Agenda item

Councillor Chris Darcel submitted the following question to the meeting: -

 

1)           Question to Cllr Jeff Summers, Leader of the Council

 

“I am most grateful for your enthusiastic support for the Neighbourhood Plans in general and the help you have given me in sorting out problems that I’ve had in making sure the Fiskerton plan is a fair reflection of local opinion.

 

My question is simple, what is going on and what did both you and the Council Champion for Neighbourhood Planning say to the Neighbourhood Plan Group that persuaded them to withdraw their plan from the West Lindsey website when you met them in February this year?

 

I would also like to know, following this intervention, what will happen now with the Neighbourhood Plan? Will there be a full and fair consultation on any revised proposals, where residents can be fully involved in the process? Will the process start again with a blank sheet of paper or will it be simply a restating of previous proposals?

 

I make this last point as some residents consider that the process up till now has lacked the full involvement of the community and transparency as required by the rules and regulations that govern neighbourhood planning and I would like to know whether you and the Council Champion for Neighbourhood Planning were given any assurance on these matters at this meeting.”

 

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Jeff Summers, responded as follows: -

 

 

“Thank you for your question Councillor Darcel.

 

As the Leader of our Council I feel it is incumbent of me to ensure wherever possible all business across the District is conducted in a fair and equitable manner.

 

It appeared there were some issues with the Fiskerton Neighbourhood Plan (NP) as it was very slow in it’s progress. As you are aware you have raised issues with myself and others regarding the emerging document and the way in which it was being produced.

 

In fact, I took your comments seriously and invited you to spend two hours one Saturday morning scrutinising the process after which you were unable to present to me any form of evidence which suggested the plan was not a true and accurate reflection of the community or that the process was flawed.

 

Councillor England and I visited the NP Chairman and Parish Council Chairman for an update on their Plan’s preparation. Councillor England and I simply discussed the options and legal requirements needed to fulfil their obligations to produce a Plan within all the statutory guidelines.

 

The decision to withdraw the NP was entirely that of the Working Group and the Parish Council. Neither of us were involved in that.

 

Your second question regarding what happens next? Our understanding is that the Group will work with their consultant to produce a compliant document and once completed they will submit the Plan to a statutory Regulation 14 six week public consultation during which all members of the community and a range of statutory external bodies, including WLDC will be invited to respond.

 

Our Officers will give a detailed and constructive assessment, to ensure the plan meets "THE BASIC CONDITIONS" required by the Regulations.

 

All members of the community will be able to access the plan at various publicised events and online. The group will at the end of the consultation period then review the Plan and make appropriate amendments if needed from the comments received.

 

Once any changes have been made the Group will then request WLDC to proceed to the next statutory stage Regulation 16, again a public consultation lasting 6 weeks. Subject to the outcome of this, and provided our Officers are satisfied that it is still compliant with the Regulations they will put the plan forward for an independent examination.

 

If the Examiner is satisfied that the Plan, subject to any changes he/she may recommend meets the basic conditions, it will be recommended to go forward to a public referendum organised by our Electoral Team and subject to the law governing any Election.

 

This process is designed to ensure that the community are involved throughout and ultimately have the final say. Neighbourhood Planning is truly localism in action.

 

The basic conditions the plan must meet.

 

1 Evidence to support the policies in the plan

2 A consultation statement to show evidence of engagement with all stakeholders

3 The Plan must be in line with National Planning Policy

4 The Plan must be compliant with and complimentary to the Local Plan

5 The Plan must not breach Human Rights.

 

To avoid any misunderstanding and just in case you need to refer to this statement I can supply it in print.

 

Thank you”

 

Having heard the response, Councillor Darcel posed the following supplementary question: -

 

“Does Councillor Summers recall the e-mail I sent him after our meeting, in which I listed perhaps 70 or 80 e-mails and other paper documents in my paper trail which I believe shows irregular behaviour of the NP Group and the Landowner in putting the proposal forward as it is.  The second point I wish to raise is that in recent flyer being circulated around the village, the NP Group have said that all past comments will be carried forward. From the information given by Councillor Summers this evening, I would suggest we are going back to regulation 14 and therefore any comments made prior to this new consultation should be disregarded? Can I please have an assurance on that?”

 

The Leader responded as follows: -

 

“Taking the last point first, there has never being a Regulation 14 at this point and with regard to e-mails being passed to me, yes they were, which I read, there was an accusation or statement of that ilk made to me, reference the Landowner and a statement that he had made reference the sites in the village, that e-mail was never produced.”   

 

 

Councillor Trevor Young submitted the following question to the meeting: -

 

2)           Question to Cllr Jeff Summers, Leader of the Council

 

“Re: Off Street Parking Enforcement

 

A recent BBC Freedom of Information request identified that in West Lindsey the success rate of appeals regarding off street parking enforcement notices was a massive 64%.

 

Whilst one could argue that this council takes a very lenient and fair approach to parking enforcement, a more worrying concern has to be if it is a performance issue of the current outsourced contractor.

 

The FOI request identified that the success rate of appeals in some other authorities across Lincolnshire was as high as 80%. The performance figures in West Lindsey suggest either it is a quality issue regarding operational delivery or an over aggressive approach regarding parking enforcement.

 

Could the Leader of The Council therefore please explain:

 

·         How the current contractor is currently performance managed.

·         The current agreed performance measure regarding appeals.

·         The date when the current contract will be reviewed.

·         Is there any member involvement regarding contract management.”

 

Councillor Mrs Sheila Bibb, as Chairman of the Prosperous Communities Committee, responded on behalf of the Leader as follows: -

 

“Firstly I would like to thank Councillor Young for his question. As his questions are very specific and relate to the management of car parking on West Lindsey controlled parking places I will deal with the specific issues raised:

 

How the current contractor is currently performance managed?

 

The contract is managed by the Council’s Property and Assets Team. This includes regular meetings between a member of that Team, representing the Council, and the Contractor. The contract is monitored through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which is the contractor’s responsibility to supply to the council on a monthly basis.

.

The current agreed performance measure regarding appeals?

 

There is no set performance level for appeals or for the issue of parking fines as the Council is not seeking to measure performance by the amount of parking fines issued or its success rate on appeals.  Each case is managed on its own merits and has regard to the circumstances of the case.  However, and for the sake of consistency our civil parking enforcement officers are given no discretion when issuing penalty notices to vehicles parked in contravention of the rules for the car park. Discretion is applied when the notice is processed and this is where the particular circumstances of the case are taken into account. This might explain the appeals success rate that Councillor Young refers to.

 

The date when the current contract will be reviewed?

 

The current contract runs until February 2020 and will be reviewed before that date.

 

Is there any member involvement regarding contract management?

 

No. Officers are responsible for contract management.

 

Councillor Young thanked Councillor Mrs Bibb for the response.