A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Council and councillors

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Catmose

Contact: Natasha Taylor  01572 720991

Items
No. Item

695.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

No apologies for absence were received.

696.

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN AND/OR HEAD OF THE PAID SERVICE

Minutes:

The Chairman reminded members of the public that they were permitted to film, blog, tweet or take photographs of the meeting but if they did, to do so without causing a disturbance to the meeting proceedings. The Chairman also pointed out that members of the public who were not part of the meeting had not consented to being recorded and therefore should not be included in any recording activity.

 

Mrs Briggs, the Head of Paid Service informed Cabinet that having received bids from both Oakham and Uppingham the Council would be submitting the Uppingham bid to the Future High Street Fund.

 

697.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are required to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

698.

RECORD OF DECISIONS

 

To confirm the Record of Decisions made at the meeting of the Cabinet held on 19 February 2019.

Minutes:

The Record of Decisions made at the meeting of the Cabinet held on 19 February 2019, copies of which had been previously circulated, was confirmed.

699.

ITEMS RAISED BY SCRUTINY

To receive items raised by members of scrutiny which have been submitted to the Leader (copied to Chief Executive and Governance Officer) by 4.30 pm on Friday 15 March 2019.

Minutes:

The Chairman had not been formally notified of any items raised by Scrutiny.

700.

ST GEORGE'S BARRACKS PROGRESS REPORT pdf icon PDF 69 KB

Report No.61/2019

Minutes:

Report No.61/2019 was received from the Chief Executive.

 

Mrs Briggs, Chief Executive, introduced the report the purpose of which was to provide Cabinet with a progress report on St George’s Barracks project further to the report of March 2018.

 

During discussions the following points were noted:

 

·         The Chief Executive confirmed that the HIF bid had been submitted and that they were waiting to hear from Homes England.

·         Work on the Officers’ Mess was taking longer than originally anticipated as it had been decided to pause the project whilst talks with the MOD were undertaken. Originally the intention had been for the Council to buy the land and have it developed however it had become clear that the risk/reward analysis meant that it was not an appropriate venture for a public sector organisation and would be better suited to the private sector.

·         Garden Communities funding would allow the Council to start work at an earlier stage and would also allow them to access specialist advice. The funding would mean that aspects of the project could be done in more depth; for example there was funding allocated specifically to parish councils to support their understanding of what a garden community was.

·         Members would like to see a more comprehensive, collated audit trail of comments and objections expressed at Parish Council and Advisory Board meetings.

·         Any freedom of Information (FOI) requests that were received in relation to the St George’s project were published on the website. Recordings of the St George’s Advisory Group meetings were also available on the website.

·         The Leader agreed that the minutes from each Advisory Group meeting would be sent directly to Cabinet members.

 

 

DECISION:

 

Cabinet NOTED the progress update in respect of the St George’s Barracks Project.

 

701.

RURAL STRATEGY pdf icon PDF 65 KB

Report No. 67/2019

 

Minutes:

Report No.67/2019 was received from the Chief Executive.

 

Mrs Briggs, the Chief Executive, introduced the report the purpose of which was to enable Cabinet to decide if Rutland County Council should support the campaign for a Rural Strategy led by the Rural Services Network.

 

During discussion the following points were noted:

 

·         The Rural Services Network (RSN) was a special interest group of the Local Government Association (LGA) which had been lobbying Government for a specific Rural Strategy.

·         The Strategy would support the Council’s aim of providing appropriate infrastructure for the area and highlight the funding gap that rural authorities experience whereby they receive less money per head from Government but pay more Council Tax.

·         The Leader had met with representatives from Barclays Bank regarding the closure of their branch in Uppingham and had been assured that they were looking at other ways in which they could support the rural community.

 

DECISION:

 

Cabinet APPROVED Rutland County Council supporting the campaign for a Rural Strategy through the Rural Services Network.

 

Reasons for the decision:

 

A fully funded Rural Strategy of the type proposed could provide significant benefits to the County as a whole and ensure that issues of the type that affect Rutland feature more prominently in deliberations by Government when setting policy.

 

 

 

702.

AWARD CRITERIA - 9 BUCKINGHAM ROAD pdf icon PDF 63 KB

(KEY DECISION)

 

Report No. 62/2019

Minutes:

Report No.62/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for Places.

 

Mr Brown, Portfolio Holder for Planning, Environment, Property and Finance, introduced the report the purpose of which was to obtain Cabinet approval for the award criteria for the extension of 9 Buckingham Road and delegated authority for the appointment of the contractor to take the works forward.

 

During discussion the following points were noted:

 

·         The house would be managed by Spire Homes but would remain in the Council’s ownership.

·         Retaining ownership meant that the Council had a vested interest in making sure that the house remained in excellent order.

·         A high proportion of the award criteria related to price but any bids that were significantly out of kilter to others would be examined more closely.

 

DECISION:

 

Cabinet;

 

1.    APPROVED the award criteria as set out in this report.

 

2.    DELEGATED authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Rutland One Public Estate & Growth, Tourism & Economic Development, and Resources (other than Finance) and the Strategic Director for Resources to appoint a suitable contractor as a result of the tender process up to a contract value of £210k.

 

Reason for the decisions:

 

1.    The proposals set out in the report will allow Rutland County Council to tender the works and appoint a contractor to undertake the works set out in the report.

 

2.    This approach will ensure that an issue surrounding housing suitable for a Rutland family will be addressed, giving them security in the long term.

 

 

703.

HIGHWAYS CAPITAL MAINTENANCE FUNDING pdf icon PDF 150 KB

(KEY DECISION)

 

Report No. 56/2019

 

(Report to follow)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report No.56/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for Places.

 

Mrs Stephenson, Portfolio Holder for Culture & Leisure, Highways & Transportation introduced the report the purpose of which was to consider the allocation of the highway maintenance capital funding for 2019/20 and to consider the allocation of the additional £845k highway maintenance capital funding allocation for 2018/19 as awarded in the Chancellor’s November 2018 budget statement.

 

During discussion the following points were noted:

 

·         It was important that Rutland maintained its Band 3 submission (the highest grade available) for the management of its roads as reverting to a Band 2 submission would result in a significant loss of funding as shown in Appendix B of the report.

·         If roads were left alone there was a risk that future repairs would cost more and would cause more disruption to road users.

·         Slurry sealing was used to extend the cost of the footway without having to resort to full reconstruction

·         Residents had complained about the slurry sealing of footpaths and Councillor Walters noted that whilst on pages 30 and 31 of the report criteria had been set for various types of road repair, there was no indication as to whether the types of repair for footpaths were appropriate or not.

·         Officers had received relatively few complaints about slurry sealing since the project had been carried out but would respond in full to any complainants to address their concerns

·         Some of the Background papers attached to the report would be revised and updated in the early part of the 2019/20 municipal year in order to meet the requirements of a Band 3 grading.

·         Members felt that Rutland’s roads ranking in the East Midlands was not an accurate reflection of the situation as there seemed to be a noticeable deterioration in the state of roads once you left the County.  This could be partly explained by the fact that the independent surveys carried out for Councils was done for the primary road network rather than the smaller minor roads and that was possibly where Members were noticing the difference.

·         The programme of works would be worked through in a systematic way with the roads which were in the worst state of repair being done first. The aim was to have the budgets allocated and the majority of work done by Christmas so that it was not affected by bad weather.

·         Any unspent funding from the Revenue budget would be declared as an underspend but Members would have the option of using as savings as they saw fit.

·         Officers were waiting on the 2018/19 bridge surveys in order to compile a more detailed programme of works.

·         The more expensive option of ‘Steady State Prevent’ was recommended over ‘Steady State Prevent Opt’ as it used available funds to carry out preventative work offering savings in the long term. The ‘Steady State Prevent Opt’ looked to reduce the budget and would mean a reduction in the standard and wear over time. Spending the budget wisely now would result in a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 703.

704.

ANY ITEMS OF URGENT BUSINESS

To receive items of urgent business which have previously been notified to the person presiding.

Minutes:

The Chief Executive had been advised that morning that the Council had been allocated £7000 of funding for high street cleaning. This amount was under the limit to require any decision by Cabinet.

 

The Chief Executive also informed Cabinet that the Rutland County Museum had purchased a collection of gold Anglo-Saxon artefacts that included a buckle, a pendant and fragments of a bowl. These were currently being conserved and would go on display in the museum later in the year. The funding for the purchase of the items came from the V&A Museum, The Hedley Trust, The Art Fund and from The Friends of Rutland County Museum and Oakham Castle. The Cabinet expressed their thanks to the Friends of the Museum for their contribution.