Agenda and minutes

The Chair will announce any urgent items which due to special circumstances are to be dealt with under Late Items.

There were no urgent items.

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

There were no declarations of interest.

Apologies for absence will be notified at this point.

The Chair will make any specific announcements.

Apologies of absence were received from Cllrs, Apel, Bates, Burkhart, Hastain, Johnson, Moss and Sharp.

The Vice-Chair paid tribute to Nicola Simpson and Stephanie Thorndyke. A minutes silence was held.

In accordance with Chichester District Council’s scheme for public question time the Council will receive any questions which have been submitted by members of the public in writing by noon two working days before the meeting. Each questioner will be given up to three minutes to ask their question. The total time allocated for public question time is 15 minutes subject to the Chair’s discretion to extend that period.

Question from Simon Lloyd-Williams:

1.    The pedestrian areas of North and East Streets will reach their 50^th anniversary this decade. Does the Council intend to throw them a birthday party or come forward with a comprehensive plan for their renewal?

2.    Once again, the district has suffered multiple incursions on CDC land by travellers this month. It is no coincidence that these incursions coincide with events at Goodwood. In this most recent case, the Revival. Would the Council agree with me, that instead of the CDC spending tens of thousands of pounds of council taxpayers’ money on earth works and trenches to stop these incursions, the Duke of Richmond is asked to provide a couple of acres on a temporary basis for the travellers whenever there is an event at Goodward. After all, I believe he has 12,000 acres at his disposal.

Answer for question 1 from Cllr Brown:

Thank you, Simon, for your question. A 50th birthday party sounds like a great idea and an opportunity for residents to highlight the dangers of the pavements in North and East Street. Of course, as you know, this question really needs to be put to West Sussex County Council, who are responsible for the maintenance of the roads and pavements. I encourage you to raise this at a meeting of the County Council.

Nevertheless, this administration has highlighted this both internally and with the County Council as a priority to be resolved and is able and willing to help. Indeed, this was raised by the leader, Adrian Moss, in the first meeting between the leaders of the Districts and the County Council after the May elections.

We all recognise that the state of the pavements are a health and safety risk, with many falls being recorded, including those which have required hospitalisation. Improving the public realm in central Chichester is a major item on the Chichester Vision project and you will be aware that this was subject to a grant request for Levelling Up Funding – which was, unfortunately, not successful.

The County Council will be considering the business case for a big bang improvement rather than piecemeal repairs very shortly – I believe later this week. We have been urging them to go ahead. At the next Cabinet meeting of the District Council, we will be considering a proposal to contribute financially to the options consultation which will be required to get this moving – finally. And without wishing to predetermine anything, I am confident that the proposal will be listened to very sympathetically!

I very much hope that the County Council will choose to proceed. I think we all feel that this can has been kicked down the road quite often enough. This work is urgent and really must be included in the County Council’s programme of work.

In answer to Simon's follow-up question I said that we would urge WSCC to proceed (and that I didn't realise WSCC didn't allow questions from the public).

Answer for question  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

The Council is requested to consider the report and its appendix which can be found on pages 1-4 of the Cabinet agenda for 5 September 2023 and make the following resolutions:

1.    The acceptance of funding from Defra for the extension of the Trees Outside Woodlands Project of £120,000 for 2023/2024 and £120,000 for 2024/2025.

2.    That a budget of £120,000 is set for 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, to cover staff costs and expenditure on tree planting pilot projects.

3.    That authority is delegated to the Director of Planning and Environment to accept any additional funding offered by Defra, should such funding be offered as part of the project, and to increase budgets accordingly.

4.    That authority is delegated to the Divisional Manager for Environment and Health Protection, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environmental Strategy, to award funding to tree planting pilot participants in the District.

The Vice-Chair invited the Cabinet member for Environmental Strategy to present the report.

Members stated they supported the project and praised the work of officers involved in getting the project up and running.

RESOLVED:

1.    The acceptance of funding from Defra for the extension of the Trees Outside Woodlands Project of £120,000 for 2023/2024 and £120,000 for 2024/2025.

2.     That a budget of £120,000 is set for 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, to cover staff costs and expenditure on tree planting pilot projects.

3.    That authority is delegated to the Director of Planning and Environment to accept any additional funding offered by Defra, should such funding be offered as part of the project, and to increase budgets accordingly.

4.    That authority is delegated to the Divisional Manager for Environment and Health Protection, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environmental Strategy, to award funding to tree planting pilot participants in the district.

The Council is requested to consider the report and make the resolutions at sections 2.1 and 2.2 of the report following the recommendations made by the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee on 17 July 2023.

The Vice-Chair invited Nicholas Bennet Divisional Manager of Legal and Democratic Services presented the report.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Director of Housing and Communities be authorised to consider and determine applications for release of s37 and s157 covenants in respect of previous Right to Buy properties and the conditions of any release.

2.     That officers develop a policy on the matter to be brought forward in due course.

The Council will receive a verbal report from the Monitoring Officer.

The Chair invited Nicholas Bennet, Divisional Manager of Legal and Democratic Services to present a verbal report.

RESOLVED:

1.    That Cllr Todhunter be appointed as Chair of the Planning Committee with immediate effect.

Having complied with the Motions Procedure as set out in the council’s Constitution the motion attached will be proposed by Cllr Vivian and if duly seconded it will then be discussed at this meeting.

The Vice-Chair invited Cllr Vivian to present his motion to the Council.

Members stated that they wholeheartedly supported the motion and cited the 680,000 opposition responses to the closure of the ticket offices. Members stated that it was important for residents to interact with people whilst purchasing their tickets.

RESOLVED:

That Council request:

1.    The Leader to write to Mark Harper MP (Secretary of State for Transport), and the Chief Executive of the Rail Delivery Group as well as Southern Railway to express this Council’s opposition to the possible closure of staffed rail ticket offices – and in particular the offices at Chichester, Bosham, and Southbourne stations.

2.    The Overview & Scrutiny Committee to invite representatives from Southern Railway to attend a meeting (as soon as possible) to discuss future plans for ticket offices and staffing at the above Railway stations.

Members are invited to ask a question of a member of the Executive (maximum of 30 minutes duration).

The following Questions to the Executive were asked with responses that followed:

Cllr Chant asked what impact the use of the Chichester Park Hotel to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers would have on CDC resources as one of the local authorities. Cllr Brown explained that the decision to use the Chichester Park Hotel to house asylum seekers is a private and direct arrangement between the Home Office and a privately owned business. The council were not consulted and were not given any input into the decision made.

Cllr Johnson stated that the Guardian Newspaper revealed that in some parts of England, nearly a third of category one life or death 999 calls are not attended by a fully qualified paramedic. Therefore, Cllr Johnson asked the deputy leader if he agrees with his party’s health spokesperson that this is deeply worrying and asked if the deputy leader on behalf of the council undertake to find out the situation in Chichester District. Cllr Brown responded by stating that he was very happy to find out this information if the council didn’t already have the figures.

To consider any late items as follows:

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

b)    Items which the Chair has agreed should be taken as matters of urgency by reason of special circumstances to be reported at the meeting.

There were no late items.

The Council is asked to consider in respect of agenda item 12 whether the public, including the press, should be excluded from the meeting on the grounds of exemption under Parts I to 7 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as indicated against the item and because, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption of that information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. The reports dealt with under this part of the agenda are attached for members of the Council and senior officers only (salmon paper).

Cllr Cross then read the Part II resolution which was duly proposed and seconded.

The Council then voted to go into part II.

RESOLVED

That with regard to the exempt Urgent Decision Notice the public including the press should be excluded from the meeting on the grounds of exemption in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 namely Paragraph 3 (Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)) and because, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption of that information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The Council is requested to formally note the Exempt Part II Urgent Decision Notice.

The Urgent Decision Notice was duly noted.