To approve the Minutes of the Annual Council
meeting held on 10 May 2018, copy attached.
Minutes:
It was proposed by the Chairman, seconded by
the Vice-Chairman and agreed, that the minutes of the Annual
Council meeting held on 10 May 2018 be approved and signed by the
Chairman.
3.
Announcements
To receive any announcements from the
Chairman, Leader, Members of the Cabinet or Chief Executive in
accordance with Council Procedure Rule 2.2 (iv).
Minutes:
Members stood as a mark of respect as the
Chairman presented Councillor Falcon with the Past Chairman’s
Badge.
4.
Declarations of Interest
To receive
any declarations of interest from Members in accordance with
Council Procedure rule 2.2 (v)
Minutes:
There were no declarations of interest.
5.
Petitions
To receive petitions from
the public in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 12.
Ms Clarke was unavailable to present the
petition, however Members noted that the following petition,
containing 36 valid signatures, had been received:
“We the undersigned
petition the council to change the proposed charges for clinical
waste and sharps collections, as it discriminates against the sick
in the area and is unsafe for the area.”
In accordance with the council’s
Petition Scheme, the petition was referred to Cabinet without
debate for report back to the Council within three ordinary
meetings.
6.
Questions from the press and public
To receive questions received from the press
or public in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13.
Mr Norwood asked Councillor Taylor-Smith the
following question:
“Could you tell me why
the clinical waste collection has deteriorated? Collections that
used to take two weeks, now take three to six. The explanation I
was told, that it's due to an increased number of users, seems
barely credible.”
Councillor Taylor responded with the following
points:
There had been no general
deterioration of the overall clinical waste service however an
increase in demand for sharps box removal had led to some people
having to wait a little longer.
The sharps clinical waste collection
service had now fully caught up and were
taking bookings at one week in advance, which was back to the
normal service.
The Council now had over 4,000
registered customers who regularly used the clinical waste
collection service and were committed to maintaining customer
satisfaction for this important service.
If uptake of the service rose again,
the council had the flexibility to add an extra collection day to
meet the demand.
More information would be available
following the completion of a benchmarking exercise of the
service.
Mr Wraight asked the Leader the following
question:
“Please can you outline the potential risk to Thanet tax payers
if the local plan is found unsound?”
The Leader responded with the following
points:
A significant delay could result in
further intervention by the Minister. The cost of any
external work resulting from intervention would have to be borne by
the council.
If there was no intervention, there
would still be significant cost to the council in reviewing and
updating the evidence base. This could quite easily cost
several tens of thousands of pounds.
Without an adopted Local Plan, there
was a significant risk that the council could not demonstrate a
5-year housing land supply. If this occurred, the council would
lose the ability to refuse housing applications in undesirable
locations, or could face an increased risk of losing planning
appeals and consequently a greater risk of costs being granted
against the council.
It was likely that the Council would
have to plan for the higher number of homes expected under the
Government’s new housing need methodology;
With the loss of control over new
development, there was a greater risk that development would take
place on a more unplanned basis and without the provision of key
infrastructure to support the developments, such as roads, schools
and health facilities.
New policies relating to Local Green
Space, energy and water efficiency, and internal space standards
could not be applied.
7.
Questions from Members of the Council
To receive questions from Members of the
Council in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 14.
Councillor Constantine asked Councillor Game
the following question:
“Can Councillor Game tell me how the Conservative administration are planning to manage our current
housing crisis? How many families with children are impacted by the
need to move into temporary accommodation? What are you planning to
do to curb and manage the costs associated with providing temporary
accommodation?”
Councillor Game responded with the following
points:
Homelessness was a national crisis.
The Local Government Association had reported that there were
120,540 children living in temporary accommodation with their
families that had been provided by local authorities. This
represented a 37% increase since 2014. This crisis was driven by a
severe shortage of affordable homes to rent and the increased cost
of the private rented sector.
The council currently (as at Monday
9 July 2018) had 168 households placed in temporary accommodation.
Of this number, 71 households were families with children, all of
whom had self contained accommodation,
including 11 families in council owned flats or houses. There were
currently no families with children in temporary hotel
accommodation.
Overall the council’s use of
hotel accommodation had significantly reduced since January 2018,
from 51 households at the start of the year to 26 households by 30
June 2018.
The council continued to invest in
building new homes, and would invest £30,000,000 to deliver
150 new homes by 2020. It was expected that 20 new homes
would be completed, and work commence on a further 49 homes, in the
current financial year.
The council had set aside
£1,600,000 for new temporary accommodation to help reduce the
overall cost of homelessness to the council, and were currently
looking for a suitable site for this development.
Since the implementation of the new
Homelessness Reduction Act on 3 April 2018 the council had
supported 187 households with personal housing plans, and
successfully prevented 92 households from becoming homeless in the
first place. The council had strengthened the housing options team
to provide these services and improve the effectiveness of
homelessness prevention.
The council had launched a new
incentive scheme to encourage private sector landlords to make
homes available for households in need. Since April the council had
provided financial assistance to 42 households to help them access
private sector homes.
The work that had been completed to
prevent homelessness, construct new homes and support people living
in temporary accommodation had improved the outcomes for homeless
people and reduced the costs of homelessness for the council.
Councillor Constantine followed up her
question by asking if the Local Plan should be revisited to reflect
the urgent need for social homes, of which Stone Hill Park have
promised more than 400, as the key imperative?
Councillor Game responded that the Local Plan
was still being worked upon. She wished extended an invite to
Councillor Constantine to meet with the Head of Housing and the
Housing Options Manager to discuss what could be done to reduce
homelessness.
8.
Notice of Motion
To receive any Notices of Motion from Members
of Council in accordance with the Council Procedure Rule 3.
Minutes:
It was noted that no motions on notice had
been received in accordance with council procedure rule 3.
To receive a report from
the Leader of the Council in accordance with Council Procedure Rule
2.4.
Minutes:
During his report the Leader covered the
following areas:
The council’s enforcement
clamp down had continued with 1071 fixed penalty notices issued in
six months up to May for littering, spitting and dog fouling
offenses. There had also been three successful prosecutions
for fly-tipping in the past two months.
A new anti-litter campaign would soon be launched.
The council had successfully
prosecuted six rogue landlords resulting in over £23,000 of
fines.
In June the council targeted alcohol
related anti-social behaviour, raising awareness of the Alcohol
Control Public Space Protection Order.
State of the art CCTV control room
had now opened with a network of high definition cameras.
A programme of investment in smart
bins was underway. They had the ability to alert the Council
when they were nearly full and were hoped to help address issues
connected to overflowing bins.
The Fort Road Hotel had been sold at
auction for £360,000.
Cabinet approved the transfer of
Birchington Memorial Ground and land at Alpha Road to Birchington
Parish Council, and the transfer of the Old Look Out at Broadstairs
into community management.
The District had seen a 19% increase
in the visitor economy.
The Winter Shelter statistics had
been published in May following its second successful year.
Thanks were offered to the 107 volunteers who had donated
4560 hours to the project.
The government wished to have no
rough sleepers by 2027 and had initially made £30,000,000 of
funding available. The council successfully obtained
£367,000 of this funding.
The housing team recently achieved
‘Highly Commended’ for two of the shortlisted entries
at the National Municipal Journal awards.
Kent as a whole has seen a rise in
traveller incursions over the last 12 months. The Council was
looking at solutions to make unauthorised access on to land at
Jackey Bakers more difficult.
The new council website had been
launched on 30 April. Since then it had received 82,000
visits and feedback had been positive. The Society of
Information Technology Management had listed it as one of their
recommended websites for best practice.
The Thames Estuary 2050 Growth
Commission had launched it conclusions
in the 2050 Vision, the council was considering the detailed
report.
The 2019 Turner Prize would be
hosted by the Turner Contemporary. This would further raise
Margate’s profile nationally and internationally.
Democratic Services were holding
public sessions to encourage more candidates to stand as
Councillors. The sessions would explain the role of a
councillor and the support they would receive.
Councillor L Fairbrass as Deputy Leader of the
Independent and UKIP Group made the following points:
The Leader did not mention the Local
Plan in his report. When presenting the options for Council
on 19 July the Leader must give due consideration to the legal and
expert advice available to him. Failure to do this could lead
to the loss of the relative financial stability
achieved by the council over the last
few years and would be symptomatic of the type of decision making
made when the council was labelled ... view
the full minutes text for item 9.
The Leader proposed, Councillor L Fairbrass
seconded and Members agreed option one as detailed at paragraph
2.5.1 of the report, namely;
“That the Thanet
Independent Councillors Group lose a seat on the Planning Committee
and the UKIP and Independent Group gain that seat. That the Thanet
Independent Councillors Group also lose a seat on the Licensing
Board and that seat is given to the Conservative
group.”
NOMINATION OF
MEMBERS TO SERVE ON COMMITTEES
Group leaders advised of the following changes
to sit on committees: as summarised in the table below.
Committee/Group
Current Position
New
Position
Change to Nominations
Planning Committee
TIC Group
4 seats
3 seats (remove
nominee)
Cllr Shonk
removed
UKIP & Ind.
Group
3 seats
4 seats (new nominee
needed)
1 seat TBC
Planning Committee Sub
Conservative
5 vacant seats
5 vacant seats
Cllr M Saunders
added
Cllr Bambridge added
Cllr Dexter
added
Cllr Taylor-Smith
added
1 seat TBC
UKIP & Ind.
Group
3 seats
4 seats (new nominee
needed)
Cllr
Crow-Brown removed
Cllr
Stummer-Schmertzing added
1
seat TBC
Licensing Board
TIC Group
4 seats
3 seats (remove
nominee)
Cllr Brimm
removed
Conservative
Group
5 seats
6 seats (new nominee
needed)
Cllr Bambridge added
BEAWP
TIC Group
Cllr Brimm
New nominee
needed
1 seat
TBC
Joint
Transportation Board
Conservative
Group
n/a
n/a
Cllr Parsons
removed
Cllr M Saunders
added
Standards Committee
UKIP & Ind.
Group
n/a
n/a
Cllr L Fairbrass
removed
Cllr Townend
added
Councillor Rev. Piper advised Members that
Councillor Edwards would be the Opposition spokesperson for
Operational Service for the Thanet Independent Councillors.
It was proposed by the
Chairman, seconded by the Vice-Chairman and Members agreed the
amendments to the calendar of meetings for the remainder of 2018/19
as set out at Annex 1 to the report.
It was proposed by the Leader, seconded by
Councillor Savage and Members agreed the Thanet District Council
Members’ Allowances Scheme 2018/19 be approved.
Subject to the addition of Councillor
Constantine as the council’s nominee to the Thanet Volunteer
Bureau, and the Youth Advisory Group; it was proposed by Councillor
Bayford, seconded by Councillor Savage and Members agreed the
nominations to the non-executive outside bodies as shown in the
report.
It was proposed by the Chairman, seconded by
the Vice-Chairman and Members agreed the recommendation as shown in
the report, namely:
“The council censures
Councillor Brimm for her behaviour in posting the private home
telephone number of a council officer on Facebook, which resulted
in Cllr Brimm breaching the following provisions of the Code of
Conduct:
(a) Attempting to intimidate an
officer (who was party to an existing Code of Conduct complaint
against Councillor Brimm)
(b) Attempting to bully an
officer
(c) Disclosing information
which was of a confidential nature