Meeting documents

133 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

134 EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE

The Chair(person) drew attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out on the Agenda

135 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

There were no declarations of interest.

136 TO ANNOUNCE ANY URGENT BUSINESS AGREED BY THE CHAIR(PERSON)

There were no items of urgent business.

137 QUESTIONS FROM PUBLIC AND COUNCILLORS

There were 29 questions submitted - copies of the responses were circulated at the meeting. [A copy of the Question & Answer document has been placed on the Minute book and will be added to the website.]

138 STATEMENTS, DEPUTATIONS OR PETITIONS FROM PUBLIC AND COUNCILLORS

The Council Executive noted the written statement that had been submitted by Mr Worthy Gilson.

139 MINUTES: WEDNESDAY 12TH JANUARY 2005

On a motion from Councillor Jonathan Gay, seconded by Councillor Francine Haeberling, it was

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 12th January 2005 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair(person).

140 CONSIDERATION OF SINGLE MEMBER ITEMS NOW REQUISITIONED TO COUNCIL EXECUTIVE (Report 9).

There were no such items on this occasion.

141 CONSIDERATION OF MATTERS REFERRED BY OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY BODIES (Report 10).

There were no such items on this occasion.

142 REVENUE AND CAPITAL BUDGET AND COUNCIL TAX 2005/06 (Report 11).

Dave Dixon, Chair of the Resources Overview & Scrutiny Panel, raised a number of issues regarding the budget. He welcomed the zero based budgetting pilot for Social Services, regretted there would be no expansion for the Community Warden scheme nor extension of the Area Committee pilot but raised his main area of concern as being the lack of public consultation involved in producing this budget. He explained that his Overview & Scrutiny Panel would be looking at how this could be improved in future.

Councillor Charles Gerrish enquired about the savings achieved from the Aquaterra leisure contract and asked for clarification on how the share of the unallocated sum for public realm would be spent in the Norton Radstock area.

Councillor David Bellotti welcomed the proposals contained within the budget particularly zero based budgetting, vacancy management and the management re-organisation. Councillor Bellotti regretted the Council Tax increase which he felt was partly due to the Social Services overspend.

Councillor Paul Crossley presented this budget which he felt represented good value for money while addressing a range of pressures. Councillor Crossley looked forward to receiving the Overview & Scrutiny work on consultation raised by Councillor Dixon, and acknowledged that engagement with Councillors and the public needed to start at an earlier stage in future. He explained that the Corporate Plan review body would be working towards next year's budget as soon as this one had been accepted by Council.

With regard to Area Committees, Councillor Crossley explained that a review of the current Area pilot would be going to Council later in the year and that funding for the pilot was in place until April 2006.

In response to the query raised by Councillor Gerrish concerning Aquaterra, Councillor Crossley explained that the Council was on target with savings.

Councillor Crossley explained that the Children's Working panel were making good progress towards meeting the requirements of the Government directive.

Councillor Francine Haeberling responded to Councillor Bellotti's points regarding the Social Services overspend and reminded the Councillor of the Council motion which recognised the impact of the Government underfunding of this Council's Social Services.

Councillor Jonathan Gay welcomed the money allocated to Norton Radstock. With regard to the Youth Improvement priority, Councillor Gay explained that he would be working with the Director of Education to transfer up to £50,000 from Education to Youth and this would be picked up in the Service Plan.

Councillor Vic Pritchard reminded Councillor Dixon that the number of Community Wardens had been increased from 5 to 7 and the service was making good progress.

Councillor Colin Darracott acknowledged that the consultation on the budget could have been better and agreed that the budget setting process should start earlier in future. Councillor Darracott explained that the money for Norton Radstock would be for Streetscape in the Westfield ward.

Councillor Sir Elgar Jenkins welcomed the Council tax rise being under the maximum of 5% and commented that it could have been lower if the Government had increased the share of grant contribution to Local Authorities.

Councillor Rosemary Todd explained her intention, as Executive Member with a rural affairs brief, to give further thought to finding the right mechanism for dealing with the issue of playing fields and sports pitches.

Rationale and Other Options considered

The rationale for the recommendations and any other options are contained in the supporting paper and appendices to the report.

On a motion from Councillor Paul Crossley, seconded by Councillor Francine Haeberling, it was RESOLVED

(1) To confirm that the Council Executive has taken account of the report of the Resources Director on the robustness of estimates made and the adequacy of balances held by this Council (Appendix 5);

(2) To recommend the draft Budget Proposal for 2005/06 to the Resources Overview & Scrutiny Panel (10^th Feb 2005) for its comment; and

(3) To recommend the draft Budget Proposal for 2005/06 to Council for its approval, specifically:

(a) To approve the recommended 2005/06 revenue budget of £171.9M, an increase of 7.1% on 2004/05, as shown at Appendix 2

(b) To approve the recommended 2005/06 capital budget of £49.3M, as shown at Appendix 3, which complies with the requirements of Council's resolution on 20^th January 2005

(c) To approve the working balances statement at Appendix 4 with un-earmarked revenue balances set at £5.9m, an increase of £0.6m on the 2004/05 budgeted level

(d) To approve a Council Tax increase for Bath and North East Somerset of 4.75% and adopt the formal Council Tax setting resolution (this will be included in the papers for full Council)

(4) To recommend Council to instruct Executive Members to finalise their revenue and capital budgets for 2005/06 within the cash limits and amounts set by Council, for inclusion on the weekly decision list no later than April 2005 (as part of the approval of Service and Resource Plans);

(5) To advise Council of the good progress made in establishing a scheme to assist parish councils with the costs of maintaining playgrounds without recourse to the use of special expenses; and, having considered the marginal effects of introducing special expenses for playing fields and sports pitches, to recommend Council that expenses incurred in performing a function in part of the Authority's area which is performed elsewhere by a Parish Council should not be treated as special expenses but that further consideration is given during 2005/06 to other mechanisms that have the aim of removing any remaining inequities regarding cemeteries and burial grounds, and playing fields and sports pitches;

(6) To thank the Joint Working Party on Quality Parishes and related matters for its work; and recommend that the working party need not be reconstituted;

(7) To authorise the Head of Finance and Resource Planning, in consultation with the Executive Members for Resources and the Leader of the Council, to make presentational improvements to the draft Budget Proposal prior to submission to Council;

(8) to authorise the release of the remaining unallocated capital sum from the 2004/05 Budget of £90,000, to be earmarked for improvements in the public realm in Norton Radstock and Oldfield and Widcombe wards of £30,000 each, as intended in setting the 2004/05 Capital Budget.

143 CORPORATE PLAN REVIEW (INCORPORATING DRAFT FINANCIAL PLAN) (Report 12).

Helen Woodley, speaking on behalf of Bath Friends of the Earth, addressed the meeting about their perception of the paucity of open spaces in the city centre and called for the figure of 4% of land designated as green space to be doubled. This would go some way to addressing the impact of climate change and could bring economic benefits to the city through an improved environment for tourism.

Councillor Paul Crossley introduced the second Corporate Plan from the 3 party administration. He mentioned the good progress and significant achievements that had been made, while recognising the serious financial pressures the Council was under.

Councillor Francine Haeberling welcomed the achievement on most of the Improvement Priorities and hoped that further emphasis could be placed on improving life chances for disadvantaged teenagers.

Rationale

The Review has followed a structured methodology. The conclusions arise from evidence regarding progress to date and new and emerging issues.

Other Options considered

The Review highlights issues for consideration by the Council Executive

On a motion from Councillor Paul Crossley, seconded by Councillor Francine Haeberling, it was

RESOLVED

(1) To recommend to full Council to approve the Corporate Plan Review (incorporating the Financial Plan);

(2) To Authorise the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Executive Member for Resources and the Leader of the Council, to make presentational improvements to the Corporate Plan Review prior to submission to Council;

(3) Recommend Council to authorise the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Executive Member Resources and the Leader of the Council, to revise the Council's published Corporate Plan document to incorporate the revisions set out in the Corporate Plan Review

(4) Advise Council that the Review has demonstrated that good progress is being made with the Council's Corporate Plan 2003 - 2007.

(5) Advise Council that, in view of the projected financial planning shortfalls for 2006/07 and 2007/08, the Executive has fully accepted the need to develop proposals for achieving affordable revenue budgets in those years, and will focus its attention over the next 12 - 18 months on the following:

(a) generating substantial additional capital receipts, to reduce the need for unsupported borrowing while protecting the income received from the Council's assets

(b) driving a programme of efficiency initiatives, with specific consideration of the potential savings to be achieved from:

(c) ensuring opportunities for income generation are maximised;

(d) conducting a pilot "zero-based budgeting" exercise in Social Services;

(e) ensuring the managers critically review the need to recruit to posts as they become vacant; and

(f) reducing the scope or standard of services where these are demonstrated not to contribute significantly to Improvement Priorities or statutory requirements.

144 TREASURY MANAGEMENT STRATEGY STATEMENT AND ANNUAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY 2005/2006 (Report 13).

Councillor Paul Crossley introduced this report, explaining that it was required by the Local Government Act 2003 and part of the Council's financial planning process and consistent with the previous financial reports.

Rationale and Other Options considered

This is a statutory requirement; other options are not applicable.

On a motion from Councillor Paul Crossley, seconded by Councillor Francine Haeberling, it was

RESOLVED

(1) To approve the actions proposed within the Treasury Strategy Statement.

(2) To approve the borrowing strategy as detailed in paragraph 5.6.

(3) To approve the investment strategy as detailed in paragraph 6.2.

(4) To recommend the report to Full Council for adoption of the Prudential Indicators detailed in paragraph 5.2 of the report.

145 LOCAL DEVELOPMENT SCHEME (Report 14).

Councillor Rosemary Todd explained that a response was needed by March this year and that this scheme would be the basis for managing and controlling the use of land in the future. Councillor Todd referred to the late Update report which had been circulated regarding the Southgate Compulsory Purchase Order Public Inquiry and acknowledged that its addition to the Local Plan public inquiry process might cause delay to the adoption of the Local Plan.

Rationale

There is a statutory requirement to prepare an LDS and section 4 of the report sets out the rationale for the preparation of the LDDs proposed to be included.

Other Options considered

A number of other documents were considered for inclusion in the LDS. These are listed below with reasons for deferring them for future consideration (see also para. 4.9 of the report).

(1) Core Strategy - not needed at the moment as existing approved Joint Replacement Structure Plan and emerging Local Plan provide strategic direction for the area. In addition the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy may result in the need to produce an area action plan or plans to address planning issues which require urgent attention.

(2) The following supplementary planning documents (SPDs):

i. Western Riverside Masterplan

ii. Radstock Town Centre

iii. Keynsham Town Centre

iv. Midsomer Norton High Street Development Brief

v. Bath City Centre

vi. Developer contributions

vii. Parking Standards accessibility criteria

viii. Lower Bristol Road Development Brief

ix. MoD site at Warminster Road Development Brief

x. Bath River Avon Corridor

xi. Village Design Statements

xii. Design Guidance

xiii. City Riverside Development Brief (extension of Western Riverside to cover potential riverside development east and west of the site e.g. Avon Street car park, Lower Bristol Road).

The main reason for excluding these in the short term is the resource implications for carrying out the work and the need to ensure that the Bath & North East Somerset Local Plan proceeds successfully to adoption. The possible need to start early work on area action plans (see 4.17 of the report) is another factor.

The developer contributions SPD can, in the interim, be covered with a technical advice note. The need for contributions is set out in the Local Plan policies and the advice can set out how these should be calculated.

The accessibility criteria would be mainly prepared by Transportation, Access & Waste Management Services. However, further work on the programming of this work is needed and its inclusion can be considered when the LDS is reviewed.

Village Design Statements (VDS) are prepared by Parish Councils and have proved a useful tool in guiding the type of development in villages to meet the aspirations of the local community. Preparation of such guidance would need to meet with new statutory requirements for production of supplementary planning documents, including meeting the consultation requirements of the statement of community involvement (or in the interim the minimum consultation requirements as set out in the planning regulations) and be subject to sustainability appraisal. In this context there needs to be further consideration on VDS preparation and status and Parish Councils should be consulted on this.

The inclusion of additional SPDs can be considered when the LDS is reviewed.

On a motion from Councillor Rosemary Todd, seconded by Councillor Jonathan Gay, it was

RESOLVED

(1) To recommend to Council;

(a) That the Bath & North East Somerset Local Development Scheme is agreed for submission to the Secretary of State; and

(b) That the scheme should have effect from the 24^th March 2005;

(2) To note that discussions are ongoing between Bath & North East Somerset and the Planning Inspectorate and GOSW concerning the likely adoption date for the Bath and North East Somerset Local Plan;

(3) That Members note the implications of failing to adopt the Bath and North East Somerset Local Plan before 21^st July 2006 and the potential implications of the proposed Southgate CPO inquiry programme on the adoption date of the Bath and North East Somerset Local Plan; and

(4) That officers be instructed to accept the proposal to hold the Southgate Compulsory Purchase Order Inquiry immediately after the Bath and North East Somerset Local Plan inquiry as proposed by the Planning Inspectorate.

146 CUSTOMER 4 MONTHLY PERFORMANCE REPORT (Report 15).

On a motion from Councillor Paul Crossley, seconded by Councillor Francine Haeberling, it was

RESOLVED to note the report.

147 LEISURE 4 MONTHLY PERFORMANCE REPORT (Report 16).

On a motion from Councillor Paul Crossley, seconded by Councillor Francine Haeberling, it was

RESOLVED to note the report.