Agenda and minutes

After an initial welcome by the Chairman, the Council will be asked to approve as a correct record the attached minutes of its meeting on Tuesday 25 July 2017.

In the absence of the Chairman of the Council, the Vice-Chairman Mrs Graves chaired this meeting of the Council. First of all she welcomed and explained the emergency evacuation procedure.

The Council received the minutes of its meeting on Tuesday 25 July 2017, which had been circulated with the agenda.

There were no proposed changes to the minutes.

Decision

The Council voted unanimously on a show of hands to make the following resolution.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the Council’s meeting on Tuesday 25 July 2017 be approved without amendment.

Mrs Graves then duly signed and dated the final (twentieth) page of the official version of the aforesaid minutes as a correct record.

The Chairman will announce any late items which due to special circumstances are to be dealt with under agenda item 9 (Late Items).

Mrs Graves stated that there were no late items under agenda item 9 for consideration at this meeting.

Members and officers are requested to make any declarations of disclosable pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests they might have in respect of matters on the agenda for this meeting.

Declarations of personal interests were made in respect of agenda item 6 (Approval for Consultation of the Draft Infrastructure Business Plan 2018-2023 with the City, Town and Parish Councils and Key Infrastructure Delivery Commissioners) by the undermentioned who were members of the stated councils or bodies consulted about or otherwise involved with the subject matter of that item:

·       Mrs Apel – Chichester City Council

·       Mr Budge – Chichester City Council

·       Mr Dignum – Chichester City Council

·       Mr Galloway – Chichester City Council

·       Mr Hayes – Southbourne Parish Council

·       Mr Hixson – Chichester City Council

·       Mrs Kilby – Chichester City Council

·       Mrs Lintill – Chichester District Council appointed member of the Sussex Police Panel

·       Mr Macey – Chichester City Council

·       Mr McAra – Midhurst Town Council

·       Mr Morley – Midhurst Town Council

·       Caroline Neville – Lodsworth Parish Council

·       Mr Oakley – Tangmere Parish Council and West Sussex County Council

·       Mr Plowman – Chichester City Council

·       Mr Potter – Boxgrove Parish Council

·       Mrs Purnell – Selsey Town Council, West Sussex County Council and Chichester District Council appointed substitute member of the Sussex Police Panel

·       Mr Shaxson – Elsted and Treyford Parish Council and Harting Parish Council

·       Mrs Taylor – West Itchenor Parish Council

·       Mrs Westacott – Fishbourne Parish Council

The Chairman will make any specific announcements.

Apologies for absence will be notified at this point.

Mrs Graves mentioned the following apologies for absence:

Mr Barrett, Mrs Duncton, Mr J F Elliott, Mrs Hamilton, Mrs Keegan, Mr Ransley, Mr Ridd, Mrs Tassell, Mr Thomas, Mrs Tull and Mr Wakeham.

Mr Dempster was also absent from the meeting.

All other CDC members were present.

Mrs Graves made the following announcements:

(1) Change in the Running Order for Agenda Items 6 and 7

She advised first of all that she proposed a change in the running order for two agenda items in order to accommodate the availability of Mrs Hardwick who would have to leave the meeting early, namely that agenda item 7 (Committee Calendar of Meetings 2018-2019), which would be presented by Mrs Hardwick, would be taken before agenda item 6 (Approval for Consultation of the Draft Infrastructure Business Plan 2018-2023 with the City, Town and Parish Councils and Key Infrastructure Delivery Commissioners).

She invited someone to second her proposal, which Mr Dignum duly did.

In accordance with the CDC Constitution she put her proposal to the vote.

Decision

There was a unanimous vote in favour of the proposal with none against and no abstentions.

RESOLVED

That the published order of business in the agenda for this meeting be altered by taking agenda item 7 (Committee Calendar of Meetings 2018-2019) before agenda item 6 (Approval for Consultation of the Draft Infrastructure Business Plan 2018-2023 with the City, Town and Parish Councils and Key Infrastructure Delivery Commissioners).

(2) Death of Kevin McCoy

Mrs Graves read the following statement:

‘It is with great sadness that I inform you of the death of Kevin McCoy.

Kevin worked for Chichester District Council from 17 December 1983 until he retired due to ill health on 31 July 2015.

Kevin came to CDC from Havant Borough Council as a Senior Supervisor at Westgate Leisure Centre and became Assistant Manager in April 1987, Deputy Manager in June 1989, moving then to the position of Manager in December 1996.

He made many great contributions to Westgate and helped it move forward in numerous ways.  Kevin was always very committed and passionate about how he, as the manager, could help customers and staff improve their health, well-being and quality of life.  He was always very personable, kind and treated everyone with respect.

On behalf of the elected members and the staff of Chichester District Council I send our deepest condolences to Karen, his wife and all of Kevin’s family at this very sad time.’

Members acknowledged Mrs Graves’s sentiments with audible appreciation.

(3) Special Meeting of the Council

Mrs Graves pointed out that there would be a special meeting of the Council on Wednesday 27 September 2017 at 14:00 in order to consider a single item of business, namely the A27 Chichester Bypass Improvement Scheme. The agenda would be published later in the day after this meeting had concluded. She exhorted members to use their best endeavours to attend.

(4) All Parishes Meeting

This meeting would take place on Wednesday 20 September 2017 at 19:00  ...  view the full minutes text for item 249.

In accordance with Chichester District Council’s scheme of public question and with reference to standing order 6 in Part 4 A and section 5.6 in Part 5 of the Chichester District Council Constitution, consideration will be given at this point in the meeting to questions which have been submitted by members of the public in writing by 12:00 on the previous working day. The total time allocated for public question time is 15 minutes but this is subject to the chairman’s discretion to extend that period for each member of the public (five minutes) or the total time for public questions (15 minutes).

RECOMMENDATIONS BY THE CABINET

The Council is requested to consider the following recommendation of the Cabinet which requires its approval.

The report and its two appendices (but not the appendices to appendix 1) which have given rise to the recommendation are in the agenda papers for the meeting of the Cabinet which took place on Tuesday 5 September 2017.

No public questions had been submitted for this meeting.

[Note Minute paras 251 to 255 below summarise the consideration of and conclusion to agenda items 6 to 10 inclusive but for full details please refer to the audio recording facility via this link:

http://chichester.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=132&MId=923&Ver=4 ]

The Council is requested to consider the attached report with the appended timetable and to approve the calendar of meetings for the Council year 2018-2019.

As approved by members earlier in the meeting, this item was taken before agenda item 6.

The Council considered the agenda report.

The recommendation in the report was formally proposed by Mrs Hardwick (Cabinet Member for Finance and Governance Services) and seconded by Mr Dignum (Leader of the Cabinet).

Mrs Graves indicated that there were some proposed changes to the calendar, which would be outlined by Mrs Hardwick.

Mrs Hardwick introduced the report.  She explained that this was the annual report setting out the framework under which the committee meetings for the CDC administrative year May 2018 to May 2019 would be set.  The aim was to plan ahead and to spread CDC’s business in an effective manner during the aforesaid period.  As usual it avoided insofar as possible meetings in the West Sussex County Council school holidays and the CDC elections at the start of May 2019.  Start times were indicative and would be formally agreed at the first meeting in the new CDC year.  There was a proposal to amend the calendar insofar as some of the dates for the Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel (DPIP) were concerned namely where its meetings were on the second Thursday of a month.  In those cases meetings would now start at 14:30 instead of 10:00. The seven meetings affected were: 10 May 2018, 12 July 2018, 13 September 2018, 8 November 2018, 13 December 2018, 11 April 2019 and 9 May 2019.  All DPIP members had been consulted on those timing changes and had agreed to them.  She commended the framework, as amended, for members’ approval.

There was no debate on this matter, although there was a short question about the usual day for Council meetings, which was confirmed to have been almost invariably a Tuesday for many years.

Decision

The Council voted unanimously on a show of hands in favour of the recommendation in the report as amended in the case of certain of the DPIP dates and is set out below.

RESOLVED

That the calendar of meetings for the Chichester District Council administrative year 2018 to 2019 be approved subject to the start times of the Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel on 10 May 2018, 12 July 2018, 13 September 2018, 8 November 2018, 13 December 2018, 11 April 2019 and 9 May 2019 being 14:30 instead of 10:00.

The report is at agenda item 5 of the agenda for the Cabinet’s meeting on Tuesday 5 September 2017 and its two appendices are in the agenda supplement (the appendices to appendix 1 are available only in electronic format with a hard copy in the Members Room)

The Cabinet made the following recommendation to the Council at this meeting:

RECOMMENDATION TO THE COUNCIL

That the consultation on the draft Infrastructure Business Plan 2018-23 (in appendix 1 to the agenda report) with the city, town and parish councils, neighbouring local authorities including the South Downs National Park Authority and key infrastructure Delivery Commissioners be approved for a period of six weeks from 2 October to 13 November 2017 subject to the amendments (as set out in the agenda report) recommended by the Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel.

The Council considered the recommendation made to it by the Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday 5 September 2017 as set out on the face of the agenda, the details in respect of which were contained in the report and its two appendices on pages 22 to 55 of the agenda for that meeting (the appendices to the first appendix were available only electronically).  

Mrs Taylor (Cabinet Member for Planning Services) formally moved the recommendation of the Cabinet and this was seconded by Mr Dignum (Leader of the Cabinet). 

Mrs Taylor said that approval was sought for consultationon the Infrastructure Business Plan (IBP)2018-2023 withparish councils,neighbouring local planningauthorities andkey infrastructuredelivery commissionersfor aperiod ofsix weeks. Theconsultation wouldoffer anopportunity forconsultees to: (a) checkthat theinformation providedto Chichester District Council (CDC) wasstill upto date; (b) influencewhich projects were to be selected for funding fromthe Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL); and (c) commenton whetherthe projectshad been correctly categorisedwithin eachyear. CDC’s Development Plan and Infrastructure Panel (DPIP) had reviewedthe draftIBP andin relationto school placesnoted thatsince 2016 the amountrequested byWest SussexCounty Council (WSCC)had increased by 50%.Detailed costswould berequired before funds couldbe releasedand WSCChad beenasked to showhow existingsection 106contributions togetherwith othersources offunding availableto itwould be usedto offsetits CIL request. With regard to Sussex Police,a numberof newprojects hadbeen putforward forfunding during2018-2019 relatingto newpolice carsand automaticnumber plate recognitioncameras. Sussex Police hadexplained that it could not fund those projects outof its existingbudgets and it had setout adetailed casefor CIL funding. Whilstit wasaccepted thatthose projects were'infrastructure' for CILpurposes, officershad challenged theavailability ofother sourcesof funding such as council tax receipts. Sussex Policehad advisedthat the projectscould not befunded fromthe growthin council taxreceipts and it had confirmed thatthe assets werein additionto itsexisting approvedcapital budgets. The DPIP consideredthe Sussex Police projectsto bepremature, asthe housing growthupon which theirjustification was basedhad notyet takenplace. Theprojects had,therefore, beenremoved fromthe CILspending planfor thetime being. The realtime passengerinformation screenproject tobe deliveredin 2019-2020and 2020-2021had previously been considered and rejectedby membersfor CIL spend butWSCC hadsince requestedthat thatproject be reconsidered. The DPIP had duly done so andnow supportedit since itencouraged modalswitch uponwhich the Chichester Local Plandepended. TheCIL spendingplan (page26 of the Cabinet agenda papers) reflected the views of both the DPIP andthe CDC/WSCC InfrastructureJoint  ...  view the full minutes text for item 252.

[Note This item is allocated a maximum duration of 40 minutes]

Mrs Graves invited members to indicate if they wished to ask questions of the Cabinet members and the names of those so desiring were noted. She reminded members that a maximum of 40 minutes was allocated for this item.  

The questions asked and the responses given were as follows:

Question by Mrs Apel: The Short Agenda for this Council Meeting

Mrs Apel expressed her surprise at the short length of the agenda for this meeting with only one recommendation from the Cabinet and the fact that it had made the final decision on all of the other matters listed on the agenda for its meeting on Tuesday 5 September 2017. 

Response by Mr Dignum and Mrs Shepherd  

Mr Dignum (Leader of the Council) said that this merely reflected that there was only one item of business at the Cabinet’s meeting earlier in the month which required the approval of the Council, the remaining matters falling within the Cabinet’s jurisdiction as key or other decisions for executive determination. It should be remembered that with the August hiatus there was only one Cabinet meeting leading into this Council meeting. Mrs Shepherd (Chief Executive) pointed out that the respective decision-making functions were set out in CDC’s Constitution and that most decisions were in fact made by officers under delegated powers or the Cabinet.  It was open to members to challenge a Cabinet decision by invoking the call-in procedure set out in the Constitution.  The number of recommendations made to a Council meeting varied and on this occasion there happened to be only one.   

Question by Mr Shaxson: Air Pollution in North Street and Rumbolds Hill Midhurst

Mr Shaxson referred to a question he had asked of Mr Barrow (who was then responsible for the environment portfolio) at the Annual Council meeting in May 2015 with regard to air pollution in Rumbolds Hill Midhurst. These concerns had been raised by other members since then including at the Annual Council meeting in May 2017.  Air quality monitoring had revealed serious pollution issues.  Further investigation was required before an air quality management area (AQMA), which in his view patently was needed, could be declared.  He referred to the considerable concern in the town about the number of lorries travelling to and from the Pendean Sand Quarry.  CDC could and should submit comments about this issue to the South Downs National Park Authority and he requested CDC to take appropriate action to address this pollution problem.

Response by Mr Connor  

Mr Connor (Cabinet Member for Environment Services) said that he was aware of the situation and he had liaised with Mr S Ballard (Senior Environmental Protection Officer) recently and he would make available his advice to members and the press.  There was not a great deal that CDC could do and it was unable to control or influence lorry movements.

[Note Here is the text of an e-mail from CDC’s Environment Services to Mr Connor sent shortly after the end of this meeting with respect  ...  view the full minutes text for item 253.

Items added to the agenda papers and made available for public inspection.

Items which the chairman has agreed should be taken as matters of urgency by reason of special circumstances to be reported at the meeting and recorded in the minutes.

As announced by the Chairman of the Council at agenda item 2 (see minute 247 above), there were no late items for consideration at this meeting.

There are no restricted items for consideration at this meeting.

In the absence of any Part II items on the agenda for this meeting a resolution to exclude the press and the public was not required.