Agenda

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the Meeting and the Extraordinary Meeting both held on 21 February 2023.

To receive any announcements from the Chairman.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of a public questions is 4 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a public statement is midday the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

Please refer to the recommendations detailed in items 6 to XX below.

RECOMMENDED that Council approve the Financial Regulations as shown in Appendix A of the report to the Audit and Governance Committee.

RECOMMENDED that: -

(a)             the amendments to the Constitution relating to the Regulatory Committees, as detailed in paragraphs 13(a) to (e) to this report, be approved;

(b)            the amendment to Part 4D, Procedure Rule 23.4 (Substitute Members), as detailed in paragraph 15 to this report, be approved;

(c)             the insertion of paragraph 1.1.2 to Article 1 (Powers and Duties of the Council) and the amendment to Part 4A, Procedure Rule 25.2 (Additional Rights of Access for Councillors), as set out in paragraphs 18 and 19 to this report, be approved;

(d)            no changes be made to the structure or frequency of meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees at this time but this be considered by the Council following the elections in May 2023;

(e)             the dates for the respective Overview and Scrutiny Committees, as set out in paragraph 28 to this report, be agreed for 2023/24, subject to the subsequent review by the Council after the elections;

(f)              the amendments to Part 4D, Procedures Rules 13.4 to 13.27 (Public Questions, Statements and Petitions), as detailed in paragraph 39 to this report, be approved, subject to paragraphs 13.4.9 and 13.5.7 being amended to read:-

13.4.9 no member of the public may ask more than three questions on any individual item of business as defined on the agenda of the meeting. Any person submitting multiple questions may not ask their second, or where applicable, third question until other members of the public, if any, have asked their first, or where applicable, second question, subject to the Chair’s discretion.

13.5.7 no member of the public may make more than three statements on any individual item of business as defined on the agenda of the meeting. Any person submitting multiple statement may not make their second, or where applicable, third statement until other members of the public, if any, have made their first, or where applicable, second statement, subject to the Chair’s discretion;

(g)            the amendments to Part 6, Schedule 1 (Arrangements for dealing with allegations of breach of the Code of Conduct for Councillors), as set out in paragraph 43 to this report, be approved;

(h)            the amendment to Part 4A, Procedure Rule 24.3, (Access to document – Overview and Scrutiny Committees), as set out in paragraph 52 to this report, be approved;

(i)               any necessary and consequential technical and formatting related updates and revisions to the Constitution be made by the Monitoring Officer in accordance with the powers delegated.

It is RECOMMENDED that Council: -

(c)             Agrees to transfer these assets at below the ‘market’ value, under the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972 general disposal consent (England) 2003.

Note – resolutions (a), (b) and (d) were resolved matters by the Cabinet

PLEASE NOTE: Should the Council wish to discuss the detail of the confidential appendix it will be necessary to exclude the press and public and move into confidential (exempt) session. If applicable, the following resolution should be moved:

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act and that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs such interest in disclosing the information.”

Cabinet RECOMMENDS that COUNCIL:

(d)            Agreed to move the project to Full Business Case stage and commit costs estimated at £1.061m;

(e)             Agrees that the needs of the Poole Charter Trustees will be accommodated within the redeveloped Poole Civic Centre and that a location for the Coroner’s Service will be progressed by the Council’s Transformation Programme - Assets and Accommodation Workstream.

Note - resolutions (a) – (c) were resolved matters by the Cabinet

PLEASE NOTE: Should the Council wish to discuss the detail of the confidential appendix it will be necessary to exclude the press and public and move into confidential (exempt) session. If applicable, the following resolution should be moved:

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act and that the public interest in withholding the information outweighs such interest in disclosing the information.”

Cabinet RECOMMENDS that COUNCIL:

(d)            Agrees to move the project to Full Business Case stage and commit costs estimated at £969k.

Note – resolutions (a) to (c) were resolved matters by the Cabinet

Cabinet recommends that Council approves: -

(a)             The financial strategy for the Surrey rd scheme set out in paragraphs 11 to 21 with specific approval for the use of up to £3.174M new prudential borrowing (the budget) to be repaid over 50 years from the General Fund.

(b)            Subject to Planning consent, the procurement of build works to the inhouse Construction Works Team (subject to their capacity and budget adherence).

(c)             The delegation to Director of Housing in conjunction with the Chief Financial Officer) the authority to enter a contract for build works providing all key parameters (including delivery within approved capital budget) are met.

RECOMMENDED that: -

(a)        the amendments in the Constitution identified in option 2 and Appendix 2 as set out in item 6 of the agenda of Audit and Governance Committee dated 9 March 2023 be adopted subject to:

(i)          the replacement of paragraph 2.2.8 as below but in relation to sub-paragraph (f) of that replacement paragraph either option 1 or option 2;

(ii)        the addition of a new paragraph 2.7 as below; and

(iii)      further amending part of the wording of paragraph 2.5.2 b) as below.

The wording of those further changes being as follows:

(i)     Add replacement 2.2.8 with (f) being either as option 1 or option 2:

2.2.8  applications where there have been 20 or more representations from third parties  provided that to count toward that number, a representation must:

(a)    identify on the representation that it has come from a residence which is believed by the case officer (at the time of deciding whether the matter needs to go to Planning Committee) to be within one mile of any point measured from the relevant application site red line boundary;

(b)    be received by the Council within the initial or any subsequent representation period as identified on the posted planning site notice relating to that application or any other related representation period provided by the Council if no planning site notice is posted;

(c)    identify one or more issues that the case officer considers to be of material planning relevance to the application to which it relates;

(d)    not have been withdrawn by the person making the representation prior to the time of deciding whether the matter needs to go to Planning Committee;

(e)    be contrary to the intended case officer recommendation; and

Option 1 (no change from current restriction in the Constitution):

(f)        not come from the same residence;

Option 2 (scope for further multiple representations from the same household to count toward 20 representation total)

(f)       provided that any additional representation from the same residence may be counted if in the opinion of the relevant senior planning officer in consultation with the Chair of Planning it raises any different relevant material planning issues to those already contained in other representations from that residence;

 (ii)  And new 2.7 as follows:

2.7    For the avoidance of doubt, for the purposes of the 20 representation process identified in 2.2.8 above, a representation that identifies more than one name on it (including a petition) shall only be counted as one representation in calculating whether the 20 representation trigger has been reached. 

(iii)  Amend part of wording to 2.5.2 b) as follows:

2.5.2 b)   … is received no later than 4pm on the seventh calendar day after ….”

(b)    any necessary and consequential technical and formatting related updates and revisions to the Constitution be made by the Monitoring Officer in accordance with the powers delegated.

This report is for information and provides the Council with details of those complaints where members have failed to comply with a determination requesting that an apology be made following the informal resolution stage of the complaints process. 

The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Monitoring Officer is 13 March 2023.

A – Debate Not Hate

The following motion submitted in accordance with Procedure Rule 9 of the Meeting Procedure Rules has been proposed by Councillor L J Evans and seconded by Councillor R Maidment: -

It is a privilege and responsibility to be elected to public office, something which anyone should feel safe and proud to enter into.  

However, increasing levels of public intimidation and toxicity of debate aimed at and between local politicians is having a real impact on democracy. We need to see concrete action to protect current councillors and ensure potential future councillors feel safe to stand for election.   

‘We therefore call upon all BCP Councillors to demonstrate their commitment to tackling this issue by signing the Local Government Authority’s “Debate Not Hate” campaign statement, and for the Chairman to sign the statement on behalf of the Council as a whole.’

B – Dorset Pension Fund

The following motion submitted in accordance with Procedural Rule 9 of the Meeting Procedure Rules has been proposed by Councillor F Rice and seconded by Councillor C Rigby: -

‘This motion requests that BCP council asks the Dorset Pension Fund Committee to move all remaining energy investments in the pension fund to sustainable energy investments by the end of 2024.’ 

BCP and Dorset Councils have both declared Climate and Ecological Emergencies.  BCP council has pledged that its own council operations will be net zero by 2030 and this includes the carbon footprint of all its investments.  It is important to note that although the council has set a target date of 2030 to be carbon neutral, it is important to steadily reduce the councils carbon footprint month on month, not just in the last few years, in order to prevent global temperatures from rising 3 degrees or more.

The Dorset Pension Fund is administered by Dorset Council, however, the committee comprises councillors from BCP council and Dorset Council.  The Dorset Pension Fund is also part of a ‘pension pool’ encompassing 10 public sector pension funds, and they have instructed Brunel to run the pension pool.  Brunel have been approached to clarify the question of: Can the Dorset Pension Fund create it’s own policy and strategy of having no continued investment in unsustainable energy production even though it is within the Brunel pension fund pool?’.   Brunel have confirmed that ‘The pension funds themselves have the power to determine their own strategy and policy position in relation to sector-wide divestments (moving to sustainable energy investments (non fossil-fuel based)), while day-to-day asset selection rest with the managers that Brunel appoints to the portfolios’.  

Dorset Pension Fund has already made significant changes in the last 3 years, moving £87 million away from unsustainable fossil fuel energy investments within the Fund.  The last published amount shows a remainder of just £41 million left, still in unsustainable energy investments. It is requested that Council now request the small step required to move the remainder of the carbon intensive energy investments.  

There are 80 000  ...  view the full agenda text for item 15.

To consider any urgent decisions taken by the Chief Executive in accordance with the Constitution.