Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Blue & Pink - Blue & Pink

Contact: Jane Fulton (Ext 37611) 

Media

Items
No. Item

249.

Welcome

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Members, members of the public and Officers to what was the sixth 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.

250.

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:

There were no Declarations of Interest made.

251.

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.

252.

Urgent Business

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.

Minutes:

The Chairman confirmed that there were no items for this meeting.

253.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 208 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 21 September 2020, as attached.

Minutes:

The minutes from the meeting of Cabinet held on 21 September 2020 were approved as a correct by Cabinet.  The Chairman confirmed that these would be signed at the earliest opportunity to him.

 

254.

Budget variation reports

To consider any reports from the Head of Corporate Support.

255.

The Council's Future Financial Issues pdf icon PDF 249 KB

 The Council’s 151 Officer has provided various reports over recent months highlighting the Council’s current financial position and the scale of our financial issues for the future.  Whilst acknowledging the lack of clarity (due to various uncertainties), this report provides an update on possible financial measures to help future deficits.

 

Officers request that Cabinet considers the items identified and advises on the way forward.

 

Additional documents:

Decision:

Cabinet

 

            RESOLVED

 

            That the report be noted and Officers be instructed to proceed with each proposal.

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council introduced this report outlining that the Council’s 151 Officer had provided various reports over recent months highlighting the Council’s current financial position and the scale of its financial issues for the future.  Whilst acknowledging the lack of clarity, due to a variety of uncertainties, this report provided an update on possible financial measures, proposed by Officers, for Cabinet to consider helping anticipated future deficits, particularly from 2022/23.   Although Cabinet had received regular updates on the Strategic Targets, this report provided an update following the Coronavirus Pandemic Lockdown, which had commenced on 23 March 2020, the detail of which had been set out in Appendix A to the report.

 

The Chairman stated that the Council’s Corporate Management Team, had been working with Group Heads of services examining possible changes to service delivery that would assist the Council’s Budget.  These proposals had been set out in Appendix B to this report.  The Chairman then invited the Chief Executive to work through the first part of the report and Appendix A.  He reminded Councillors that the Council had agreed the ten Strategic Targets in 2019, long before the Council had any idea of the financial troubles lying ahead of it.  Appendix A provided a target and timescale update for each of the targets listed. Members were reminded of the fact that for the last eight months; Officers have been tied up with the Coronavirus pandemic.  However, it was appropriate, currently, for Cabinet to consider each target and its appropriateness in the current climate and the estimated revised timescales. 

 

The Chairman firstly invited debate on the first part of the report and the strategic targets as set out in Appendix A.

 

Cabinet was very much of the view that Officer’s focus had rightly been in responding to the demands of Covid-19 and it was accepted that this had had an impact on the targets.  However, Cabinet confirmed that it felt that the all of the targets were still very relevant and revised timescales were noted.

 

The Cabinet Member for Technical Services, Councillor Stanley, made reference to strategic target (8) [Public Engagement Strategy] stating that this had been one of the targets that had been rapidly progressed and as a result of the pandemic as it had been vital for the Council to engage better with the public through better digital channels.  He referred to the last Cabinet meeting where funding had been recommended for an enhanced webcasting service and that significant improvements were being made to the Council’s web site in terms of design and content to make information clearer and easier to find, especially in relation to the top transactional services. Work had also progressed in looking at call handling and introducing web chats at a time when the public wanted to engage with the Council in different ways and were demanding to do this too.  There was now an expectation through places like Amazon and Netflix that people should be able to communicate with larger organisations in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 255.

256.

Response to the Planning White Paper - Planning for the Future pdf icon PDF 457 KB

On 6 August, the Government published a White Paper – Planning for the Future – for consultation. The consultation period expires on 29 October 2020.

 

Consultation description:

 

‘The Planning for the future consultation proposes reforms of the planning system to streamline and modernise the planning process, bring a new focus to design and sustainability, improve the system of developer contributions to infrastructure, and ensure more land is available for development where it is needed.’

 

 

Decision:

Cabinet

 

            RESOLVED

 

            To note the contents, of and proposals, within the White Paper, and agree to the responses to the consultation questions contained with Appendix 1, with the comments raised at the meeting being added to the responses by the Group Head of Planning in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Plannning.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Planning, Councillor Lury, introduced this report stating that it set out a summary of the fundamental changes being consulted upon on the Government’s Planning White Paper – Planning for the Future. These changes, if implemented, would result in significant changes to the planning system and the way in which the Council would have to operate.  Councillor Lury outlined his observations – these have been summarised below:

 

·         looking at binding house numbers and the top down approach – he could not find any reference on how to replace duty to co-operate and he had concerns about who would be the arbiter of constraints in an area, would the infrastructure deficit that Arun had, be accepted as a constraint?

·         He had concerns about the extension of permitted development rights – where would a resident go to object and then where would be the quality control?

·         On the Infrastructure Levy, Councils could borrow to provide up front infrastructure, but for large projects this would be a huge risk

·         He had concerns on the idea that the public could get involved at stage 1, when there would be no details

·         On the stripping back of local plans – this sounded like a good idea going from 7 years to 30 months, but was this workable?

·         The new White Paper was not all negative – the new design code was great but how would you be able to get builders to build beautiful homes – how would this work in practice?

 

Councillor Lury stated that the Council’s planned responses to the consultation questions had been set out in Appendix 1 to the report and that Cabinet was being asked to agree these.  He then invited the Group Head of Planning to outline some of the main changes proposed.

 

The Group Head of Planning confirmed that the White Paper presented the most fundamental changes to the planning system in a generation.  It was seeking to streamline and modernise the planning system by introducing 24 proposals which would be implemented by the end of 2024.  This led to 26 consultation questions being asked and Officers had drafted responses for Cabinet to agree. 

 

The Group Head of Planning then talked about the main proposals. The main thrust to the changes would be how Local Plans would be produced in terms of their content in that they would only designate three different types of land uses. Growth areas that would automatically benefit from outline planning permission, renewals for smaller scale developments, and protected areas where there would be stringent controls such as areas of countryside and areas of outstanding natural beauty.  The timetable to produce plans would be reduced to 30 months. The standard housing methodology would be binding on Local authorities and plans produced would have to make provision to meet this by law.  There would be more emphasis on design quality and a new proposal called “fast track to beauty”.  In terms of decision making, there would be a greater emphasis on digitalisation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 256.

257.

Engineering Services Annual Review pdf icon PDF 236 KB

The report is presented as an update on the Council’s Engineering Service Area and explores the issues addressed in the preceding year and outlines matters that have arisen, or are foreseen for the coming year, across the service area.

Specific matters relating to the Pagham coastal defences, River Arun Internal Drainage Board, Community Flood Fund and Defra / Environment Agency recently published documents are included.  This report also recommends that the Council considers designating a Coastal Change Management Area. 

The report also seeks to request future budgetary provision for a number of these matters particularly proposed future expenditure at Pagham and a continuation of the Community Flood Fund.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Technical Services, Councillor Stanley, introduced the Engineering Services Annual Review for 2020 confirming that this covered all aspects of the Engineering Service for the past year as well as identifying the issues lying ahead.

 

Councillor Stanley stated that there were several issues that involved consideration of significant financial sums and he invited the Group Head of Technical Services and the Engineering Services Manager to highlight the most important issues and to answer questions from Members.  

 

            The Engineering Services Manager explained that the report looked at the Council’s engineering services operations looking both backwards and forwards.  He referred to the Community Flood Fund which had benefited a range of schemes on the coast and inland worth around £10m across the District.  The report sought a modest top up to that fund which would enable the Council to continue to bring forward much needed works by the Council and its partners.  Turning to Pagham, the report set out how the Council had managed the situation following the natural breach and regrowth of the spit which was the underlying problem in the area.  The Council was continuing with the adaptive management approach but outlined that it should be noted that the current method of reducing risk to life and property relied very heavily on there being a reliable source of shingle and other various constraints.  Accordingly, the Council was looking at all other options with its partners and outlined that the recently announced Innovative Flood and Coastal Resilience Fund would be explored.  Regarding the Coastal Change Management Area, this was an investigatory way forward and it was outlined that the Council was not proposing a (CCMA) at this time, as this was not a straightforward process.  The Engineering Services Manager then mentioned the other aspects of the section’s work being internal drainage boards and issues surrounding the River Arun IDB. 

 

The Chairman invited Cabinet debate.  Cabinet welcomed the report and although had heard that a CCMA would not be introduced at this time, felt that the Council needed to investigate this with some urgency in view of climate change emergency measures. 

 

            Points raised by non-Cabinet Councillors related to Climping and a further update was requested.  The Chairman reminded Councillors that the Climping frontage was the responsibility of the Environment Agency (EA) and not the Council, though the Council was in constant dialogue with the EA in terms of pushing forward a resolution to this matter.  The Engineering Services Manager outlined that work behind the scenes had explored all ways that the Littlehampton Economic Growth Area (LEGA) scheme could contribute and that other methods of providing the defence in terms of a ‘mini Medmerry’, similar to that at Selsey was being investigated, although the Climping topography was not favourable in that respect. The Council was also looking to see if the Innovative Flood and Coastal Resilience Programme could assist.

 

            Questions were also asked about Elmer and whether the provision of boulders over the years had improved the situation.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 257.

258.

Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) - Dog Controls pdf icon PDF 219 KB

Dogs Controls in the Arun District Council transferred into PSPOs in October 2017. The Council is proposing that the current Arun District Council PSPOs for Dog Controls are amended and continue for a further three years until 2023.

 

Additional documents:

Decision:

Cabinet

 

        RESOLVED – That

 

(1)  to adopt the proposed Public Space Protection Orders, to be effective from 6 November 2020;

(2)  the proposed Public Space Protection Orders be as shown in Appendix A.

a.    The Fouling of Land by Dogs.

 

b.    Dogs on Leads by Direction.

 

c.    Dogs Exclusion.

 

d.    Dogs on Leads.

 

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Technical Services, Councillor Stanley, introduced this report stating that Dog Controls in Arun transferred into Public Space Protection Orders, or PSPOs, in October 2017 and would expire after three years.  In deciding whether to replace them and in what form, the Council had taken account of feedback received over the three year period and so minor amendments were proposed which had been  subject to a comprehensive public consultation exercise which demonstrated support for the amended PSPOs being adopted.

 

The Group Head of Technical Services then outlined the main amendments proposed which had been set out in Appendix A of the report, the Proposed Public Space Protection Orders.

 

            The Cabinet

 

                        RESOLVED – That

 

(1)  The proposed Public Space Protection Order, to be effective from 6 November 2020 be adopted; and

 

(2)  The proposed Public Space Protection Orders as shown in Appendix A of the report be:

 

·         The Fouling of Land by Dogs

·         Dogs on Leads by Direction

·         Dogs Exclusion

·         Dogs on Leads

 

The Cabinet confirmed its decision as per Decision Notice C/021/191020, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.

 

 

259.

Renewal of the Maintenance Contract for the HR/Payroll IT System pdf icon PDF 140 KB

This report seeks approval to enter into an ‘evergreen’ contract for the maintenance of the Council’s HR/Payroll IT system without undertaking a tender process as permitted by Regulation 32(2)(b) of the Public Contract Regulations 2015.

Decision:

Cabinet

 

RESOLVED - That

(1)  the renewal of the maintenance contract for the HR/Payroll IT system with SumTotal, on an ‘Evergreen’ basis, subject to the procurement requirements being met, as set out below; be agreed and

(2)  delegated authority be given to the Group Head of Corporate Support to sign and enter into the renewal contract on behalf of the Council.

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Corporate Support. Councillor Oppler, introduced this item confirming that Cabinet was being asked to approve the renewal of the HR/Payroll system.

 

The Financial Services Manager confirmed that the Council had the option of agreeing an ongoing maintenance contract without undertaking a tender process as permitted by Regulation 32(2)(b) of the Pubic Contract regulations 2015 and that Cabinet approval was sought to agree to the renewal of the maintenance contract subject to the procurement requirements being met.

 

Non-Cabinet Councillors asked questions.  As this contract exceeded the EU threshold, it should be required to go through the normal tender process but that the  Council had chosen not to go out to tender because of intellectual property rights to the system, meaning that it was unlikely that there would be any other providers who could maintain this system. It was felt that other providers should be investigated and pursued as the contract amount, nearly £190k was a large sum of money.  It was felt that the renewal of this maintenance contract required further scrutiny before any decision to proceed in approving the recommendation was taken.

 

The Financial Services Manager explained that the annual cost was around £40k which benchmarked as being reasonable anything else would cost more as the Council would have to incur all costs of implementing a new system.  This was the most economical way, to the renew the Contract with a capped increase in costs of 1% per annum for the life of the contract.  

 

Further questions were asked which were responded to at the meeting.

 

The Cabinet, then

 

RESOLVED – That

 

(1)  Agreement be given to the renewal of the maintenance contract for the HR/Payroll/IT system with SumTotal, on an ‘Evergreen’ basis, subject to the procurement requirements being met, as set out below; and

 

(2)  Delegated authority be given to the Group Head of Corporate Support to sign and enter into the renewal contract on behalf of the Council.

 

The Cabinet confirmed its decision as per Decision Notice C/022/191020, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.

 

 

260.

Supplementary Estimate for the Procurement and Award of a New Housing Management IT System pdf icon PDF 151 KB

This report provides a budgetary update in respect of the procurement and award of a new Integrated Housing Management IT System contract for a period of four years. The project is anticipated to cost c£600k. 

In order to commence the project in the current financial year a Housing Revenue Account (HRA) supplementary capital estimate of £160k and a virement of £240k from within existing 2020/21 HRA budgets is requested. Provision will be made in the 2021/22 Housing Revenue Account budget for the £200k balance.

Decision:

Cabinet

            RECOMMEND TO FULL COUNCIL

            The approval of a Housing Revenue Account supplementary estimate of £160k (which equates to a weekly rent of 92p per dwelling) for the costs associated with the procurement and implementation of a new integrated housing management IT system. 

Cabinet

            RESOLVED – That

           

(1)  the virement of £240k be approved from existing budgets - £140k from capital budget x 25 and £100k from revenue contingency underspend;

 

(2)  the procurement and award of a 2+1+1 Contract be approved to a total value of £500k (inclusive of maintenance and support costs_ of a new Integrated Housing Management System, subject to Full Council approving the above supplementary estimate;

 

(3)  the ongoing maintenance and support costs for the new system of £50k of which £15k is accounted for within existing budgets be noted.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Residential Services, Councillor Mrs Gregory, introduced this item stating that it updated Cabinet and sought approval in respect of the procurement and award of a new Integrated Housing Management IT System with some of the associated project costs being met from within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) budget.  The new system would provide greater accessibility to services for tenants and leaseholders. 

 

The Group Head of Residential Services provided some further background. She explained that the Council had been running the existing system since 2014 and that the current contract was due to expire in November 2021. The Covid-19 pandemic and the necessity to work from home had highlighted a number of system limitations, the conclusion being that the current system was not fit to meet future needs.  The new system would provide the opportunity to implement cloud hosting; a modern customer self-service portal; contractor portal and an integrated document management system. This would result in a reduction of paper used with manual processes being replaced by electronic billing and integrated processes reducing the need for the customer to have to physically visit the Civic Centre.  To start the procurement process, it was confirmed that Full Council would be asked to approve a Housing Revenue Account supplementary estimate of £160k.

 

The Cabinet Member for Residential Services confirmed that the new system would be a positive for tenants as it would provide them with self-service opportunities that they did not have now.  Cabinet fully supported the procurement and award of the new integrated Housing Management IT System.

 

Non-Cabinet Councillors outlined that although they were pleased to see advances in technology, they had concerns about investing significant sums into a new system when the existing system had only been procured back in 2014.  There was also concern that the request to approve funding for this scheme seemed to have come out of nowhere and a request was made for the finances to be re-explained as what had been set in the report was confusing.

 

The Group Head of Residential Services explained the figures involved. She outlined that the current contract expired in November 2021 and so work was progressing twelve months in advance of that date to provide time to implement the new system, so this was a planned process. In terms of the total project cost this was explained by the Group Head of Residential Services and the Financial Services Manager. Having received this explanation, there were non-Cabinet Councillors who insisted to know what the outcomes from this investment would be. It was explained that there were would be greater efficiencies in terms of transactional costs and that the self-service opportunities would provide tenants and leaseholders with a service seven days a week twenty- four hours a day.  Until the system had been running for a period of time, it would not be possible to confirm what tangible savings could be made in respect of staff time and in terms of service delivery. 

 

Further questions were asked about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 260.

261.

The Council's Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic Situation pdf icon PDF 266 KB

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

 

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Dr Walsh, introduced this item confirming that this was another of the Chief Executive’s regular updates to Cabinet and had been based on the weekly updates sent to all Councillors and partners. 

 

The Chairman stated that unfortunately, only a few weeks ago, it had been thought that we were coming out of this dreadful pandemic, but things had since changed dramatically.  Whilst the prevalence of the virus remained low across West Sussex, there were some peaks around and outside of the District that the Council needed to watch carefully. 

 

The Chief Executive then guided Cabinet through some of the essential detail in the update report.  He confirmed that the Council’s Environmental Health team continued to support local businesses and workplaces regarding the new restrictions in place and that Central Government had allocated £75k in additional resources to assist this work.  Also, funding had been provided to meet the £500 payment for those having to self-isolate. The Council was already administering this money to these in need, with this latest payment scheme being up and running quickly from 12 October 2020.  Overall, in relation to Covid-19, the points made earlier about savings and income generating ideas, Officers would continue to work with Cabinet Members to reduce additional costs and raise additional income. Every effort was being made to try to keep Covid-19 costs to a minimum.

 

Before inviting Cabinet Members to discuss the report, the Chairman confirmed that he wished to have placed on record his tribute to staff who were keeping everything going in additional to managing the extra work as a result of Covid-19.

 

Cabinet echoed these comments and congratulations were extended also to the Council’s Revenues and Benefits team who were actively now administering the £500 paid for those having to self-Isolate. Staff had managed to set up the payment scheme through the Northgate system very quickly and were very thoroughly scrutinising application received as the first two received had been fraudulent and picked up and dealt with by Officers.

 

Other question asked by Non-Cabinet Members were around Test and Trace as it was understood that this would become a Local Authority responsibility.  Could any update be provided on this in terms of costings as it had been suggested that the company responsible to date had been charging for the service. The Chief Executive confirmed that WSCC would be administering this and that he was awaiting a response back in terms of costings.  It was agreed that once this response had been received, it would be included in the weekly briefings that he and the Leader of the Council provided to Councillors. The Chief executive was asked how much support Arun might need to give and it was agreed that the response to this would be provided in the weekly briefing.

 

 

            A further question was asked in relation to Test and Trace and the support to be given to local communities. The question related to local secondary schools where cases had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 261.

262.

Standards Committee - 24 September 2020 - New Social Media Guidance for Councillors pdf icon PDF 120 KB

Cabinet is asked to consider recommendations from the meeting of the Standards Committee relating to the adoption of a new Social Media Guidance document for Councillors.  The minutes will be circulated separately to this agenda.  To view the report that was submitted to the Standards Committee, please click on these links - Report and Appendix

 

 

 

 

Decision:

Cabinet

 

            RESOLVED

 

            That the Social Media Guidance for Councillors be referred back to the next meeting of the Standards Committee for further discussion.

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Corporate Support, Councillor Oppler, presented the Minutes from the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 24 September 2020, which had been circulated separately to the agenda.

 

 Councillor Oppler alerted Cabinet to recommendations at Minute 226 [New Social Media Guidance for Councillors] which set out a new Social Media Guidance for Councillors which Cabinet was being asked to endorse.

 

In discussing this guidance, Cabinet broadly supported it.

 

Non-Cabinet Councillors then asked a series of questions and raised some concerns around what the Policy recommended Councillors should not do. 

 

Following a lengthy discussion, the Chairman proposed that the Policy be refereed back to the Standards Committee for further discussion and to allow that Committee to fully review the list of recommendations that Councillors should not undertake.   This was seconded by Councillor Coster.

 

            The Cabinet then    

 

                        RESOLVED

 

That the new Social Media Guidance for Councillors be referred back to the next meeting of the Standards Committee for further discussion and debate.

 

The Cabinet confirmed its decision as per Decision Notice C/025/19102020, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.

 

 

263.

Overview Select Committee - 6 October 2020

To consider any recommendations from the meeting of the Overview Select Committee held on 6 October 2020, which will be circulated separately, if any recommendations are made.