Agenda and minutes

This being the first meeting of the new Civic Year the Chairman welcomed all those in attendance. 

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

A total of six questions had been received.

The Chairman welcomed Mrs Mallen, Mr Enever and Mrs Grocock to the meeting.  Before inviting them to put their 5 questions to the Committee, the meeting were reminded that the questions would be put and a response would be given.  There would be no debate.

Mr Enever posed the first question as follows: -

Question 1

"I presented a petition in April to Full Council – this was rejected.  A Member briefing was issued to defend the Council’s position against this well supported petition.   Reading the briefing has led me to ask the question, as reading the business plan there are a number of items within the business plan that are a cause for concern and in a normal commercial environment would not pass a muster or a lender.  It’s talk of the health & wellbeing hub development links with the PCT, which ceased to exist in 2013.  The diabetes protection contract for Lincs was awarded 2 years ago and is already rolled out across the county.  The whole decision was based on a flawed business plan that you were told would bring 200,000 more visitors per year to the re-developed bowls hall.  That means that over a 10 hour period each day, there would be 55 people per hour coming through the door.  A constant stream, without break every single day of the year.  On that basis you were convinced that the new scheme would bring money into the coffers of WLDC.  Do you still really believe that will happen, every day of the year, for 10 hours a day?  We were told that these people flowing through the door constantly would be coming for cardio rehabilitation, diabetes prevention and improvement and weight reduction.   Which in anyone’s book are not leisure pursuits.  Hopefully, they will be able to take part in leisure activities in due course, but it is not leisure by anyone’s description.  However, the document highlights that the leisure centre land has a covenant upon it that says it must be used for community leisure purposes.  Did anyone think to question if a breach on covenant had taken place, using a leisure facility for medical purposes?  This all leads me to ask, what training and skills are provided to Members of the Committee, and all Councillors in fact, to assess critically and objectively a business proposition brought to them by Officers?"

The Chairman responded to the question as follows: -

“All Councillors are trained to ask challenging questions to assure themselves around the advice they are being given and the decisions they are being asked to make. It is the role of Officers to have the relevant technical skills to carry out the business of the Council and to make technical recommendations to Councillors in order to ensure that their policies are implemented.

In particular around commercial matters, there have been three specific training sessions held during the last 12 months which have focussed on commercial activity, the leisure  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

(a)          Concurrent Meeting of the Prosperous Communities Committee and Corporate Policy and Resources Committee – 25 April 2018.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Concurrent Meeting of the Prosperous Communities Committee and Corporate Policy and Resources Committee held on 25 April 2018 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

(b)          Meeting of the Prosperous Communities Committee – 1 May 2018.

Before moving to the vote Councillor Young requested the opportunity to discuss the content.  With the permission of the Chairman he indicated that they were an accurate reflection of the meeting of when he had been in attendance.  However the following day a senior Member of the Council had posted a tweet regarding the meeting and this was read aloud to the meeting.  Councillor Young was of the view that if the minutes were accepted as a true record, the conduct of the Councillor concerned was a serious issue.

The Chairman interjected Councillor Young advising his comments had been heard, however this matter was not connected with the motion on the table and there were mechanisms to report such concerns.

Councillor Young continued insisting the matter be raised now and further expressed his views regarding the Chairman of the Governance and Audit Committee’s behaviour.  He was of the view Officers had a duty to protect Members from such behaviour and his behaviour had been raised with the Monitoring Officer with no action.

The Executive Director of Operations responded, firstly clarifying whether the matter had been raised as a formal complaint.  It was confirmed this was not the case.  The Executive Director of Operations advised Councillor Young that on receipt of a formal complaint the matter would be dealt with in accordance with the agreed procedure for standards complaints.  This would need to be done in writing.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Meeting of the Prosperous Communities Committee held on 1 May 2018 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

(c)          Meeting of the Prosperous Communities Committee – 14 May 2018 (following Annual Council).

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Meeting of the Prosperous Communities Committee held on 14 May 2018 (following Annual Council) be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Setting out current position of previously agreed actions as at 25 May 2018.

Members gave consideration to the Matters Arising Schedule which set out the current position of all previously agreed actions as at 25 May 2018.

RESOLVED that progress on the Matters Arising Schedule, as set out in the report be received and noted.

Members may make any declarations at this point but may also make them at any time during the course of the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made at this stage of the meeting.

The Committee gave consideration to a report which informed Members of the public consultation currently open in respect of the draft Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy for Lincolnshire.  In presenting the report, Officers outlined the purpose of the Strategy, how it had been developed and by whom, the stages of the consultation process and the steps which would follow.  Section 5 of the report set out the key factors Officers considered the Strategy should address from both a county-wide and West Lindsey perspective. 

Finally the report requested that the Committee form and approve a formal response to the consultation. A proposed consultation response had been prepared by Officers and was included at Appendix 1 and would be amended to reflect and key comments made during the debate.

Debate ensued.  Members commented on the well supported, highly functioning, customer friendly waste service which currently existed across the District and the need to safeguard this.  Furthermore the health of the workforce needed to be safeguarded and the current system was delivering this also, supported by performance statistics.  The need to keep abreast of new technologies which were developing at apace, proving further solutions and opportunities to improve recycling rates was considered vitally important.  Recyclate streams differed from local authority to local authority and it was suggested that coming to a general consensus regarding collection streams in the future would assistant in generating a market for materials.

The document made reference to writing to neighbouring Local Authorities, but there was a view that greater action should be taken with regards to North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire Councils given their location.  The need to develop reciprocal arrangements in respect of household recycling sites was much required and of paramount importance.

In response to a question, Officers confirmed that individual representations to the public consultation were also welcomed and would be accepted.

Officers thanked Members for the kind comments regarding the service and gave assurance that this would be passed on to the operatives. In responding to comments regarding separate collections, quality was becoming key and Officers outlined a number of national and global factors which were further driving the need for quality. Whilst acknowledging the ease of the current recycling method, without the quality the waste collected had little value.  The Strategy indicated the impact of all collection methods would be objectively assessed, with a food waste collection trail due to commence in South Kesteven very soon.

Continued education was also considered an important focus and the need to make any literature as user friendly and customer focussed as possible.

Officers gave assurance that they would continue to put pressure on the County Council regarding reciprocal arrangements at household recycling centres and concurred with the points which had been raised by the Committee in respect of this.

RESOLVED that having considered the response contained in the Executive Summary section of the report to the consultation for the draft Joint Municipal Waste Strategy for Lincolnshire and the response to the Strategy questionnaire, as set  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Members gave consideration to a report which sought to provide an update on broadband initiatives, highlight current issues affecting communities across the District and present options open to the Council to further investigate in a bid to improve broadband availability.

In presenting the report Officers advised that unfortunately the information requested from On-Lincolnshire in respect of the BT Phase 3 contract had not been received to-date.

Whilst it would be difficult to directly fund broadband provision given the restraints on resources, a number of alternative options which could be investigated were presented for consideration.  These were set out in section 4.

Debate ensued with the Committee being in agreement that option (a) was neither feasible nor the responsibility of the District Council.  Options (b) (c) and (d) were all considered worthy of further exploration and it was suggested that a further option be explored namely: -

“(e ) That an approach be made to Quickline who have won funding of £2.1m to pilot 5G technology across the region to include a project within West Lindsey.”

All were in agreement that the Council needed to use its power and influence through lobbying wherever possible and at every opportunity.  The situation reported at Cherry Willingham was considered unacceptable.

The suggested additional option for investigation was also supported.

It was suggested that the situation should be continually monitored, and a logging function for residents may be useful.  Any evidence gathered would be of assistance in lobbying providers and other parties.

Officers welcomed the Committee’s comments and support and undertook to look at the suggestion regarding a logging facility.  The Council had previously promoted the “Think Broadband” site, which provided such a function, on the Council’s website, during the survey period, and would look to see if it was feasible to re-establish this.

On that basis it was

RESOLVED that having considered the options presented and suggested throughout the course of the debate, the following options be further investigated and the outcome reported back to Committee in due course: -

·         Option b as set out in the report - Adopt a ‘sign-posting’ stance for communities/residents to provide over view information and point enquiries toward the various available funding streams and options;

·         Option c as set out in the report - Employ, on a fixed term basis, a ‘broadband community champion’ to work closely with relevant communities to identify issues, options, funding streams, garner community support/awareness, liaise with service providers and keep abreast of developments in this field. One option may be that other Lincolnshire Councils in a similar position may be willing to resource a shared role. Further investigation of this possibility could be pursued;

·         Option d as set out in the report - Rely on OnLincolnshire Phase Three to deliver on behalf of the District and allow other initiatives (both planned and future) to address the issue; and

·         Option e as raised during debate and detailed above.

Members gave consideration to a report which sought to establish a community lottery in West Lindsey.  This would be an on-line lottery operating on a similar principle to other community lotteries, such as the Health Lottery with the proceeds being distributed to local charities.

30 Local Authorities currently operated community lottery schemes and the principles of the Scheme were set out in the report.

Debate ensued and Members were hopeful that the scheme would be well supported and had the potential to be a valued addition to the community grant activity currently in operation and would be of benefit to the District

Councillor Young proposed the following amendment “That in its first year of operation this Council supports the proceeds achieved through the Lottery Scheme would be paid to the Gainsborough Indoor Bowls Club for the replacement of a new indoors bowls facility”.

The morality of gambling was discussed, such lotteries were common and did generate funds for communities.  People would have the reassurance monies spent would be re-invested into the local community and would be able to choose which charities/ community groups they supported. 

On the whole the initiative was supported and the recommendations in the paper were moved.

In response to questions, Officers confirmed there would be no roll-overs and matching the sequence of numbers was a factor in winning some of the prizes.  The format did differ from the most commonly recognised namely the National Lottery. Page 59 of the report packs set out the winning combinations.

A Member did raise concerns regarding the setting up costs, and worried these would spiral out of control.  These were clearly laid out in the final implications section of the report and assurance was offered that if further funding was required, although this was not anticipated, this would only be with Committee’s agreement.  There would be minimal impact on Council resources including staff, as the running of the lottery would be undertaken on a day to day basis by Gatherwell on behalf of the Council. 

The amendment proposed earlier in the debate was seconded.

It was further moved and duly seconded that the amendment which had been moved and seconded be put to a recorded vote.

The recorded vote was duly taken with those present voting as set out below: -

For: - Councillors Rollings and Young.

Against: - Councillors Bardsley, Bibb, Bierley, Darcel, Devine, England, Mewis, Parish, and Summers

Abstain: - Councillor McNeill

With a total of 2 votes for, 9 votes against and 1 abstention, the motion was declared lost.

The recommendations as set out in the report having being earlier moved were seconded and on being put to the vote it was

RESOLVED that:-

(a)     the launch and delivery of a Council run Community Lottery Scheme as detailed within the report be approved;

(b)     the re-allocation of funds from the Community Grants programme budget to launch and deliver the community lottery be approved; and

(c)     it be RECOMMENDED  to the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

Members gave consideration to the Committee Work Plan.

In response to a question it was confirmed that use of Council Procedure Rule 10 - Notice of Motion, if supported, would be the route by which the Fiskerton Neighbourhood Plan could be discussed.

A member commented that the Work Plan did not include the current work being undertaken in respect of the Markets.  This would be included once the Procurement exercise had been completed.

A Member requested a report on the leisure contract once the contract was up and running, especially as the business plan figures had been questioned. This would allow Members to track progress.  In response Officers confirmed that such a request was appropriate and such reports would be programmed into the work plan in due course.  Appropriate reporting periods and timings would need to be determined in the first instance. 

It was also requested that an update be provided on reciprocal arrangements in respect of household recycling sites as appropriate. 

RESOLVED that the Work Plan as set out in the report, be received and noted, and the additional items agreed be included.

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 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.

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 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.

To note the exempt record of the Concurrent Meeting held on 25 April 2018.

RESOLVED that the exempt record of the Concurrent Meeting of the Prosperous Communities Committee and Corporate Policy and Resources Committee held on 25 April 2018 be noted.