Agenda and draft minutes

To receive and record any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence received for this meeting.

To receive and record any declarations of interest from members present.

There were no declarations of interests relating to matters on the agenda.

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting of Cabinet held on 08 November 2023.

The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 08 November were approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive a report from the Chairman.

Councillor Rennie, the Chairman of Cabinet, reported that Steve Jorden, Chief Executive is recovering well and is expected to return in the New Year. Councillor Rennie further extended Cabinets’ best wishes.

In accordance with standing order 68.3.1, to receive questions from the Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee and standing order 68.3.3, a period of 20 minutes is permitted to receive questions put to Cabinet by Councillors. 

There were no questions from Councillors under the provision of Standing Order 68.3.

In accordance with Standing Order 68.7.3, this item is reserved for matters referred by the Full Council or the Overview & Scrutiny Committee for consideration.

There were no matters for Cabinet to consider under the provision of Standing Order 68.7.3.

RECOMMENDED that the following Delegated Decisions be noted:

None

RECOMMENDED that the following Minutes of Meetings be noted:

1         Portchester Crematorium Joint Committee on Monday, 11th December, 2023

2         Langstone Harbour Board - none

3         Solent Freeport Consortium Board - none

RESOLVED that the minutes of meetings as set out in the agenda were noted.

Councillor Bowdell, as relevant Cabinet Lead, introduced a report that, following an evaluation process, makes recommendations to award a contract for the future supply of our financial system from April 2025.

A motion was proposed by Councillor Bowdell and seconded by Councillor Robinson to adopt the recommendations, for the reasons set out in the report.

Cabinet discussed the motion, including the options available to Cabinet.

Following a vote, it was,

RESOLVED that Cabinet;

a)    award the contract to TechnologyOne Limited to provide the replacement software for the Council’s Financial management system in line with the Crown Commercial Services G-Cloud 13 framework for (up to) 4 years at a cost of £105k per annum.

b)    delegate authority to the Chief Finance Officer (S151) in consultation with the Monitoring Officer to finalise and sign a contract with the preferred supplier.

On behalf of Councillor Bowdell, the relevant Cabinet Lead, Councillor Bowerman introduced a report which outlined the Councils’ financial health and estimates the final outturn could fall to under £500k overspend, as well as outlining the performance of the Council in quarter 2.

A motion was proposed by Councillor Bowdell and seconded by Councillor Bowerman to adopt the recommendations set out, for the reasons set out in the report.

Cabinet discussed the motion, including the options available to Cabinet.

Following debate and a vote, it was

RESOLVED that Cabinet note the;

       i.          revenue forecast outturn for Q2 2023/24 (Appendix A)

     ii.           Q2 2023/24 performance information (Appendix B)

    iii.          Q2 2023/24 Capital Programme monitoring (Appendix C)

    iv.          Q2 2023/24 Prudential Indicators (Appendix D)

Councillor Fairhurst, as relevant Cabinet Lead, introduced a report which seeks a mandate to submit the Outline Business Case to the Environment Agency for approval, and to permit expenditure if approved to allow beach management to continue until 2029 on Hayling Island.

A motion was proposed by Councillor Fairhust and seconded by Councillor Lloyd to adopt the recommendations set out for the reasons set out in the report.

Cabinet discussed the motion, including the options available to Cabinet.

Following debate and a vote, it was

RESOLVED that Cabinet;

a)    approved the recommendations of the South Hayling Beach Management Plan to implement a five-year programme of sustainable beach management activities to help reduce the risk of coastal flooding and erosion from the period 01 April 2024 to 31 March 2029, subject to securing the necessary funding.

b)    noted the application for funding made to the Environment Agency under the Land Drainage Act (1991) to the value of approximately £5.1million of Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Grant in Aid (GiA) to fund the five year Beach Management Plan programme.

c)     delegated authority to the Executive Head of Coastal Partners, following consultation with the Cabinet Lead for Coastal and the S151 Officer, to implement the Beach Management Plan and subsequent activities, subject to securing the necessary funding.

Councillor Rennie reminded members that this item contained private and confident information in the appendix and therefore asked members to indicate by a show of hands, if they wished to discuss the exempt information. 

No members indicated a wish to discuss the exempt information and Councillor Lloyd as relevant Cabinet Lead introduced a report that, following a full open tender process exercise the Council is proposing to select ARCUS GLOBAL LIMITED to deliver two separate systems – a Generic Case Management system to support Environmental Health, Licensing and Grants and the Arcus Platform to support the Council’s Planning Service.

A motion was proposed by Councillor Lloyd and seconded by Councillor Bowerman to adopt the recommendations set out for the reasons set out in the report.

Cabinet discussed the motion, including the options available to Cabinet and officers responded to questions raised.

Following a vote, it was

RESOLVED that Cabinet

a)    award a contract to Arcus Global Limited to provide the replacement software for the Council’s Planning Service for a period of five years at a cost of no more than £245,000.

b)    award a contract to Arcus Global Limited to provide the replacement software for the Council’s Environmental Health, Licensing and Grants services for a period of five years at a cost of up to £225,000.

c)     delegate authority to the Executive Head of Place in consultation with the Monitoring Officer and Section 151 officer to finalise and enter into a contract with the preferred supplier.

The Cabinet is asked to consider whether to pass a resolution excluding the public from the meeting during consideration of any of the items on the agenda.  If members wish to do so then this could be achieved by passing the following resolution.  Members are not required to pass the resolution but the Solicitor to the Council recommends this as to the item set out below.

That the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the item headed and numbered as below because:

(a)        it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during that item there would be disclosure to them of exempt information of the descriptions specified in paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972 shown against the heading in question; and

(b)        in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

            Item 11

            Paragraph 3.

There were none.