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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Civic Offices. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services 

Items
No. Item

1.

Prayers

The meeting will commence with a short service of prayers.

Minutes:

The meeting was opened with prayers led by the Deputy Mayor.

2.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors P Davies, S Dugan, J M Englefield, N Gregory and L Keeble.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 256 KB

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Council Meeting held on 10 June 2021.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the Mayor be authorised to sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 10 June 2021.

4.

Mayor's Announcements

Minutes:

The Mayor announced that she hoped that members had enjoyed coming into the parlour again this evening after such a long period of absence.

 

Since the last Council meeting, the Mayor announced that she and the Mayoress have had the privilege of carrying out a number of engagements including the reopening of the Portchester post office, presenting certificates to volunteers at the community hospital, raising the flag with the Captain of Collingwood to commemorate Armed Forces week and, on a hot but well organised day,  attending One Community’s Showcase event where the Mayor and Mayoress were able to see more than 70 participating charities.

 

The Mayor announced that she also had the pleasure of judging the first Children’s Business Fair in West Street.  Some of the young entrepreneurs showed great imagination and a real sense of business and most of them were just 12 or 13 years of age.

 

The Mayor also announced what a treat it had been to be able to open Abbey Meadows and stated what a credit it is to the officers who planned the site. Members who have not yet visited the site were encouraged to do so as it is a wonderful addition to the play areas and other sites around the Borough.  There is a good car park, lovely walks around the meadows and the site is dog friendly.

 

The Mayor announced that, at the Leader’s suggestion, along with several other Members she visited Fareham railway station at 11pm one evening to welcome back Mike Homer who was returning from his travels by train, visiting 100 Royal British Legion branches in 100 hours. This was a fantastic achievement for this gentleman in his wheelchair and the Mayor was very proud to see him come back.  Mike was raising funds for the Poppy Appeal as he was unable to raise money last year.   The Mayor was sure that other Members would agree with her that whilst waiting for Mike’s train, there was some memorable entertainment from a lively crew up on the station as the England football team had just won their semi-final of Euro 2020!

 

Since then, the Mayor and Mayoress have opened the new Rowan’s shop in Park Gate and last week had a great charity evening at Antonio’s restaurant, raising £1,000 for the Rowan’s Hospice.  Antonio has kindly offered another charity evening, in aid of the Fareport Talking News, on Wednesday 22 September.  The event is already getting booked up and Members were encouraged to book sooner rather than later if they wished to attend.

5.

Mayor's Cadet Presentation

Minutes:

The Mayor announced that she had been due to present a certificate to the Mayors’ Cadet to mark the end of her service but unfortunately, due to work commitments, the Mayor’s Cadet was unable to attend and therefore alternative arrangements will be made.

6.

Executive Leader's Announcements

Minutes:

The Executive Leader announced that he was pleased to advise Members at the July meeting of the Executive, that the level of financial support from the Government during the pandemic was higher than expected when we set the emergency budget last Summer.  This is good news because it meant that we did not have to tap into General Fund reserves to offset the severe impact of COVID-19 on Council finances in 2020/21.  Government funding paid for the extraordinary work that our officers did in responding to the pandemic, helping the clinically vulnerable, supporting businesses with grants and keeping our vital services running.  The Leader stated that this does not, however, address the underlying gap in the medium-term finances of well over £1m, which was identified before the pandemic, and still exists.

 

The Executive Leader went on to say that there has been some natural disquiet about the introduction of charges for the garden waste service and coastal parking, and these were not decisions taken lightly, but they are necessary to meet the on-going financial pressures that will be placed on the Council for several years to come.  It is important to remember that these are discretionary services and it is right that the costs are borne by those who choose to use the service rather than all council taxpayers. The Council has been careful to set prices at a sensible level for customers but also allow us to continue delivering and investing in our many discretionary services.  This is especially important for areas such as Streetscene where we will spend £2.4m on new vehicles alone, and for car parking maintenance and improvements, which is estimated to be £6.2m over the next 5 years.

7.

Executive Members' Announcements

Minutes:

The Executive Member for Health and Public Protection made the following announcements:

 

QA Hospital

 

The new £58m Emergency Department at QA has now received Outline Planning Permission from Portsmouth City Council.  It will be built on the existing multi-storey staff car park which will be demolished and replaced with a new three-level building with blue light vehicle access together with 216 parking spaces under the building. The new design will improve waiting times and will include radiology teams for Scans (including CT) and tests.  It will also double the resuscitation capacity.  Construction work will start in the Autumn of next year.

 

Also, at the same time, there will be built a new 72-bed ward on the north of the site and a new four-storey car park. 

 

The Executive Member will keep Council informed of progress.

 

CCG meeting

 

On Tuesday 27 July, The Chief Executive Officer, the Director of Leisure and Community and the Executive Member met with key Clinical Commissioning Group managers and Primary Care Network Clinical Lead’s for the Borough of Fareham.  The meeting was held at the request of the CCG, to discuss how we might work better together in terms of communicating key messages to our residents.

 

It was a positive meeting and will hopefully lead to a more constructive arrangement of partnership working going forward.  Further meetings are to be held where priorities, joint actions and outcomes will be discussed and mobilised.

 

The Executive Member will keep the Council informed of progress.

 

Planning and Development

 

CAT Meetings

 

The Executive Member announced that the Council has now held a series of CAT meetings and exhibitions across the Borough in relation to the Revised Publication Local Plan consultation which will end tomorrow (Friday 30th July).  Turnout was lower than at previous consultations which may be a reflection of ongoing concerns about the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the events being run in a socially distanced manner.  The Council’s Communications and Planning Strategy teams were available for 2.5 hours on each of five afternoons to answer any questions that attendees had. 

 

Over fifty people attended the exhibitions before the CAT meetings and approximately ninety people attending the CAT meetings themselves. Comments ranged from queries on particular sites, questions on how to respond to the consultation and comments on other planning matters.

The virtual exhibition has proved to be popular during this consultation, as it was during the previous consultation where it was used to complement our normal consultation methods during the Covid-19 pandemic.   Over the consultation period, the virtual exhibition has received over 1,200 visits, generating over 2,500 visits to the Local Plan pages of our website.

 

Following the close of the consultation tomorrow, Officers will read each response and prepare a summary of the main issues raised to accompany the submission of the Local Plan to the Planning Inspectorate.  In line with our Local Development Scheme, submission is proposed for this autumn and through future announcements, The Executive member confirmed that he will keep Council informed as we reach this important stage in the preparation of our new Local Plan.

 

Newgate Lane Appeal Decision

 

We were informed by the Planning Inspector yesterday that the Council has unfortunately lost the planning appeal in relation to land east of Newgate Lane east.  This was a co-joined appeal for outline applications in both Fareham and Gosport Borough Council’s administrative areas, as the access to the site for 99 homes would lie in Gosport. 

 

The Inspector concluded that despite issues of strategic gap, best and most versatile land and conflict with our adopted plan development strategy, in light of our persistent lack of five-year supply, outline permission for 99 homes was granted.  

The Council’s Publication Local Plan does not include this site, nor the fields to the north which were previously included in earlier Local Plan consultations as the site ‘HA2 Land east of Newgate Lane’.  Reasons for excluding this site from the more advanced stages of the plan weigh heavily on the conflict with the strategic gap policy and the most recent technical evidence which finds that this area of the borough cannot accept development in a way that complies with our policy. 

 

This view was upheld by the Inspector who said that when taking the Fareham -Stubbington Strategic gap as a whole this site’s size is relatively modest but there would be harm to the Strategic gap by way of a reduction in the physical and visual separation between Peel Common and Bridgemary.  

 

Despite the outcome, the Inspector attributed significant weight to the conflict with the Strategic Gap policy.  Therefore, the development strategy in the Publication Plan, which is currently out to consultation, to exclude development in this area requires no amendment and the Council will continue to defend this part of the Strategic Gap from harmful speculative developments. 

 

This disappointing news is tempered by a more positive position with regards to affordable housing provision in the Borough as a result of the appeal decision.

 

The successful Appeal was made by Bargate Homes who are owned by Vivid Homes, a large registered provider of affordable housing. It is the appellant’s intention to develop the site as a 100% affordable housing scheme although as only 40% can be secured as affordable housing via the Planning Obligations, there can be no guarantee that more than 40% will be delivered as part of the development.

 

Notwithstanding the Appellant’s stated intention to deliver 100% affordable housing on the site, there is no policy requirement to provide more than 40% affordable housing and doing so would apparently cause the Appellant difficulties in securing certain types of funding.  At the hearing the Council was clear that the Inspector should only give the provision of affordable housing at the site weight in the planning balance proportionate to the 40% provision secured in the section 106. In effect the Council reminded the Inspector that he ought not to give the provision of 100% affordable housing more weight than it should bearing in mind only 40% was legally guaranteed. 

 

The Appellant and the Council did agree to an additional planning condition at the request of Officers which the Inspector has agreed to impose which provides some control over the additional affordable housing to be provided.

 

This condition does not require a higher level of affordable housing provision but means that, in the event more than 40% is provided the Council will be able to ensure a suitable community lettings plan is followed.

 

Housing

 

Rose Court Development

 

The Executive Member put forward his thanks to the Mayor for officially opening the Rose Court development on Highlands Road. The development has delivered 18 social housing units within the Borough which are very much needed. The Executive Member stated that he looks forward to reporting on further Council built developments in the future. 

8.

Declarations of Interest

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

Minutes:

Councillor S D T Woodward declared a non-pecuniary interest in respect of item 16 on the agenda as he is the Chairman of the Harbour Board for the River Hamble.

 

Councillor M J Ford, JP declared a non-pecuniary interest in respect of item 16 on the agenda as he is a member of the Harbour Board for the River Hamble.

 

The Mayor declared a non-pecuniary interest in respect of item 16 as she is also a member of the Harbour Board for the River Hamble

9.

Presentation of Petitions

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.

Minutes:

There were no petitions presented at this meeting.

10.

Deputations pdf icon PDF 199 KB

To receive any deputations of which notice has been given.

Minutes:

A written deputation was received from Mr Gareth Jones in respect of the Council’s Revenue budget shortfall.  A copy of the written statement is attached to these minutes as Appendix A.

11.

Reports of the Executive

To receive, consider and answer questions on reports and recommendations of the Executive.  Minutes of the meetings of the Executive are appended.

11(1)

Minutes of meeting Monday, 5 July 2021 of Executive pdf icon PDF 322 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Executive held on Monday 05 July 2021 be received.

11(2)

Schedule of Executive Member and Officer Delegated Decisions pdf icon PDF 188 KB

Minutes:

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

11(3)

Schedule of Urgency Provisions pdf icon PDF 213 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the Schedule of Urgency Provisions be received.

12.

Reports of Other Committees

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

12(1)

Minutes of meeting Wednesday, 26 May 2021 of Planning Committee pdf icon PDF 419 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on Wednesday 26 May 2021 be received.

12(2)

Minutes of meeting Wednesday, 16 June 2021 of Planning Committee pdf icon PDF 432 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on Wednesday 16 June 2021 be received.

12(3)

Minutes of meeting Monday, 12 July 2021 of Audit and Governance Committee pdf icon PDF 231 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee meeting held on Monday 12 July 2021 be received.

12(4)

Minutes of meeting Tuesday, 20 July 2021 of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee pdf icon PDF 229 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee held on Tuesday 20 July 2021 be received.

13.

Reports of the Scrutiny Panels

To receive, consider and answer questions on reports and recommendations of the meetings of the Scrutiny Panels.

13(1)

Minutes of meeting Thursday, 27 May 2021 of Climate Change Scrutiny Panel pdf icon PDF 361 KB

Minutes:

It was noted under this item that the minutes of the meeting of the Climate Change Scrutiny Panel held on Thursday 27 May 2021 were received by Council at the meeting held on 10 June 2021.  

13(2)

Minutes of meeting Tuesday, 1 June 2021 of Leisure and Community Scrutiny Panel pdf icon PDF 125 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Leisure and Community Scrutiny Panel meeting held on Tuesday 01 June 2021 be received.

13(3)

Minutes of meeting Thursday, 8 July 2021 of Housing Scrutiny Panel pdf icon PDF 233 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Housing Scrutiny Panel held on 08 July 2021 be received.

13(4)

Minutes of meeting Tuesday, 13 July 2021 of Health and Public Protection Scrutiny Panel pdf icon PDF 237 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Health and Public Protection Scrutiny Panel held on Tuesday 13 July 2021 be received.

13(5)

Minutes of meeting Thursday, 15 July 2021 of Streetscene Scrutiny Panel pdf icon PDF 231 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Streetscene Scrutiny Panel held on Thursday 15 July 2021 be received.

13.

Minutes of the meeting of the Policy and Resources Scrutiny Panel held on Monday 28 June 2021 pdf icon PDF 233 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting of the Policy and Resources Scrutiny Panel held on Monday 28 June 2021 were tabled at the meeting and are attached to these minutes as Appendix B.

 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Policy and Resources Scrutiny Panel meeting held on Monday 28 June 2021 be received.

13.

Minutes of the meeting of the Daedalus Scrutiny Panel held on Thursday 24 June 2021 pdf icon PDF 224 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting of the Daedalus Scrutiny Panel held on Thursday 24 June 2021 were tabled at the meeting and are attached to these minutes as Appendix C.

 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Daedalus Scrutiny Panel held on Thursday 24 June 2021 be received.

14.

Questions under Standing Order 2.12

To answer questions pursuant to Standing Order 2.12 for this meeting.

Minutes:

There were no questions submitted at this meeting.

15.

Motions under Standing Order 2.6

Members will be informed, prior to the meeting, of any motion duly notified in accordance with Standing Order 2.6 but received after print and dispatch of the agenda.

Minutes:

There were no motions submitted at this meeting.

16.

Boundary Commission for England Review of Parliamentary Constituencies- 2023 Review pdf icon PDF 405 KB

A report by the Head of Democratic Services.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor S D T Woodward declared a non-pecuniary interest in this item as he is the Chairman of the Harbour Board for the River Hamble.

 

Councillor M J Ford, JP declared a non-pecuniary interest in this item as he is a member of the Harbour Board for the River Hamble.

 

The Mayor declared a non-pecuniary interest on this item as she is also a member of the Harbour Board for the River Hamble

 

Following on from the recommendations made by the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee made at its meeting on 20 July 2021, an updated version of Appendix B to the report was tabled at the meeting in respect of paragraphs 7, 11, 15 and 18. This document is attached to these minutes as Appendix D.

 

During a debate on this item an amendment was proposed by Councillor R H Price, JP and seconded by Councillor J S Forrest that the wording at paragraph 7 of the updates to Appendix B be amended to read:

 

“Fareham is shaped by the trunk of the River Hamble to the west and the Coastal inlet of Paulsgrove Lake to the east.  The topographical map below illustrates how the chalk ridge of Portsdown Hill creates a natural barrier.”

 

On being put to the vote, the amendment was agreed unanimously.

 

RESOLVED that the Council:

 

(a)  approves the draft consultation response as set out in  Appendix B to the report, including the amendments recommended by the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee as set out from paragraph 21 of the report, subject to:

 

(i)    the amendments to Appendix B to the report as outlined in the tabled item; and

 

(ii)    the revised wording to paragraph 7 of Appendix B to the report as outlined above

 

(b)  agrees that, subject to the amendments in (a) above, the response is formally submitted to the Boundary Commission for England.

17.

Changes to Committee meeting dates

Members are asked to note that the date of the Audit and Governance Committee meeting scheduled to take place on 26 July 2021 was moved and took place on 12 July 2021.

 

Members are also asked to note that the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee meeting scheduled to take place on 08 June 2021 was cancelled.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the Council notes that:

 

(a)  the date of the Audit and Governance Committee meeting scheduled to take place on 26 July 2021 was moved and took place on 12 July 2021; and

 

(b)  the meeting of the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee scheduled to take place on 08 June 2021 was cancelled.

18.

Appointments to Committees

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 30 July 2021.

Minutes:

Updates to the Independent Group appointments were made as follows:

 

Councillor L Keeble to be appointed to the Planning and Development Scrutiny Panel, the Streetscene Scrutiny Panel and the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee with Councillor G Fazackarley as the deputy on all.

 

Councillor L Keeble to be appointed as the group spokesman for the Planning and Development portfolio and the Streetscene portfolio.

 

RESOLVED that the Council notes the revised appointments made by the Independent Group.

 

 




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