Agenda and minutes

The Chair was taken by Councillor Paul Crossley, Leader of the Council.

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and announced that the meeting would be recorded and a web cast was available by means of a link from the Council’s website.

The Chair announced that it was his intention to consider item 16 (Schools Expansion) at the beginning of the agenda because a large amount of public interest had been expressed in the issue.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Questions submitted before the deadline will receive a reply from an appropriate Cabinet member or a promise to respond within 5 days of the meeting.  Councillors may ask one supplementary question for each question they submitted, up to a maximum of two per Councillor.

There were 11 questions from the following Councillors: Nigel Roberts (2), Brian Webber (2), Tim Warren (3), Geoff Ward, Martin Veal, Liz Richardson, Anthony Clarke.

There were 3 questions from the following members of the public: Joel Hirst, Simon Whittle, Evan Weinburg

[Copies of the questions and response, including supplementary questions and responses if any, have been placed on the Minute book as Appendix 1 and are available on the Council's website.]

Councillors and members of the public may register their intention to make a statement if they notify the subject matter of their statement before the deadline.  Statements are limited to 3 minutes each.  The speaker may then be asked by Cabinet members to answer factual questions arising out of their statement.

Councillor Tim Warren read a statement on behalf of Councillor Colin Barrett and presented a petition of 300 signatures asking Cabinet to ensure that the Public Conveniences in Weston Village would not be closed.

The Chair referred the petition to Councillor David Dixon for a response in due course.

Councillor John Bull in a statement about Small Business Saturdays [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 2 and on the Council's website] asked the Cabinet to consider launching a scheme to encourage residents to use their local small businesses more often.

Councillor Liz Hardman in a statement about Children’s Centre Funding [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 3 and on the Council's website] appealed to the Cabinet to protect the funding of children’s centres in the area when it recommends its budget to Council.

The Chair assured Councillor Hardman that her comments would be taken fully into account during the budget process.

Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones in a statement about Victoria Art Gallery [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 4 and on the Council's website] presented a petition of 518 signatures asking the Cabinet not to introduce charges for the Victoria Art Gallery.  He asked the Cabinet to exempt local residents from any proposed entry charge, perhaps by extending the combined ticket for the Baths and Fashion Museum to include the gallery.  If the combined ticket price were raised in price by £1, that would bring £50,000 per year into the gallery.

The Chair referred the petition to Councillor David Dixon for a response in due course.

Barbara Gordon read a statement on behalf of Lin Patterson about the Campaign to Save Larkhall Public Toilets [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 5 and on the Council's website] and delivered a petition of nearly 500 signatures asking Cabinet not to close the facility.

The Chair referred the petition to Councillor David Dixon for a response in due course.

On a motion from Councillor Paul Crossley, seconded by Councillor David Dixon, it was

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 16^th January 2013 be confirmed as a correct record and would be signed by the Chair.

This is a standard agenda item, to cover any reports originally placed on the Weekly list for single Member decision making, which have subsequently been the subject of a Cabinet Member requisition to the full Cabinet, under the Council’s procedural rules

This is a standing agenda item (Constitution rule 14, part 4D – Executive Procedure Rules) for matters referred by Policy Development and Scrutiny bodies.  The Chair of the relevant PDS Panel will have the right to attend and to introduce the Panel’s recommendations to Cabinet.

The Chair announced that Resources PDS Panel had met on Mon 11^th Feb and resolved to make some recommendations to Cabinet relating to the Budget.  Copies of the Panel’s recommendations had been placed into the public gallery before this meeting [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 6 and on the Council's website].

The Chair asked Councillor John Bull (Chair of the Panel) to introduce the Panel’s recommendations.  Councillor Bull explained the input from each Panel and asked Cabinet to take on board all of the comments.

The Chair assured Councillor Bull that all the comments received would be considered in the lead up to Budget Council.

This report lists any Cabinet Single Member decisions taken and published since the last Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet agreed to note the report.

The Chair announced that as part of the Council’s budget cuts, the number of Cabinet meetings would be reduced to 8 per year (from 11).  He anticipated as a result that more decisions would in future be taken by single-member decision.

Seek approval to publish statutory notices proposing the expansion of Bathampton Primary, Castle Primary, Paulton Infant, Paulton Junior, Peasedown St John Primary and Weston All Saints CofE Primary schools to create additional pupil places

Councillor John Bull in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 7 and on the Council's website] appealed to the Cabinet to ensure that every child in Paulton would have a place at the primary school; and that the on-going road safety problems would be addressed by bringing forward anticipated funding to implement a traffic management scheme near the schools.

Councillor Liz Hardman in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 8 and on the Council's website] asked the Cabinet to ensure that effective road safety and traffic management schemes would be in place before any expansion of Paulton school; to ensure that all Paulton children would have a place at a school in Paulton; and that funding for the expansion scheme would be maximised, whatever approach was adopted.

Rachel Rayner (Paulton Resident) in a statement said that there were road safety issues at Paulton school which must be addressed before expansion was considered; that the school facilities would be inadequate to support a 50% increase in children; and that she felt the consultation had been inadequate, particularly since section 9 of the report did not even mention the option of building a new school on another site.

Mich Moore (Paulton Schools Expansion Action Group) in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 9 and on the Council's website] disagreed with the contention made in the report that the existing site of Paulton Schools would lend itself to expansion.  She felt that road safety issues in particular made the plans inadequate for the needs of local children.  She appealed to Cabinet to direct resources towards building a new building on a new site which would provide a sustainable solution for the village.

Louise Bray (Chair, Church Valley Schools Federation) in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 10 and on the Council's website] asked the Cabinet to give an assurance that the Education and Inspections Act 2006 would be upheld, particularly in the matter of keeping village schools open, by protecting the rural schools in the area.

Councillor Dine Romero thanked the parents and head teacher of Paulton Infants School for meeting with her recently.  She said that the main issues of concern were planning, transport and road safety and observed that the planning application had been withdrawn in order to address these issues.  She assured Councillors Bull and Harman that schooling would be provided in Paulton for all Paulton children whose parents wished that.  There were some reservations about new build, because the existing policy was that new build should be for a minimum of 2-form entry but a new build in Paulton could barely be single-form entry and would cost about £3M.  She assured parents however that the s.106 funds would be fully used to improve the schools in Paulton.

Councillor Romero referred to the complaints  ...  view the full minutes text for item 156.

To agree and set the Council's medium term planning approach and recommend the 2013/14 Council Tax and Budget to Council

Della Simmons (parent of a child at First Steps Children’s Centre) in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 11 and on the Council's website] referred to the proposed budget cuts to children’s centres and presented a petition of 280 signatures asking for Cabinet to reconsider the proposed cuts to children’s centres.

Councillor Eleanor Jackson in an ad hoc statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 14 and on the Council's website] asked the Cabinet to reconsider the proposals to cut the budget for children’s centres.  She referred to the section on the Victoria Hall on page 56 of the papers and pointed out that there was still no business plan for saving the Hall, nor had there been any analysis of the consultation which had taken place in November 2012.  Councillor Jackson then referred to the Affordable Housing section on page 55 of the report.  She supported the allocation of £550K for this, but asked for more detail of how the money would be used.

Councillor Charles Gerrish in an ad hoc statement explained the concerns of the Conservative Group over some issues and gave notice that the Group would present some amendments to the Budget, although he did not anticipate that these would be significant.  He particularly emphasised the need to address the problem of potholes.

Councillor Ben Stephens in an ad hoc statement congratulated the Cabinet for its prioritisation of supporting the local economy, in particular for entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Peter Duppa-Miller (Secretary to the Town and Parish Councils Association) in an ad hoc statement thanked officers for keeping the association informed during the budget process.

Councillor Geoff Ward in an ad hoc statement expressed concern over the proposed 30% cut in public protection which he felt would leave the Council very vulnerable in an emergency.  He also objected to the proposed cuts in pest control.

Councillor David Bellotti introduced the item.  He referred to an additional paper which had been placed into the public gallery before the meeting [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 12 and on the Council's website] which listed a number of small changes in wording and content of the published report.  He moved an amended motion which included the points from the additional paper.

Councillor Bellotti explained that the proposals would protect front-line services, would deliver a zero Council Tax rise, and would invest in homes and jobs across the area.  All this was against the background of government grants which, over 3 years, had reduced by £30M.

He was delighted that the proposed budget had avoided any cuts to bus services or the youth service.  He was delighted that housing would continue to grow because of Bath Western Riverside and the Radstock Regeneration.

Councillor Paul Crossley seconded the budget proposal.  He reminded the Cabinet that the Council had been able to maintain strong reserves by delivering over £25M  ...  view the full minutes text for item 157.

To consider and recommend to Council changes to the Core Strategy in response to the examination inspector's preliminary conclusions

David Redgewell in an ad hoc statement emphasised to Cabinet that doing nothing was not an option.  He felt that the authority must accept that it needed to increase its housing and that the Core Strategy must reflect this.

Peter Duppa-Miller (Secretary to the Town and Parish Councils Association) in an ad hoc statement said that the association was eager to work with planning officers to adopt and implement the core Strategy.  They felt that small amounts of new housing should be allowed in the washed-over green belt settlements.

Councillor Geoff Ward in an ad hoc statement agreed with Peter Duppa-Miller.  He was concerned that rural areas appeared to be ruled out from even small housing growth simply by virtue of the public transport argument, when in fact most rural dwellers would use their cars to travel around.

Councillor David Laming in an ad hoc statement was delighted that attention was being paid to the river corridor.  He reminded the Cabinet that new homes could be floating or mobile.  The real need was for affordable housing.

Councillor Tim Ball introduced the item by thanking David Redgewell and Peter Duppa-Miller for their contributions to the debate.  He thanked officers for working so hard to get the strategy back on course.  He announced that many of the questions being raised would be answered when the issue was considered at the Full Council in March.  He said that the strategy would revisit the housing numbers and the delivery mechanism.

Councillor Ball moved the recommendations.

Councillor Paul Crossley seconded the proposal.  He reminded Cabinet that this was a key document which would enable the Council to plan and control development in the area.  It had been regrettable that consensus could not be reached last autumn, but he was confident of agreement when it was brought back to Council.

Councillor Roger Symonds said that the strategy must be a balance between those who have cars and those who relied on public transport.

Councillor David Dixon said that the key to sustainable development was putting work near to homes.  It was also about the provision of local shops.  His priority was to deliver homes for people and families.

Councillor Cherry Beath said that the strategy would deliver healthy communities.  She had been delighted to hear that Councillor Eleanor Jackson would welcome more homes in Radstock.

Councillor Tim Ball in summing up agreed that housing must be in the right place, to minimise travel.

On a motion from Councillor Tim Ball, seconded by Councillor Paul Crossley, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

(1) To NOTE the progress on the work required on the Core Strategy to address examination Inspector’s concerns.

Amendments and adoption of the Sustainable Construction & Retrofitting Supplementary Planning Document following the public consultation

Councillor David Martin in a statement [a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 13 and on the Council's website] welcomed the document which he felt would be helpful to residents, builders and installers while at the same time reinforcing the Council’s Green Deal initiative.  He felt however that an opportunity had been missed to produce guidance for listed buildings.

Councillor Tim Ball proposed the recommendations.  He thanked Councillor Martin for his observations and regretted that the proposals relating to listed building retrofitting were not ready to be published, but he anticipated being able to bring proposals forward later.  He thanked officers, in particular Cleo Newcombe-Jones, for their hard work

Councillor Paul Crossley seconded the proposal and said that the document would improve the lives of many by enabling fuel efficiency and winter warmth in their homes.

Councillor Cherry Beath felt that the document was a huge step in the right direction and was another example of the Cabinet being willing to grasp nettles.

On a motion from Councillor Tim Ball, seconded by Councillor Paul Crossley, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

(1) To ADOPT the Sustainable Construction and Retrofitting Supplementary Planning Document to supplement the Bath & North East Somerset Local Plan, and then the Core Strategy once this is adopted;

(2) To AGREE that the Domestic Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy: Permitted Development Checklist will be made available on the Council’s website;

(3) To DELEGATE authority to the Divisional Director of Planning & Transport Development to make graphic and minor textual amendments to the documents prior to adoption;

(4) To SUPPORT the future adoption of local Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Guidance for listed buildings in the next 6 months, following a further review of the draft document with English Heritage (and other stakeholders); and

(5) To AGREE that discussions will be held with other Local Authorities (and other interested parties) with a specific interest in approving energy efficiency and renewable energy measures in listed buildings, together with the relevant Government departments (DCMS and DCLG), with a view to identifying conservation and building regulations policy constraints and ways to overcome them.

Proposal to increase and alter supervision fees for Section 38, 106 and 278 works in line with the charges of other authorities.  Also charges for technical approvals, separate charges for highway structures and altering the Bond calculator

Councillor Roger Symonds moved the recommendations.  He explained that the intention was that the Council should no longer subsidise developers by charging less than it cost the council to provide the service.

Councillor Paul Crossley in seconding the proposals said that they would ensure that future roads would be built to Council standards, at no extra cost to the Council.

On a motion from Councillor Roger Symonds, seconded by Councillor Paul Crossley, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

(1) To INCREASE Supervision charges on S38, S106 and S278 works to include both technical approval and on-site supervision as set out in the report;

(2) To INCREASE the charges to cover staff time, in line with the income and costs of the previous five years and estimated income from the proposed increase as shown in the report;

(3) To IMPOSE At-cost charges for Structures officers, to include for technical approval and supervision of each highways structure element, such as culverts, retaining walls and bridges; and

(4) To AGREE that the basis for the fee changes be subject to a further review in 2013/14.

This report presents the third monitoring information for the Authority as a whole for the financial year 2012/13 to the end of December 2012. The report also includes a number of budget transfer requests for both revenue and capital that require Cabinet agreement or are reported for information purposes as prescribed by the Budget Management Scheme

Councillor David Bellotti explained that the report demonstrated how the Council ran its affairs.  He observed that Directors had made good progress in keeping within budget.  The report also showed progress on the capital program.

Councillor Paul Crossley seconded the proposal and welcomed the report.  He drew particular attention to the capital expenditure allocated for St Gregory’s and St Mark’s Joint VI Form, and for Ralph Allen.

On a motion from Councillor David Bellotti, seconded by Councillor Paul Crossley, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

(1) To NOTE the projected outturn position for 2012/13 and accompanying information provided in the report;

(2) To ASK the Strategic Directors to continue to work towards managing within budget in the current year for their respective service areas, and to manage below budget where possible by not committing unnecessary expenditure, through tight budgetary control;

(3) To NOTE the capital expenditure position for the Council in the financial year to the end of December and the year end projections detailed in the report;

(4) To AGREE the revenue virements listed for approval in the report; and

(5) To NOTE the changes in the capital programme.

This report gives details of performance against the Council's Treasury Management Strategy and Annual Investment Plan 2012/13 for the first 9 months of 2012/13

Councillor David Bellotti in moving the proposals explained that the paper was about the council’s borrowings during the year.  The authority had avoided any increase in its borrowings.

Councillor Paul Crossley seconded the proposal.  He said that the Council’s investment policy emphasised security and liquidity.

On a motion from Councillor David Bellotti, seconded by Councillor Paul Crossley, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

(1) To NOTE the Treasury Management Report to 31st December 2012, prepared in accordance with the CIPFA Treasury Code of Practice; and

(2) To NOTE the Treasury Management Indicators to 31st December 2012.

The Local Government Act requires the Council to set out its treasury strategy for borrowing and to prepare an Annual Investment Strategy

Councillor David Laming in an ad hoc statement asked for clarification about the status and amount allocated under the Revolving Investment Fund.  He understood that an amount of £3M allocated for east of Bath flood compensation was now to be used for installation of step banks.  He was concerned that the full £3M might be spent unnecessarily.

Councillor David Bellotti assured Councillor Laming that only the required funds would be spent, in line with the Cabinet’s determination to void unnecessary expenditure.  He reminded Cabinet that the RIF was a revolving fund precisely because it had to be repaid, so no benefit would come from any overspend.  He asked officers to respond to Councillor Laming’s enquiry.

He moved the recommendations.

Councillor Paul Crossley seconded the proposal.

On a motion from Councillor David Bellotti, seconded by Councillor Paul Crossley, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

To RECOMMEND to Council:

(1) That Council approves the actions proposed within the Treasury Management Strategy Statement in Appendix 1;

(2) That Council approves the Investment Strategy as detailed in Appendix 2;

(3) That Council approves the changes to the authorised lending lists detailed in Appendix 2 and highlighted in Appendix 3;

and

To AGREE:

(4) To NOTE the Treasury Management Indicators detailed in Appendix 1 and delegate authority for updating the indicators prior to approval at Full Council on 19th February 2013 to the Divisional Director - Finance and Cabinet Member for Community Resources, in light of any changes to the recommended budget as set out in the Budget Report elsewhere on the agenda for this meeting.

Following an open tender round, it is proposed to award contracts for a range of supported bus services, including evening and Sunday services, Bath daytime contracted services and some rural services

David Redgewell in a statement said that the report was mostly good news but that there were still some issues.  He particularly mentioned the Council’s responsibility to market the services it provides by placing timetables at relevant places.  He explained to Cabinet in some details which services he felt should be improved or provided differently.

The Chair asked all Cabinet members to confirm that they had read the Public Interest Test relating to Appendix A of the report.  Cabinet members unanimously confirmed this.

The Chair then proposed that Appendix A should be exempt from publication by reason of the fact that it contained private information.  This was seconded by Councillor David Dixon and agreed unanimously.

The Chair advised the Cabinet that he did not intend to exclude the public from the meeting unless a Cabinet member wished to refer to the contents of Appendix A during the debate.  No Cabinet member indicated a wish to do this.

Councillor Roger Symonds in proposing the item thanked David Redgewell for his contribution.  He said that the Cabinet would judge the proposals on usage of a service and the cost to deliver it.  He was delighted that the proposals would deliver the same service as the previous year, but for £108K less; and he congratulated officers on achieving this.  He observed that in addition, the number 6/7 bus had been included in the proposals.

Councillor Paul Crossley seconded the proposal and said that an excellent deal had been negotiated.  The bus operators had shown a willingness to work with the Council to deliver the services.

On a motion from Councillor Paul Crossley, seconded by Councillor David Dixon, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

(1) To AGREE that Appendix A is an exempt item and is not for publication, by virtue of paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

On a motion from Councillor Roger Symonds, seconded by Councillor Paul Crossley, it was

RESOLVED (unanimously)

(2) To NOTE the tender prices received;

(3) To AGREE the award of contracts as proposed;

(4) To CONFIRM the continued support for enhanced frequency on service 6/7 to Larkhall and Fairfield Park; and

(5) To CONFIRM the changes to contract services.