Venue: Council Chamber & Blue Room, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, BN17 5LF. View directions
Contact: Jane Fulton
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies for Absence had been received from Councillors Brooks and Pendleton. |
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Declarations of Interest 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
Minutes: There were no Declarations of Interest made. |
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The Committee will be asked to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the Policy and Finance Committee held on 9 July 2024, as attached.
Minutes: The minutes from the last Meeting of the committee held on 9 July 2024 were approved as a correct record and were signed by the Chair at the conclusion of the meeting.
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ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA THAT THE CHAIR OF THE MEETING IS OF THE OPINION SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS A MATTER OF URGENCY BY REASON OF SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES Minutes: The Chair confirmed that there were no urgent items for the Committee to consider. |
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Public question time To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes)
Minutes: The Chair confirmed that no questions had been submitted for this meeting. |
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Items Put Forward from Service Committees Minutes: The Chair confirmed that there were recommendations for the Committee to consider from the Service Committees detailed below.
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Environment Committee - 19 March 2024 The Committee is asked to consider recommendations from the meeting of the Environment Committee held on 19 March 2024 as set out below:
o Minute 720 [Combined Cleansing Services Contract] – the minutes from the meeting of the Environment Committee are attached together with the Officer report. As there are numerous appendices that accompany this item, these have been provided as links below:
Combined Cleansing Services Contract - Appendix 1.pdf Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received the minutes from the meeting of the Environment Committee held on 19 March 2024. The Chair drew Members’ attention to two recommendations at Minute 720 [Combined Cleansing Services Contract].
The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Nash and seconded by Councillor Stanley.
The Chair then invited debate. One of the questions asked was whether the Council had been successful in securing further funding to meet the cost of providing the new bins and caddies and was work taking place to determine if there were any other sources of funding that could be applied for to assist with this cost. It was confirmed that no further funding had been secured and that in looking at the revenue grant awarded by DEFRA it could not be confirmed at this stage if the Council would receive the full amount to cover all its costs. The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer reassured Members that Officers were continually seeking sources of funding that it could apply to receive from Government. This applied to all Council projects. The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer also assured Members that the capital costs of providing the 180 litre bins would be funded by expected savings achieved by the new contract.
The Committee
RECOMMENDS TO FULL COUNCIL – That
(1) It approves the addition of £1,820,000 to the Capital Programme in 2025/26 to fund the purchasing and delivery of food waste receptacles and purchasing of vehicles necessary to provide the weekly food waste collection service as part of the CCSC to be funded by a grant received from DEFRA; and
(2) It approves the addition of £1.2 million to the Capital Programme in 2025/26 to procure and roll out 180 litre residual bins for residents to facilitate a fortnightly residual collection service. This will be funded from borrowing if the Council is unable to secure further funding. |
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Environment Committee - 19 September 2024 The Committee is asked to consider recommendations from the meeting of the Environment Committee held on 19 September 2024 as set out below:
o Minute 217 [Two-Hour Town Centre Parking Schemes] – the minutes from the meeting of the Environment Committee are attached. A report from the Director of Growth is also attached confirming the recommendations that the Committee needs to consider. o Minute 223 [Q1 Performance Report for the Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] which form part of the Council’s Vision 2022-2026] – this recommendation will be dealt with under Item 10 – Key Performance Indicators Report].
Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received the minutes from the meeting of the Environment Committee held on 19 September 2024. The Chair drew Members’ attention to the first set of recommendations at Minute 217 [Two-Hour Town Centre Parking Schemes]. Members were also alerted to a report from the Director of Growth accompanying the two recommendations.
The Chair invited the Group Head of Technical Services to present this report. He provided the background to this item explaining that back in September 2023, the Environment Committee had established a Working Party to review and make recommendations on the future of the 2-hour free parking schemes in Littlehampton and Bognor Regis. That Working Party had met on several occasions and had formed recommendations which were considered by the Environment Committee at its meeting held on 19 September 2024. These recommendations had been set out within Paragraph 4.2 of the report. The Environment Committee resolved to agree recommendations a, b and d with amendments being made to recommendation c with a further three additional recommendations being made, as outlined below:
a. authority be delegated to the Group Head of Technical Services to implement a single 2-hour free town centre parking disc scheme to incorporate both Littlehampton and Bognor Regis, with the scheme to be administered in both Littlehampton and Bognor Regis by Arun District Council;
b. differential pricing be agreed for virtual and physical parking discs, whereby the virtual parking disc is cheaper than the physical counterpart to encourage transition to the virtual scheme;
c. the retail price points for both the virtual and physical parking discs for 2025 from the options in 4.19 be agreed, with the retail price for the virtual disc being £4 and £6 for the physical disc;
d. authority be delegated to the Group Head of Technical Services to make any necessary changes to the Council’s Parking Orders and to take any other actions necessary to enable the scheme to take effect; and
e. card discs should be supplied to traders on a strictly sale or return basis.
The Committee also recommended to the Policy & Finance Committee that:
f. the retail price point (set out in c above) should be fixed for a period of three years; and
g. the clause to use the disc and app only once per day should be removed.
The Group Head of Technical Services explained the financial implications for the Council if the two recommendations from the Environment Committee were to be accepted by this Committee. Firstly, he explained the financial impact resulting from resolution c above. The table at Paragraph 4.4 of the report illustrated that the adjustment in pricing for the physical discs from £10 to £6 would have a detrimental effect on the level of revenue the Council generated via disc sales.
The impact of this change agreed by the Environment Committee was estimated to be a loss of £123,200. Turning to the two recommendations that the Committee needed to consider, the first, if agreed, would pose serious financial challenges as it would ... view the full minutes text for item 231. |
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Planning Committee - 11 September 2024 The Committee is asked to consider recommendations from the meeting of the Planning Committee held on 11 September 2024 as set out below:
o Minute 201 [Q1 Performance Report for the Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] which Form Part of the Council’s Vision 2022-2026] – the minutes from the meeting held on 11 September are attached. The recommendation will be dealt with under Item 10 – Key Performance Indicators Report].
Minutes: The Committee received the minutes from the meeting of the Corporate Support Committee held on 10 October 2024. The Chair drew Members’ attention to a recommendation which had been provided via an extract from the minutes which were yet to be published relating to Quarter 1 Performance Report for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which Form Part of the Council’s Vision 2022-2026.
The Chair confirmed that this recommendation would be considered at Agenda Item 10.
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Corporate Support Committee - 10 October 2024 The Committee is asked to consider recommendations from the meeting of the Corporate Support Committee held on 10 October 2024 as set out below:
o An extract from the Minutes, which are yet to be published is attached. [Q1 Performance Report for the Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] which Form Part of the Council’s Vision 2022-2026]. The recommendation will be dealt with under Item 10 – Key Performance Indicators Report].
Minutes: The Committee received the minutes from the meeting of the Corporate Support Committee held on 10 October 2024. The Chair drew Members’ attention to a recommendation which had been provided via an extract from the minutes which were yet to be published relating to Quarter 1 Performance Report for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which Form Part of the Council’s Vision 2022-2026.
The Chair confirmed that this recommendation would be considered at Agenda Item 10.
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Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received a report from the Group Head of organisational Excellence updating Members on the Quarter 1 Performance Outturn for the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which made up the Corporate Plan for the period 1 April to 30 June 2024.
Members were alerted to section 3.7 of the report as this provided a full commentary for each indicator when looking at the overall performance at Quarter 1. This illustrated that 29 out of the 39 indicators were either achieving target or were within 15% of doing so. The next section of the report provided a summary of the actions proposed for the remaining indicators that were not achieving.
Turning to the recommendations made by Service Committees, it was explained that the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT) had recently undertaken a review of KPIs and it was proposed that those listed in the table at Section 3.10 of the report should no longer be reported to Members via Service Committees and the quarterly performance reports due to their operational nature, allowing Members to focus on strategic issues.
The recommendations were then proposed by Councillor Nash and seconded by Councillor Stanley.
The Chair invited debate, and many Councillors spoke on this item. The majority confirming that they felt uncomfortable removing these indicators as they had fought hard to have them reporting into Committees; they appreciated the level of detail provided; and as eight of the KPIs were underachieving. It was also explained that for many, especially CP29 [the average number of days to determine applications], this was information that was very important to Councillors and questioned why such critical information be removed from their scrutiny.
This same message was strongly argued in respect of other indicators such as CP6 [Compliance with Health and Safety Programme] as Members needed to know if such an important corporate undertaking was up to date and on track performance wise. Similarly, it was important for Councillors to be updated with any concerns or briefed if there were any delays and the reasons for them. The argument being presented was that Councillors and the public needed to know that the Council was functioning in an effective way operationally.
Another query raised was that CP7 [Average call wait time (secs) for the last month] was not proposed for removal but was argued to be more operational than CP6 and some of the other KPIs listed for removal. Members felt that any underperforming KPIs should continue to be reported through Service Committees so that Councillors could keep track on improvement or have opportunity to raise further concerns or request additional information. In response, it was confirmed that the proposals to remove some KPIs reflected feedback received from Councillors that that level of information was not required. Should the Committee confirm that it wished to continue to receive the information, then this would be provided. Councillor McDougall as a non-committee member was permitted to address the Committee. He confirmed that he was comfortable for the KPIs covering planning to be removed ... view the full minutes text for item 234. |
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Draft Final Outturn Report - 2023/2024 The purpose of this report is to appraise the Policy & Finance Committee of its draft final outturn against the 2023/24 budgets which were approved by Full Council at its meeting held on 9 March 2023, subject to external audit.
Minutes: The Chair invited the Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer to provide an overview of his report. This report was being presented to the Committee to appraise Members of the Policy & Finance Committees of its draft 2023/24 final outturn which was in draft status as it was yet to be externally audited. This outturn was against the 2023/24 budget approved by Full Council at its meeting held on 21 February 2023. The Committee was requested to consider the report and provide any comments to Officers.
Members’ attention was drawn to Table 1 in the report outlining that the Policy & Finance Committee’s draft revenue final outturn position for 2023/24 revealed an underspend of £442k, which was a positive shift of £109k from the £314k underspend recorded in Quarter 3.
The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer confirmed the main variances as outlined in Paragraphs 4.3 and 4.4 of the report. He confirmed that a more favourable £422k was being reported with the variances including the capitalisation of Levelling Up project management costs; Chief Executive Officer vacancy and an unfilled Group Head post.
Turning to the General Fund Capital Programme, the table 2 at Section 4.5 of the report revealed the slippage from the final capital programme outturn which predominately related to the Levelling-Up Fund projects at Littlehampton and Bognor Regis.
As there were no comments or questions asked, the Committee noted this report. |
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The purpose of this report is to appraise the Policy & Finance Committee of the Council’s consolidated and this Committee’s forecast General Fund Revenue, Capital and Housing Revenue out-turn against the 2024/25 budgets which were approved by Full Council at its meeting of the 21 February 2024.
Additional documents: Minutes: The Group Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer introduced his Budget Monitoring Report covering Quarter 1 for the financial year 2024/25 and the period up to 30 June 2024, appraising the Committee of its revenue and capital budget forecast and the Council’s consolidated General Fund Revenue, Capital and Housing Revenue forecast against the 2024/25 budgets approved by Council on 21 February 2024. The Committee was being asked to consider the report and provide Officers with any comments.
The first part of the report presented the Quarter 1 forecast for the financial year 2024/25 and included a consolidated Revenue Budget summary; Housing Revenue Account (HRA) summary; and Consolidated Capital Programme summary. The Committee’s financial report as of 30 June 2024 for the Quarter 1 period had been attached to the report at Appendix 1.
The following was reported:
· On the consolidated Revenue Budget there had been underspending by £94k · A structural budget deficit remained with a projected £3.5m contribution required from reserves to plug the budget gap · The approved savings across Service Committees had been provided showing a savings total of £1.535m. · A risk of whether the Council could deliver those savings existed. · Information had been provided on variances. A continued funding pressure identified on homelessness expenditure despite receiving additional Homeless Prevention grant funding.. · Salary variances were still high because of agency staff particularly in Finance and Legal, though this figure had been offset by employee underspends in Revenue and Benefits and within the Housing & Wellbeing Committee. · Investments continued to perform above expectation. · General Fund Capital Programme headlines included slippage from 2023/24 moved into 2024/25 budgets. As the variance figure was at Quarter 1 (end of June 2024), more work had been undertaken since to determine profiling on key major projects and so additional information would be brought to the Committee’s next meeting in December 2024. · Turning to the HRA, the table showed a revised full year forecast surplus of £863k against a budgeted surplus of £532k. The key objective remained to ensure HRA reserves were at a sustainable level. · The forecast end of year HRA reserve balance showed an increase to £1.47 m from an opening position of £608k. There were substantial risks attached to this forecast such as insourcing repairs from the main repairs and maintenance contract and increasing management costs. The Housing and Finance teams had invested much resource into managing and monitoring the HRA budget to ensure that it remained on track. A clearer picture would be provided at Quarter 2. · The HRA Capital Programme’s forecast outturn was £11.7m against a revised budget of £26.9m and included slippage from the previous financial year. The £3m decarbonisation programme required externally matched funding before commencement. The Group Head of Housing was in the process of submitting a bid to the Warm Homes Fund. Other projects such as stock development and sheltered accommodation were subject to further feasibility studies and would result in a reprofiling of the budget. · Table 1 for the Policy & Finance Committee Revenue budget detailed the ... view the full minutes text for item 236. |
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Angmering Sports Hub Project This report provides an update on the Angmering sports hub project including the results of the public consultation and preparation of a planning application.
Additional documents:
Minutes: The Principal Landscape and Projects Officer presented a report providing a further update to Members on the Angmering Sports Hub project since the committee’s last update received in July 2024. At that meeting the plans had been presented prior to the public consultation exercise. The report included the results of the public consultation that had been undertaken between 12 July and 2 August 2024 which had been attached to the report at Appendix 1. The updated plans following the public consultation had also been attached showing how they had been adjusted in response to some of the comments received.
The RIBA Stage 2 concept design had been generally supported at public consultation. Appendix 2 of the report set out the concerns raised and the responses that had been provided to those concerns. Where concerns had been raised, options to address these had been considered as part of the Stage 3 design process and the report listed the changes that had been made to the design where they had been deemed practical and proportionate. These were also read out to the Committee.
The revised plans had been shown in Appendix 3 and included a site layout, building layout and building elevations. Larger copies of these plans were also circulated to the meeting, and it was confirmed that these would be shared with stakeholders and added to the Council’s web site. The Committee was being asked to endorse the updated designs following the public consultation and its subsequent submission as a planning application.
The recommendation was then proposed by Councillor Stanley and seconded by Councillor Andy Cooper.
A range of questions were then asked by the Committee. The first was whether any funds would be received via the Football Foundation. It was confirmed that a meeting with the Football Foundation was taking place soon and that discussions were ongoing regarding their funding application programme/process. The amount of Section 106 funding allocated to the project was approximately £3m with £2m received. A business case would be developed in due course to support the delivery of the project, including funding and phasing options which would be presented to a future meeting of the Committee in 2025 setting out options for the delivery of the project through phasing and how any other required funding might be obtained through borrowing, if not secured by some other source. Work was also underway looking at other sporting organisations in terms of funding.
The Committee outlined its thanks to the Principal Landscape and Projects Officer and the project team for the positively received public consultation exercise and the responding adjustments made to the plans. The residents of Angmering were desperately looking forward to this project and so a realistic understanding of the financing position and timelines was requested. The Principal Landscape and Projects Officer confirmed that work on site could commence in Spring 2026, assuming that funding was in place.
Following some further discussion,
The Committee
RESOLVED
That the design updated following public consultation and its subsequent submission as ... view the full minutes text for item 237. |
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Littlehampton Seafront Project This report provides a further update to the Committee on the Littlehampton Seafront Project. Minutes: The Principal Landscape and Project Officer provided Members with a further update on the Littlehampton Seafront Project since the last update provided at the Committee’s meeting held in July 2024.
Several planning conditions had been attached to the approval granted in December 2023, including three pre-commencement conditions relating to surface water drainage, the archaeological programme and construction management plan. The Principal Landscape and Projects Officer confirmed that the wording of the drainage condition had been varied via a Non-Material Amendment (NMA) application to enable demolition work to commence, while final drainage details were being agreed. Two pre-commencement conditions had been discharged with the surface water drainage nearing sign-off. Changes to the approved design following the value engineering process would require a further NMA application to be submitted. Work on site had commenced in September and had involved activities associated with utility service disconnections and diversions. The removal of asbestos from the toilet block had taken place ahead of demolition and the sorting through of the different materials for recycling was taking place.
In the next few weeks Neilcott Construction would be preparing foundations for the new toilet block and opening the ground for next stage which was preparing for the construction phase. Updates would continue to be provided to the Committee.
The Committee thanked the Principal Landscape and Projects Officer for her update and were pleased to hear that work had started on site and that the project was proceeding within budget. A question was asked about the impact of value engineering on the project and what might change consequently. The Principal Landscape and Projects Officer confirmed that she thought that an update on this had been provided to Members at the last meeting of the Committee. She stated that she would investigate this and respond to the Committee in writing.
An update was requested on the Harvester site with the Director of Growth confirming that a written response would be provided. |
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The Regeneration of The Alexandra Theatre, Bognor Regis - Progress Report The purpose of this report is to update Members on the progress of the project to date and seek Member agreement for a revised budget to reflect current cost pressures. Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee received a joint report from the Director of Growth and the Chartered Development Surveyor/Project Development Manager. The Chartered Development Surveyor/Project Development Manager had joined the meeting virtually to assist with responding to questions asked by the Committee.
The report provided a further update on the progress of the regeneration of the Alexandra Theatre and sought the Committee’s agreement for a revised budget to reflect cost pressures.
The Director of Growth provided a detailed presentation and explained the recommendations to the Committee which if approved would be recommended to Full Council on 6 November 2024 for final approval.
In terms of delivering the project, the Director of Growth was pleased to confirm that the contractors were due to commence on site earlier in the day to install the security fencing and start their on-site preparatory work. This would be followed by the removal of asbestos ahead of the demolition of those parts of the building being removed in early December (subject to the outcome of the recommendations being proposed).
The second part of the report related to the financial challenges associated with delivering the project. The Committee was reminded that the economy had, over the last few years, weathered several challenges including the ongoing war in the Ukraine and the associated energy crisis. The annex to the report set out the impacts on the cost of delivering capital projects, especially the substantial rises in the cost of construction materials over the last 3 years. In addition to this, contractors were demonstrating an increased unwillingness to absorb high levels of risk. There had been several high profile contractors running into financial difficulty resulting in the sums set aside for contingency purposes having increased.
The Council’s new contractors, Neilcott Construction, had been carefully pricing the cost of the various works required and this work has been subject to constructive challenge by the Council’s in house team, Max Whitehand, Project Manager and Mace, specialist advisors. This very detailed work had revealed that the cost of delivering the proposed scheme was not immune from both the cost inflation over the last few years but also the increased aversion to high levels of risk. This had placed more pressure onto budgets and clients (the Council) to absorb the increased level of risk.
This demonstrated that the budget in place was no longer sufficient to deliver the project as originally agreed and so the Council had a few options to consider. The Director of Growth explained each of the options available. The first was to agree to increase the budget for the project which was estimated to be an increase by approximately £3m. This would be made up of an additional £1m, for core costs that were known, plus and additional £2m for contingency purposes given that the existing contingency funds had been absorbed into the known core project costs. It was hoped that the contingency funds would not have to used, however, the Director of Growth could not provide any firm guarantee. To help ... view the full minutes text for item 239. |
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Outside Bodies - Feedback from Meetings - Greater Brighton Economic Board - 16 July 2024 An Outside Body Feedback Report is attached from the Leader of the Council, Councillor Lury, following his attendance at a Special Meeting of the Greater Brighton Economic Board held on 16 July 2024. Minutes: The Chair alerted the Committee to his Outside Body Feedback report following his attendance at a Special Meeting of the Greater Brighton Economic Board held on 16 September 2024. The Chair confirmed that he had also circulated to all Councillors a presentation from the Board outlining plans for its mission to achieve net zero energy status by 2040, which the Committee noted.
The Chair also confirmed that a further meeting of the Board had taken place on 16 October 2024. At that meeting, the Board had been asked how it would react to the NHS Integrated Care Board becoming a member. He provided some information on the Board for the Committee’s information.
A discussion took place presenting arguments for and against the Council continuing with its membership to the Greater Brighton Economic Boad. This was in response to some concerns being expressed questioning Arun’s benefit from its membership.
The Director of Growth confirmed that for any new organisation to be able join the Board, it was necessary for each of the constituency members, in this case Arun was one, to undertake a vote to confirm its approval or otherwise. As the next meeting of the Committee was not taking place until 11 December 2024, it was outlined that this vote should take place now.
Councillor Nash then formally proposed that the NHS Integrated Care Board’s membership to the Greater Brighton Economic Board be approved. This was seconded by Councillor Lury. On this being put to the vote, 3 Councillors voted for, 3 Councillors voted against, and 3 Councillors abstained.
The Chair confirmed that he would use his casting vote and voted to approve.
The Committee
RESOLVED
That it confirms its approval to the NHS Integrated Care Board becoming a member of the Greater Brighton Economic Board.
The Chair also provided an update on discussion that had taken place on a shared vision for devolution. |
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The Committee is asked to note its work programme for the remainder of the Muncicipal Year. Minutes: In receiving and noting the Committee’s Work Programme for the remainder of the Municipal Year 2024/25, a request was made by Councillor Gunner to have added to it a report that would allow the Committee to debate the advantages and disadvantages for the Council in being a member of the Greater Brighton Economic Board. |