Agenda and minutes

The meeting will commence with a short service of prayers.

The meeting opened with prayers led by the Reverend Ian Meredith of St Mary’s Church, Portchester.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors P J Davies and Miss T Harper.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Council Meeting held on 23 February 2018.

RESOLVED that the Mayor be authorised to sign as a correct record the minutes of the Council meeting held on 23 February 2018.

The Mayor thanked everyone who had supported his charity events during the past year.  The Mayor was very pleased to be able to make contributions to the excellent work carried out by Sam’s Haven and The Moving On Project.

The Mayor welcomed Sergeant Connor Bomford to the Council Meeting.  Connor was thanked for his service and presented with a Certificate to mark the end of his service as the Mayor’s Cadet.

The Mayor also passed on his thanks and best wishes to the Retiring Councillors Bayford, Mrs Brady, Mandry and Steadman and presented long standing service plaques of recognition to Councillors Bayford, Mandry and Steadman.

The Executive Leader passed on his thanks and best wishes to those Councillors retiring this year for the many years service they have given.

The Executive Leader then gave an update on the key financial performance at Daedalus, commenting that Members would be aware that in 2015, the Council acquired the land at Daedalus in order to preserve the future of the airfield and to create many new opportunities in the sectors of marine, aviation, aerospace engineering and advanced manufacturing.  The Executive Leader commented that Members would also recall that if the Council had not intervened at that point, then the airfield would have closed.

The Executive Leader announced that on 22^nd May, Members will have the opportunity to see the progress made at Daedalus, when a Member visit will be hosted there.  Since the Council took ownership, infrastructure has improved dramatically with new roads and services to support the business park developments.  Eleven new hangars have been built, which provide high quality space for both aviation businesses and clubs. The two new industrial buildings are now the headquarters of two local businesses, and the Council facilitated the arrival of the Civil Engineering Training Centre (CETC – digger school) in partnership between CEMAST and the private sector. A significant refurbishment of the air traffic control tower is nearing completion and as Members are aware, Fareham Innovation Centre has been a huge success story.  On the visit, Members will have an opportunity to see the newly completed extension which features superb new conference facilities.

In the first three years of operation, this significant investment in Daedalus has laid the foundations for the site to be self-sustaining in the long term.  The Executive Leader advised Members that a comprehensive 3-year review report will be considered by the Executive later this year, but in the meantime, the following financial performance figures demonstrate how the investment is paying off:

Since 2015,

• Fareham Innovation Centre income has grown to £477,000 p.a. and this is set to almost double next year;
• Property income has grown from £88,000 to £322,000.  This is set to grow to £1m in 2018/19 from all the new property built;
• Investment in managing, operating and redeveloping the whole site has grown from £1.1m to £1.6m, but at the same time, the costs recharged to airport tenants has remained relatively stable;
• Around 600 jobs have been created in the Enterprise Zone.
• The overall cost to the Council is on a downward trend and in the first 3 years, 92% of the costs have been met by external grants.  Provided the Council continues to pursue the current strategy, and in line with the very ambitious vision for Daedalus, 2018/19 is forecast to be the first year when the airport and business parks achieve cost neutrality.

The Executive Leader commented that there is still a lot of work to do to put Daedalus on a stable footing for the long term and to achieve all the other ambitions that were set out in the Council’s Vision, but he hoped that all Members would agree that the bold decision taken in 2015 to acquire the site is now starting to pay dividends.

Police and Crime Commissioner

The Executive Member for Health and Public Protection announced that he attended the recent meeting of the Hampshire Police and Crime Panel.  The prime purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Police and Crime Commissioner’s budget following the decision by the Panel at the last meeting that any increase in his precept (Council Tax) should be spent on policing.  At the recent meeting, the Commissioner made the point that 98.3% of his budget went on policing.  However, he still insisted that he needed to allocate £440,000 from his budget for essential extra staff, which would include a new assistant Police and Crime Commissioner. 

The Executive Member also reported that at the meeting, the Commissioner was given the result of the confidence ballot sent to all Police Officers in Hampshire.  The result showed that 1551 (98%) gave a ‘No Confidence’ vote.  The Commissioner responded by saying that he hoped everybody knew he had the greatest respect for Police Officers’ views and would now need to take this into account.

The Executive Member advised that he had challenged the Commissioner at the meeting on the new location of Fareham Police Station, as the current one is due to shut in 2019.  Even though the Commissioner knew that this question would be asked, he replied that this could be covered outside of the meeting. The Executive Member responded by expressing the frustration that he and the public felt with the lack of progress with this issue and the poor communication surrounding it.  The last communication Fareham had on this subject was last August and nothing has been heard since.  The Executive Member has urged the Commissioner to resolve this problem as quickly as possible for the benefit of both the Police Force and the public.

Finally, the Executive Member reported that it was agreed that the Panel would take on extra scrutiny work to look at Mr Lane’s effectiveness.

Access All Areas

The Executive Member was pleased to report that, once again, Access All Areas for 11-16 year olds will be held this year from the 24 July through until the 23August and will include activities such as large inflatables, sailing, a number of inflatable pool sessions at both the Holly Hill Leisure Centre and Fareham Leisure Centre, scuba diving and driving school.

To receive any declarations of interest from members in accordance with Standing Orders and the Council’s Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest made at this meeting.

To receive any petitions presented by a member of the Council.

Note: any petition so presented will be dealt with in accordance with the Council’s petition scheme.

There were no petitions presented at this meeting.

To receive any deputations of which notice has been given.

There were no deputations given at this meeting.

To receive, consider and answer questions on reports and recommendations of the Executive.  Minutes of the meetings of the Executive and a schedule of individual Executive member decisions are appended.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Executive held on Tuesday 20 February 2018 be received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Executive meeting held on Monday 05 March 2018 be received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Executive meeting held on Monday 09 April 2018 be received.

RESOLVED that the Schedule of Individual Member and Officer Delegated Decisions be received.

To receive, consider and answer questions on reports and recommendations of the meeting of the Scrutiny Board.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Scrutiny Board held on Thursday 22 March 2018 be received.

To receive the minutes of the following Committees and to consider and answer questions on any reports and recommendations made.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Planning Committee held on Wednesday 21 February 2018 be received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Planning Committee held on Wednesday 21 March 2018 be received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee held on Tuesday 27 March 2018 be received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Audit and Governance Committee meeting held on Monday 12 March 2018 be received.

To answer questions pursuant to Standing Order 17.2 for this meeting.

Question by Councillor Mrs C L A Hockley:

Would you please advise how FBC are working with the police for zero tolerance to pavement parking which is not only dangerous, particularly to Mum's with prams and folk with disabilities, but is anti-social.

Response by the Executive Member for Health and Public Protection:

Pavement Parking can be a problem as it can cause an obstruction and be dangerous for other vehicles as well as for legitimate pavement users. It is a difficult area to control, but where there are restrictions in place to control it (e.g. yellow lines) then Fareham Borough Council's CEO’s will respond to complaints and also target problem areas during routine patrols, and if necessary issue Penalty Charge Notices.  Unfortunately, where there are no restrictions to prevent parking on the Highway, FBC CEO’s have no powers to deal with these situations - they are entirely down to the Police who have the powers to deal with vehicles that are parked dangerously or causing an obstruction.  The Police and the Council have agreed to work together with zero tolerance for pavement parking.

Hampshire County Council own the highway including pavements, therefore any physical restrictions being placed to prevent parking on pavements would have to be done via HCC.

Members will be informed, prior to the meeting, of any motion duly notified in accordance with Standing Order 15 but received after print and dispatch of the agenda.

There were no Motions under Standing Order 15 submitted for this meeting.

To make any changes in appointments to the seats on committees in accordance with the wishes of political groups.  Such appointments will take effect from 27 April 2018.

There were no appointments or changes to committees made at this time.

A report by the Head of Democratic Services.

Following a discussion on this item, and upon the recommendations being put to the vote, it was declared CARRIED.