Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed Members and Officers to the meeting and extended a warm welcome to representatives from Mace Consult Ltd and Nicholas Hare Architects who were attending both in person and virtually to present the latest designs for Agenda Item 7 [The Regeneration of the Regis Centre, Bognor Regis].

Members and Officers are invited to make any declaration of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda, and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the items 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 interest and/or prejudicial interest

c)             the nature of the interest

Councillor Dixon declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 7 [The Regeneration of the Regis Centre, Bognor Regis] as he owned a very small number of Whitbread shares and was a member of the Bognor Regis Civic Society.

Councillor Needs declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 7 [The Regeneration of the Regis Centre, Bognor Regis] as a Member of Bognor Regis Town Council.

Councillor Goodheart declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 7 [The Regeneration of the Regis Centre, Bognor Regis] as a Member of Bognor Regis Town Council.

Councillor Walsh declared a Personal Interest in Agenda Item 8 [Littlehampton Seafront Project] as a Member of Littlehampton Town Council.

The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Policy and Finance Committee held on 6 September 2022, as attached.

The minutes from the meeting of the Committee held on 6 September 2022 were approved by the Committee as a correct record and were signed by the Chair at the conclusion of the meeting.

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

To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes)

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

The purpose of this report is to seek retrospective Member approval for the Interim Group Head of Finance and S151 Officer, in consultation with the Chair of this Committee, to continue membership of a business rate pool with selected other West Sussex authorities. The retrospective approval is requested as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) required Councils to indicate their intentions by 22 September 2022 for the 2023/24 financial year.

The Interim Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer presented her report which sought retrospective Member approval for the Interim Group Head of Finance and S151 Officer, in consultation with the Chair of this Committee, to continue membership of a business rate pool with selected other West Sussex authorities. The retrospective approval was requested as the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) required councils to indicate their intentions by 22 September 2022 for the 2023/24 financial year.

The Chair invited questions from the Committee. A Member spoke in support as it was financially beneficial to the council and the retrospective nature of the approval was a technicality.

Having had the recommendation proposed by Councillor Walsh and seconded by Councillor Cooper,

The Committee

          RESOLVED

That Arun agreed to continue participating in a business rates pool in West Sussex from 1 April 2023.

Representatives from Mace Consult Ltd, the Council’s Consultants working on the developing the scheme, will be in attendance to provide a presentation to Members on the latest design for the regeneration of the Regis Centre.

There will be an opportunity for Members to ask questions following this presentation.

The Chair welcomed again Katya Fenton, Senior Project Manager and Niall Mulligan, Project Director from Mace Consult Ltd and Katie Burgess-Graham, Architect from Nicholas Hare Architects) to the meeting and confirmed the format for this agenda item would be a 20 minute presentation given by the consultants on the latest designs for the regeneration of the Regis Centre followed by 30 minutes for questions from Members. The Regeneration Consultant reminded Members of the decision to proceed taken at the last Committee meeting on 6 September 2022 [Minute 236] and the request for monthly updates of which this was the first. He outlined some of the work undertaken since the previous meeting including initial designs, tendering work, and project managing processes.

After introducing themselves to the Committee, the representatives from Mace Consult Ltd and Nicholas Hare Architects delivered their presentation. Key points highlighted during the presentation included the repositioning of the box office with the new location giving full vision to foyer area, a redesigned café and improved catering offer, increased toilet provision, two lifts giving access to the upper floor, flexibility in wheelchair spaces, four studios upstairs, a double height foyer with a feature staircase, and the use of ‘true and honest’ materials such as concrete and wood for both thermal mass and texture. Mace’s Senior Project Manager outlined the project plan to ensure it remained with the Levelling Up funding timescales, with the process beginning in January 2023, appointing someone and signing contracts by spring 2023, beginning demolition in summer 2023, and contractor main works starting in autumn 2023.

The Chair opened up the question portion of the item by asking whether the proposed internal images, though nice, were worth the £15 million being spent on them and he was struggling to see that amount spent in the images. Following confirmation from Mace’s Senior Project Manager that the internal spaces would be of a good quality, the Chair asked whether they could narrate the costings for the benefit of Members and members of the public. Mace’s Senior Project Manager, though unable to provide detailed figures, explained that the cost involved not only the finishes but significant mechanical, electrical and plumbing replacement work due to the age and condition of the building, removal of asbestos and a part replacement of the roof. Having noted that demolition was not an expensive process in itself, the Chair continued to voice concern over the amount being spent on the project. He further queried why the building looked so different to what had been presented to Members previous and likened the new design to a 1920s cinema. He asked whether this new design was for reasons of cost saving on glazing or energy efficiency, and further asked for greater clarity on the costings of the project.

The Regeneration Consultant confirmed that he had instructed representatives from Mace to not bring full costings with them to the meeting but that a breakdown of costs, including contingency costs, could be provided to Members outside of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 372.

This report provides an update on the progress of the Littlehampton Seafront scheme.

The Principal Landscape and Project Officer presented her report which provided an update on the progress of the Littlehampton Seafront scheme since the last meeting of the Committee on 6 September 2022. She highlighted the two stakeholder sessions held the previous week, the findings from which were currently being collated, the public consultation for the scheme that was launching the day after the Committee, and how much more challenging the procurement process was this year.

Many Members (including one non-Committee Member) spoke in support of the project and offered their thanks to the Principal Landscape and Project Officer and her team. Points noted by Members during the discussion included thanks for the internal stakeholder meetings the previous week that were well conducted and very useful, support for a public consultation, the contrast to how projects were developing in Bognor Regis (as discussed in the previous item), the creativity of the design and how this could and should be replicated throughout the District, the design of the toilets, and accessibility as a key component throughout the project and appreciation of full answers regarding toilets that had supported constituency work.

The Committee noted the report and Chair added his thanks to the team for all their work on this project.

This report provides an update on the emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) of the Council for the 2021-2022 financial year.

The Climate Change and Sustainability Manager presented his report which provided an update on the emissions (Scope 1, 2 and 3) of the Council for the 2021-22 financial year. He began by providing some historical context by explaining that the council had adopted a Carbon Neutral Strategy back in October 2021 and a Climate Change and Biodiversity Action Plan in February 2022 which had a commitment to continue to monitor the council’s emissions and reduce them in line with the Carbon Neutral target of 2030. He went on to define the three scopes used in the report – Scope 1, emissions directly connected with the burning of fuel for heating council buildings and the running of our fleet; Scope 2, emissions from the generation of energy purchased by the council; and Scope 3, emissions from activities of the council but not occurring from sources owned or directly controlled by the council. He highlighted the improvements made in the reduction of the council’s emissions within Scopes 1 and 2 and that within Scope 3 purchased goods and services remained the largest source of emissions being responsible for 91.2% of total emissions, with Biffa being the largest contributor within this section.  The council’s Leisure Centres were the second largest single emitter being responsible for 3.66% of the council’s total emissions.

The Chair invited questions from the Committee. Members raised a number of points including whether Arun had a programme to install photovoltaic panels on all its buildings, why solar panels had not featured in the Regis Centre designs, water usage and neutrality, reductions in flow rates and water pressure in things like urinals and WCs to be welcomed, clarification over how Scope 2 emissions were determined given that in Appendix A 0 emissions came from electricity (Scope 2), and solar panels on new social housing.

The Climate Change and Sustainability Manager and Chair confirmed that audits were being undertaken for some of the Council’s buildings (Arun Leisure Centre, the Wave and the Civic Centre) and photovoltaic panels would be considered where appropriate. He also confirmed that Scope 2 emissions were calculated by specifically looking at the generation of the electricity, so for electricity that is 100% generated from renewables there would be no associated emissions. The Climate Change and Sustainability Manager then went on to confirm that this project did not cover council housing stock and that questions about social housing would be better directed to the Housing and Wellbeing Committee.

At the end of the discussion, the Committee noted the report and the Chair thanked the Officers involved.

This report is to update the Committee on the Q1 Performance Outturn for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which make up the Corporate Plan, for the period 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2022.  It will also report on any items referred by other committees to this committee.  As this is the first cycle of the new process this is described in section 4. of this report.

The Interim Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer, on behalf of the Group Head of Organisational Excellence who was unable to attend the meeting, presented this report which provided an update on the Q1 Performance Outturn for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which made up the Corporate Plan for the period 1 April 2022 to 30 June 2022.

The Chair invited questions from the Committee. One Member identified the issue of staff resourcing as a thread running through many of the red areas and asked how successful the council had been in recruiting permanent staff rather than having to use agency staff. The Director of Environment and Communities firstly dispelled the assumption within the question about agency staff not being as effective when many were experts brought in for specific projects, and she secondly noted the general problem with recruitment nationally and the need to take on agency staff when recruitment had failed. She stressed that the most important thing was having the right people in the right roles with the right skills though ideally this would be within a stable workforce. The Director of Growth added that as an organisation the council needed to make itself more attractive in a competitive jobs environment, but that that also meant looking at initiatives such as apprenticeships and developing people locally which took time to achieve outcome. He noted one issue with the current environment of flexible working meant catchment area could be significantly broader so the market was very different right now but that the council was looking at all opportunities to improve the situation.

CP36 [Number of new homes completed] and the council failing to meet its housing targets was raised by a Member who asked it the Committee could have an update on the larger developments in the pipeline. The Director of Growth confirmed the latest on key strategic sites around the District. For West Bersted, a planning application was expected imminently after chasing following a delay and that this was expected to add 2000 homes to delivery numbers. For Ford, that Planning Committee had approved in principle an application but that this was being delayed by complex negotiations around an outstanding Section 106 Agreement. For BEW, which could deliver up to 1250 homes, this would not go to Planning Committee before Christmas as there still remained a number of questions. For the site in Angmering close to the raceway site, that this was moving forward. He concluded that it was a mixed picture and that the council continued to push developers to bring forward their proposals where they had yet to as this was the only way to make a dent in the 5 year housing land supply.

That a number of the Indicators missing their targets were within Planning or areas under the Director of Growth was raised by another Member. The Director of Growth explained that many were Planning related and that multiple issues, rather than a single one, were the cause of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 375.

The Committee’s Work Programme for the remainder of the Municipal Year is attached for the Committee’s information.

The Committee received and noted its Work Programme for the remainder of the Municipal Year. The Chair updated the Committee that the meeting on 8 December had been moved to 13 December 2022 in order to accommodate sufficient time for the Housing Revenue Account item to initially go to the Housing and Wellbeing Committee for consideration, that an Extraordinary meeting of the Committee would be held on 3 November 2022 at 8.00pm following an Extraordinary meeting of the Housing & Wellbeing Committee at 6.00pm regarding Cost of Living and following the Motion to Full Council on 29 September 2022, and that the review of the Procurement Strategy would be reported to the meeting on 9 February 2022 and not the December meeting.

One Member asked whether the next Regis Centre update should be added to the Extraordinary meeting on 3 November rather than having to wait until 13 December. The Chief Executive suggested a pragmatic approach in response, that where dates could be shortened we should do so and if the situation arose that the calling of Extraordinary meetings was in the gift of the Chair. Another Member spoke in support for back-to-back Extraordinary meetings as a way of maintaining the urgency of an item but queried any implications caused by the slippage of two major projects to later meetings. The Interim Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer reassured the Member that the projects would not be affected as Officers were aware of the situation. The benefits of Extraordinary meetings and Members seeing urgent items as early as possible were discussed, but the Chair also noted that where no decision was being made an informal Member briefing may be more appropriate.