Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as follows:

If the continuous alarm sounds, you must evacuate the building by one of the designated exits and proceed to one of the named assembly points. The designated exits are sign-posted. Arrangements are in place for the safe evacuation of disabled people. The assembly points are: the front and rear of Riverside, Temple Street.

The Democratic Services Officer advised the meeting of the procedure.

Apologies were received from Councillor Tim Warren, Councillor Paul May, Councillor Mark Shelford, Ashley Ayre and Corston PC.

There was none.

These were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Councillor Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Finance and Efficiency, will give the report on behalf of the Leader, Councillor Tim Warren, who is unable to attend the meeting.

Councillor Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Finance and Efficiency, gave the update on behalf of Councillor Tim Warren, Leader of the Council, who was unable to attend.

Councillor Gerrish began by informing the meeting of a weather warning issued by the Council at 16.30 that day. It was likely that snow showers during the morning of Thursday, 1^st March would turn to heavier snow showers in the afternoon, which would affect the evening rush hour. Friday 2^nd March was likely to be very difficult, with significant disruption.

He reported that the Joint Local Transport Plan was now being translated into the Joint Transport Strategy Policy, which would be associated with the strategic development sites within the Joint Spatial Plan, and would be included in a further round of consultations. The JSP had reached Regulation 19 stage; all comments received during the recent consultation would be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate at the same time as the JSP was formally submitted, which was anticipated to be at the end of March. It would then be subject to examination in public.

The budget had been approved by Council on 13^th February; he would give details under the next agenda item.

He gave a presentation on the West of England Combined Authority. A copy of the PowerPoint slides is attached as Appendix 1 to these minutes.

Councillor Gerrish will update the meeting on:

• Budget Update to include impact of Adult and Social Care
• Cost of Elections for Parish Councils

Councillor Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Finance and Efficiency, updated the meeting on the Council budget 2018/19.

He said that 2017/18 had been a difficult year. The pressures on Adult Care and Children’s Services had been even greater than anticipated; 80% of the overall revenue budget was now spent on these two services. The budget for 2018/19 therefore responds to that challenge, and identifies solutions to several long-standing issues that we have identified.

Essential for this has been a major rebasing review which recognises some of the pressures we have had across all Council services. Additional resources have been provided for Adult Care and Children’s services totalling an extra £7m, representing one of the biggest uplifts in cash terms for these services in many years. These increases will ensure that we can continue to provide high-quality services to the most vulnerable of our residents, while recognising the pressures the services encounter. At the same time we continue to work to identify further savings, to increase efficiency and generate new income opportunities.

The Medium Term Financial Strategy agreed by the Council in the autumn has outlined actions to ensure that we reduce the revenue budget, which, as we all know, has to be balanced. It provides a proper budget for the next twelve months, indicative information for the following year, and basic indications for the three years thereafter.

The Efficiency Strategy approved in November will enable one-off costs of structural change to be funded from capital receipts. However, it should be noted that much of those receipts will be achieved through working with our property company, thereby ensuring that assets ultimately remain within the Council’s control. The vast majority of savings continue to come from increased innovation, efficiency and new sources of income.

However, given the scale of the challenges the Council faces, we recognise that it is no longer possible to avoid some impact on staffing. Councillors and unions have already been briefed on the process, and changes will be handled properly and carefully, with opportunities for voluntary redundancy considered first and foremost. Overall, it seems likely to us that there will be a 15% reduction in our total staffing, with the most significant savings resulting from a review of management structures. Such changes are relatively common within local government, and this has allowed us to learn from experience of other authorities who may have encountered that pressures that we have now slightly earlier. Whilst the process won’t be easy, and we don’t approach it lightly, it is necessary to ensure that the Council becomes sustainable for the future, and it is only by taking these decisions that we can protect the most vulnerable and continue to invest in frontline services.

We are providing £3.9m extra for Adult Care Services, together with an extra £460,000 that Government have given us to deal with the pressures we face. The Children’s Care budget has been uplifted by £3.1m, which includes additional support for those with special educational needs.

The Schools’ budget, which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 105.

Councillor Myers will update the meeting on

• Planning Briefing
• Parish Sweeper
• The Community Empowerment Fund
• Fix My Street
• Conference to mark the 20^th Anniversary of Parish Liaison

Councillor Paul Myers, Cabinet Member for Economic and Community Regeneration, updated the meeting.

Planning Briefing

Lisa Bartlett, Divisional Director – Development, and Mark Reynolds, Group Manager – Development Management, gave a presentation on “planning applications: discussions with the Planning case officer”. A copy of their PowerPoint slides is attached as Appendix 2 to these minutes.

Geoff Davis, Clerk to South Stoke Parish Council, asked what the criteria were for deciding whether a planning application was referred to the Development Management Committee. Councillor Sally Davis, Chair of the Development Management Committee, explained that if a ward councillor requested that an application went to the Committee, she reviewed the application with advice from officers and made a decision. Very often it was policy that was the determining factor in whether it went to Committee or not, but assured the meeting that she did read all the comments from the ward councillor and the parishes. She pointed out that she was also a parish councillor, so did understand the point of view of the parishes.

Geoff Davis said he had recently received an email notification about a planning application and had emailed a comment about it. He had received an immediate reply informing him that his email had been quarantined. Despite following the instructions in the email about actions he should take, he had received no further reply. He then received a notification about another application, and this time used the email reply facility to submit his comment, and it was received by Planning without any problem. He suggested that IT and Planning needed to liaise to facilitate the smooth operation of the electronic communications that parishes were being encouraged to use. Councillor Myers said that this issue would be followed up. If parishes had particular problems with communications they should get in touch with him. Andrew Pate, Strategic Director of Resources, said the Council had to take cybersecurity very seriously and did have spam filters in place. It was necessary for the Council to be increasingly vigilant. Perhaps a way forward would be the sending of automatic email receipts to let people know that their email had been received and was awaiting attention.

Parish Sweeper Scheme

Councillor Myers reminded delegates that there had been a discussion about this at the last Parish Liaison Meeting and in a session held after the meeting. A working group of parish representatives, representing parishes using the scheme and those not, would meet on 5 March to discuss what would happen to the scheme after 2019/20. Councillor Gerrish said that the budget approved in June had allocated funding for 2018/19 and an indicative figure for 2019/20. The 2019/20 budget would not be approved until Feb 2019, so any final decision about the scheme would not be taken till then. Councillor Myers pointed out that the meeting of 5 March would take place before the end of this financial year. There should be ample time for discussion and comments to be submitted before any final decision was taken.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 106.

Councillor Paul Myers and Rosemary Naish, Chair of B&NES ALCA, will provide an update.

Councillor Myers and Rosemary Naish, Chair of B&NES ALCA gave a joint presentation. A copy of their PowerPoint slides is attached as Appendix 3.

The Chair thanked them for their presentation.

Councillor Karen Warrington – Cabinet Member for Transformation and Customer Services and Ian Savigar - Divisional Director for Customer Services will provide an update on progress so far.

Councillor Karen Warrington, Cabinet Member for Transformation and Customer Services, updated the meeting.

She presented apologies on behalf of Ian Savigar, Divisional Director – Customer Services, who had a prior engagement.

She reported that the one-stop shop had been temporarily closed while it was being integrated with the library. The plans for the new facility are available on the Council website. It would be a modern, vibrant space, mainly open plan, but with some meeting rooms. Customer service advisers would not be behind desks, but located in the open plan area. This arrangement had worked well in Midsomer Norton. The new facility will be opened sometime in June. One-stop shop services would be provided in the library for the time being. The first round of engagement had taken place and there had been 5 or 6 sessions with local residents and interested parties, and a couple of meetings with the Council’s partners, such as the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux, who used the one-stop shop. It is anticipated that there will be two more rounds of engagement, one at the draft stage and one at the final stage.

With regard to the branch libraries, she had signed papers that day in respect of Saltford library, which is being taken over by Saltford Community Association. They will take over the running of the library, and will put a Post Office into the library, following the loss of the village Post Office. She had had a very successful meeting at Weston and she was hopeful that there would be good news about this soon; there was a community group that was very interested in taking over the library. A meeting about Moorland Road library had been held the previous day. There is willingness in the community to take on the running of the library, but the Council would have to provide support. In Paulton, the Parish Council is consulting with residents and is looking to take on the running of the library. The new Health Centre in Radstock had made a provision for a library on their premises. This made sense, as it was likely that the young and the elderly would use the Health Centre the most. As a result of community engagement, there is also the possibility of community libraries at Timsbury, Stowey Sutton, Chew Valley School and Peasedown St John.

She acknowledged that there were shortcomings in the present provision of mobile library services. At many places the mobile library only stops for fifteen minutes, the vehicle is rather old and there is only one driver, because it is a large vehicle and the driver has to have a special driving licence. If the community library projects come to fruition, the mobile library could stop at fewer places for a longer time.

The Chair thanked Councillor Warrington for the update.

Presentation from Planning regarding CIL allocation and processes.

Simon de Beer, Group Manager – Policy and Environment, gave a presentation. A copy of his PowerPoint slides is attached as Appendix 4 to these minutes.

The Chair thanked Simon for his presentation.

To note briefing note from Graeme Stark - Principal Officer Public Rights of Way.

The briefing note from Graeme Stark - Principal Officer Public Rights of Way, was noted.

Delegates are invited to agree the following dates for Parish Liaison Meetings in 2018-19:

30^th May 2018

24^th October 2018 (or a Saturday close to this date) for Parish Conference

20^th February 2019

It was agreed that the dates for future meetings would be:

30^th May 2018

24^th October 2018 (or a Saturday close to this date) for Parish Conference

20^th February 2019