Agenda

Members and officers are invited to make any declarations of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on the agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the item or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

Members and officers should make their declaration by stating:

a) the item they have the interest in

b) whether it is a pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interest

c) the nature of the interest

d) if it is a pecuniary or prejudicial interest, whether they will be exercising their right to speak under Question Time

a) Questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes).

b) Questions from Members with prejudicial interests (for a period of up to 15 minutes).

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.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 22 March 2021 (as attached).

To consider any reports from the Head of Corporate Support.

In accordance with the provisions of the Officer Scheme of Delegation in the Council’s Constitution, this report provides an update to Cabinet on the decisions taken by the Chief Executive to incur expenditure or take urgent action to continue the Covid-19 Hardship Fund for claimants of the Local Council Tax Support Scheme (LCTS) for 2021/22

The report provides an update on the Contained Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) grant allocations.  The grants are ring fenced and must be spent on public health outcomes.   

To receive the minutes from the Housing & Customer Services Working Group meeting held on 16 March 2021, which are attached.

There are recommendations for Cabinet to consider at:

·         Minute 26 [Repairs Handbook] – to view the Officer’s report, please click on this link Report and Appendix

·         Minute 27 [Income Recovery Policy] - to view the Officer’s report and the Policy – please click on these links - Report and Appendix

·         Minute 28 [Anti-Social Behaviour Policy] – to view the Officer’s report and the Policy – please click on these links - Report and Policy

·         Minute 29 [Decant Policy] – to view the Officer’s report and the Policy – please click on these links - Report and Policy

Planning permission was refused for application P/58/19/PL. The decision was taken by the Development Control Committee (DCC) and was contrary to the advice of Officers from Arun District Council, West Sussex County Council (as Highway Authority) and the Council’s appointed Highways Consultant. In deciding the subsequent appeal, the Inspector has concluded that the Council acted unreasonably in refusing planning permission and has awarded costs against the Council.

This award follows an award of costs for BE/69/19/OUT, Y/103/18/PL & EP/148/20/PL; all of which were refused planning permission contrary to the advice of Officers. Costs of £11,400 were paid from the Department budget for BE/69/19/OUT and a Supplementary Estimate of £33,000 was agreed at Cabinet on 11 January 2021 for Y/103/18/PL & EP/148/20/PL.

A further Supplementary Estimate is now sought to pay these further costs as the Department budget is unable to accommodate these significant additional payments.

The Council continues to support Parish Councils preparing Neighbourhood Development Plans (NDP) and NDP reviews following adoption of the Arun Local Plan 2018 in order to help deliver the housing requirement for the Local Plan period 2011-2031.

On 19 June 2017, Cabinet resolved granting funding of up to £5,000 per Neighbourhood Plan Group (NPG) (up to £105k in total for all Parishes within ADC LPA) for any Parish that is updating its Plan or creating a new Plan and will have reached a stage within 3 years (post Local Plan adoption) where a Plan is proposing an appropriate scale of housing development. 

This report proposes to continue the provision of this grant.  In order to assist Parish Council’s and those groups who intend to produce new or modified Plans as a result of the Council’s decision to update the Local Plan and consequent abandonment of the Non-Strategic Sites Development Plan Document,  Arun District Council will provide grant funding of up to £5,000 per parish for any town/parish that is updating their Plan and which will commence within 3 years (of this meeting date i.e. 17 May 2021) where a Plan is proposing an appropriate scale of housing development.

Arun District Council receives funding from central government to support the preparation of Neighbourhood Plans and there is sufficient funding within this budget to be able to provide additional funding (over and above further government grants that are available) to support new or updated Neighbourhood Development Plans.

The successful delivery of the West Bank strategic allocation in the Local Plan requires a complex set of interactions in order to deliver the required homes, other uses and infrastructure.  The ability to achieve this is also governed by viability considerations.  The landowners have sought to take this project forward as a single entity through the use of development promoters.  However, this has not been possible, largely on viability grounds.  Therefore, this report seeks to promote an alternative approach where the Council will take the lead for preparing a Supplementary Planning Document to agree a comprehensive masterplan for a development to be delivered in phases where each phased works both in its own right but also contributes to the delivery of the overall masterplan.  To improve the chances of a successful delivery of this development, this work will also consider whether further development along the western bank of the river to the south of the allocation should be supported along with works between the allocation site and Clymping Beach to aid coastal defence.

The report provides a background to Discretionary Grant Funding and proposes spending on projects to provide wider business support.

This report seeks approval of the Heads of Terms for the Place St Maur construction contract procurement process.

This report updates Cabinet on the Council’s response to the pandemic situation.

To receive and note the minutes from the meetings of the Levelling-Up Fund Working Party held on 1 and 21 April 2021, which are attached.

This report details expenditure in relation to Government Grants and Funding received in respect of tackling and preventing homelessness and rough sleeping.

This report seeks approval to assign a commuted sum payment to Angmering Community Land Trust to enable the development of 12 x affordable homes in Angmering.

This report, which will be circulated separately to the agenda, seeks approval from Cabinet for the internal appointment of Carolin Martlew to the interim post of Group Head of Corporate Support and Section 151 Officer following the resignation of Alan Peach.

To receive the Minutes from the meeting of the Overview Select Committee held on 23 March 2021, which are attached.

There is a recommendation for Cabinet to consider at Minute 448 [Equalities and Diversity] – to view the Officer’s report – please click on this link - Report

The Council uses Microsoft products to provide services to the desktop and also for its back-office databases/servers. The products are licenced on a three-year agreement and the current agreement expires at the end of June 2021.

We are looking to procure the next three-year licence through an EU compliant framework. The value of the contract is above the EU threshold and requires Cabinet approval at the pre-award stage.