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, Oakham, Rutland, LE15 6HP

Contact: Natasha Taylor, 01572 720991  Email: ntaylor@rutland.gov.uk

Link: Audio recording

Items
No. Item

511.

APOLOGIES

To receive any apologies from Members.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Mr Alderman and Mr Bird.

512.

CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS

To receive any announcements by the Chairman.

Minutes:

The Chairman announced that the list of his engagements and those of the Vice Chairman had already been circulated.

 

513.

ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE LEADER, MEMBERS OF THE CABINET OR THE HEAD OF PAID SERVICE

To receive any announcements by the Leader, members of the Cabinet or the

Head of Paid Service.

Minutes:

There were no announcements from the Leader, Members of the Cabinet or the Head of Paid Service.

514.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any disclosable interests under the Code of Conduct 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:

Mr Baines declared an interest in item 16 on the agenda as he was now President of the Rutland Record and Local History Society. The Society had put in a submission on 29 May 2018 but as he had not been party to this he felt that it did not prejudice him in any way.

 

Mr Brown declared an interest in item 10 as he was part of the group that had written the Barrowden and Wakerley Neighbourhood plan.

 

 

515.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

To confirm the Minutes of the 278th meeting of the Rutland County Council District Council held on 17 December 2018.

Minutes:

The minutes of the 278th meeting of the Rutland County Council District Council held on 17 December 2018 were confirmed by the Council and signed by the Chairman.

516.

PETITIONS, DEPUTATIONS AND QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC

To receive any petitions, deputations or questions received from members of the public in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 28. The total time allowed for this is 30 minutes.  Petitions, deputations and questions will be dealt with in the order in which they are received and any which are not considered within the time limit shall receive a written response after the meeting.

Minutes:

The Chairman advised those giving deputations that he was happy to receive them in the order they had decided on rather than the order in which their requests to speak had been received, and also that speakers would be allowed to take advice from their supporters when answering Members’ questions.

 

The Chairman informed Members that he would be exercising his discretion and allowing more than the allotted 30 minutes to enable all five deputations and Members’ questions to be heard.

 

Deputation 1

 

A deputation, as printed below, was received from Mrs Sharon Ashworth, on behalf of concerned residents of Edith Weston.

 

Good evening Councillors.

My name is Sharon Ashworth and I represent a group of concerned residents from Edith Weston.

We understand and believe that when Rutland County Council embarked on the redevelopment of ST Georges Barracks with the MOD, they were guided by their core strategy policy – C S 61 and that they did so with the best of intentions, to protect Rutland.

Let's remind ourselves of a few facts.

-       The redevelopment of St Georges Site was instigated by the MOD

-       The Mod employ Regenco 

-       The last local plan consultation was for policy changes to incorporate St Georges Barracks -thus enabling the MOD to achieve their objective.

-       On page 21 of tonight’s Public report - point 6.3 - From the outset the MOD rejected all potential alternative uses

-       The comment on page 12 is another example of MOD pressure - The MOD have made it clear that if you don’t support the HIF submission, they will STILL bring the site forward for development.

and yet ..

Well, here’s what we find MOST puzzling…

In Nov 2016, after the MOD announced in parliament its “Better Defence Estate” - Sir Michael Fallon was interviewed on Forces Network and he explained the criteria used in selecting 91 sites out of the possible 301

They were;

-       Those that are most expensive to run,

-       Those that could be grouped together into centres of speciality

but also, and I quote “to get out of some of the more rural locations to areas of larger population where their partners have a better chance of getting work” 2

There is a certain irony here…

 

The figure set for MOD to contribute 55,000 houses is A STRONG SUBLIMINAL message that you will no doubt have heard.

 

In the Better Defence Estates report 3, Page 11, the table indicates that 39,800 houses have been accounted for in their targets - this leaves 15,200 houses that need to be met by the remaining 56 sites.

 

SO, the MOD are suggesting that the Smallest, most rural county in England should accommodate 14.6% of the 15,200?

 

The MOD are our defence experts, but they are NOT Housing or planning experts.

 

The MOD do not have powers to act above our Government’s Housing departments.

 

Councillors – it is time to put Rutland’s interests first.

PLEASE SAY NO to the HIF fund submission.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 516.

517.

QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL

To receive any questions submitted from Members of the Council in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rules 30 and 30A.

Minutes:

There were no questions from members of the Council.

518.

REFERRAL OF COMMITTEE DECISIONS TO THE COUNCIL

To determine matters where a decision taken by a Committee has been referred to the Council in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 110.

Minutes:

No committee decisions had been referred.

519.

CALL-IN OF DECISIONS FROM CABINET MEETINGS DURING THE PERIOD FROM 15 December 2018 to 18 January 2019 (INCLUSIVE)

To determine matters where a decision taken by the Cabinet has been referred to Council by the call-in procedure of Scrutiny Panels, as a result of the decision being deemed to be outside the Council’s policy framework by the Monitoring Officer or not wholly in accordance with the budget by the Section 151 Officer, in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rules 206 and 207.

Minutes:

No call-ins were received.

520.

REPORT FROM THE CABINET pdf icon PDF 50 KB

To receive Report No. 23/2019 from the Cabinet on recommendations referred to the Council for determination and to note the Key Decisions taken at its meetings held on 18 December 2018.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report No. 23/2019 from the Cabinet was received, the purpose of which was to consider the recommendations and note the key decisions of the Cabinet since the publication of the agenda for the previous ordinary meeting of the Council on 17 December 2018.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.    Council NOTED the key decisions made by Cabinet since the publication of the agenda for the previous ordinary meeting of the Council on 17 December 2018, as detailed in Appendix A of report No.23/2019.

521.

REPORTS FROM COMMITTEES OF THE COUNCIL

a.            To receive reports from Committees on matters which require Council approval because the Committee does not have the delegated authority to act on the Council’s behalf.

b.            To receive reports from Council Committees on any other matters and to receive questions and answers on any of those reports.

Minutes:

There were no reports from Committees of the Council.

522.

REPORTS FROM SCRUTINY COMMISSION / SCRUTINY PANELS

To receive the reports from the Scrutiny Commission / Scrutiny Panels on any matters and to receive questions and answers on any of those reports.

Minutes:

There were no reports from the Scrutiny Commission/Scrutiny Panels. Mr Conde, Chair of the Scrutiny Commission, informed Members that the Scrutiny Commission annual report would be ready for the March round of scrutiny panel meetings. The commission was awaiting the Government report and recommendations on the way forward for scrutiny.

 

523.

JOINT ARRANGEMENTS AND EXTERNAL ORGANISATIONS

To receive reports about and receive questions and answers on the business of any joint arrangements or external organisations.

Minutes:

i.        Mr Bool - Combined Fire Authority

Mr Bool informed Members that he would be attending three forthcoming meetings and he would report fully on them at the next Council meeting.

 

524.

NOTICES OF MOTION

To consider any Notices of Motion submitted by Members of the Council in accordance with Procedure Rule 34 in the order in which they are recorded as having been received.

Minutes:

No notices of motion had been submitted.

525.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC AND PRESS*

Council will decide whether the public and press be excluded from the meeting in accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local

Government Act 1972, as amended, and in accordance with the Access to

Information provisions of Procedure Rule 239, as the following item of business is likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in

Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.*

 

Paragraph 3: Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

 

 

* Please note that Appendices 5, 7 and 8 of Report No. 18/2019 are exempt pursuant to Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. The public and press will not be excluded from the meeting under Item 15) unless detailed debate requiring disclosure of exempt information in relation to the specified exempt appendices is required.  Every effort will be made to avoid this.

 

 

 

Minutes:

The Chairman announced that although there were exempt appendices to item 16, the St George’s Barracks Report, it was his intention that the meeting should remain in public session unless detailed debate requiring disclosure of the exempt information was required.  He requested that should Members at any point wish to discuss the exempt information that they should indicate that to him and he would then ask Council to vote on whether the meeting should move into private session.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.    Council resolved to remain in public session

 

526.

ST GEORGES BARRACKS EVOLVING MASTER PLAN AND HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE BUSINESS CASE pdf icon PDF 177 KB

To receive Report No. 18/2019 from the Chief Executive.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

---o0o---

The Chairman announced his intention to allow Mr Hemsley 15 minutes to present the report after which any Councillors wishing to respond would be allowed five minutes each. Points of order could also be asked for and would not be included in the allocated time. If at 9.30pm the Council was still in debate then in accordance with Procedure Rule 58, the Chairman would ask that the time for the meeting be extended by 30 minutes.

---o0o---

 

Report No.18/2019 was received from the Chief Executive, the purpose of which was for Council to consider the recommendations approved by Cabinet (Report 234/18) relating to the evolving Masterplan for the St George’s site and the associated Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) Business Case.

 

Mr Hemsley introduced the report and moved the recommendations. Mr Brown seconded the recommendations and reserved his position to speak later in the debate.

 

During debate the following points were raised:

 

·         Mrs Stephenson, commented that Rutland was undergoing a huge period of change and that Rutland would evolve was certain but that how it did that, was not. The timing of the paper was unfortunate but necessary as investing in infrastructure from the outset was logical and necessary. Missing out on the HIF bid would leave the Council vulnerable to being in debt for a long time.

·         Mr Conde felt that there had been a good level of public engagement and therefore Ketton Parish Council had decided to keep an open mind as they appreciated that this was a long term phased project, rather than about the number of homes in the next five years, and that the vote was about initial infrastructure funding rather than the final plan.

·         The comments of Mrs Stephenson and Mr Conde were endorsed by Mr Begy who warned of the dangers of the Council stagnating unless it kept its options open and did not close doors at this early stage.

·         Mr Oxley reminded Councillors that in the past developers’ promises on the number of affordable homes had failed to materialise. Having an opportunity to be involved from the very start of the project was important because of the scale and number of homes being proposed and would ensure that the correct infrastructure was put in place. It would also enable the Council to influence the design so that it complemented existing Rutland villages.

·         Mr Wilby commented that the St George’s project had been subject to a great level of scrutiny and would continue to be so. The project offered the chance to get in early to organise transport and build a properly equipped school.

·         Mrs Burkitt felt that the decision Councillors were being asked to make was not an easy one. If they did not vote for the HIF bid submission then there was a danger that unchecked developers’ schemes would lose Rutland’s identity but equally she recognised residents’ concerns that Rutland communities had evolved over a long time and that the proposed development threatened this.

·         Mr Lammie was the only member who  ...  view the full minutes text for item 526.

527.

REVIEW OF POLLING DISTRICTS AND POLLING PLACES pdf icon PDF 78 KB

To receive Report No. 1/2019 from the Chief Executive.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report No.1/2019 from the Chief Executive was received, the purpose of which was to seek Council approval of the recommendations of the Returning officer outlined in the report and to conclude the review of polling districts and polling places.

 

The Leader, Mr Hemsley introduced the report and moved the recommendation.  Mr Foster seconded the recommendation.

 

Mr Gale hoped that it was a long time before another review was conducted but was particularly happy that the parish of Barleythorpe now had its own ward.

 

RESOLVED

 

1.    To APPROVE the changes of polling districts and places recommended by the Returning Officer and to conclude the review of polling districts and polling places

528.

ANY URGENT BUSINESS

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

Minutes:

No matters of urgent business were received.

 

 

---o0o---

The Chairman declared the meeting closed at 9.55pm

---o0o---