Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting - Link to the meeting to be provided 24 hours in advance

Contact: Jane Fulton (Ext 37611) 

Media

Items
No. Item

53.

Welcome

Minutes:

            The Chairman welcomed Councillors, Officers and members of the public to what was the third virtual meeting of Cabinet.  He provided a brief summary of how the meeting would be conducted and the protocol that would be followed and how any break in the proceedings due to technical difficulties would be managed.

54.

Declarations of Interest

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

Minutes:

            The Chairman, Councillor Dr Walsh, declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 8 [The Council’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic Situation] as a Member of West Sussex County Council.

55.

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).

Minutes:

            The Chairman confirmed that no questions had been submitted for this meeting.

56.

Urgent Business - Further Officer Decision Taken During the Coronavirus Emergency pdf icon PDF 236 KB

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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

            The Chairman confirmed that in accordance with the provisions of the Officer Scheme of Delegation in the Council’s Constitution, one urgent Officer Decision had been taken by the Interim Monitoring Officer in relation to the Council’s Virtual Meeting Procedure Rules.  This decision had been uploaded to the Council’s webpages earlier that day and had been taken on 19 June 2020.

 

            The Chairman explained that in consultation with the Chief Executive, who in turn had consulted with the Group Leaders on 18 June 2020; and in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Constitution Working Party, and the Portfolio Holder being notified, in order to conduct remote hearings of the Licensing Sub-Committee in accordance with relevant legislation, an addition to the Virtual Meeting Procedure Rules had been required at Paragraph 14 in respect of the Licensing Sub-Committee and the ability of this Sub-Committee to hold hearings in accordance with relevant legislation to ensure a fair hearing.

 

Part 5, Section 5 – The Virtual Meeting Procedure Rules had been updated to allow the access of the public and press to attend and participate in Licensing Sub-Committee meetings.  The change to the Constitution had been urgently required to allow a Licensing Sub-Committee to proceed on 26 June 2020.

 

            The Cabinet noted and supported the actions taken by the Interim Monitoring Officer.

57.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 162 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 1 June 2020 as attached.

Minutes:

            The Minutes of the meeting held on 1 June 2020 were agreed by the Cabinet and would be signed by the Chairman as soon as practically possible.

58.

Budget variation reports

To consider any reports from the Group Head of Corporate Support.

Minutes:

            The Chairman confirmed that there were no items to bring to this meeting,

59.

Update on Webcasting of Meetings - Procurement Options pdf icon PDF 329 KB

Following the reports that were made to Cabinet on 8 July and 9 December 2019, this report feeds back to the Cabinet the findings from the corporate officer group that was set up to examine the future webcasting needs of the Council and associated costs but has been amended to reflect the Council’s current financial position.

 

Decision:

The Cabinet

 

            RESOLVED – That

 

(1)          In view of the timescales involved for this project, to instruct Officers to extend the existing contract with Auditel, for the webcasting of all public meetings for the next twelve months the cost of which is to be met from existing budgets;

 

(2)          To note that a further report will be provided to Cabinet setting out the anticipated costs and long-term financial implications of a range of options for webcasting; and

 

(3)          In the event of physical meetings becoming possible in the next six months which the public are allowed to attend in the Civic Centre, Officers investigate the ongoing use of Zoom and/or the utilisation of the Council Chamber for both Cabinet and the Overview Select Committee to be webcast alongside Full Council and the Development Control Committee.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Technical Services, Councillor Stanley, introduced this item outlining that following the reports that had been made to Cabinet on 8 July and 9 December 2019, this report fed back to Cabinet the findings from the corporate officer group that had been established to examine the future webcasting needs of the Council and associated costs.  This report had been slightly adjusted to reflect the Council’s current financial position as a result of Covid 19  meaning that it would now be necessary to consider a range of options and possibly at different time stages and so a further report would be presented to Cabinet setting out the costs and long-term financial implications of these options for webcasting.

 

In view of the timescales involved for this work, Cabinet was being asked to instruct Officers to extend the existing contract with Auditel for the webcasting of all public meetings for the next twelve months, the cost of which would be met from existing budgets as the existing contract with Auditel would imminently be expiring.

 

It was also intended, subject to any future decisions regarding the options for webcasting, that when meetings returned to the Civic Centre with the public being allowed to physically attend, then webcasting would revert back to web-streaming live Full Council and Development Control Committee meetings only.

 

Councillor Stanley emphasised the fact that the officer group had undertaken a lot of work which had included a soft market testing exercise to understand the technical requirements of upgrading and extending the current webcasting arrangements including the Committee Suite and the key information relating to this had been set out in Section 2.1 of the report.  It was also highlighted that the Committee Services team, ICT and the Senior Estates Surveyor have worked collaboratively with Auditel’s Senior Management Team in escalating and resolving the issues previously reported to this meeting, the result of which has been a much-improved client relationship. 

 

The Director of Place endorsed the points made by Councillor Stanley and invited questions from Cabinet Members.

 

Comments from the Cabinet outlined the importance of this report as one of the Council’s long-term objectives was to improve the transparency and accountability of its meetings.  Previously, the equipment installed in the Council Chamber had seen only the Development Control Committee relly sing the equipment for webcasting meetings.  Cabinet endorsed its view that webcasting needed to be widened out and needed to be continued to be used and to reflect the increasing numbers of those who watched the westreams either live or on demand.

 

It was also acknowledged that the current pandemic had forced the Council to change its focus on how meetings were now ran and as this had worked successfully it was important for the Council to consider options for webcasting moving forward.  In view of this, Councillor Stanley confirmed that he wished to make an amendment to Recommendation (3) to read as follows – additions have been shown using bold and deletions have been shown using strikethrough  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

60.

The Council's Response to the Covid 19 Pandemic Situation pdf icon PDF 264 KB

This report updates Cabinet on the Council’s response to the pandemic situation and its proposals for economic recovery.

 

Decision:

The Cabinet

 

            RESOLVED – That

 

(1)  The action taken to date be noted;

(2)  Consideration be given to the way for the Council post-recovery

(3)  As part of the work in (2) above, support the establishment of a Coronavirus Recovery Working Party based on the following terms:

 

(a)  Terms of Reference – to conduct a review on the way forward for the Council post recovery

(b)  Size of the Working Party – 10 Members with seats allocated as follows – Lib Dems [4]; Cons [4]; Ind [1] Green [1]

(c)  Nominations to the seats – to be made by the relevant Group Leader and confirmed as Councillors Bennett, Chapman, Mrs Cooper, Cooper, Dendle, Mrs Haywood, Mrs Staniforth, Tilbrook, Ms Thurston and Dr Walsh;

(d)  Proposals for the allocation of seats if vacancies occur – to be for the relevant Group Leader to fill the vacant seat and report this information to the next Full Council meeting;

(e)  Timescale for the work to be undertaken – over the next few months of recovery and to include whatever time is required in view of the uncertainty of Covid19

(f)   To report back to Cabinet on 20 July 2020; and further meetings

 

(4)  If established, the Working Party can then:

 

(a) Review its terms of reference at its first meeting and recommend any change back to Cabinet;

 

(b)Make any recommendations to Cabinet based on the terms of reference – it will have no decision-making authority; and

 

(c)Meet in private unless it agrees that it will work to the Meeting Procedure Rules at Part 5 of the Council’s Constitution.

 

Minutes:

The Chairman introduced this report confirming that it provided another update in terms of how the Council had been dealing with the Coronavirus over recent weeks.  All Members had been receiving a weekly update from the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council and the bulk of those briefings had also been sent to the Council’s partners.  The first part of the report provided a formal record of what had been done to date.

 

The Chairman then outlined that it was now very important for the Council to consider not only the economic impact on the Council, local businesses and the community, but also that these social impacts be fully considered.  The report also discussed both aspects from a short, medium and long term point of view.

 

          Finally, the report proposed the establishment of a Working Party to discuss, in private, how the Council could help the Council and the community to recover from this terrible pandemic. The Chairman confirmed that he welcomed and fully supported this approach, and that he believed that the three other political parties were also supportive of this approach.

 

            The Chief Executive then presented his report confirming that he wished to thank the Economic and Communications Teams for their recent phases of work in preparing for getting the District’s High Streets ready for coming out of Lockdown last Monday, 15 June 2020.   They had had to work with very little Government guidance and very little time to deliver the programme that balanced a warm welcome with confidence for the public to return to shops safely.  They had worked closely with Town and Parish Councils to make practical arrangements for retail areas across the entire District and were now currently working with the Town and Parish Councils on further improvements.

 

The Chief Executive outlined that the report discussed possible changes in society addressing the terrible downsides; deaths, isolation, mental health issues, domestic violence, business failures and unemployment issues.  There had also been positive outcomes being an uplift in community spirit, caring for others, improved health, lower pollution and family time - all of which had encouraged stronger support for supporting being “local” and more sustainable in the future.

 

This was an important time for the Council to provide Leadership, economic stimulus and  to facilitate recovery, using the positives that had come out of the pandemic.  As a Council, Members and Officers together, had just as much chance as any expert or consultant to come up with possible answers for the recovery programme, and the report proposed the establishment of a Working Party to help take this forward and to provide proposals for Cabinet to consider in the future months. The report suggested short, medium and long term issues to consider and work on.


            TheCouncil’s finances were of great concern as it headed towards a possibledeficit of £2.9m for this financial year.The Council’s CorporateManagement Team (CMT) had been meeting regularly to discuss possible financialsolutions which would be discussed further with Cabinet over the coming weeks.The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

61.

Joint Arun Area Committees pdf icon PDF 116 KB

            To consider and note the Minutes of the meeting of the Joint Western Arun Area Committee held on 11 March 2020 (as attached), noting that the meeting of the Joint Eastern Arun Area Committee scheduled for 17 March 2020 was cancelled.

Minutes:

The Cabinet received and noted the minutes from the meeting of the Joint Western Arun Area Committee held on 11 March 2020.  Cabinet noted that the meeting of the Joint Eastern Arun Area Committee planned for 17 March 2020 had been cancelled.