Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils
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Agenda and minutes

Venue: King Edmund Chamber, Endeavour House, 8 Russell Road, Ipswich. View directions

Contact: Committee Services 

Items
No. Item

11.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

To receive apologies for absence.

Minutes:

11.1        Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Dawson, Holt, Kemp, Long, Patrick, Rose, Shropshire and Smith.

 

12.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS BY COUNCILLORS

Minutes:

12.1    The Monitoring Officer had granted dispensations for all Councillors relating to Item 9 (BC/18/8) Independent Remuneration Panel report.

 

13.

BC/18/6 TO CONFIRM THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 24 APRIL 2018 pdf icon PDF 627 KB

Minutes:

It was Resolved:-

 

That subject to the title of the Secretary of the State being added to paragraph 42.1 and grammatical amendments being made to the content of the Minutes, the Minutes from the meeting held on 24 April 2018 be approved as a true record.

 

 

14.

BC/18/7 TO CONFIRM THE MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL MEETING HELD ON 22 MAY 2018 pdf icon PDF 257 KB

Minutes:

It was Resolved:-

 

That the Minutes from the Annual Meeting held on 22 May 2018 be approved as a true record.

15.

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN AND LEADER

Minutes:

15.1    The Leader reported that he had attended a breakfast media event on 1 June 2018 to launch the Babergh/Mid Suffolk Business Awards and Local Hero Awards Scheme to recognise the stars across the districts. The awards would be split across sixteen categories that covered both the business and community sectors. The closing date for nominations was 28 September 2018 with the awards ceremony taking place on 18 October 2018 at St Mary’s church in Hadleigh.

 

15.2    The Leader also reported that a second Q&A session hosted by the Leader and Deputy Leader had taken place on 9 June 2018 in Hadleigh. A further session was planned for Shotley on 21 July 2018. More dates were being programmed for other areas.

 

15.3    Lastly the Leader informed the meeting that the Council had completed the purchase of land known as the Baker’s Mill footpath. Once work had been completed on the path and a crossing over a small stream provided, the riverside path would complete an uninterrupted pedestrian route all the way to Friars Meadow, near the Kingfisher Leisure Centre.

 

16.

TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATION OF PETITIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULES

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 10, the Chief Executive will report the receipt of any petitions.  There can be no debate or comment upon these matters at the Council meeting.

Minutes:

16.1    There were no petitions received.

 

17.

QUESTIONS BY THE PUBLIC IN ACCORDANCE WITH COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULES

The Chairmen of Committees to answer any questions by the public of which notice has been given no later than midday three clear working days before the day of the meeting in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 11.

Minutes:

17.1    There were no questions received.

 

18.

QUESTIONS BY COUNCILLORS IN ACCORDANCE WITH COUNCIL PROCEDURE RULES

The Chairman of the Council, the Chairmen of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 12.

Minutes:

18.1    There were no questions received.

 

19.

BC/18/8 RECOMMENDATION FROM THE INDEPENDENT REMUNERATION PANEL pdf icon PDF 233 KB

Independent Remuneration Panel

Additional documents:

Minutes:

19.1    The Chief Executive introduced the report and highlighted the key elements within it. He went on to say that due to the difficulty of Councillors debating their own allowances, a Cross Party Panel had been formed to undertake an analysis of the Panel’s findings.

 

19.2    The Cross Party Panel’s recommendations were highlighted in the report in red, to draw attention to those areas where the Panel had deviated away from the recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP). The reasoning behind those recommendations were set out in paragraphs 3.4 to 3.12 in the report.

 

19.3    Finally the Chief Executive drew attention to the Terms of Reference of the IRP and informed Council that the IRP had been asked to look at the Scheme on the basis that a period of time had elapsed since the last review, and more specifically because the Council had adopted a Leader/Cabinet model and to consider whether any changes should be backdated to the implementation of the Leader/Cabinet model.

 

19.4    Councillor Ward MOVED the recommendations in the report and informed Council of two further amendments to the recommendations as follows:-

 

·         that 2.1C be amended to reflect the current practice “that Babergh does not claim more than one SRA allowance” with the exception of the SRA for Group Leaders.

·         that the increase in allowances be backdated to the start of the new municipal year (22 May2018).

 

19.5    Councillor Ward then went on to detail the history of the past reviews of the Independent Remuneration Panel informing Council that there had only been two minor changes to the allowances scheme within the past ten years. He also stated that Babergh had the lowest comparable allowance of all authorities that had been surveyed, at a time when Members’ workloads had increased over the years.

 

19.6    Councillor McCraw seconded the report and reserved the right to speak.

 

19.7    On the proposal of Councillor Simon Barrett and seconded by Councillor Ferguson an amendment to restrict the allowance for political group leaders to those groups with five members or more was tabled.

 

19.8    This was PUT to the vote and CARRIED.

 

19.9    On the proposal of Councillor Cresswell and seconded by Councillor Williams an amendment to delay the increase in Members allowances until after the May 2019 elections was tabled.

 

19.10 Under Part 3 Paragraph 18.5 of the Constitution a recorded vote was requested by five Councillors.

 

19.11  The amendment was PUT to the vote and LOST, the vote was recorded as follows:-

 

For

Against

Abstention

Cllr A Bavington

Cllr C Arthey

Cllr F Lawrenson

Cllr D Busby

Cllr S Ayres

 

Cllr L Cresswell

Cllr M Barrett

 

Cllr D Davies

Cllr S Barrett

 

Cllr A Ferguson

Cllr P Beer

 

Cllr J Hinton

Cllr P Burgoyne

 

Cllr J Nunn

Cllr S Burgoyne

 

Cllr S Plumb

Cllr T Burrows

 

Cllr S Williams

Cllr T Campbell

 

 

Cllr S Carpendale

 

 

Cllr M Creffield

 

 

Cllr B Gasper

 

 

Cllr K Grandon

 

 

Cllr B Hurren

 

 

Cllr J Jenkins

 

 

Cllr M Maybury

 

 

Cllr A McCraw

 

 

Cllr  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

BC/18/9 DISBANDMENT OF JOINT HOUSING BOARD pdf icon PDF 202 KB

Cabinet Member for Housing

Minutes:

20.1    On the proposal of Councillor Jan Osborne and seconded by Councillor Bavington,

 

It was Resolved:-

 

That the Joint Housing Board be disbanded.

21.

APPOINTMENTS

To note the following appointment:

 

Planning Committee

 

Michael Creffield (replacing Sue Ayres)

Minutes:

It was Resolved:-

 

That Council note the following appointments:-

 

i)                Councillor Creffield to replace Councillor Ayres on Planning Committee.

ii)              Councillor Arthey to replace Councillor Davis on Planning Committee.

iii)             Councillor Davis to replace Councillor Arthey on Joint Audit and Standards Committee. 

 

22.

BC/18/10 BABERGH DC HQ REGENERATION PROJECT - APPROVAL OF RECOMMENDED OPTION (Part 1) pdf icon PDF 394 KB

Cabinet Member for Assets and Investments

Additional documents:

Minutes:

22.1    Before the item was introduced the Monitoring Officer gave advice to Planning Committee Members regarding their position about being able to participate in the debate without prejudicing their ability to partake in the planning decision when it eventually came forward to the Planning Committee.

 

22.2    Councillor Lawrenson introduced the report and MOVED the recommendations in the report. He went on to say that the report that he was presenting set out the options that had been considered for the site and explained the rationale for the recommended option.

 

22.3    He also highlighted that Option 2 (the recommended option) had been amended following further reports and surveys that had concluded that it was not viable to retain Bridge House and therefore it should be demolished.

 

22.4   A short presentation providing an overview of the proposed design and the iterative process that had been undertaken through the optioneering, assessment and consultation stages of the process was delivered by the Design Consultants.

 

22.5   Councillor Ward seconded the recommendations in the report and reserved the right to speak.

 

22.6   Councillor Beer sought reassurance that the very latest parking space sizes were being used for the proposed development and that the size of the second bedroom was of a sufficient size to be useful.

 

22.7    In response the Design Consultant confirmed that in this case the local authorities guidance for car parking space sizes had been used, which was slightly more generous than a standard size car parking space. Regarding the ground floor bedroom or multi-purpose room, these had been designed based on the lifetime homes guidance. All of the designs however, exceeded that guidance.

 

22.8    Councillor Bavington sought reassurance that under no circumstances was the Cabinet seeking to divest the Council of the freehold of the main site.

 

22.9    Councillor Maybury asked if the downstairs toilet should actually be a wet room in line with the lifetime homes standard?

 

22.10 Councillor Hinton commented that there was not enough detail given for each option to gain an understanding of why option 2 had been selected as the preferred option compared to options 1 and 3.

 

22.11 Councillor Grandon stated that there was a lot of positivity from local residents regarding the proposals for the site.

 

22.12 The Monitoring Officer advised at this point in the meeting that if the Council wished to discuss the relative merits of the different options they should move to exclude the public.

 

23.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC (WHICH TERM INCLUDES THE PRESS)

To consider whether, pursuant to Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, the public should be excluded from the meeting for the business specified below on the grounds that if the public were present during these items, it is likely that there would be the disclosure to them of exempt information as indicated against each item.

 

The author(s) of the report(s) proposed to be considered in Part 2 of the Agenda are satisfied that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Minutes:

23.1    On the proposal of the Chairman and seconded by Councillor McCraw,

 

It was Resolved:-

 

That pursuant to part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the business specified in the report on the grounds that if the public were present during discussion of this item, it is likely that there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as indicated in the report.

 

24.

BC/18/10 BABERGH DC HQ REGENERATION PROJECT - APPROVAL OF RECOMMENDED OPTION (Part 2) (Exempt information by virtue of Paragraph 1 of Part 1)

Cabinet Member for Assets and Investments

 

Minutes:

24.1    Council discussed the relative merits of the different options.

 

 

25.

RE- ADMISSION OF PUBLIC

Minutes:

It was Resolved:-

 

That the public be readmitted to the meeting.

26.

BC/18/10 BABERGH DC HQ REGENERATION PROJECT- APPROVAL OF RECOMMENDED OPTION

Minutes:

It was Resolved:-

 

That the Council’s comments on the proposed option for redeveloping the former Council HQ site at Corks Lane and the Bridge House and car parks (option 2, Section 2.1 of the report and Appendix G) be reported to Cabinet for consideration, prior to a decision being taken to submit a full planning application for the site’s redevelopment.

 

27.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC (WHICH TERM INCLUDES THE PRESS)

Minutes:

27.1    On the proposal of Councillor Peter Burgoyne and seconded by Councillor Bavington,

 

It was Resolved:-

 

That pursuant to part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the business specified in the Minutes on the grounds that if the public were present during discussion of this item, it is likely that there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as indicated in the report.

 

28.

BC/18/11 TO CONFIRM THE CONFIDENTIAL MINUTE OF 24 APRIL 2018 MEETING

Minutes:

It was Resolved:-

 

That the confidential Minute of 24 April 2018 be approved as a true record.