Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Members.

The Chief Executive read out the following apologies which had been received for the meeting:

Council were advised that Councillors Elaine Atkinson and Sean Gabriel were going to arrive late.

Councillors are required to comply with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 regarding disclosable pecuniary interests. Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

The Chief Executive advised that all Members of the Council had been granted a dispensation by the Interim Monitoring Officer to deal with any matters to do with the setting of Council Tax and that in respect of this Members were therefore able to take part in the debate and to vote on the Council’s budget and Council Tax proposals.

In addition, Tanya Coulter and Adam Richens declared an interest in Minute No. 38, in relation to the appointment of the Monitoring Officer and Section 151 Officer.

To receive any public questions or statements submitted in accordance with the Constitution. 

Further information on the requirements for submitting questions and statements is available to view at the following link:

https://bcpshadowauthority.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/public-participation-e28093-extract-from-the-constitution.pdf

The deadline for submission of public questions is 10.00 am, Friday 15 February 2019.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is 12.00 noon, Wednesday 20 February 2019.

The Chairman advised that two Members of the public had given notice that they wished to make a statement to the Shadow Authority.

Statement from Mrs H Trevorah, DAPTC

Dorset Association of Parish and Town Councils has a membership of over 97% of local councils across the whole of Dorset, including all the existing parish councils in the Christchurch area.

The association is asking that the following decision from its AGM be considered with the establishment of new unitary councils in Dorset.

“For consideration of planning applications, parish (and town) councils should be supported in being actively involved in all consultations between developers and planners, and directly involved in the resulting decision-making”.

I confirm that neighbourhood councils would be included in this request.

Statement from Dr M Kirk

Dorset currently has significantly worse figures for homeless ill health than national averages. Life expectancy is 40 something and rough sleepers have the worst health of all, finding it hardest to access traditional services.

Meeting their health needs is compassionate, cost effective and essential to moving on into housing and productive living.

The charitably funded HealthBus has engaged rough sleepers through over 300 GP consultations in the past 18 months – saving lives and money.

Please consider how you can influence the Clinical Commissioning Group and Public Health to support rough sleepers with sustainable funding for the HealthBus.

The Chairman thanked Mrs Trevorah and Dr Kirk for their statements.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 December 2018.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 December 2018 were confirmed and signed as a correct record.

The Shadow Authority is asked to note and receive the following minutes:

·         Shadow Executive Committee – 12 December 2018 and 15 January 2019.

·         Shadow Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 10 December 2018 and 9 January 2019.

See papers circulated at 5.

DECISION MADE that the minutes of the following meetings be received and noted:

• Shadow Executive Committee – 12 December 2018 and 15 January 2019; and
• Shadow Overview and Scrutiny Committee – 10 December 2018 and 9 January 2019.

See report circulated at 6.

A report was submitted to the Shadow Authority, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix ‘A’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Shadow Authority considered a report on the appointment of the Director for Children’s Services, Monitoring Officer and Section 151 Officer for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

Council were advised that an extensive and diligent process had taken place in order to externally recruit the Director of Children’s Services.

DECISION MADE that:-

(a)            the appointment of Judith Ramsden as the Corporate Director of Children’s Services, and as the statutory Director of Children’s Service (DCS) under Section 18 of the Children Act 2004 be approved;

(b)            the salary range of £120,000 - £140,000 for the DCS role, based on the independent evaluation carried out by Korn Ferry be approved;

(c)            Tanya Coulter be approved as the Director for Law & Governance, and as the statutory Monitoring Officer under Section 2 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989;

(d)            Adam Richens be approved as the Director of Finance, and as the statutory Section 151 (S151) Officer under Section 2 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989; and

(e)            the LGR HR Workstream Lead be given delegated authority to undertake the necessary HR processes in order to implement these recommendations and to agree the dates from which these decisions take effect.

Voting: Nem.Con (4 Abstentions)

The recommendations from the Committee will be circulated on 15 February 2019 at 7. Please see below the reports relating to the recommendations

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Funding Formulae – report circulated at 7a

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Budget Setting 2019/20 – report circulated at 7b

2019/20 Budget and Consolidated Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) – report circulated at 7c

Constitution for BCP Council – report circulated at 7d

BCP Local Transport Plan (LTP) Capital Programme for 2019/20 – report circulated at 7e

The report relating to the schedule setting out the rates of Council Tax for 2019/20 in accordance with recommendation 4e of the report on the 2019/20 Budget and Consolidated Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) Update will be circulated once the precept information has been received.

The recommendations arising from the meeting of the Shadow Executive Committee held on 12 February 2019 were then considered and approved.

In accordance with The Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 a recorded vote was taken in respect of the budget items.

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Funding Formulae

Councillor Mark White moved and Councillor Nicola Greene seconded that the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Funding Formulae resolution as set out below be adopted:

DECISION MADE that:-

(a)            the early years formula set out in Table 4 of paragraph 30 of the report be approved;

(b)            the mainstream schools formula set out in Table 8 of Appendix 2 of the report for a 1.1% transfer of Schools Block funding to High Needs be approved;

(c)            the final decision on the mainstream schools formula, when all DfE decisions are known, be delegated to the Bournemouth and Poole Directors of Children’s Services, in consultation with the Children’s Services Lead Members, taking into account the methodology recommended by the Shadow Schools Forum in Table 10 of Appendix 3; and

(d)            the Minimum Funding Guarantee for Specialist Providers is set at minus 1.5% to allow maximum budget flexibility.

Voting:

For

The Shadow Authority is asked to nominate and appoint Members to serve on the Interim Licensing Committee for the period 1 April to 6 May 2019 subject to the approval of the arrangements set out in the Constitution referred to in item 7d above.

The interim Licensing Committee consists of 15 Councillors all of whom must have been members of a Licensing Committee in their predecessor Council and who have been appropriately trained to undertake the role.

In light of the above and in accordance with the political balance of the BCP Council the seats on the interim Licensing Committee are allocated as follows:

Conservative – 12 seats

Liberal Democrats – 1 seat

Poole People, Green and Independent Group – 1 seat 

The Shadow Authority may wish to consider allocating the remaining seat to a Member who is not part of a political Group.

The Shadow Authority were asked to nominate and appoint Members to serve on the Interim Licensing Committee for the period 1 April to 6 May 2019 in accordance with the political balance of the BCP Council.

DECISION MADE that the following Members be appointed to serve on the Interim Licensing Committee 1 April – 6 May 2019:

Voting: Nem.Con.

(Councillors Claire Bath, Bernie Davis, Tavis Fox, Vicky Hallam, Lisle Smith, Trevor Watts left the meeting at 22:15)

See report circulated at 9.

A report was submitted to the Shadow Authority, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix ‘C’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Shadow Authority considered a report from the Independent Remuneration Panel recommending the proposed scheme of allowances for the BCP Council.

The Monitoring Officer advised Council that following the production of the report the Chairman of the Independent Remuneration Panel had advised that the reference to school admissions appeals panels at paragraph 15.1 (c) of the Independent Remuneration Panels report should be removed.

An amended recommendation was proposed by Councillor David Brown, this was seconded by Councillor Vikki Slade that:-

the allowances scheme be approved subject to the Special Responsibility Allowance for the Chairman of the Audit and Governance Committee being reduced from £10,000 to £5,000 per annum.

Upon being put to the vote the amendment fell with voting: 12:46 (7 Abstentions)

Members thanked the Independent Remuneration Panel for their hard work in drawing up a scheme of allowances for the BCP Council.

A number of Members indicated that they wished for different aspects of the report to be reviewed in particular the level of SRA for the Audit and Governance Chairman. In relation to this Members were reminded that the scheme of allowances would be reviewed by the Independent Panel once the new authority was in place and the roles more established.

DECISION MADE that subject to the removal of the reference to the school admissions appeals panel at 15.1 (c) of the report, the Scheme of Members Allowances for BCP Council be adopted. 

Voting:  51:6 (8 Abstentions)

The Authority is asked to agree the calendar of meetings circulated at 10.

A report was submitted to the Shadow Authority, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix ‘D’ to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Shadow Authority were requested to consider the Calendar of Meetings for 2019/2020. Members were advised that some of the dates would be dependent on the Constitution and may need to be varied by the relevant committee and potentially subject to change.

DECISION MADE that the calendar of meetings for 2019/2020 be approved. 

Voting: Unanimous

No motions to consider.

Members were advised that no motions had been received in accordance with procedure rule 10.

The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Interim Monitoring Officer is 15 February 2019.

Question from Councillor Paul Hilliard to Councillor Janet Walton, Leader of the Shadow BCP Council

The Centre for Cities is an independent non-partisan research organisation; they have just published analysis that shows that in the last ten years cities have been hit twice as hard by local government funding cuts than anywhere else in the country. Please would you confirm how you see BCP Council benefiting from city status and what would need to be sacrificed?

Reply from Councillor Janet Walton, Leader of the Shadow BCP Council

I don’t think I am able to confirm anything on behalf of the BCP Council, because we are still in Shadow, however I would like to remind Members that £1.28 billion has been allocated for 12 city regions of which we are one.

This is the money from the transforming cities fund which was created by the Chancellor and relates to infrastructure, we hope to hear what our allocation will be shortly, it could be in the region of perhaps £100 million, which I hope you would agree would be of benefit to BCP.

Supplementary Question from Councillor Paul Hilliard

With the extra funding envisaged do you agree in as far as you can in the Shadow and maybe moving forward into the BCP Authority that this provides an excellent opportunity to harmonise Council Tax across BCP Council in Year Two where we can allocate funds in different ways?

Reply from Councillor Janet Walton, Leader of the Shadow BCP Council

I have no further to comment to make on that.

Question from Councillor Phillip Stanley-Watts to Councillor Janet Walton, Leader of the Shadow BCP Council

Twinning offers unique opportunities in the way of economic and cultural respect and educational links. In Bournemouth we have got Lucerne and Netanya and also pioneering links with the Island of Bermuda, in fact our people are out there at this moment meeting, sponsored by the government of Bermuda. Christchurch and Poole have got their own twinning. Could you tell me what the new merged authority approach to twinning will be?

Reply from Councillor Janet Walton, Leader of the Shadow BCP Council

Unfortunately not as we are not yet into that new authority but I can confirm that meetings are currently underway with Twinning Committees across BCP, I am sure we would not wish to lose the benefits that current twinning arrangements bring to BCP and therefore anticipate arrangements will be ongoing to establish continuity.