Agenda, decisions and minutes

Public Speaking: To register your intention to speak at a Council, Cabinet or Committee meeting, please contact Democratic Services on committee@uttlesford.gov.uk or 01799 510410, 510548, 510369 or 510460. Panel, Forum and Working Group meetings do not generally permit public speaking. Please refer to a specific meeting's pdf agenda pack for further information and registration deadlines.

Live Broadcast: For Council, Cabinet and Committee meetings the video player will be available on this page under the Media banner a few minutes before the meeting is due to begin. Please note that Panel, Board, Forum and Working Group meetings are not generally broadcast on the website. We believe that live streaming video of our formal decision making meetings, and publishing the recordings to be watched back later, is good for democracy – and you can find these videos on our website. This video technology sits alongside the longstanding practice of providing seats in the public gallery for members of the public and journalists to turn up and watch our in-person meetings live. Please understand that whilst we will continue to make every reasonable effort to ensure that our key public meetings at which important decisions are live streamed and recorded, any failure in that technology does not in any way invalidate the legitimacy of that meeting or of the decisions taken at it. Even in the event of such occasional technical failures, the public gallery will still have been open, as required by law, and the minutes of the meetings will still be made available in due course.

Zoom and YouTube have their own privacy and data security policies, which can be accessed at www.zoom.us and www.youtube.com.

Venue: Council Chamber - Council Offices, London Road, Saffron Walden, CB11 4ER. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services  Email: committee@uttlesford.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence and Declarations of Interest

To receive any apologies for absence and declarations of interest.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Asker and Barker.

2.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 91 KB

To consider the minutes of the meetings held on 26 November and 4 December.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 December 2019 were approved and signed as a correct record of the meeting.

3.

Questions or Statements from Non-Executive Members of the Council (standing item)

To receive questions or statements from non-executive members on matters included on the agenda.

Minutes:

Councillor Freeman spoke on the importance of the Planning Committee being able to adopt planning policies that were coming forward in the draft local plan. He suggested that Cabinet adopt these policies earlier in order for the Committee to have an adequate toolkit for dealing with the skills of developers.

 

The Chair said a report on this matter would be brought to an upcoming Planning Policy Working Group meeting.

 

Councillor Pavitt asked when an agreement that Easton Park should never have more than 10 properties built on it would be overturned.

 

The Assistant Director – Governance and Legal said the appropriate time to do this was in receipt of a planning application. The Chair suggested that officers look into whether this would be possible to achieve any earlier.

4.

Consideration of reports from overview and scrutiny committees (standing item)

To consider any reports from Scrutiny Committee.

Minutes:

Councillor Gregory said that in his capacity of Chair of Scrutiny Committee, he and the Vice Chair, Councillor LeCount, had received a report from the Director – Finance and Corporate Services on the Norse contract which was discussed at the previous Cabinet meeting. They had been satisfied with the information they had received.

5.

Draft Corporate Plan 2020-24 pdf icon PDF 58 KB

To consider the Draft Corporate Plan 2020-24.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair gave a summary of the report which set out the latest draft of the Corporate Plan. This document set out the Council’s vision and priorities for the next four years and formed part of a wider strategic planning framework which directed how and where Council resources are allocated. The updated draft would be submitted to the Scrutiny at the 4 February meeting. It was important for the work on this plan to be done properly.

 

Councillor Hargreaves proposed a series of changes. Cabinet agreed to make the following amendments:

·         Change ‘encourage town and parish councils to better represent their communities’ to ‘support town and parish councils to better represent their communities’.

·         Remove ‘actively’ from ‘actively apply for all relevant grants’.

·         Amend 3e in the ‘Putting Residents First’ section to read ‘set a Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) to fund council services by balancing the mix of investment, services and tax income, while maintaining adequate reserves.

·         Change ‘follow best practices for investment risk management and board composition’ to ‘follow best practices for investment risk management and Investment Board composition’.

 

Councillor Dean asked that the following be taken into account:

·         There was currently not much in the plan that maintained the principle of maintaining or improving council services.

·         It would be good to see a reference on lobbying on emissions from aviation.

·         It would be good to see a reference to the ongoing work on providing properly affordable housing.

·         Mention of pride of place should be made.

·         Reducing other material residual waste should be made.

 

Councillor Day suggested that 3a in the ‘Champion For Our District’ section read ‘work with the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner and the Chief Constable to reduce crime in our area’.

 

Members noted the report.

6.

Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy pdf icon PDF 74 KB

To consider the Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy.

Additional documents:

Decision:

RESOLVED to adopt of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2020-2025.

Minutes:

Councillor Lees gave a summary of the report which said the Cross-Government Rough Sleeping Strategy had committed to ensuring that all local authorities had an up to date homelessness strategy available online by winter 2019. The updated Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy had been attached to the report.

 

RESOLVED to adopt of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2020-2025.

7.

Garden Communities Delivery Member Governance Board Update June 2019 – December 2019 pdf icon PDF 94 KB

To receive an update regarding the Garden Communities Delivery Member Governance Board.

Minutes:

The Chair gave a summary of the report which described the work of the Garden Communities Delivery Member Governance Board and the progress made over the last seven months, and identified the current work programme.

 

In response to a Member question, the Chair said the problems the North Essex Authorities (NEA) were experiencing raised issues for Uttlesford District Council’s local plan, but the Council was working with the NEA to resolve various issues.

 

Councillor Day asked that a briefing be held for members to bring them up to speed on the work of the Garden Communities Delivery Member Governance Board and the delivery boards specific to each new garden community. The Chair said he would like papers from these meetings to be made available to other councillors if possible, to maintain the principle of transparency.

 

In response to a Member question, the Chief Executive said a briefing would be held for Members when the council received the Inspector’s letter responding to its local plan.

 

Members noted the report.

 

 

8.

Nomination of The Queen’s Head as an Asset of Community Value pdf icon PDF 899 KB

To consider the nomination of the Queen’s Head as an Asset of Community Value.

Decision:

RESOLVED to list The Queen’s Head, Littlebury as an Asset of Community Value.

Minutes:

Councillor Lees gave a summary of the report which asked Members to determine whether to list The Queen’s Head, Littlebury as an Asset of Community Value.

 

Members noted that The Queen’s Head met the criteria to be an Asset of Community Value.

 

RESOLVED to list The Queen’s Head, Littlebury as an Asset of Community Value.

9.

Change of Representative on the Local Strategic Partnership pdf icon PDF 50 KB

To consider appointing Councillor Lees as the Council’s representative on the Local Strategic Partnership in place of Councillor Lodge.

Decision:

RESOLVED to appoint Councillor Lees to be the Council’s representative on the Local Strategic Partnership.

Minutes:

The Chair gave a summary of the report, which recommended appointing Councillor Lees to represent Uttlesford District Council on the Local Strategic Partnership.

 

RESOLVED to appoint Councillor Lees to be the Council’s representative on the Local Strategic Partnership.

 

 

The meeting closed at 8.30pm.