Agenda item

The Chairman, Councillor Stanley, will present the Minutes from the meeting of the Bognor Regis Regeneration Sub-Committee held on 28 October 2019.

The Minutes from this meeting will be circulated separately and any recommendations will be reported to the meeting.

            The Chairman, Councillor Stanley, in presenting the Minutes from the meeting of the Bognor Regis Sub-Committee held on 28 October 2019 confirmed that a revised set of Minutes had been circulated to the meeting. 

            Although the agenda confirmed that there were no recommendations for the Council to consider, Councillor Stanley stated that this was not correct.  Since the Minutes had been circulated in Bundle 2 on 7 November 2019, a question had been raised about their accuracy as they had not included two proposals put forward at the meeting and voted upon.  Councillor Stanley outlined that he had raised this with the Council’s Monitoring Officer, and this had identified that the outcome of these proposals had not been clearly minuted as recommendations to come before the Council at this meeting.  Having reviewed the notes taken at the meeting, a clerical error had been identified and the minutes subsequently revised and reissued setting out the two recommendations that need to be considered tonight.

            Councillor Stanley confirmed that the first recommendation was at Minute 10 [The Arun Public Spaces Protection Order] where the Sub-Committee had been informed of the public consultation exercise underway.  At that meeting Members had raised serious concerns about the impact of reducing the Public Spaces Protection Order areas and wished to formally respond to the consultation exercise.  The revised minutes confirmed that it was proposed, second and voted upon “That the formal response of the Bognor Regis Sub-Committee was that the areas that had been removed from the existing Public Space Protection Order should be reinstated into the new Order”.

            Councillor Stanley stated that he was aware that Cabinet would be considering the outcome of this consultation exercise at its meeting to be held on 13 January 2020 and he gave Members of the Sub-Committee his assurance that he would present their formal response and the reasons for this at that meeting.  Councillor Stanley therefore proposed this recommendation and it was seconded by Councillor Brooks.

            In discussing the recommendation, concern was expressed as to why this recommendation had not been minuted accurately and especially since there had been a lengthy debate on the consultation and the PSPO. 

            The Monitoring Officer reconfirmed the statement made by Councillor Stanley stating in that there had been no deliberate omission, it had been a misunderstanding from the notes taken at that meeting.  As soon as this had been brought to her attention, she had alerted Councillor Stanley of the issue.

            Further debate then focused on the PSPO.  It was highlighted by the Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing, Councillor Mrs Yeates, that the PSPO had been presented to the Sub-Committee to outline the public consultation process undertaken.  The existing PSPO, introduced by the Council in 2017, remained in place until March 2020 and so there was still time for further debate.  She was not sure that the wording in the recommendation from the Sub-Committee was completely correct, as nothing had yet, been removed from the PSPO.  There had been several responses from the public, but nothing submitted by Members of the Council or Parish Councils.  Councillor Mrs Yeates stated that she had asked if Officers could provide a further briefing to Members on this matter and that the Council would be looking at addressing the issues that had been raised by the Traders of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton.  

            Many Members then provided their viewpoints. They widely supported the need for the areas covered in the PSPO introduced in 2017 to remain. This was because anti-social behaviour was a District wide problem and so it was felt to be dangerous to accept the changes proposed to introduce new areas that would specifically relate to just the Town Centres of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton.  There was concern that this would have a detrimental impact upon neighbouring villages as people caught causing anti-social and nuisance behaviour would relocate to nearby rural areas instead.  A request was made to have the PSPO fully examined again and to provide Members with the opportunity for this to be fully debated by all Councillors via the decision-making route used back in 2017.

            The Chief Executive stated that it had been unfortunate that neither the author of the report or the Committee Manager had not been present at the meeting and so the guidance that should have been given to Members had not taken place. When an issue of accuracy with the minutes published had been identified, Councillor Stanley had re-presented them accurately corrected.  The Chief Executive reminded Members that the report had been presented to inform the Sub-Committee of the consultation process undertaken and that any observations made by the Sub-Committee would be fed into the consultation exercise which would ultimately be considered by Cabinet in January 2020.  Councillor Stanley had also given his assurance that all comments made by the Sub-Committee would be reported to Cabinet.  No decision to determine the PSPO could be made at this meeting.

            A lengthy debate then took place about the method of decision making for this item.   Councillor Dr Walsh then proposed an amendment to the recommendation which read as follows (additions are shown in bold):

“That the formal response of the Bognor Regis Sub-Committee is forwarded to the Cabinet meeting on 13 January 2020 for consideration this being that the areas that have been removed from the existing Public Space Protection Order should be reinstated into the new Order”.

            This amendment was seconded by Councillor Brooks.

            On the amendment being put to the vote it was declared CARRIED.

            The Chairman then referred Members to the substantive recommendation, as amended and on putting this to the vote it was declared LOST.

            The Chief Executive confirmed to Members that this decision meant that no formal response would be put to the Cabinet when it considered the outcome of the consultation exercise.

            Councillor Stanley then referred Members to the second recommendation at Minute 11 [Bognor Regis Business Improvement District (BID) in which the Sub-Committee had received a verbal update on the work and progress of the BID.  Councillor Stanley outlined that he wished to reinforce the Sub-Committee’s congratulations to Mr Paul Wells who had recently stepped down as Chairman in terms of the achievements that he and the BID had made.  Congratulations had also been passed to Mr Jason Passingham on his recent appointment as Board Chairman.

            Councillor Stanley outlined that debate on this item had seen the Sub-Committee wishing for further investigation to take place into the potential for a longer-term agreement for two-hour free parking in Bognor Regis. The revised minutes set out what was being recommended to Full Council. 

            Councillor Stanley confirmed that he now wished to withdraw this recommendation as he was now aware that an urgent item on the two-hour disc parking scheme had been presented to the meeting of the Environment & Leisure Working Group on 7 November 2019.  The Working Group had made a recommendation to Full Council that the two-hour free parking scheme be extended to 31 December 2022.  This recommendation would be submitted to the next meeting of Full Council to be held on 15 January 2020 allowing all Members the opportunity to discuss and debate the item.

            Although Members were happy to withdraw the recommendation based on the recommendation coming forward from the Working Group to a future Full Council meeting, it was queried why, as this had been an urgent item to the Working Group, why the minutes from that meeting and the recommendation, had not been placed onto the agenda for tonight’s meeting.

            The Chief Executive and the Group Head of Council Advice & Monitoring Officer explained that as the meeting of the Working Group had been held only last week [7 November 2019], this did not allow enough time to compile the minutes and present them in line with Access to Information Rules set out in the Council’s Constitution.  If the need to consider the matter tonight had been raised earlier, the Minutes and the recommendation could have been presented at the start of the meeting as an urgent item.   A solution was presented which was that authority could be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Technical Services to action the decision of this investigation as a matter of urgency.

            This proposal was accepted by Councillor Stanley who then proposed this amendment, and this was then seconded by Councillor Brooks.  The amendment is set out below with deletions shown using strikethrough and additions shown in bold.

“That Officers investigate a longer term (more than 1 year) agreement for the 2-hour free parking scheme between the Council and the Bognor Regis Improvement District (BID) and authority be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Technical Services to action the outcome decision of this investigation as a matter of urgency.”

            The Chairman then invited debate on this amendment.  It was highlighted by Councillor Brooks that in view of the urgency of the Bognor Regis Bid to print the new discs for the 2-hour free parking scheme ahead of the beginning of December [to include confirmation of an extension of the scheme to 31 December 2022] the amendment should be accepted.   The recommendation as amended would allow the Cabinet Member to implement this decision by way of an Individual Cabinet Member Decision. 

            Following some discussion and on the amendment being put to the vote it was declared CARRIED. 

            The Chairman then returned to the substantive recommendation and the Council

            RESOLVED

That Officers investigate a longer term (more than 1 year) agreement for the 2-hour free parking scheme between the Council and the Bognor Regis Improvement District (BID) and authority be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Technical Services to action the decision of this investigation as a matter of urgency.

            Councillor Charles confirmed that he wished to make a Statement in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 13.3 in relation Minute 12 [Bognor Regis Regeneration Position Statement in relation to the Old Town and Pier].  Councillor Charles outlined that the full detail of his statement and a question that he had asked had not been detailed in full as part of the minutes, despite him making this request.  He had asked Councillor Oppler a question, which he felt needed to be answered, regarding a statement that Councillor Oppler had made at the previous meeting of the Sub-Committee regarding Waterloo Place.  It was Councillor Charles’ view that the statement made by Councillor Oppler had been incorrect and he wished for this to be withdrawn.

            The Chief Executive advised Councillor Charles to put his concerns to Councillor Oppler in writing.