Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Fellows proposed Councillor Austin for chair.

Councillor Green proposed, Councillor Packman seconded and when put to the vote Members agreed that Councillor Britcher be the Chair of the Boundaries and Electoral Arrangements Working Party.

Councillor Britcher in the chair.

Apologies were received from Councillor Kup, substituted by Councillor Fellows.

To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest advice attached to this Agenda. If a Member declares an interest, they should complete the Declaration of Interest Form

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

The chair introduced the item for discussion and asked Members to suggest ideas for carrying out the assignment given to the working party by the Overview and Scrutiny Panel. Members made the following comments:

• Although it had been initially agreed that this review would be conducted through a visit to different locations in the district followed by a meeting to put together findings and recommendation, there was no need for such a visit;
• Another Members said that it was however important to hold a meeting with appropriate council officers to gatherer evidence on the issues of focus for the review before the working party took a view on those matters;
• One Members suggested that as part of the research, the working party ought to read through the costal review working party report whose review was done in 2022, as this might inform some aspect of this investigation;

·  Members agreed that the review would focus on the negative impact of tourism in relation to the impact of the following subject matters:

·  AirBnBs on rent levels in the district;

·  Parking;

·  Street cleansing services (financial impact);

·  Anti-Social Behaviour;

·  Transport;

·  Noise;

·  Second Homes;

·  Toilets;

·  Employment.

• When looking at parking it was important to look at parking charges for visitors whilst protecting local residents;
• The working party could also look at second homes to ensure that the Council was raising enough revenue. Could the Council lobby on levy levels for second homes?

·  The review should investigate how the council ensured that AirBnBs were not using the Council’s waste collection services without playing for such services;

• There is also a need to find out about the financial impact of visitor expenditure on tourism in the district;
• The working party could look at how other councils handle these issues arising out of the negative impact of tourism;
• Due to the limited time for conducting this review, it was pertinent that Members research on all those issues before the next meeting;
• This would include contacting the Local Government Association (LGA) to find out if there had research work done on best practices by coastal councils;
• Having discussed the number of areas to review, Members requested that the review work be conducted over a two-day period instead of the original one;
• Members agreed that Members would conduct their desk top research in September before attending a meeting in September to compare notes on their findings;

• They would then draft the working party report in October, with the final report being produced in November 2023 or January 2024;

·  Members also agreed that they should complete their desk top research by 27 October 2023;

·  Members agreed that their next meeting be held online at 5.30pm on 12 September;

·  Senior Officers from Street Cleansing and Portfolio Holder for the service to be invited for the 12 September meeting;

·  That would be followed by an in person meeting at 5.30pm on 26 September (on the same day as the September panel meeting)

·  Senior Officers from Community Safety and the responsible Portfolio Holder to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.