Agenda for Council on Wednesday, 26th April, 2017, 7.00 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Civic Centre Folkestone

Contact: Jemma West 

Items
No. Item

190.

Declarations of Interest

Members of the Council should declare any discloseable pecuniary interest or any other significant interests in any item/s on this agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

191.

Minutes

To receive the minutes of the meeting of the council held on 22 February and 22 March 2017 and to authorise the Chairman of the Council to sign them as a correct record.

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 February and 22 March 2017 were submitted, approved and signed by the Chairman.

192.

Chairman's Communications

Minutes:

The Chairman for the meeting wished Councillor Holben a speedy recovery, and stated that in her absence, he would pass on her communications, which were as follows:

 

She had attended a St Georges Day service along with other civic events, including an event in Shorncliffe Cemetery which was organised by the Shorncliffe Trust.  She had attended orchestral and choral music events, charity fundraisers – and had another visit with school children from a local school, which was co-ordinated by Councillor Claire Jeffry, and was a huge success.  Two other invents included the launch of a new business at Dymchurch and a visit by representatives from the Nepalese community.

 

It was always good to hear of a new business launching in Shepway, and through social media and word of mouth, she often got to know about new business launches. She was very pleased to go along to a new business launch recently in Dymchurch.  The new business owners had organised the launch with great care and there were lots of families there all day to emjoy the facilities of Lathe Barn.  She actually got to cut a ribbon for the launch and walked around meeting and chatting to attending family.  The weather had been great and it was a lovely day.

 

The second event she had wanted to mention was a visit by a group of Nepalese people. She had been approached a month ago by two Nepalese elders who she knew well with a view to bringing a group of Nepalese people to the civic centre.  After discussing the best way to do this, it had been decided to do a short presentation in the chamber about local government.  On Monday 24 April, Kishor Sapkota, Dhan Gurang and Parish Councillor Colleague Nabin Siwa arrived with around 50 people from the Nepalese community, filling the Council Chamber.  After welcoming them, she handed over to the Senior Committee Services Officer, Jemma West, who gave a brief presentation about local government and telling them about the services the council provided.  Following on, Housing Options Manager, Bev Jackson talked about some of the most common issues around Housing and Benefits.  Councillor Mrs Hollingsbee had then talked about her many community roles, and this was followed by a Question and answer session.  Committee Services Officers Kate Clark and Sue Lewis had prepared small folders of information handouts to take away, and the event finished with refreshments and photographs.

 

It had been a most enjoyable few hours and so many of the attendees had said how worthwhile the session had been, and asked if it could be made a regular event.  Although Councillor Mrs Holben would soon be stepping down as Chairman, she hoped it was something that the Council would continue to do.

193.

Petitions

There are no petitions to be presented.

 

Minutes:

There were no petitions.

194.

Questions from the Public

1.            From Mr Bryan Rylands to Councillor Dearden, Cabinet Member for Transport and Commercial

 

In 2008/9 and 2013/14 SDC made a surplus on its on-street parking, according to figures provided by SDC to DCLG. SDC must publish a report showing the breakdown of how the authority has spent its surplus from its on street parking account. When can we expect the reports for 2008/9 and 2013/14 to be published?

 

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

The questions asked, including supplementary questions (if any) and the answers given are set out in Schedule 1, appended to these minutes.

195.

Questions from Councillors

(Questions can be found on www.shepway.gov.uk from noon 2 days before the meeting).

 

Up to 45 minutes is allowed for questions from councillors.

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

The questions asked, including supplementary questions (if any) and the answers given are set out in Schedule 2, appended to these minutes.

196.

Announcements of the Leader of the Council

To receive a report from the Leader of the Council on the business of the cabinet and on matters that the leader considers should be drawn to the council’s attention. The leader shall have 10 minutes to make his announcements.

 

The opposition group will have an opportunity to reply to the leader’s remarks.  The opposition group leader shall have 5 minutes to respond after which the Leader of the Council will have a right of reply.  Any right of reply will be for a maximum duration of 5 minutes.

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council, Councillor David Monk, stated that he would start with a bit of an end of term report, looking at performance which was monitored quarterly, and which was then scrutinised by the Corporate Management Team, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Cabinet before being ratified by the Council. 

 

He stated that they were doing well and there were only a few areas (11 out of 200) which needed improvement and remedial action had been taken to improve them.

 

Benefit claims were the main issue, due to new processes being implemented, although he stated that it should be noted that the accuracy of the assessment continued to exceed target and he fully expected that the target would be met in May.

 

He stated that there had been significant success in areas of collection, be it financial or waste, and at the same time, the Council continued to pay creditors in a timely manner.  All other Customer Service functions were performing extremely well and staff morale was high.  He stated that the Council should be proud of its achievements, and for him, it was a typical end of term report: not at all bad, but needs to concentrate a little more.

 

Looking to the next administrative year, there were several exciting schemes coming forward that would help the council fulfil the top priority Corporate objective of providing homes and jobs.  The Otterpool Park and Princes Parade schemes would be submitted for planning permission, and the council would look to start building at the Biggins Wood site as well as having the Military Road building completed.

 

He stated that he was often asked where the jobs would come from.  For a start there would be at least thirty years of construction jobs and then there was the construction supply chain jobs.  It did not stop there, the Home Builders Federation had calculated, and the Leader had difficulty in believing this, that for each home built there were 4.3 jobs created.  Even if this was an exaggeration, and it was halved, it was still a tremendous number of jobs.  Considering the number of people that were in the public and service sectors that were proportionate to the population then add inward jobs, the figures started to make sense.

 

He finished by stating how annoying PURDAH was, especially as it had caused the public consultation on Otterpool Park to be postponed, but it would continue at pace come June. 

 

He stated that he looked forward to working with everyone in the next Council year.

 

Councillor Meyers, Interim Leader of the UKIP group, asked for his best wishes to be sent to Councillor Mrs Holben.  He stated that he recognised the areas in which the Council had done well, and the areas where there was room for improvement, such as Benefits. 

 

He added that he looked forward to the debate around developments such as Otterpool Park, and approved of the creation of jobs, as promoting employment was in everyone’s interest.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 196.

197.

Draft Corporate Plan 2017-2020

Report A/16/29 presents the Cabinet report outlining the draft Corporate Plan and supporting delivery plan for endorsement by Council. The Corporate Plan set outs the framework for delivering the Council’s priorities over the next three year, outlining the strategic objectives, priorities and key outcomes to meet the vision for the council and district.

Supporting documents:

Minutes:

Report A/16/29 outlined the draft Corporate Plan and supporting delivery plan for endorsement by Council. The Corporate Plan sets out the framework for delivering the Council’s priorities over the next three year, outlining the strategic objectives, priorities and key outcomes to meet the vision for the council and district.

 

Proposed by Councillor Monk

Seconded by Councillor Mrs Hollingsbee; and

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.      That Report A/16/29 be received and noted.

2.         That the Corporate Plan and supporting delivery plan for 2017-2020, be endorsed. 

 

(Voting: 22 for, 2 against, 0 abstentions).

 

198.

Opposition Business

There is no opposition business.

Minutes:

There was no opposition business.

199.

Motions on Notice

There are no Motions on Notice.

Minutes:

There were no motions on notice.