Agenda and minutes

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Contact: charles hungwe 

Items
No. Item

264.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies received at the meeting.

265.

Declarations of Interest

To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest form attached 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 and then take the prescribed course of action.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

266.

Minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 78 KB

To approve the summary of recommendations and decisions of the Cabinet meeting held on 02 April 2015, copy attached.

Minutes:

The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 2 April 2015 were agreed as a correct record.

267.

Corporate Performance Report for April 2014 - March 2015 pdf icon PDF 140 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet received an update on key projects across the four focus areas and secondly performance on key areas of the business including an update on the progress made since the peer review, shared services and customer response data. The indicators with regard to projects showed the Council was delivering well on the majority of projects and although five were currently behind target an update was included in the annex to the report with remedial actions.

 

East Kent Housing had progressed well against all their targets for the year and in the future would be providing increased monitoring against disabled adaptations to properties under their management. The time taken to process Housing and Council benefit claims by the Shared Service arrangements had fallen since last year whilst accuracy had increased. The collection rates on council tax and business rates were above target.

 

The Council had fallen below target with regards to the response time for Freedom of Information requests. However Members were advised that such requests had increased dramatically since 2012. The number of complaints recorded had fallen since 2013/14. A range of new approaches would be introduced for street cleansing and waste & recycling in order to improve the customer satisfaction.

 

The meeting was told that new litter and dog fouling patrol officers had been introduced and they would issue £80 fines for anyone dropping litter or not picking up after their dogs. Mechanical sweepers would be purchased across the district along with a new dog mess removal machine. An Environmental Education Officer would be appointed to provide advice and support in schools and communities for residents. Council’s performance against most targets had been met for the period under consideration.

 

Councillor I. Gregory and Councillor Bayford spoke under Council Procedure Rule 24.1.

 

Councillor Townend proposed, Councillor Stummer-Schmertzing seconded and Members agreed to note the report.

268.

Proposed Neighbourhood Plan Area for Ramsgate pdf icon PDF 172 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Under the Localism Act 2011, local communities can produce Neighbourhood Plans, setting out policies on the development and use of land in their area. If Thanet Council adopted a neighbourhood plan; such a plan would have the same significance as other Development Plan documents for the District.

 

Ramsgate Town Council submitted its neighbourhood plan area application and the application met all of the legal requirements. Thanet District Council consulted on the application for six weeks from 13 October 2014 to 21 November 2014. It was reported that the comments that were received during that process largely supportive.

 

Ramsgate Town Council held consultation events with the community and before submitting this application. Cabinet acknowledged the hard work that had been put into the consultation process by the town council. Members felt encouraged by the level of community involvement in this process of producing of the neighbourhood plan that was meant to make the local areas better.

 

Councillor Lin Fairbrass proposed, Councillor Smith seconded and Cabinet agreed that the proposed Ramsgate Neighbourhood Plan Area as shown at Annex 2 (of the report) be designated.

269.

Proposed Neighbourhood Plan Area for Broadstairs and St Peters pdf icon PDF 173 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Like any other town or parish council under the Localism Act 2011; Broadstairs & St Peter’sTown Council was also permitted to take a leading role in producing a Neighbourhood Plan for their local area and submit a plan application to Thanet District Council.

 

The Town Council submitted a neighbourhood plan application which met all of the legal requirements. Thanet District Council consulted on the application for six weeks from 12 November 2014 to 24 December 2014. The comments received from the public were largely supportive.

 

Councillor Bayford spoke under Council Procedure Rule 24.1.

 

Councillor Lin Fairbrass proposed, Councillor Stummer-Schmertzing seconded and Cabinet agreed that the Broadstairs & St Peters Neighbourhood Plan Area be designated as shown at Annex 2 to the Cabinet report.

270.

Representation on Executive Appointed Outside Bodies for 2015/16 pdf icon PDF 129 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Wells, Leader of Council introduced the report with the list of his nominations for members who would represent Thanet District Council on various executive appointed outside bodies that were highlighted in Annex 1 to the Cabinet report. The meeting noted that the Local Government Association (Rural Commission) outside body was no longer in existence and would be removed from the list of outside bodies.

 

Councillor K. Gregory spoke under Council Procedure Rule 24.1.

 

The Leader of Council indicated that he was willing to look into the suggestion by Councillor K Gregory that Thanet District Council applied for fee paying membership to the Rural Services Network.

 

Councillor Wells proposed, Councillor Lin Fairbrass seconded and Cabinet agreed the list of nominations to the Executive-related outside bodies as shown at Annex 1 of the report, subject to the amendment that the Local Government Association (Rural Commission) should be excluded from the list as it is no longer in existence.