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: Zoom - https://zoom.us/. View directions
Contact: Ben Ferguson
No. | Item |
---|---|
Election of a Chair To elect a Chair of the Investment Board. Minutes: Councillor Reeve, as the Portfolio Holder for the Economy and Investment, was nominated and seconded as Chair. There was no dissent. It was agreed that he would remain as Chair for the rest of the Committee year.
AGREED to appoint Councillor Reeve as the Chair of the Investment Board for the rest of the Committee year.
|
|
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 Lavelle and Lodge; it was noted that Cathy Crick had stepped down as an independent member and a replacement would need to be found.
Councillor Bagnall declared a non-pecuniary interest as Ward Member for Takeley.
Councillor Pavitt declared a non-pecuniary interest as Ward Member for Littlebury, Chesterford and Wenden Lofts.
Councillor Criscione said he wished to declare that his company had had been instructed to work on a planning application for a solar farm in Uttlesford but not the one in Agenda item 10.
|
|
Minutes of the Previous Meeting PDF 206 KB To consider the minutes of the previous meeting. Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2021 were approved. |
|
UDC Property Portfolio Q4 Report PDF 818 KB To receive the UDC Property Portfolio Q4 Report. Additional documents: Minutes: The Director – Finance and Corporate Services gave a summary of the Property Portfolio Q4 Report that set out the quarterly performance for the Council.
He highlighted the following: -
In response to questions from Members the Director – Finance and Corporate Services made the following points: -
Councillor Khan said that the only risk missing from the list was the risk of a pandemic or an act of God.
Further to a comment made by R White, the Director – Finance and Corporate Services said he would be compiling a business plan for each asset over the next few months.
Councillor De Vries joined the meeting at 5:20pm.
|
|
Ethical Investment Policy PDF 184 KB To consider the Ethical Investment Policy Report. Minutes: The Chair introduced the report and thanked Councillor Khan for his help in producing the policy.
In response to Members questions the Chair made the following points: -
Councillor Sell suggested a concise summary at the beginning to set out what the Council’s ethical code of practice was by using a statement he had found from Keele University.
The Director – Finance and Corporate Services said that the document should not be held up by any amendments made to the summary at this stage. He suggested that the wording could be looked at in a first review and the Keele University statement could be incorporated at that point.
The Chair agreed but asked for the list of exclusions to be removed from the document.
The Investment Board showed its overall support for removing the exclusions by a show of hands, 5 in favour of removal and 3 against.
AGREED that the report would be recommended to Cabinet with the list of exclusions removed but with a covering note to explain what they were and why they had been removed.
Councillor Bagnall left the meeting at 6:10pm
|
|
Little Canfield Business Park PDF 128 KB To consider the Little Canfield Business Park Report. Minutes: The Director – Finance and Corporate Services gave a summary of the report that set out the financial position for the Little Canfield Business Park and sought funding to enable the commercial element to be rented out.
In response to a question from Councillor De Vries, the Director – Finance and Corporate Services said that the impact on the neighbouring properties would be considered when tenants were selected. He said that new tenants would have fewer vehicles and that it would be a stipulation of the tenancy that vehicles would not be allowed to turn right out of the site.
AGREED that Members of the Investment Board recommend to Cabinet that: - a. The sum of £7,500,000 be allocated to the commercial element of the Little Canfield Business Park project from the £300 million commercial fund; and b. The funding should be split on an 80% interest only and 20% repayment funding basis.
Councillor Hargreaves left the meeting at 6:40pm
|
|
To consider the Independent Members Report. Minutes: The Director – Finance and Corporate Services gave a summary of the report that set out the current position with regards to the vacancy on Aspire (CRP) Ltd and the Investment Board.
He suggested that a panel be appointed of three members from the Investment Board to interview and recommend to Cabinet suitable candidates to take on the roles. He recommended to the Board that Richard White and Alan Jones (the non-Executive Director for Aspire (CRP) Ltd) should also be involved in the process.
The Director – Finance and Corporate Services said that the Board did not need to decide the panel members at this meeting but just the general principle of the process.
AGREED that Members would appoint three Investment Board councillors to form the interview panel for both roles.
|
|
Exclusion of public and press Consideration of reports containing exempt information within the meaning of section 1001 and paragraph 3 part 1 Schedule 12A Local Government Act 1972. Minutes: The Chair proposed the exclusion of the public and press and Councillor Sell seconded the motion.
AGREED that under section 1001 of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded for the following items of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.
|
|
Assets Under Development - Update To consider the Assets Under Development – Update Report. Minutes: The Director – Finance and Corporate Services gave a summary of the report that set out the current position on the four assets under development.
He highlighted the following points: -
In response to a question from Councillor Criscione, the Director – Finance and Corporate Services said there would be a final quality check of the works carried out before it was handed over.
Members noted the report.
|
|
Future Asset Acquisition and Developments To consider the Future Asset Acquisition and Developments Report. Minutes: The Director – Finance and Corporate Services gave a summary of the report that set out the current position on one potential acquisition site and further development at Chesterford Research Park.
He highlighted the following points: -
Councillor Pavitt said the Solar Farm was a contentious issue as there were a lot of applications coming through the district for these farms. He agreed with the Director – Finance and Corporate Services that this was mitigated in this case by the fact that the Solar Farm would serve the Park and would not be solely aimed at making a profit through selling to the grid.
Members noted the report.
The meeting closed at 7:10pm.
|