Venue: Chew Valley Secondary School - Chew Magna. View directions
Contact: Mark Hayward 01225 396975
Email: mark_hayward@bathnes.gov.uk
Items
No. |
Item |
1. |
B&NES Budget Fair including Question and Answer session
The Chew Valley Area
Forum is hosting one of the Council’s Budget Fairs.
This year there will be five meetings which are open to the public
and are each being hosted by the Connecting Communities Area
Forums. The Budget Fairs provide an opportunity to hear about
the Council’s financial plans for the next four years.
There will be an opportunity to ask questions and feed into the
discussions on the budget proposals.
Minutes:
Several comments were made about the presentation
not demonstrating any expenditure within the Chew Valley other than
those already committed (Bishop Sutton Primary School). The Council has a new challenge to analysis
financial information relating to the Forum areas and will consider
how best to present this in the future.
Question 1 – Why does the Council think that acquiring
property is more beneficial than selling it?
Response – Revenue funding pays for all the services and
this is under pressure. Using capital
funding to acquire property will enable future income streams to be
off set against the revenue expenditure. It is important that the Council grows its income
by investing in the rights things to give a good
return. We have increased our revenue
already by £1million.
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Question 2 – Do you believe the Council is better at
managing property than the private sector?
Response – The Council has a good track of managing
commercial property and working with the private
sector. Our staff are very experienced,
many of whom have private sector property backgrounds.
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Question 3 – Does this mean the Council will not sell any
of its assets in the future?
Response – The Council continues to review its portfolio
of assets and will consider whether it needs to reinvest elsewhere
to obtain a higher return.
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Question 4 – How does the Council protect itself through
interest rate rises?
Response – The Council is able to get very competitive
rates and any borrowing is based on a fixed rate. A review of the Council’s existing loans has
been completed and a better rate is now been realised.
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Question 5 – A reference was made to £2.25 million
investment into super-fast broadband. Will the Chew Valley
benefit?
Response – This investment in Bath will create an
opportunity for income generation to the Council. BT were committed to improving 90% of the
coverage, unfortunately they were unable to deliver on their
commitment.
(Comment from Chris Head – The Forum will be
hosting a discussion about Broadband in February. This was identified by the Forum as a priority
issue in their Action Plan. Andrew Pate
said that the feedback from this meeting would be very
helpful.)
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Question 6 – The Council has reduced the Parish Council
grants. As this will impact on our
budgets, will the Council be freezing or capping the precept rates
that parish councils’ receive?
Response – Over a number of years’ parish council
grants were subsidised by the Council.
This was due to the implementation of a new system of council tax
support which created a shortfall in grants. The subsidies have been reduced on a sliding
scale. The Council does not have the
power to freeze or cap the rate of council tax
collected. This decision will be made
by the Government.
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Question 7 – Why is planned expenditure increasing, can we
have more details?
Response – There are a number of reasons. Adult and social care pressures from an aging and
growing population, employers ...
view the full minutes text for item 1.
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2. |
West of England Joint Spatial Plan including Question and Answer session
The West of
England’s Joint Spatial Plan and Transport Study will set out
a prospectus for sustainable growth that will help the area meet
its housing and transport needs for the next 20 years.
Estimates state that to maintain its current prosperity, the area
needs at least 85,000 new homes by 2036, nearly 30,000 more than
the number already planned, as well as the transport and other
infrastructure needed to support this level of growth.
Officers from Planning Services will give a presentation to the
Forum and update them on Placemaking.
Minutes:
Question 1 – How can we bring forward brownfield sites
that are owned by developers, rather than development being forced
onto greenfield sites?
Response – Not in all cases, however some brownfield
development is costly due to the contamination issues, poor access
etc. For developers it’s much
easier to develop greenfield sites. The
Local Authority is measured on its delivery of housing
numbers. The Council works with
developers and agents however the Local authority cannot force
developers to bring forward their sites.
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Question 2 – There is a known brownfield site in
Whitchurch that has been vacant for over 28 years. How can we make sure these sites are developed
first?
Response – Developers are known to
‘land-bank’. The Government
are looking at introducing a tax on sites that have planning
permission.
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Question 3 – Why is there no proposed expansion in
Bath?
Response – The Inspector felt that there was already
enough development in Bath with the MOD site and Western Riverside
and took out the site in Weston.
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Question 4 – In Chew Stoke a new bus stop has been
installed however we have no regular service. How can we improve local services and
infrastructure in the future?
Response – It will be possible to use CIL monies to
enhance local services and infrastructure in rural
communities. It has been important that
the JSP considers housing, employment and transport together to
ensure a more holistic approach is taken. The Chew Valley Transport Strategy and Total
Transport bid will be looking at local solutions.
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Question 5 – What extent will other infrastructure such as
GP services be considered?
Response – The Council and the CCG (Clinical Commissioning
Group) have been working more closely together to ensure future
infrastructure is better planned.
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Question 6 – The Council has a duty to co-operate with
other local authorities in the West of England, does this include
Wiltshire and Mendip and do they also have requirements to
co-operate with B&NES?
Response – Yes. The housing
allocation goes beyond the Core Strategy allocation. All local authorities will have to co-operate with
each other. The Council is having
active discussions with Mendip.
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Question 7 – Will an individual’s response be just
as valid as a Parish Council?
Response – Yes, they hold equal weight.
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