the site remained shut; the harder it would be to reopen.  Would the Development Consent Order (DCO) application submitted by RiverOak impact on the chance of achieving a successful Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO)?

The Leader replied to Councillor Bayford’s comments with the following points:

-  The change to the increase in council tax amounted to 81p per year for a band D property;

-  The Leader would discuss the prospects for the Port with the group leaders at their next group leader meeting;

-  A DCO application would not have any impact on a CPO in the near future.

As Councillor Collins was unavailable, Councillor Ashbee responded with the following for the Democratic Independence Group:

-  That she had no further comments to make as Councillor Bayford had covered the relevant issues.

Councillor Johnston as leader of the Labour Party made the following points:

-  The Council needed a peer review, and there had been significant improvements;

-  It was good to hear about activity at the Port.  Invest Thanet should continue to work to encourage inward investment into the community;

-  Congratulations were offered to those involved in the Quarterdeck, it had a large role to play in bridging gaps within the community;

-  Good to hear that the Manston Airport soft market testing had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Councillor D Saunders, the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel, presented his report and the following points were noted:

-  Thanks were offered to Councillor Brimm, Cabinet Member for Operational Services, for her report on the vision for the future of parks, gardens and playgrounds.

-  There were currently two active subgroups; the Community Safety Partnership which met on the 1^st February, and the Corporate Review Working Party which met on the 8^th February.

-  The QEQM Hospital Cabinet Advisory Group had not yet met, and the Overview and Scrutiny Panel continued to maintain a watching brief pending developments from the East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust.

-  The Chairman had requested an update regarding the application for heritage lottery funding for a professional archivist to assist with the recording and collating of TDC artefacts.

-  Funding had been set aside for a skate park in Hartsdown Park and the project would be progressed in due course and in coordination with Margate Football Club.

It was proposed by Councillor L Fairbrass, seconded by Councillor Wells, and Members agreed the recommendations as shown in paragraph 11.1 of the report, namely:

“That Council approves the report and the prudential and treasury indicators that are shown”

It was noted that in accordance with council procedure rule 21.6, a recorded vote would be taken on the motion or any amendments and substantive motions.

It was proposed by Councillor L Fairbrass and seconded by the Leader, that the recommendations as set out at paragraph 5 of the report be adopted, namely:

“5.1  That members approve the decision notice of the Deputy Leader to increase the Council’s net budget requirement from £19.086m to £19.119m.

5.2  That Members approve the calculations at paragraph 1 of this report.

5.3  That Members approve the Council Tax annual charges as set out below for the listed property bands:

30 Members voted in favour the motion: Councillors Ashbee, Braidwood, Brimm, Buckley, Campbell, G. Coleman-Cooke, Crow-Brown, Dellar, Dennis, Dixon, Edwards, Evans, J. Fairbrass, L. Fairbrass, Falcon, Fenner, Grove, Hillman, Howes, Jaye-Jones, Johnston, Larkins, Leys, Matterface, Piper, Potts, Shonk, Stummer-Schmertzing, Taylor, and Wells.

0 Members voted against the motion.

17 Members abstained from voting on the motion: Councillors, Bambridge, Bayford, K. Coleman-Cooke, Curran, Dawson, Dexter, I. Gregory, K. Gregory, Hayton, Parsons, Partington, Rogers, D. Saunders, M. Saunders, Savage, Taylor-Smith and Tomlinson.

The motion was carried.

Dr Sexton, Chairman of the Standards Committee gave an introduction to the report.

It was proposed by the Chairman, and seconded by the Vice Chairman that Members agreed the recommendation as shown in paragraph 13.1 of the report, namely:

“The Council consider the revised parts of the Council’s Constitution and adopt them subject to the following amendments:”

-  That the following wording be added to the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules shown at Annex 5, section 15.0, Call-in procedure, just before paragraph (f);

‘The Overview and Scrutiny Panel may instead of exercising the function of call-in itself, arrange for the function to be exercised by full council.’

The subsequent paragraph numbering after this additional wording was to be adjusted accordingly.

-  A correction was to be made to the officer titles detailed in Annex 1, Article 12, paragraph 12.01(c).

It was proposed by the Chairman, seconded by the Vice-Chairman and Members agreed the recommendation as shown at paragraph 5.1 of the report, namely:

“That Council agrees the proposed calendar of meetings for 2016/17 as set out at Annex 1 to the report.”