Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Greenow, Hurrell and Hutchison, Councillor Freer-Jones was not in attendance.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 27 February 2019.

Acceptance of the minutes as a true record was proposed by the Leader and seconded by the Deputy Leader.  Following a vote the minutes of the meeting held on 27 February 2019 were confirmed and authorised to be signed by the Mayor.

Members to declare any interest as appropriate in respect of items to be considered at this meeting.

Councillors Orson, Pearson, Posnett MBE and Rhodes each declared a personal interest in any matters relating to the Leicestershire County Council due to their roles as County Councillors.

The Mayor referred to

(a)  the success of her Civic Dinner held at Brooksby Hall in early March with over 100 guests attending and £1,300 raised for her Mayor’s Appeal.  She mentioned that there was concern that this was the last Civic Dinner and people involved felt the decision should be reconsidered;

(b)  attending 7 other authorities’ Civic Dinners since her own;

(c)   the Pie Awards with more entries this year than previously;

(d)  one of the highlights of her year being the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Championships for Leicestershire and Rutland held at Loughborough University.  Two Melton schools had been involved and it was a moving experience due to the young people taking part as well as the level of support and carers making the event possible;

(e)  attending the opening of the new scout facility at Holwell Pastures and to the Council’s support in the planning process and as a financial contribution;

(f)   her Awards Ceremony held on 8 April and that she had recognised volunteers and those who had gone the extra mile in doing something for others.  She hoped the annual awards would be retained as they did so much to raise the profile of those in the community making a valuable,  voluntary contribution and that this along with the reduced Mayoral support may be part of a debate later in  that meeting;

(g)  the contributions of those Councillors who were not standing for election and thanked them on behalf of the Council.  They were as follows :-

(h)  those contesting elections and wished them all well.

The Leader stated that

(a)  since the last Council meeting, the Council had been implementing the decisions taken as part of setting the budget in February. Following the reduction in the civic budget, the new Democratic Services structure was now in place and the new Mayoral calendar was being developed for the coming year. Discussions were ongoing with the Citizens’ Advice Bureau regarding their future delivery model and the Council had confirmed the final year of funding to Bottesford Youth Club. The Council had also commenced its wider review of community grants. It was disappointing that the Melton Learning Hub had withdrawn from running the café at the Country Park but he  was pleased that they had moved quickly to enable Melton Space to take over the running of the facility in the short term and the Council would be commissioning a full procurement process in the coming months to identify a long term partner. The Council’s aim was to both maximise the availability of the facility to the community whilst minimising ongoing costs to the Council. The Council had also secured the ongoing provision of public toilets at the Country Park during this transition period and the second set of toilets opened on Wilton Road a few weeks ago;

(b)  the end of March represented another important moment for Melton as two significant bids were submitted to government. The County Council submitted the Housing Infrastructure Fund bid for the southern section of the road and Melton continued to work with County colleagues to find a suitable method for managing the funding risks associated with the scheme. The Council also submitted its bid to the Future High Street Fund seeking to access some of the £675m Government had allocated to transforming town centres across the country. Over 300 bids had been received by Government, highlighting what a competitive process this would be, but the Council had submitted a strong bid and was hopeful of a positive outcome;

(c)   with growth such a key priority, the Council continued to focus on ensuring the Planning Service provided the best possible support to sustainable development. Following a review of the service, the Corporate Committee recently approved additional resources to help manage the implementation plan and over the summer a new structure and long term resourcing plan would be developed to make this possible.  He referred to of a new set of procedure rules for the Planning Committee, developed through the review and with Members of that Committee which were being proposed for adoption later in the meeting. This too would ensure a far smarter and disciplined approach to conducting planning business and would provide the first visible signal of our intentions to change and improve in this area;

(d)  later in the meeting the Council would also consider the final set of constitutional documents for adoption.  Since its decision to move to new governance arrangements taken last November there had been a tremendous amount of work undertaken to re-write and streamline the constitution.  ...  view the full minutes text for item CO91

The Leader and Chairs of Policy Committees to answer any questions from the public of which notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9 of the Constitution.

There were no questions received.

There were no questions received.

In accordance with Procedure Rule 24.1, the Chief Executive shall report the receipt of a petition to the next meeting of the Council where there shall be no debate or comment thereon. 

There were no petitions received. 

There were no petitions to report.

There were no recommendations and reports from Committees.

There were no recommendations and reports from committees.

In accordance with Procedure Rules 10.3 and 10.5, a Member may ask the Mayor, Leader or the Chairman of any committee or sub-committee, a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affects the Melton Borough.

There were no questions received.

In accordance with procedure rule 10.5(b), the following question was received from Councillor Posnett MBE :

‘Does the new delegation scheme allow for officers of this Council to write to the British Legion stating that the Mayor will no longer be taking part in the Flag Raising Ceremony for Armed Forces day?

When this has not been discussed by Councillors.’

The Leader responded as follows :

He believed that Councillor Posnett was referring to the impact of the budgetary reduction in the civic arrangements.  The proposed reduction in the budget was discussed at the following forums prior to approval on 13 February 2019 as part of the revenue budget :

·         Policy Forum in November

·         Conservative Group Meetings

·         Member Development Day in December (followed by detailed report about specific events)

·         Corporate Committee in January

·         Council in February

As with all of the budget and governance changes, he had been available to talk with Members about any concerns as had the officers who had led on the changes.  Concerns about specific events no longer going ahead were not raised when the changes were approved despite Members having been given information at the above forums.

As Members were aware, the Council made some tough decisions in approving the forthcoming budget in an effort to ensure its resources were focussed upon both delivering the priorities agreed last year as well as ensuring core delivery. As part of the revenue budget Members approved a significant net saving of £33,800.

The financial challenge faced by Local Government could not be underestimated nor could the need to redirect resources to support fundamental service delivery as well as aspirations the Council had for the area. This was one example where the Council had redirected its resources to support its ambitions.

As a result of the approved budget at Council on 13 February, there was no dedicated support for civic functions and whilst it was agreed that some events such as the Carol Service, Mayormaking and Remembrance Day would be supported, Democratic Services could no longer support organising any other events. In addition, a budget was available for the Annual Council Meeting, tickets, Carol Service and travel only.  Democratic Services would of course meet with the new Mayor to set out expectations at the beginning of their term of office but additional events which were not considered when the decision to approve redundancy of the Democracy and Involvement Officer was made could not be included within any other roles.

It was important to clarify the actions taken by the officer had nothing to do with the scheme of delegation as the officer was implementing the will of the Council and had considered it appropriate and polite to give advance notice to the British Legion of the Council's decision. 

It was also important to remember that the Mayor may accept any invitations they wished to attend, including the Armed Forces Day flag-raising ceremony should this be arranged by another organisation.

The Council would also continue to fly the specially commissioned  ...  view the full minutes text for item CO95

There were no motions received in accordance with Procedure Rule 11.1.

There were no motions on notice received.

The Monitoring Officer to submit a report which seeks approval for a set of documents which will form part of the new Constitution

In a report prepared by the Director for Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer the Council was asked to approve a set of documents which would form part of the Council’s new Constitution as well as a delegation to the Director for Law and Governance to make appropriate amendments.

The report was presented by the Leader and he stated that

(a)  last year the Council took a huge step to move to a Cabinet and Scrutiny model from May this year.  This would make a big difference as the Council looked to become a more commercial and agile organisation and address some of the governance challenges identified by the Local Government Association (LGA) and recognised by all at the Council;

(b)  since that time the Director for Law and Governance and colleagues had been working on writing a brand new, streamlined and more effective Constitution.  In February, Members approved the first set of documents which would ultimately form the new Constitution from May;

(c)  during the process, the Governance Development Group had provided feedback.  In addition, all documents were shared with all Members enabling wider comments to be fed in through email, organised drop in sessions and meetings.  Members’ Bulletin articles also reminded Members to provide feedback.  He was pleased that some Members had used this opportunity to provide some useful feedback.  In addition, on 27 March the Governance Committee considered the final set of documents and provided feedback;

(d)  the proposed delegation scheme would provide officers with the authority to take decisions to implement Members’ policy direction in a way that supported the Council’s commercial ambitions. The delegation scheme would be supported by greater transparency obligations than the Council had been used to within the Committee system.  He looked forward to decisions being made in a more streamlined, open and transparent way and Members being given more opportunity to scrutinise important decisions.  There was no doubt that the new governance arrangements and the documents before Members at the meeting would make the Council more Member led;

(e)  in terms of greater transparency, for Cabinet Key Decisions (those decisions over £50,000 or which had a significant impact on upon the Borough) it was a statutory requirement to publish a Forward Plan of when they would be made.  In accordance with this, all Members would be sent all proposed Key Decisions which were due to be taken by Officers, Portfolio Holders or Cabinet 28 days in advance of them being made.  This would allow Members to provide their views to the relevant Portfolio Holder prior to the decision being made; 

(f)   once Key Decisions had been made there was a requirement to publish a Record of Decision, once again these would be sent to all Member so that they were aware what decision had been made and so that Members who wished to call in decisions to the Scrutiny Committee may do so;

(g)  also where non-Key Decisions were made and they were significant, a Record of Decision would be made  ...  view the full minutes text for item CO97