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Agenda, decisions and minutes
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Items No. Item Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
None received.
Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
Councillor
Item
Interest
Cllr Hay
3
Personal – ESCC Councillor
Cllr Hilton
3
Personal – ESCC Councillor
Cllr Webb
3
Personal – ESCC Councillor
Call In - Land and Property Disposal Programme PDF 129 KB
(Coral Harding - Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Officer)
Decision:
After hearing evidence and reasons regarding the decision called in, the committee chose option:
A. The matter does not need to be referred back and the original Cabinet decision can be Implemented and a lessons learnt report to be sent to the next Cabinet meeting.
Minutes:
The Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Officer explained call in is procedure of overview and scrutiny. The meeting must be held within 8 days. The Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Officer explained the committee has 3 options. These are to determine that the original decision to be implemented, or it should be referred back to cabinet for reconsideration or that the decision be referred to Full Council.
The Chair read a statement:
It is highly unusual for a cabinet decision to be called-in for discussion, and in the current financial circumstances the Council finds itself in, the committee has not taken this decision lightly.
It is hoped the call-in of this decision will lead to more transparent and comprehensive reports going to cabinet so members and the public have a true record and understanding of how decisions have been made.
The disposal of the capital assets is being undertaken to bolster the Council’s financial position which is understandable. However, this does not negate the need for decisions to be scrutinized and cabinet reports to address the relevant issues.
Structural concerns in the report: “Land and Property Disposal Programme” are:
• How the recommendation relates to the corporate plan
• How these disposals have been identified when there isn’t any asset management plan until CIPFA have completed their report in November.
• Part 15 of the cabinet report states: There are risks associated with disposing of land/property, but it is considered that the market conditions are currently suited to bringing forward the identified sites. The risks are not explained. For example, the report doesn’t state there is a risk grant funding might need to be repaid.
• Recommendation 5 in the LGA Peer review stated that the Council should be improving business cases but no business case appears in the report.
• In the recent Treasury Management training, CIPFA Codes for Capital Strategy stated that our capital strategy should include the following (the section 151 officer agreed these should be covered in any related report) and contain an appropriate level of detail in respect of:
- Legal power for a scheme to be undertaken
- Evidence of robust option appraisal work
- Consideration/quantification of sensitivity analysis outcomes
- Impact on revenue budget and balance sheet resources
- Section 151 Officer to vouch for skill-sets of external consultants
- Committee Members to be adequately briefed on any material risks
In conclusion:
The Council is likely to be selling off more assets, so setting a standard template of good practice for future cabinet reports would be the committee’s minimum recommendation.
Due to the discussion of commercial sensitive information the public were excluded. Proposed by Cllr Patmore seconded by Cllr Roberts
The following information is not confidential so is included here.
Q: Has there been any conversation with the team undertaking the Asset Management Strategy to get their views on these disposals? If not why not? Surely they would have some high level sense by now of what might be ... view the full minutes text for item 3.
Land and Property Disposal Programme - 07/08/2023 Cabinet PDF 128 KB
(Jane Hartnell, Chief Executive)
Additional documents:
- 12-13 york buildings 1578, 07/08/2023 Cabinet , item 4. PDF 416 KB
- Mayfield E 1453, 07/08/2023 Cabinet , item 4. PDF 312 KB
- Car Park and Land Bexhill Road 1676, 07/08/2023 Cabinet , item 4. PDF 336 KB
- Upper Wilting Farm 1790, 07/08/2023 Cabinet , item 4. PDF 3 MB
- Restricted enclosure 10 View the reasons why document 4./6 is restricted
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