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

Items
No. Item

2.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

Minutes:

2.1               The following Members declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 9 – Citizens Advice Presentation:

 

Councillor Muller as a member of the Board of Trustee for Citizens Advice – Mid Suffolk.

 

Councillor Adrian Osborne as an Observer at Citizens Advice Sudbury and District.

 

Councillor Ayres as a representative for Sudbury Town Council at Citizens Advice – Sudbury and District.

3.

JOS/19/9 TO CONFIRM THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 18 JULY 2019 pdf icon PDF 167 KB

Minutes:

It was RESOLVED: -

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on the 18 July 2019 be confirmed as a true record.

4.

BOS/19/5 CONFIRMATION OF THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON THE 24 JUNE 2019 pdf icon PDF 142 KB

Minutes:

Note: Babergh Members Only

 

It was RESOLVED: -

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on the 24 June 2019 be confirmed as a true record.

5.

MOS/19/5 TO CONFIRM THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON THE 27 JUNE 2019 pdf icon PDF 149 KB

Minutes:

Note: Mid Suffolk Members only.

 

It was RESOVED: -

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on the 27 June 2019 be confirmed as a true record

6.

TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATION OF PETITIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COUNCIL'S PETITION SCHEME

Minutes:

None received.

7.

QUESTIONS BY THE PUBLIC

To consider questions from and provide answers to members of the public on any matter in relation to which the Committee has powers or duties and of which due notice has been given in accordance with the Committee and Sub-Committee Procedures Rules.

Minutes:

None received.

8.

QUESTIONS BY COUNCILLORS

To consider questions from and provide answers to Councillors on any matter in relation to which the Committee has powers or duties and of which due notice has been given in accordance with the Committee and Sub-Committee Procedure Rules.

Minutes:

None received.

 

 

9.

CITIZENS ADVICE PRESENTATION

Collen Sweeney – Chief Officer for Sudbury Citizen Advice

 

Carol Eagles – Bureau Manager for Citizens Advice Mid Suffolk

 

BDC Cabinet Member for Communities

 

MSDC Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing

 

Minutes:

9.1           The Chair introduced Colleen Sweeney, Chief Officer for Sudbury and District Citizens Advice and Carol Eagles, Manager for Citizens Advice Mid Suffolk and invited them to begin their presentation.

 

9.2           Carol Eagles provided an overview of the Citizens Advice and stressed that each Citizen Advice (CA) was part of the National Citizens Advice but that each organisation was a local funded independent charity. The CA provided advice to over 6000 people across the two districts by providing help by phone, face to face contacts, visits, emails and web chats. Approximately 40% of the advice services were face to face. They also operated an Out-reach Service and were often able to reach residents in rural areas through this service. Services were mainly provided by local volunteers, supported and managed by a small core team.

 

9.3           Benefit issues were the biggest, and debt was the second biggest area for advice to be provided.

 

9.4           Colleen Sweeney then provided statistics for the financial circumstances for the clients they helped and the kind of groups the CA could reach.

 

9.5           The work provided by the CA saved the local and national Government £8.1M per year and generated social and economic benefits of £48.1M. The figures helped to provide the financial benefits gained by the advice and services provided by the CA.

 

9.6           In addition, the CAs also received funding from a variety of other funders, some of which specified for what purpose the funding could be used, excluding funding for items such as core costs.  It was a challenge to secure sustainable sources of funding as funding was usually provided on an annual basis.  This had to be considered in context to the fact that the demand for CA services was increasing.

 

9.7           The CA had become the main support for the completion of benefit forms and there was a concern that any instability in economic climate would put pressure on the provision of services.  However, careful strategic planning was applied to ensure that the CAs in Babergh and Mid Suffolk would be financially sustainable for the near future, despite the change in funding from SCC.

 

9.8           The funding provided by Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils was the main funding for the two CAs. Managers explained that further funds would need to be identified to enable the CA to complete the three-year Business Plan as required for sustainable businesses and charities.

 

9.9           The Chair thanked Colleen Sweeney and Carol Eagles for the presentation and asked for clarification on the funding issues for SCC and CCG.

 

9.10       It was confirmed that the decision was made by  SCC last year and had resulted in the funding being cut by 50% for 2019/20 and withdrawn completely for 2020/21. This had left the CAs with a consequential funding gap which had been partly recovered with funds provided by the CCG, who had agreed to fund 50% of SCC’s original funds for both 2019/20 and 2020/21.

 

9.11       It was confirmed that talks were still on-going with SCC  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

10.

JOS/19/10 FIVE-YEAR HOUSING LAND SUPPLY UPDATE pdf icon PDF 308 KB

Babergh five-year housing land supply annual position statement

 

mid suffolk five-year housing land supply annual position statement

 

A review of the Five-year Housing Land Supply following the meeting in March 2018.

 

BDC Cabinet Member for Planning

 

MSDC Cabinet Member for Planning

Minutes:

The Committee held a ten-minute recess and returned at 11:15am.

 

10.1           Councillor Arthey, Babergh Cabinet Member for Planning, introduced the report.   Babergh District Council did not currently have a Five-year Housing Land Supply, whereas Mid Suffolk District Council did.  He referred to page 11, paragraph 4.14 and 4.15, detailed the produced draft annual position statement figure for both Councils, which now proved that both Council had a Five-year Housing Land Supply, including a 5% buffer for Babergh.

 

10.2           He knew this was not an ideal statement, as neither of the Councils had an up to date Local plan and he couldn’t stress the importance of the Joint Local plan enough.

 

10.3           Councillor Burn, Mid Suffolk Cabinet Member for Planning agreed and said that without a Local Plan the Councils could be subject to challenges from developers, when planning permissions were refused.

 

10.4           Robert Hobbs, Corporate Manager for Strategic Planning referred to the key information in the report and said that there had to be evidence that the supply of sites for development were robust. Once feedback had been received from the consultation with developers, the Five-year Housing Land Supply statement would be produced.

 

10.5           Councillor Welham asked for a timescale for the feedback from developers and clarification if the Five-year Housing Land Supply statement had any value without the Joint Local Plan.

 

10.6           Officers responded that the Five-year Housing Land Supply was only agreed by the Planning Inspectorate and fixed for one year, where there a recently adopted Local Plan in place. Until this was agreed, the statement to be published could be challenged by developers. The feed-back from developers would be produced shortly.

 

10.7           Councillor Otton referred to paragraph 4.4, she felt it was not clear how the figures were calculated, and officers responded that calculation was based on market position and that developers’ predictions of what sites would come forward for development.

 

10.8           Councillor Otton asked if there was any leeway on this calculation as some of the figures were subject to the economic position of not just the Councils but also nationally.

 

10.9           Philip Isbell, Chief Planning Officer, responded that the key point was that developers agreed with the position statement and that the current consultation with developers would confirm developers own estimates of sites for development and their own financial position.

 

10.10        Councillor McCraw reminded the Committee that this was a simple summary of the housing land supply statement, which was out for consultation and that the committee was to discuss the mechanism of the calculations, but to understand that a certain amount of rigour had been involved in the gathering of the figure and the Position Statement.

 

10.11        The Chief Planning Officer responded to questions regarding the weight of the Position Statement at planning committees and said that by providing a Five-year Housing Land Supply statement the Councils would be in a stronger position. The adopted Neighbourhood Plan Policy already carried weight and would continue to do so even without the Five-year Housing Land Supply  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

11.

JOS/19/11 INFORMATION BULLETIN pdf icon PDF 386 KB

The Information Bulletin is a document that is made available to the public with the published agenda papers.  It can include update information requested by the Committee as well as information that a service considers should be made known to the Committee.

 

This Information Bulletin contains updates on the following subjects:

 

1.     Voids – An update voids times in Council Housing

 

Minutes:

11.1           The Chair informed the Committee that Heather Tucker, Corporate Manager for Housing Solutions had forwarded her apologies, but would respond to Members outside the Committee if they had any questions.

 

11.2           Members discussed the Information Bulletin and whether it would be necessary to continue the updates on voids, as the Performance Management Statistics on Connect included the performance of voids too.

 

11.3           It was agreed by all Members that the Voids Project had been a success for the team.

 

11.4           Councillor Welham proposed that no further voids Information Bulletin should be forwarded to the Committee unless there was a significant change in the targets.

 

11.5           Councillor McCraw added that thanks should be extended to the entire Housing Team for the work undertaken for the past two years.

 

By unanimous vote

 

It was RESOLVED:

 

1.1               That no further Voids Information Bulletins be forwarded unless there was a significant change in the targets

 

1.2               That thanks be extended to the entire Housing Team for the work undertaken for the past two years

12.

FORTHCOMING DECISIONS LIST

To review the Council’s Forthcoming Decisions List and identify any items to be brought before the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

 

Please note the most up to date version can be found via the Website:

 

Forthcoming decision list

 

 

Paper copies will be available at the meeting.

Minutes:

It was RESOLVED: -

 

That the Forthcoming Decisions List be noted

13.

JOS/19/12 BABERGH OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY WORK PLAN pdf icon PDF 435 KB

To agree the Work Plan

Minutes:

Item 13 and 14 was discussed together.

 

13.1           Councillor Welham asked Members if they would prefer to have separate committees on the same day for the rare single issues on the work plans.

 

13.2           Members agreed that this would be the most suitable solution.

 

13.3           Councillor Otton asked that the explanation for Community Transport Services be expanded to explain what the Committee would be scrutinising.

 

13.4           Members discussed this and some felt that the lack of transport in rural areas and the cut in funding made this a suitable topic for scrutiny.  Others felt that both Community Transport and public transport fell under the control of Suffolk County Council and that scrutiny could not add any value to this service.

 

13.5           Councillor Caston question how a solution could be found to the issues with community transport, and if scrutiny of the SCC decision could provide further solutions.

 

13.6           Members generally disagreed on how to approach this issue and the Chair asked Members to consider the topic and forward any proposal to either the Chair or the Committee Clerk.

 

13.7           Councillor Otton then brought the Committee’s attention to the issues with the new bin collection routes and suggested a report be provided to the Committee.

 

13.8           Councillor McCraw agreed and proposed that the Committee asked for a report on the newly introduced change of the collection routes and the issues related to the collection of the bins, the reasons for the disruption of collection, the long-term effect and the issues with communication to residents.

 

It was RESOLVED: -

 

That a report be produced and brought the next Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the newly introduced change of the collection routes and the issues related to the collection of the bins, the reasons for the disruption of collection, the long-term effect and the issues with communication to residents.

 

 

14.

JOS/19/13 MID SUFFOLK OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY WORK PLAN pdf icon PDF 436 KB

To agree the Work Plan