Agenda and minutes

Venue: Hurstwood Room, Public Service Plaza, Civic Centre Road, Havant, Hampshire PO9 2AX. View directions

Contact: James Harris  Deputy Democratic Services Team Leader

Items
No. Item

26.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors, Kennett, Milne, Raines, Smith and Thomas.

27.

Declarations of Interests

To receive any declarations of interests from Members.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

28.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 118 KB

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting held on 25 September 2019.

Minutes:

Proposed by Cllr Francis and seconded by Cllr Satchwell, the minutes of the previous meeting held on 25 September 2019 were confirmed and signed as an accurate record, subject to the inclusion of the below answer to Question 5 on page 4, which had been omitted:

 

The Council is always looking for opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint that are also financially sustainable. It is exciting times as many new technologies emerge to address the very pressing issue of climate change. An example is HERU (https://www.myheru.com/) which create energy from waste to heat individual homes. Havant Council will use its limited land holdings for carbon reduction alongside development wherever possible. One Council owned site that is currently being considered is Brockhampton West where a solar farm could be a short/medium term use until a longer term solution becomes viable. The emerging Local Plan policy E12 seeks a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions in all new homes and non residential developments.’

29.

Mayor's Report pdf icon PDF 49 KB

Minutes:

There were no questions for the Mayor on her published report.

30.

Appointments

Council to note the following casual changes to appointments agreed by the Leader since the last meeting of the Council:

 

(1)  Licensing Committee – Councillor Weeks appointed to the vacant Conservative seat;

(2)  Five Councils Corporate Services Joint Committee – Councillor Briggs appointed to the vacant seat;

(3)  Governance, Audit & Finance Board – Councillor Briggs to replace Councillor Kennett as both a board member and Chairman; and

(4)  Cllr Thomas appointed as a Standing Deputy for the Development Management Committee.

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Minutes:

Council noted the following casual changes to committee appointments made by the Leader since the last meeting of Council:

 

(i)         Licensing Committee – Councillor Weeks appointed to the vacant

            Conservative seat;

(ii)        Five Councils Corporate Services Joint Committee – Councillor Briggs

            appointed to the vacant seat;

(iii)       Governance, Audit & Finance Board – Councillor Briggs to replace Councillor

            Kennett as both a board member and Chairman; and

(iv)       Cllr Thomas appointed as a Standing Deputy to the Development

            Management Committee.

31.

Public Questions under Standing Order 13.4(f)

To receive questions from, and provide answers to, the public, provided they have been submitted in accordance with the requirements of Standing Order 13.4(f).

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

32.

Cabinet/Board/Committee Recommendations

To consider the following recommendations to Council:

 

(A)      Cabinet 23 October 2019

 

Polling Review 2019 of Havant

 

The agenda and reports for this meeting can be viewed via the following link:

 

http://havant.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=128&MId=10859

 

RECOMMENDED to full Councilthat the following changes to Polling Districts, Polling places and Polling stations within Havant are agreed:

 

(i)         Emsworth – Havant Road – No’s 1 – 19, 33 – 41 odds, 12 – 16, and 30 evens – move from EC to EE;

 

(ii)        Emsworth – Convent Lane – No’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 and 12 – move from EC to EE;

 

(iii)       EmsworthHollybank Lane – move all properties to EB;

 

(iv)       All other Polling districts and Polling places will remain the same as 2019 elections, please see appendix A, for a full list of polling stations.

Minutes:

Proposed by Cllr Bowerman and seconded by Cllr Hughes it was RESOLVED that the following changes to Polling Districts, Polling Places and Polling Stations within Havant be agreed:

 

(i)         Emsworth – Havant Road – No’s 1 – 19, 33 – 41 odds, 12 – 16, and 30 evens – move from EC to EE;

 

(ii)        Emsworth – Convent Lane – No’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 and 12 – move from EC to EE;

 

(iii)       EmsworthHollybank Lane – move all properties to EB; and

 

(iv)       All other Polling districts and Polling places will remain the same as 2019 elections.

33.

Note the approach and Timetable for the Constitutional Review pdf icon PDF 73 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Proposed by Cllr Bowerman and seconded by Cllr Turner, Council NOTED:

 

(i)        the draft contents page at appendix 1;

(ii)        the draft timetable for delivery at appendix 2; and

(iii)      the approach to the drafting of the Havant Borough Council

           Constitution as set out in appendix 3.

34.

Appointment of the S151 Officer pdf icon PDF 112 KB

Minutes:

The Director of Corporate Services left the meeting during consideration of this item.

 

Proposed by Councillor Wilson and seconded by Councillor Satchwell, it was

 

RESOLVED that:

 

(i)         the appointment of Lydia Morrison (Director – Corporate Services and

           Chief Finance Officer) to the statutory post of S151 Officer be ratified; and

 

(ii)        the post of Chief Finance Officer (S151) be linked to the Director of

           Corporate Services post.

35.

Leader's Report pdf icon PDF 61 KB

Minutes:

The Leader had nothing to add to his published report.

36.

Cabinet Lead Reports pdf icon PDF 47 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cllr Bains updated Council on the caseload for Planning Enforcement and advised that an article outlining their work and how it was prioritised would be included within the next Councillors’ Newsletter.

 

Cllr Hughes thanked officers and NORSE SE for their work in successfully delivering the new waste contract to East Hampshire District Council and introduced Robert Guy who had joined NORSE SE as Operations Director on 4 November 2019. 

 

After having the honour of being the Council’s Armed Forces Champion for four years, he confirmed that Cllr Thain-Smith had agreed to take on the role going forward.

37.

Cabinet Leads and Chairmen's Question Time

(i)                the Leader and Cabinet Leads to answer questions on matters within their respective reports.

 

(ii)           Chairmen to answer questions on minutes since the last Council meeting.

Minutes:

At the invitation of the Mayor, the Cabinet Leads took questions from members of the Council in relation to their published reports.

 

There were no questions for the Committee Chairmen.

38.

Questions Under Standing Order 23 pdf icon PDF 64 KB

To receive questions from Councillors in accordance with the requirements of Standing Order 23.4(a).

Minutes:

Questions received under Standing Order 23 and their related responses are set out below:

 

Question 1 from Councillor Lloyd to Councillor Pike

 

Would you agree with me that:

 

·         building affordable homes for the more than 1600 Havant Borough residents who are currently on the Hampshire Homes Choice list, together with

·         protecting the environment and considering what we should and should not do regarding climate change,

are the most important topics on our list of priorities as a competent Local Authority?

 

Response: Yes, those are two of the most important goals of this administration. We have plans in place to address both of these, for example, our Regeneration Strategy and Local Plan 2036, which we are looking to progress as swiftly as we can. Whilst some would say that your two topics are mutually exclusive, I would suggest that we can build the new homes that this Borough needs whilst also enhancing the natural environment and that it is perfectly possible to do both at the same time. I believe that our strategies show we can do this.

 

Question 2 from Councillor Lloyd to Councillor Pike

 

And would you also agree that this Council and other neighbouring Local Planning Authorities - whose wastewater / effluent is discharged into The Solent, a Special Area of Conservation - are between a rock and a hard place, because:

 

·         we have no option but to determine planning applications, even though in Natural England’s view there’s a likely significant effect on the designated European sites due to the increase in wastewater from new developments, because a developer can bring about a judicial review for non-determination, and this Council would find itself in special measures, meaning the government’s Inspectorate would step in and we’d lose control over our Local Plan, 

 

·         that we are facilitating the building on our few remaining green fields by applying new mitigationtariffs (a sum of money payable by the developer) under the terms of the Position Statement on nutrients neutrality adopted by this Council (through delegated authority given by the Cabinet) so that we’re not subject to a JR or at risk of missing our housing target numbers, and most importantly

 

·         that the mitigation tariffsrequired for development of brownfield sites would be significantly higher than those for green field sites

 

Response: It is certainly true that the recent European Court of Justice ruling which has led to Natural England’s recent advice requiring new development at the Solent to be ‘nutrient neutral’ has some perverse implications. This includes making it more attractive to develop greenfield, agricultural sites compared to brownfield regeneration sites. We did not seek, nor did we invite this issue.

 

It should be noted that looking to development to address the issue of eutrophication on its own ignores the impact from other sources, which far outweigh the impact from waste water treatment works. This means we are in danger of the issue not being addressed holistically if we only look at the impact of new development. Councillors should  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

39.

Urgent Questions Under Standing Order 23

To receive urgent questions from Councillors submitted in accordance with the requirements of Standing Order 23.4(b).

Minutes:

No urgent questions had been received under Standing Order 23.

40.

Acceptance of Minutes

The Council to receive the minutes of Committees held since the last meeting of the Council:

 

Joint Human Resources Committee – 18 September 2019

Governance, Audit and Finance Board – 18 September 2019

Development Management Committee – 10 October 2019

Cabinet – 23 October 2019

Minutes:

 

Proposed by Councillor Branson and seconded by Councillor Wilson it was

 

RESOLVED that the minutes of Committees held since the last meeting of the Council be received.