Agenda and minutes

CM 27                                                                                                                                       

Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs R E Baldwin, W G Cann OBE, R Cheadle, C Mott and J Sheldon.

Members are invited to declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests, including the nature and extent of such interests they may have in any items to be considered at this meeting.

            If Councillors have any questions relating to predetermination, bias or interests in items on this Summons, then please contact the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

CM 28                                                                                                                                       

The Mayor invited Members to declare any interests in the items of business to be considered during the course of the meeting. 

At the request of the Leader, the Monitoring Officer was asked to provide advice to the Council on Item 11: ‘Introduction of a Discretionary Local Business Rate Relief Discount Policy’ (Minute CM 33 below refers).  The Monitoring Officer proceeded to inform that it was her legal advice that any Members who may be contemplating either starting a new business, relocating a business or expanding a business and, who may therefore potentially wish to take advantage of the Policy, should declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and leave the meeting room for this agenda item.

Cllr R J Oxborough proceeded to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in agenda item 11 (Minute CM 33 below refers) by virtue of him owning a business which he may wish to expand in due course and he left the meeting room during consideration of this item.

To approve and adopt as a correct record the Minutes of the

Meeting of Council held on 28 July 2015

CM 29                                                                                                                                       

It was moved by Cllr P R Sanders, seconded by Cllr R F D Sampson and upon the motion being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and “RESOLVED that the Council agree the Minutes of the 28 July 2015 meeting as a true record.”              

CM 30                                                                                                                                       

In providing an update on the engagements that he and the Deputy Mayor had attended since the last meeting, the Mayor made particular reference to the success of the events at Dartmoor Folk Festival and the turf cutting ceremony at Okehampton Business Park.  As a general comment, the Mayor also stated that it was pleasing that a number of Members were also in attendance and representing the Council at these events.

(i)        Planning & Licensing Committee

           Meeting held on 21 July 2015                                                          

           Meeting held on 18 August 2015                                                                 

Meeting held on 15 September 2015                                    

(ii)       Overview & Scrutiny (Internal) Committee

           Meeting held on 21 July 2015                                                          

(iii)      Audit Committee

           Meeting held on 28 July 2015                                                        

Unstarred Minute to agree

           Members are recommended to agree:

           AC 11  Contract Procedure Rules

RESOLVED to RECOMMEND that the Audit Committee has reviewed the updated version of the Contract Procedure Rules and the Council be RECOMMENDED to approve the revised Rules for inclusion in the Council’s Constitution.

(iv)      Hub Committee

           Meeting held on 22 September 2015                                    

CM 31                                                                                                                                       

a.      Planning & Licensing Committee – 21 July 2015, 18 August 2015 and 15 September 2015

It was moved by Cllr D K A Sellis, seconded by Cllr M J R Benson and upon being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and “RESOLVED that the Minutes of the 21 July 2015, 18 August 2015 and 15 September 2015 meetings be received and noted”.

b.     Overview & Scrutiny (Internal) Committee – 21 July 2015

It was moved by Cllr C R Musgrave, seconded by Cllr J Yelland and upon being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and “RESOLVED that the Minutes of the 21 July 2015 meeting be received and noted”.

c.      Audit Committee – 28 July 2015

It was moved by Cllr M Davies, seconded by Cllr B Stephens and upon being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and “RESOLVED that the Minutes of the 28 July 2015 be received and noted, with the exception of Unstarred Minute AC 11”.

In respect of the Unstarred Minute:

i.        AC 11 – Contract Procedure Rules

It was moved by Cllr M Davies, seconded by Cllr B Stephens and upon being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and “RESOLVED that the updated version of the Contract Procedure Rules and the Council approve the revised Rules for inclusion in the Council’s Constitution”.

d.     Hub Committee – 22 September 2015

It was moved by Cllr P R Sanders, seconded by Cllr M J R Benson and upon being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and “RESOLVED that the Minutes of the 22 September 2015 meeting be received and noted, with the exception of Unstarred Minutes HC 14, 16, 17, 19 and 20”.

In respect of the Unstarred Minutes:

i.        HC 14 – Our Plan Update

It was moved by Cllr P R Sanders, seconded by Cllr M J R Benson and upon being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and “RESOLVED that:

1.       option 2 for progression of Our Plan (as set out at paragraph 4 of the presented agenda report to the Hub Committee meeting) be pursued recognising that this will need an extended plan period to 2032 or 2033;

2.       a detailed Duty to Co-Operate protocol, or similar agreement, be established with neighbouring planning authorities within the Housing Market Area.  This would address joint approaches to strategic planning relating to timetable, evidence, policies, strategic allocations, governance, staffing, scope of Housing Market Area, viability and infrastructure amongst other matters;

3.       the Local Development Scheme be reviewed and re-issued in line with recommendation 1;

4.       further evidence work (joint or specific) be procured as required;

5.       a budget provision for 2016/17 of £75,000 be made for Our Plan, which will be a cost pressure built into the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan for 2016/17 onwards;

6.       a Settlement Boundary Policy be considered for incorporation in future versions of Our Plan and necessary preparatory work be undertaken  ...  view the full minutes text for item CM 31

CM 32

Following a successful legal challenge by Reading and West Berkshire Councils, the Council considered a report that sought to revoke the interim planning obligations decisions that were agreed at full Council on 17 February 2015.

In discussion, Members felt that the High Court should be congratulated on this decision.

It was then proposed by Cllr G Parker, seconded by Cllr P R Sanders and upon being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and ”RESOLVED that the interim planning obligations decision (as agreed at full Council on 17 February 2015) be revoked.”

CM 33                                                            

The Leader of Council presented a report that recommended that the Council utilised its powers to apply discretionary business rate relief.

In discussion, reference was made to:-

(a)    the composition of the new discretionary business rate relief decision panel.  Whilst Members were generally supportive of the proposed composition of the panel (as outlined in paragraph 1.6 of the presented agenda report), the view was expressed that one of the stand-by panellists should be the Overview and Scrutiny (External) Committee Chairman.  In addition, it was felt that the sentence relating to the involvement of local Ward Member(s) should be amended to read as follows:-

‘The applicable local Ward Member(s) will be invited to attend a decision panel meeting in order to support the application decision making process.’ 

(b)    support for businesses who may fall on hard times.  In the event of falling on hard times, Members were informed that this Policy would not be relevant and businesses would need to apply to a different fund that dealt specifically with hardship matters.

It was then proposed by Cllr P R Sanders, seconded by Cllr M J R Benson and upon being submitted to the Meeting was declared to be CARRIED and ”RESOLVED that:

a)   discretionary business rate relief be offered to local businesses where it is in the interests of local Council tax payers to do so;

b)   a new discretionary business rate relief policy (as detailed within Appendix 1 of the presented agenda report) be ratified and the rate relief application form (as shown in Appendix 2 of the presented agenda report) be approved;

c)   the formation of a discretionary business rate relief decision panel be agreed, who will appraise and determine applications on an ‘as-needs’ basis as set out in paragraph 1.6 (and subject to inclusion of the amendments outlined in the minutes above) of the presented agenda report;

d)   authority be delegated to the Group Manager, Business Development, in consultation with the Deputy Leader of West Devon Borough Council, to make minor legal amendments to the Policy (as detailed within Appendix 1 of the presented agenda report) prior to it being published and adopted as appropriate;

e)   be reviewed in twelve months’ time; and

f)    decisions made by the panel be referred to the Audit Committee.”