Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Council Offices, Cecil Street, Margate, Kent. View directions

Contact: Charles Hungwe 

Items
No. Item

532.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Ashbee.

533.

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.

534.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 59 KB

To approve the summary of recommendations and decisions of the Cabinet meeting held on 18 October 2018, copy attached.

Minutes:

Councillor Savage proposed, Councillor Game seconded and Members agreed the minutes as a correct record of the meeting that was held on 18 October 2018.

535.

Housing Acquisition Programme pdf icon PDF 114 KB

Minutes:

Cabinet was advised that new homes were urgently needed to assist households on the Council’s housing list and those who were homeless and living in temporary accommodation. As at October 2018, there were 135 households living in temporary accommodation.

 

It was indicated that the housing contributions of £727,600 to be used for the acquisition programme were secured by the Council as part of the conditions attached to the 2004 permission of the Royal Sands Development, which was received in 2017. The condition required that the contributions would be allocated for affordable housing in the local area.

 

Over the past seven years an average 73 new affordable homes were provided each year by the council and its housing association partners. The Strategic Housing Market Assessment completed in 2016 identified a need for 397 affordable homes per year. The housing contribution highlighted above would make significant contributions towards that target,

 

Councillor Campbell spoke under Council Procedure Rule 20.1.

 

Councillor Game proposed, Councillor Savage seconded and Cabinet agreed:

 

1.  To the principles set out in this report for a further acquisition programme of between 3 and 4 homes;

 

2.  To allocate £727,600 of Housing Contributions to fund the programme;

 

3.  To delegate authority to the Head of Housing & Planning services, to complete the acquisition of new homes within the programme.

536.

2019-20 Fees and Charges pdf icon PDF 111 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet discussed proposals for fees and charges for 2019/20.The proposed overall increase was about 2% and would generate an additional £189,000 to help reduce the 2019/20 budget gap.

 

Members acknowledged that although Cabinet had to make the difficult decision of putting forward an increase in charges, it was important to note that a number of charges in the proposals had been reduced.

 

Following feedback from residents, parking hourly rates in Joss Bay, Chandos Square, Minnis Bay and St Mildred’s Bay have been reduced. Charges for domestic clinical waste collection had been completely removed from the list and many other fees remain unchanged from last year.

 

Cabinet noted that the fees and charges proposals for 2019/20 were going to be considered by the Finance Scrutiny Panel on 20 November, before they were presented to Full Council in December.

 

Councillor Campbell and Councillor Jaye-Jones spoke under Council Procedure Rule 20.1.

 

Councillor Gregory proposed, Councillor Savage seconded and Cabinet agreed:

 

1.  The proposed fees and charges as listed in Annex 1;

 

2.  To recommend the proposed fees and charges to Full Council for final decision.