Agenda and minutes

Following discussions with officers, items 40 and 43 were withdrawn from the agenda to allow further work to take place on options for taking 5-7 Market Place forward.

Up to 15 minutes are allowed for public participation.  Participants are restricted to 3 minutes each.

There was no public participation.

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the previous meeting held on 19 July 2018.

An error was noticed on the circulated draft minutes from 19 July 2018; Councillor David Bond was listed as having given apologies, when in fact it should read Councillor David Cotton.

The minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2018 were approved as a correct record.

Members may make declarations of Interest at this point or may make them at any point in the meeting.

None.

Setting out current position of previously agreed actions as at 12 September.

The matters arising schedule was noted.

Members considered a summary of performance of the Corporate Health and Safety Service throughout the authority.

Councillor David Cotton, as Chairman of the Joint Staff Consultative Committee introduced the item, and recorded thanks for the work done previously in this area by Kim Leith.  There had been a change over the course of the previous year with Simon Hunt taking over the post of Health and Safety Co-ordinator.

The following points were highlighted:

·         Health and Safety Champions were doing their job and meeting on a regular basis;

·         All accidents, however minor were being recorded;

·         Operational services was the largest source of accidents; 40 accidents out of 69 in total for 2017-18 were in this area;

·         There were three incidents reported under the Reporting of Injuries and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR), all in Operational Services;

·         Health and Safety Champions were tasked with ensuring that ‘near misses’ were reported and recorded; there were very few near misses in 2017-18;

·         Visual Display Unit (VDU) requirements fall within the scope of Health and Safety; IT would get involved if new equipment was required;

·         Work on mental health in the workplace must include officers and councillors alike; a number of policies and reports had been pertinent to Members.

RESOLVED tosupport and note the Corporate Health and Safety Report.

Members considered a report that sought to clarify the Council’s policy with regard to the council tax paid by young people leaving care as permitted by Section 13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 from 1 April 2018.

The following points were highlighted:

·         A Children’s Society campaign had identified a range of disadvantages that care leavers’ experience.  The campaign highlighted the concept of relief for care leavers, as part of the collective corporate parent;

·         There were 18 care leavers under the age of 25 currently resident in the West Lindsey area; any reductions would need to be funded from the collection fund.  The number of awards granted would be closely monitored;

·         This was something that West Lindsey District Council (WLDC) should be doing; those who had previously been, or were currently in care were disadvantaged should pressure be applied on council tax.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  agree the amendments to the Section 13A policy (see Appendix A of the report) to allow for Council Tax relief to be awarded to young people under the age of 25 leaving care;

(2)  agree that individual applications for care leavers under the age of 25 years be determined by the Section 151 Officer under delegated powers.

Members considered a report called ‘Living over the Shop (LOTS) Grant’; WLDC was successful in bidding for £4million funds from the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership (GLLEP) single growth fund round 3 for the ‘Gainsborough Growth Programme’.  The LOTS grant formed part of that programme and aimed to deliver the creation or reinstatement of residential properties within Gainsborough town centre.

The Executive Director of Economic and Commercial Growth introduced the item, highlighting the following:

·         The maximum grant available would be £25,000; this would enable WLDC to deliver 8 units (flats above shops);

·         The market in isolation would not bring the upper floors of those shops within the specified zone into use; the Local Enterprise Partnership had agreed to this intervention.

Following question from Members, further information was provided:

·         It was stipulated that the area within Gainsborough that would be eligible for this grant must be tightly constrained.  If the take-up of the grant was poor, then other streets could be considered;

·         Although mentioned in the body of the report, Church Street was not currently part of the scheme;

·         The scheme could be something to look at within the 3 year vision for Market Rasen;

Note: Councillor Trevor Young declared an interest at this point as he owned a property on Silver Street.

·         It was impossible to say whether the demand was there for the flats, as there were no decent property comparisons in Gainsborough;

·         The refurbishments, or work on the units should be of a high quality.  £25,000 might not be enough, but can be used as a starting point;

·         The grant awarded would be per flat;

·         There was no claw back clause on the money granted to applicants; the scheme had been pitched as being as simple as possible to try and stimulate the market. 

This money was being provided by the LEP;

·         With a conversion or building that had retail on the ground floor, getting separate access could be a problem and could prove expensive.

RESOLVED to:

(1)  approve that the Capital Budget was increased to £200k;

(2)  agree to the Council acting as the Accountable Body for the purpose of administering the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership (GLLEP) Grant for the purpose of delivering a Living over the Shop scheme;

(3)  approve the launch of the grant scheme subject to a Grant Funding Agreement offer from the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership;

(4)  note that the award of Living Over the Shop (LOTS) Grants will be delegated to the S151 Officer (Executive Director of Resources) supported by the recommendation of an Officer Panel.

This item had been previously withdrawn (see item 32).

The Executive Director of Economic and Commercial Growth was due to bring back a business plan for Japan Road.  Personnel issues with ACIS have led to the item being delayed.

Subject to the deletion of a duplicate ‘Fees and Charges’ item, the workplan was noted.

To resolve that under Section 100 (A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

RESOLVED that under Section 100 (A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

This item had been previously withdrawn (see item 32).

Members considered a report on an affordable housing scheme at North Marsh Road, Gainsborough.

The following points were highlighted:

·         The maximum possible grant was awarded by Homes England;

·         Section 106 funding was eligible to be spent on a scheme such as this.  The site was opposite Gainsborough Queen Elizabeth Grammar school;

·         The Section 106 funding on this planning consent was always for affordable housing;

·         This section of Gainsborough was in Flood Zone 3, which had provided significant viability challenges for the project;

·         The section 106 monies were time limited; if it wasn’t used for the reason it was given it would have to be returned to the developer.

RESOLVED to approve a capital budget to the value of £360,000 funded through s106 monies for spend on delivery of affordable housing scheme at North Marsh Road Gainsborough.