Issue - meetings

The Cabinet may consider items of an urgent nature on functions falling within their responsibilities where special circumstances apply. Where the item relates to a key decision, the agreement of the Chairman of the Overview Select Committee must have been sought on both the subject of the decision and the reasons for the urgency. Such decisions shall not be subject to the call-in procedure as set out in the Scrutiny Procedure Rules at Part 6 of the Council’s Constitution.

Urgent Decision – Proposed Temporary Observation Wheel, Banjo Road, Littlehampton

            The Cabinet

                        RESOLVED

                        That the proposal of the Observation Wheel for temporary location at Banjo Road Car Park, Littlehampton from 22 July 2020 for an operating period of 28 days commencing from 24 July 2020 be endorsed.

Urgent Decision Two – Pavement Licensing

            The Cabinet

                        RESOLVED – That

(1)  The Pavement Licensing Policy be adopted;

(2)  The application fee be set at zero;

(3)  The authority given to the Leader of the Council in this instance be passed onto to the whole of Cabinet so that Cabinet has delegated authority to determine licence revocations proposed by Officers;

(4)   The authority given to the Leader of the Council in this instance is passed onto the whole of Cabinet and the Group Head of Technical Services, allowing the them to revoke pavement licences where the matter is considered urgent; and

(5)  The authority given to the Leader of the Council in this instance be passed onto the whole of Cabinet and the Group Head of Technical Services allowing the determination of applications, place conditions on licences and to serve enforcement notices.

(6)   

The Chairman confirmed that there were three urgent items that needed to be reported. 

The first related to the Residents’ Satisfactory Survey for 2020 and Councillor Dr Walsh confirmed that he felt that it was important to reveal some of the results that had been received.  He explained that a report would be submitted to the Overview Select Committee and Cabinet later in the year, but that he wanted to pass on the headlines in terms of what local residents thought about the area they lived in and the services received from the Council.

Councillor Dr Walsh reported three highlights from the survey as detailed below:

·         Overall satisfaction levels were high with 87% of residents saying that they were either very satisfied or satisfied with their local area, compared to 80% in 2019 and against a score of 81% for the Local Government Association (LGA) survey covering all Councils.

·         Satisfaction with the overall cleanliness of the district was high with 78% of residents either very satisfied or satisfied. Waste collection and recycling scored a satisfaction rate of 91%, against a figure of 85% for 2019.  This saw a significant improvement from previous results.

·         Satisfaction with the Council and its Services showed 77% of residents were either very satisfied or satisfied with the quality of service provided by Arun District Council, significantly up from 66% in 2019 and against the LGA survey with a figure of 70%.

Finally, Councillor Dr Walsh confirmed that whilst the survey also highlighted areas of concern, which would be reviewed by the Council in due course, he was delighted by the overall picture which showed very encouraging improvements over the last year.  He paid tribute to all Council staff who had helped to deliver these outstanding results and in particular, the Council’s refuse operatives who had continued to collect household waste throughout the Covid-19 pandemic so efficiently and with very few missed collections.

The Cabinet then noted the main features reported from the verbal updated provided.

Councillor Dr Walsh then alerted Cabinet to the next urgent matter which related to the Proposed Temporary Observation Wheel at Banjo Road, Littlehampton.

The Cabinet Member for Neighbourhood Services, Councillor Mrs Staniforth introduced this item and she explained that this report proposed that the Council endorsed the temporary location of an ‘observation wheel’ in Littlehampton at the Banjo Road car park in the area of the coach park which was currently underutilised. Councillor Mrs Staniforth outlined that this was an exciting opportunity for the Council as this would provide an enormous boost to the local economy and other tourism businesses that were struggling as a result of Covid-19.  Councillor Mrs Staniforth explained that this was an urgent report as a decision on whether to accept the observation wheel in this location had to be taken today, otherwise there was the threat that the operator would consider other suitable locations outside of the District.

The Group Head of Neighbourhood Services then presented the report and reinforced what Councillor Mrs Staniforth had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 88