-
Agenda and minutes
Venue: Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3UY
Contact: Michael Courts on 01424 451764 email mcourts@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Minutes of the meeting held on 5 December 2016 PDF 64 KB
Minutes:
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 5 December 2016 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record
RESOLVED the Chair called over the items on the agenda, under rule 13.3 the recommendations set out in minute numbers 56, 57, 58 and 59 (including an additional recommendation proposed by the Assistant Director, Housing and Built Environment, in respect of minute 56) were agreed without being called for discussion
East Sussex Building Control Shared Service PDF 152 KB
(Cabinet Decision)
Minutes:
The Assistant Director, Housing and Built Environment, submitted a report regarding the future arrangements for building control services.
The council’s building control functions were currently delivered through an arrangement with Rother District Council, the present contract was due to expire on 31 March 2017. The report set out a number of potential options for the service after the existing arrangements come to an end, including; maintaining the existing shared service with Rother, bringing the building control service back in house with loss of scale, join an enlarged East Sussex shared building control service or to move directly to a wholly or jointly owned company with other East Sussex authorities.
The report recommended joining an enlarged East Sussex shared building control service. The new service would be administered by Wealden District Council and would deliver building control services for all district and borough councils in East Sussex. This option was considered to provide the most stable, cost effective and customer focused approach in the short term and would allow for the possibility of an arms length company to deliver building control services to be explored further in the future.
The Assistant Director, Housing and Built Environment, advised of an additional recommendation to the report, as set out in the resolution below.
RESOLVED that:
1. Subject to final negotiations to delegate to the Assistant Director, Housing and Built Environment and the Assistant Director, Financial Services and Revenues, in consultation with the Deputy Leader of the Council to enter into a legal agreement for the delivery of Building Control Services with Wealden District Council, and;
2. Cabinet agrees to discharge building control functions to Wealden District Council under section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972
The reason for this decision was:
Under Section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972 one local authority may arrange for its functions to be discharged by another authority. In order to be part of an East Sussex Shared Building Control Service members are asked to delegate negation of contract terms to officers.
Review of Polling Places PDF 144 KB
(Council Decision)
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chief Legal Officer submitted a report which set out the recommendations of the Acting Returning Officer, following an interim review of polling places.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) had recently undertaken a review of borough ward and county division boundaries within Hastings. The changes were due to take effect at the next scheduled elections, in this case the East Sussex County Council elections in May 2017 and the Hastings Borough Council elections in May 2018.
Although the next full review of polling places was not due to take place until 2018/19, the council was required to carry out an interim review to ensure all electors within the borough had access to appropriate facilities for voting once the boundary changes have taken effect.
The report gave an overview of the review process, including comments received during the consultation period and the criteria used by the Acting Returning Officer to assess potential polling places. A cross-party working group had been set up to consider representations received during the consultation period, carry out site visits and make recommendations on the location of polling places around the borough.
Following the interim review, the Acting Returning Officer was proposing to change the polling place for polling district N1 from St Helens Methodist Church, The Ridge to The Bridge Community Centre, Priory Road, due to the former venue no longer being in use. No other changes to polling district boundaries or existing polling arrangements were proposed as a result of the review.
The final proposals were due to be reported to a special meeting of Full Council on 18 January 2017, ahead of the publication of a revised electoral register on 1 March 2017.
RESOLVED:
1. To recommend that Council adopts the Acting Returning Officer’s recommendations (as appended to the Chief Legal Officer’s report) and publish the results of the review, and;
2. Delegate authority to the Director of Corporate Services and Governance to amend any decisions made under this review with regard to polling places or polling stations, should there be an urgent or necessary need
The reason for this decision was:
Due to the changes made as part of the recent boundary review by Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE), the council must carry out an interim review of polling places. The review must incorporate the division of its parliamentary constituency area (within the borough boundary) into polling districts and the places where electors are asked to vote. The council must comply with the requirements of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 (Section 16, EAA 2006) and complete regular reviews of all polling districts and polling places. The council has a duty to ensure that the most suitable premises are used a polling places with regard to the needs of the electorate, subject to availability.
Housing Renewal Enforcement Policy PDF 176 KB
(Council Decision)
Minutes:
The Assistant Director, Housing and Built Environment, submitted a report which sought approval of an updated Housing Renewal Enforcement Policy.
Following the adoption of a Corporate Enforcement Policy on 2 April 2013, a Housing Renewal Enforcement Policy had been approved in August 2014. Since then, the Housing Renewal Enforcement Policy has been reviewed and updated each year. However, it was necessary to carry out a more comprehensive review to reflect the new provisions for dealing with rogue landlords introduced by the Housing and Planning Act 2016.
A revised copy of the Policy was appended to the Assistant Director, Housing and Built Environment’s report, together with a statement of principles for determining the financial penalties for housing offences.
RESOLVED that the revised Housing Renewal Enforcement Policy (December 2016) be approved
The reason for this decision was:
The Housing and Planning Act 2016 introduced new powers for local authorities to tackle rogue landlords. These new powers included the provision for local authorities to issue financial penalties for certain housing offences. In order to be able to issue financial penalties the council is required to have a policy for determining the level of penalty.
Community Partnership Funding 2017 - 2019 PDF 126 KB
(Cabinet Decision)
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Assistant Director, Regeneration and Culture, submitted a report which set out the recommendations for community partnership Funding (CPF) for the 2017-19 programme.
At its meeting on 5 September 2016, Cabinet had agreed a set of priorities for the CPF programme 2017-19. The priorities were intended to ensure the programme was focused on the most vulnerable sections of the community by commissioning services from the community and voluntary sector for specifically identified outcomes. The new approach reflected the continued financial pressures facing the council over this period.
The CPF application process opened on 26 September 2016 and closed on 11 November 2016. Eight proposals had been received which were then assessed by a panel comprising the lead member and relevant council officers. Five applications had been recommended for funding by the panel. The amount of grant award will be determined following negotiations between council officers and the applicant organisation, but the total amount will not exceed the allocation for CPF funding in the council’s budget.
RESOLVED that:
1. Cabinet approved the CPF Grants Panel’s recommendations as set out in this report subject to the decisions of the Budget cabinet meeting in February 2017, and;
2. Delegation is given to the Director of Operational Services or his nominee in consultation with the Lead Member for Housing, Communities and Equalities, to agree the final contractual outputs, outcomes and grants
The reason for this decision was:
The current round of CPF comes to an end in March 2017. The proposals set out in this report follows a new commissioning approach for new priorities, developed in consultation with the community and voluntary sector during the summer of 2016.
Exclusion of the Public
Councillor Poole proposed a motion, seconded by Councillor Cartwright, to exclude members of the public from the meeting.
RESOLVED (unanimously) that the public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the items of business listed below because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 referred to in the relevant report
Resource Planning
(Cabinet Decision)
Minutes:
The Transformation Manager presented a report which outlined the business case for the procurement and re-implementation of an Enterprise resource Planning (ERP) System to replace the current Finance, Income Management, Human Resources and Payroll management systems.
Councillor Chowney proposed approval of the recommendations to the report, which was seconded by Councillor Cartwright.
RESOLVED (unanimously) that:
1. Cabinet approved the procurement and implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to include Finance, Income Management, and Human Resources and Payroll – Option 3, as a joint venture with Rother District Council,
2. To procure the ERP system through the G-Cloud framework agreement,
3. To give delegated authority to the Director of Corporate Services and Governance in consultation with the lead member to complete the procurement process and appoint the successful vendor, and;
4. To allocate sufficient resources within the Capital Programme
The reason for this decision was:
In order to function effectively the council needs effective core systems that manage its finances, people and income. Ideally these core systems should be integrated, and the technology is now available for the Financial, HR and Payroll and Income Management systems to be integrated as an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool.
There are a number of factors affecting our current systems which, as indicated in the business case suggest that now is an appropriate tie to implement an ERP system.
· The council’s current financial system expires in March 2018. The council therefore has to make a decision about a replacement system (and allow time for implementation) before that date. The current system is also overdue a significant upgrade and is no longer fit for purpose for the way we work today.
· The existing HR/Payroll system is not currently compatible with the financial system and requires continued modification and duplication of effort to ensure staff records and budget codes are aligned.
· Our Income Management system is also separate from our financial system, and is not operating effectively which results in inefficiencies in cash and income handling and incurs high transaction charges.
· The existing systems will not effectively be able to support the councils entrepreneurial and transformational objectives, as existing systems do not have the functionality needed to support these aims.
Together, these factors give the council an opportunity to implement a more efficient and integrated Financial, HR / Payroll and income Management system. This will result in medium to long term economic efficiency gains and will reduce the need for double handling of data and manual processes and allow serive managers to have greater control over budgets and resource planning.
Procurement of Cleaning Contracts
(Cabinet Decision)
Minutes:
The Assistant Director, Environment and Place, presented a report which updated Cabinet on the outcome of the procurement of cleaning contracts, and to recommend which tenders should be accepted.
RESOLVED (unanimously) that:
1. Cabinet agrees to appoint the preferred bidder in relation to Lot 1 building cleaning, for a three year basic contract period, with the option of two one year extensions,
2. Cabinet agrees to appoint the preferred bidder in relation to Lot 2 public convenience cleaning, for a three year basic contract period, with the option of two one year extensions, and;
3. Cabinet agrees that variant 2 of Lot 2 public convenience cleaning should be chosen in preference to variant 1, subject to the 2017/18 budget setting consultation process.
The reason for this decision was:
The existing contracts expire on 31 March 2017 and cannot be extended further. It is essential that the council secures services to clean the public conveniences, council buildings and bus shelters.
-
My council
Contact
Got a question about democratic services?
Content
The content on this page is the responsibility of our Democratic Services team.