Agenda and minutes

The meeting will commence with a short service of prayers.

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

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Miss S M Bell, Mrs K Mandry, D L Steadman, D M Whittingham, P W Whittle, JP and S D T Woodward.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the Council Meeting held on 21 February 2014.

RESOLVED that the Mayor be authorised to sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 21 February 2014.

The Mayor expressed her personal condolences to Councillor Woodward following the sad loss of his father Derek who passed away earlier in the day.

The Mayor was delighted to report on the successful completion of the London Marathon by the Chief Executive Officer, Peter Grimwood, who was running on behalf of the Rainbow Centre, one of the Mayor’s charities. Peter completed the course in a personal best time of 4 hours and 37 minutes.

The Mayor gave her thanks to all who had sponsored Peter and encouraged any further donations to be made via the http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/PeterGrimwood  website. The total money raised so far is just over £5,300 and the website will remain open for donations for another few weeks.

The Mayor reminded Members that the John Miller Orchestra would be playing at Ferneham Hall on Sunday 27 April from 7:30pm in aid of the Mayor of Fareham’s charities. John is the nephew of Glenn Miller and the big band will perform the Glenn Miller classics. Tickets are available from the Ferneham Hall box office.

The Mayor welcomed Leading Cadet Kirsty-Nicolle Wright to the Council meeting. Kirsty had fulfilled her duties as the Mayor’s Cadet with great confidence and the Mayor was particularly pleased that Kirsty assisted at the Charity Ball recently. Kirsty was thanked for her service and presented with a certificate to mark the end of her service as the Mayor’s Cadet.

There were no Executive Leader’s announcements made at this meeting.

The Executive Member for Public Protection provided an update on the progress of teams working with the Vanguard consultant. There are officers currently working on the new approach in the areas of Benefits, Housing Repairs, Car Parking, Planning Applications and Recruitment. In all of these areas, officers have realised that they can significantly improve customers’ experiences. The new way of working focuses on the “purpose” of the service through the eyes of the customer. Systems are then simplified with that purpose in mind.

The Executive Member for Public Protection reported that the Benefits and Housing Repairs experiments are being successfully rolled out to a wider range of customers. Officers are receiving very positive feedback on the new way of working from both customers and the staff involved, who are finding their jobs far more rewarding.

The intervention into planning applications began later than the others, so the team are currently trying to understand the scope of the service and identify the system constraints. They will soon need to speak with members of the planning committee to develop ideas for new ways of working.

The recent recruitment exercise to appoint seasonal mowing staff proved far more successful than previous years due to a new approach being adopted.

And finally, we have seen a significant decline in challenges to parking penalty notices as a result of a more pragmatic approach being tried by parking enforcement officers. This is removing a great deal of “waste” and unproductive work from the current system.

All of these initiatives will be summarised and explained in a report to the Executive later in the year.

The Executive Member for Public Protection also provided an update on the progress being made on the Council’s £8.3m investment project at Daedalus.

He stated that the most significant element, which is delivering a 25,000 square-foot Innovation Centre, is progressing very well.  The land has been acquired, the legal agreements with the Homes and Communities Agency are all in place, and planning permission has been secured.  The appointed contractor, Leadbitter Group, will start on site imminently to carry out enabling works and begin with site preparations, ready for the construction phase to commence at the end of May.  While the timescales remain very tight, the project remains on track to complete during March 2015.

Separately, good progress is also be made to procure an experienced Operator to run the Centre on the Council’s behalf.  Expressions of Interest were sought in April and a very positive response was received.  A shortlist of bidders will be invited to go through to the next stage, and submit bids to run the Centre for an initial 5 year period.  Following the EU Negotiated Procedure, we expect to appoint an operator in the summer, so they are well placed to be involved in final stages of construction and fitting out, as well as marketing the facility before it opens.

The other elements of the project involve a £1.5m investment in the runway and provision of new hangar space.  Working with partners, the outline specification of work for runway and airfield improvements has been defined within the available budget. This is now being used to prepare a detailed schedule of works, and Hampshire County Council will be procuring this on our behalf in July, so that the work can be carried out in September.

Finally, officers are in discussions with the Homes and Communities Agency to identify the most suitable site for the new hangar space.  Choosing the location is the most critical part of this element of work, so that the hangars remain attractive to prospective tenants in the long term.  Once the location has been agreed, there is a rapid delivery programme, and the team are targeting Spring 2015 for delivery, (although this is dependent on securing the site).

The Executive Member for Public Protection summarised by advising Members that whilst this continues to be a challenging programme for delivery, the project is progressing very well at this time.

The Executive Member for Streetscene announced that the final charity event of the municipal year would be Gandhi’s Indian Takeaway at 4 Anjou Crescent on Monday 12 May 2104.

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.

At the invitation of the Mayor, the Head of Democratic Services advised Members that a petition containing approximately 2,128 signatures had been received entitled “Against Newlands Development”.

She reminded Members that the Council’s petition scheme states that if a “petition contains more than 1,500 valid signatures it will be debated by the Council”. However, it also states that if the petition applies to a planning or licensing application, other procedures apply.

In this particular case, a planning application has been received for the development at Newlands and is logged as reference P/14/0222/OA. The petition will therefore be dealt with under the procedures for a planning application and the petitioner will be advised of the date for the Planning Committee meeting once it has been set.

The Head of Democratic Services concluded by reaffirming the importance that the process for considering the planning application by the Planning Committee remains unfettered and this is why the petition should not be debated at the Council 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 meeting held on 3 March 2014 be received.

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

To receive, consider and answer questions on reports and recommendations of the meeting of the Scrutiny Board held on 20 March 2014.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Scrutiny Board meeting held on 20 March 2014 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 24 February 2014 be received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Planning Committee held on 26 February 2014 be received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Planning Committee held on 26 March 2014 be received.

RESOLVED that:

(a)       the minutes of the Planning and Development Policy Development and Review Panel held on 4 March 2014 be received; and

(b)          the recommendation of the Planning and Development Policy Development and Review Panel contained in minute 7(d) regarding the Panel’s proposed work programme for 2014/15  be accepted and accordingly, the work programme for 2014/15 be confirmed.

RESOLVED that:

(a)       the minutes of the Leisure and Community Policy Development and Review Panel held on 5 March 2014 be received; and

(b)       the recommendation of the Leisure and Community Policy Development and Review Panel contained in minute 8(d) regarding the Panel’s proposed work programme for 2014/15  be accepted and accordingly, the work programme for 2014/15 be confirmed.

RESOLVED that:

(a)       the minutes of the Streetscene Policy Development and Review Panel held on 6 March 2014 be received; and

(b)       the recommendation of the Streetscene Policy Development and Review Panel contained in minute 6(c) regarding the Panel’s proposed work programme for 2014/15  be accepted and accordingly, the work programme for 2014/15 be confirmed.

RESOLVED that:

(a)       the minutes of the Audit and Governance Committee held on 10 March 2014 be received;

(b)       the recommendation of the Audit and Governance Committee contained in minute 6 regarding the changes to the Financial Regulations 1 – Responsibilities of Members and 2 – Responsibilities of Statutory Officers be accepted and accordingly, the changes as set out in Appendices B and D to the report be approved;

(c)       the recommendation of the Audit and Governance Committee contained in minute 7(b) regarding the updates to the Functions of the Audit and Governance Committee that relate to the review of Financial Regulations be accepted and accordingly, the changes as highlighted in Appendix A to the report be approved; and

(d)       the recommendation of the Audit and Governance Committee contained in minute 14(a) regarding the Committee’s proposed work programme for 2014/15  be accepted and accordingly, the work programme for 2014/15 be confirmed.

RESOLVED that:

(a)       the minutes of the Public Protection Policy Development and Review Panel held on 11 March 2014 be received; and

(b)       the recommendation of the Public Protection Policy Development and Review Panel contained in minute 6(e) regarding the Panel’s proposed work programme for 2014/15  be accepted and accordingly, the work programme for 2014/15 be confirmed.

RESOLVED that:

(a)       the minutes of the Health and Housing Policy Development and Review Panel held on 13 March 2014 be received; and

(b)       the recommendation of the Health and Housing Policy Development and Review Panel contained in minute 10(c) regarding the Panel’s proposed work programme for 2014/15  be accepted and accordingly, the work programme for 2014/15 be confirmed.

RESOLVED that:

(a)       the minutes of the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee held on 18 March 2014 be received; and

(b)       the recommendation of the Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Committee contained in minute 5 regarding the adoption of Section 120 of the Local Government Act 2003 to enable the existing bye-laws made under Section 15 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 to be extended to apply to cosmetic piercing and semi-permanent skin colouring, be accepted and accordingly, approved.

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

There were no questions under Standing Order 17.2 submitted for this meeting.

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 moved at 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 25 April 2014.

There were no changes to the appointments to committees made at this meeting.

The Council is asked to agree a proposed change to the 2014/15 schedule of meetings in relation to the Planning Committee. It is proposed that the date for the meeting in September be changed from Wednesday 10 September 2014 to Wednesday 24 September 2014.

RESOLVED that the date for the meeting of the Planning Committee in September be changed from Wednesday 10 September 2014 to Wednesday 24 September 2014.