Transcript

Transcript

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Thank you very much. Can I formally open the meeting and thank you to Reverend Cotton, oh sorry, thank you to myself, introducing the prayers and I'd like to welcome you all here this evening. And can I also welcome to the members of the public and those of you who are viewing at home. I'd like to make special welcome to Councilor Neville Rayner, Chairman of the Scotland Parish Council Neighborhood Planning Committee who will later in the evening present their successful reviewed neighborhood plan to the meeting. We're not expecting a fire alarm this evening so if the alarm does sound, please follow the instructions of officers and meet by the fountain at Costa Coffee. For members of the public who have signed in, please ensure that you sign out when you leave. This is to ensure that in the event of an emergency, persons are accounted for and are not assumed to stay in the building which then could be endanger the life of those responsible for public safety. This is a polite reminder to all members. Political statements will not be acceptable during this meeting due to the council being in the pre-election period. My ruling on the matter will be filed. I ask members to respect that position. We can move on in the agenda to item 1, apologies for absence. Can I ask the monitoring officer for apologies received, please? Thank you, Chairman. Apologies have been received from Councillor Darcel. Thank you. Are there any further apologies? Thank you. In which case we'll move on to item 2. To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the annual general meeting of full council held on 13th of May 2024. These have been circulated. All those in favour, please show. Are there any against? I think the motion is unanimously carried. Item 3, members declaration of interest. Just to remind you I will sign the minutes later on in the meeting. Item 3, members declaration of interest. Chairman, members may make any declarations of interest at this point and may also make them at any point during the meeting. Are there any declarations of interest from members? In which case I'll move on to the next item. Matters arising. The matters arising report, which is attached to the agenda item 4, sets out the current position of previously agreed actions as at 14 June 2024. It is for noting. Therefore, members, we shall take the report as read unless there are any questions. We can't see any, so the matters arising are noted. Item 5, public question time. Members, we have received no questions from members of the public for this meeting, so we will move on to the next agenda item. Section 6, questions pursuant to council procedures rule number 9. Members, we have received one question under procedural rule number 9. This was calculated by way of supplements to all members. Can I ask Councillor Jim Snee to put the question to the meeting? Thank you, Chair. My question is to the Chair of the Prosperous Community Committee regarding the Gainsborough Ledger Centre. Chair, Councillor Mandy Snee, Councillor Matthew Boles and myself have yet again received complaints from residents with regards to the extremely poor condition and uncleanliness of the Gainsborough Ledger Centre pool and changing facilities. This problem has been raised on numerous occasions and it appears not to have been resolved satisfactorily. I personally work in an environment which relies heavily on a thorough cleaning regime where audits both internal and external are carried out rigorously by competent trained staff on a regular timetable to ensure high standards are adhered to ensuring public health and safety is priority. We would like to see a similar style regime adopted by SLM Ledger to ensure public safety and to reassure the public that the Ledger Centre is a safe environment to visit. We ask this Council to request officers provide a report to the next meeting of Prosperous Community Committee to answer the following questions.

1. Can SLM as a service provider guarantee that their cleaning regime meets current health standards for a public facility and is evidence on a recorded log?
2. Do we, the Councillor's landlord, carry out our own audit of the facility on a regular basis?
3. How are the issues/concerns dealt with and what remedial actions are taken to address these issues and where is this information recorded? Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councillor Snee. Can I ask Councillor Rollins in her capacity as Chairman of the Prosperous Community Committee to respond, please? Thank you, Chair. Firstly, I would like to thank Councillor Jimmy Snee for the question. It is obviously a great concern to quite a few members of the public. Due to the importance but also commercially sensitive nature of the contract, I have asked for an urgent investigation report to be brought to the July Prosperous Communities Committee. This report will provide an update on contract management action taken and disclosure of the records requested in the question. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Rollins, for that response. We will look forward to seeing that more detailed report coming to Committee shortly. Councillor Snee, are you happy with the response? That is fine. Thank you very much. I look forward to it. Thank you very much. So moving on to procedure No. 10. We have received no motions under procedural rule 10 for this meeting, so we will move on to the next general item. Before I introduce this report from the chair, can I again welcome Councillor Neville Rayner to the meeting? This report is seeking members' approval to adopt the review of the neighbourhood plan for the parish of Scotland. This will be the first review of a neighbourhood plan to be adopted within West Lindsay. Review plan would replace the original neighbourhood plan for Scotland to form part of the development plan and thereby have a major influence on planning applications decisions in Scotland parish. The plan was prepared by a neighbourhood plan subgroup on behalf of the parish council. The group spent much time and energy on the plan, undertaking extensive consultation throughout its development. In his report, the examiner states that the plan is well organised and includes effective maps and photographs. It positively seeks to protect its natural built and historic environment and the content in the form of the plan is fit for purpose. The plan is a first-class example of a review of a neighbourhood plan. The Scotland neighbourhood plan review involved two rounds of public consultation and has been successful at both examination and referendum. The referendum, held last Thursday 20th June, saw residents voting 82.5% in favour of the plan. The Scotland neighbourhood plan review is now ready to be adopted by the council. It has completed all its stages and has the support of its local community. I will move the recommendation. Can I have a seconder before I ask Councillor Rayner to give a speech to the report? Thank you, Councillor Bealie. Councillor O'Neill, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Chair. Some of the things I mentioned, you've already mentioned, so excuse me at that. My name is Neville Rayner and I'm recently appointed Chair of the Scotland Parish Council. My wife and I have been here in Lincolnshire three years now, having come from Hertfordshire, and I've got a fair amount of experience, obviously, in Hertfordshire with the local authorities and the county councils and so on, but I'm also experienced very much with the Cambridge phenomena because we lived in Royston, which is just over the border into Cambridge. In 2023, the parish council undertook a review of the 2015 to 2035 neighbourhood plan. The review took place at the same time as the development of the central Lincolnshire local plan. The parish council were active in objecting to certain aspects of further development for Scotland in that plan. However, it was agreed that two housing developments would go ahead in Scotland. The final version of the Scotland neighbourhood plan, if supported by a referendum, would be part of the development plan, which would enable residents supported by the parish council to have a real influence over planning for the village. The referendum, as you said, Chairman, was held on the 20th, and the question was, do you want West Lindsay District Council to use the neighbourhood plan for Scotland? Then the result, as you quite said, was in favour 82%, and one would on normal cases say that's a very good result, which of course it is. However, the thing that really wasn't too good, in my opinion, was the turnout. The turnout was, I felt, quite low. And I think that, hopefully, this is one of the objectives, in my opinion, that we should set on how we can increase resident participation generally. I should like to thank the working group made up of the parish councillors, the residents involved, and the consultation events held with residents. The two housing building projects, we hope to establish a similar consultation event with residents. Our fundamental vision by 2040, so that Scotland will continue to be a thriving, sustainable, rural community in which people enjoy living and working. Now, here comes the fact that I come from business. I would like to think that this vision can be achieved by a strategy with, believe it or not, quantifiable objectives. It's now my pleasure to hand over our plan to you, the chair, and thank you very much. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you. I can leave now, can I? Yes, of course. Yeah, sure. Just got to check. Being polite, really. I appreciate. Right. Before we go forward for a vote, can I open the matter to the floor? I've got anyone who would like to speak. Councillor Dobbie. Oh, I'm sorry. I was just wanting to ask a question, because obviously, Gainsborough is starting its review process. Now that this is the review and it's been adopted, does it take precedence over the central Lincolnshire plan, because it's the most recent one, because I think that's what happens. As one becomes up and becomes more recent, it has got more weight. Thank you, Councillor Dobbie. I hope to answer that tonight, or is it something we want to defer and we'll pass around to all members at a later date? We'll pass it then. Right. The question has been asked, and all members will be notified of the answer. Councillor Fleetwood. Yes, I believe that would be the case. Normally, it's the last plan, and there's normally three plans that you'd deal with, one being the national planning policy, the other one being central Lincolnshire, and then, of course, the neighbourhood plan. So it's usually the last one that's adopted that would have the precedent across all of them. I wasn't going to speak to that. I did indicate speak anyway. And it's really to congratulate the chairman of Scotland, having moved up from the deep south. I know there's a lot of pressure for development down there. Certainly the ME11 and around the Cambridge area, there's volumes and volumes of expansion. So you must have seen it down there. Scotland as a village has got quite a lot of pressure being one of the Lincoln Fringe villages. And it really does emphasise the importance of having a neighbourhood plan into place. In addition to that, as well as having the plan and the ability to put the local steer onto it, it also allows a greater contribution from planning applications to go back into the local community, and to obviously seize the funds locally for local projects if you can do so. Congratulations. Thank you, Councillor Young. Thank you, Chairman. Just a very brief one. I'd also like to congratulate them on producing this review. It's an onerous task, as we all know, in terms of neighbourhood plans. But one thing I'd like to kind of put across and try and reassure the Scotland residents is that local councils are often challenged by the planning process. But we should be, as a council, and we are as a new administration to this council, we advocate the fact that planning should be community-led as opposed to development-led. And we've had lots of challenges around that across the district, which has affected lots of rural villages in various different ways. And what I'd like to do, and I think the council embraced this thought, is that we need to be listening to the local residents and local communities, local parishes, local town councils, in a way that supports them in terms of development in a managed, processed way. That's far easier said than done, as we know. But I think it's a key challenge for all district councils that we get that process right. And the more we embrace it, the more we listen, I think the better the planning process will be. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Young. I think we'd all agree that local comments are essential and need to be taken into account. Any further contributions? In which case, I'd like to put the matter to the vote. So all those who are in favour of supporting the plan, please raise. That is unanimous. Councillor Rayner, thank you very much for your time this evening, and we wish you well with the plan and the way it moves forward. You're welcome to stay if you want to join the gallery, and I do understand that if you need to get on to something else, we understand. So thank you very much for your support tonight. We'll give them a round of applause. If we can move on now to 6b, the review of the allocation of seats to political groups on committee subcommittees. Page 20 to 30 of your agenda. I will introduce a report from the chair. The report is self-explanatory. The last review of the allocations took place in May 24 at the council's AGM, borne out after the commitment to review allocations at least annually. A further review has been undertaken, the results of June notice being provided for the head of paid service from Councillor Jeanette McGee on 13th May, advising that she no longer wish to be treated as a member of the Liberal Democrat administration and of her intention to sit as an unaligned independent. The outcome of the review and impact on the allocation is detailed in the report. This matter is delegated to the head of paid service in consultation with all group leaders, and as such, council are not required to vote on this matter and simply asked to note it. Are there any questions? In the absence of questions then, we note the allocation of seats and we will move on. Appointment of committees. Again, this is at pages 31 to 36 of your agenda. I will again introduce the report from the chair. As a result of the allocations having been amended under section 15 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, the council is required to report to its committees to reflect the new allocations. The report sets out the wishes expressed by the groups based on their allocations. Group leaders, are there any final adjustments you wish to make? Okay, if members have no questions, I will move the recommendation from the chair. Do I have a seconder? Councillor Dobie? All those in favour? Thank you. And that is unanimous. The vote is carried. So I move on to the next item of the agenda. This is the appointments of committee chairman and vice chairman and will be found on pages 37 to 40 of your pack. I will again introduce the report from the chair. The report is self-explanatory and having reappointed the committees, the report seeks to appoint chairman and vice chairman to each committee. Are there any further nominations for these positions? On that basis, I would suggest that the recommendations are taken on block. Our council content. That appears to agreement. So I move the recommendation from the chair. Do I have a seconder? Councillor. All those in favour, please show. Any against? Again, that is taken unanimously. Amendments to the appointments to outside bodies and working groups, pages 41 to 47 of your pack. Moving to our final report of the evening, I will again introduce the report from the chair. But I don't propose to take members through its content. The full list of outside bodies is appended for information. Do members have any questions? I see none, so I will move all the recommendations from the chair. Do I have a seconder? Councillor. Moving to the vote. All those in favour? Thank you. Against? That is approved unanimously. That, councillors, brings us to the end of our meeting tonight. So I would like to thank members for their attendance. And I will formally close the meeting. In doing so, wish you all a safe and quick, speedy, roadworks-free journey home. Unless, of course, you are passing Anglian Water, who I am sure will be doing something.