This meeting was about a range of issues from across the Council's responsibilities, including the local impact of the recently approved devolution deal for Greater Lincolnshire, the appointment of officers to manage the election of the new combined authority's Mayor, the Council's proposed budget for 2025/26, and the approval of new arrangements for regulating gambling in the area.

The meeting also included consideration of the minutes of the Council's committees from their recent meetings. These included the minutes of the Planning Committee which had met most recently on 31 July 2024, the Licensing Committee which had met on 18 July 2024, the Audit Committee which had met on 10 July 2024, the Standards Committee which had met on 10 July 2024, the Governance Scrutiny Panel which had met on 6 August 2024, the Place Scrutiny Panel which had met on 23 July 2024, the Children's Scrutiny Panel which had met on 19 June 2024, the Health Integration and Performance Scrutiny Panel which had met on 8 May 2024, the Appointment and Employment Committee which had met on 3 June 2024, and the Health and Wellbeing Board which had met on 22 July 2024.

Outcome of Humber Services Acute Review

The Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (HNYICB) made a series of decisions arising from their Humber Acute Services Review on 10 July 2024, and the Council's report pack included a position paper about these decisions.

The proposed changes impact on two acute hospitals operated by the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust:

• Scunthorpe General Hospital
• Diana Princess of Wales Hospital Grimsby

The decision was to transfer some services from Scunthorpe General Hospital to the Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, and to transfer surgical ophthalmology care to Hull Royal Infirmary.

Since July 2024 the Council has been working with the HNYICB and NHS Humber Health Partnership to understand the assumptions made in their business case, confirm the impact of the decision on local residents, and seek mitigations.

The report pack invited the Council to decide whether to accept the decision made by the HNYICB, or to reject the decision. If the Council decided to reject the decision, it could ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to consider using their call-in power to overrule the ICB.

Community Governance Review

North Lincolnshire Council is responsible for taking decisions about parish electoral governance arrangements and is required to monitor these on an ongoing basis.

The Council last undertook a formal review of these arrangements in 2017. That review considered electoral arrangements for eight of the area's town councils, as well as the Parish of Holme.

The report pack included the final recommendations from the Council's Governance Scrutiny Panel following a review of the governance arrangements for all of the parish councils and parish meetings that were not included in the 2017 review.

The Panel's final recommendations were that:

• Alkborough and Walcot Parish Council be reduced from 8 to 7 councillors
• Amcotts Parish Council continue with its existing membership of 7 councillors
• Appleby Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 6
• Ashby Parkland Parish Council be increased from 5 councillors to 7
• Barnetby-le-Wold Parish Council be reduced from 11 councillors to 9
• Barrow upon Humber Parish Council be reduced from 12 councillors to 11
• Belton Parish Council be reduced from 13 councillors to 11
• Bonby Parish Council have its membership increased from 6 councillors to 7
• Burringham Parish Council be increased from 6 councillors to 7
• Burton upon Stather Parish Council be reduced from 15 councillors to 9
• Cadney cum Howsham Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 7
• East Butterwick Parish Council continue with its current membership of 5 councillors
• East Halton Parish Council be reduced from 9 councillors to 7
• Eastoft Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 7
• Elsham Parish Council continue with its existing membership of 7 councillors
• Flixborough Parish Council continue with its existing arrangements
• Garthorpe with Fockerby Parish Council be reduced from 9 councillors to 7
• Goxhill Parish Council be reduced from 11 councillors to 9
• Gunness Parish Council have its existing arrangements amended to reduce its membership to 9 councillors, and split the parish into three wards: Lodge Moor (3 councillors), Hilton Avenue (3 councillors), and Gunness (3 councillors)
• Haxey Parish Council have its existing arrangements amended to reduce its membership to 13 councillors, and split the parish into three wards: Westwoodside (6 councillors), Haxey (5 councillors), and Villages (2 councillors)
• Hibaldstow Parish Council be reduced from 11 councillors to 9
• Horkstow Parish Meeting continue with its existing arrangements
• Keadby with Althorpe Parish Council be reduced from 15 councillors to 11
• Kirmington and Croxton Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 7
• Luddington and Haldenby Parish Council be reduced from 9 councillors to 7
• Manton Parish Meeting continue with its existing arrangements
• Melton Ross Parish Council be reduced from 6 councillors to 5
• Messingham Parish Council be reduced from 15 councillors to 11
• New Holland Parish Council be reduced from 9 councillors to 7
• North Killingholme Parish Council continue with its existing membership of 7 councillors
• Owston Ferry Parish Council be reduced from 11 councillors to 9
• Redbourne Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 7
• Roxby cum Risby Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 7
• Saxby All Saints Parish Council be reduced from 6 councillors to 5
• Scawby Parish Council be reduced from 14 councillors to 11
• South Ferriby Parish Council continue with its existing membership of 9 councillors
• South Killingholme Parish Council have its existing arrangements amended to reduce its membership to 7 councillors, and transfer responsibility for the hamlet of Ulceby Skitter to Ulceby Parish Council
• Thornton Curtis Parish Council continue with its existing membership of 7 councillors
• Ulceby Parish Council have its existing arrangements amended to reduce its membership to 9 councillors, and take responsibility for the hamlet of Ulceby Skitter from South Killingholme Parish Council
• West Butterwick Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 7
• West Halton and Coleby Parish Council continue with its existing membership of 6 councillors
• Whitton Parish Meeting continue with its existing arrangements
• Winteringham Parish Council be reduced from 9 councillors to 7
• Wootton Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 6
• Worlaby Parish Council be reduced from 8 councillors to 7
• Wrawby Parish Council be reduced from 10 councillors to 9
• Wroot Parish Council continue with its existing membership of 7 councillors

The report pack asked the Council to agree the Panel's final recommendations and authorise the Director: Transformation and Outcomes to issue a reorganisation order to implement the changes, amend the Panel's final recommendations and make appropriate suggestions with supporting evidence, or to not agree the recommendations and so make no changes to parish electoral governance arrangements.

Gambling Act 2005 - Statement of Principles

The Gambling Act 2005 requires local councils to produce a document called a 'Statement of Principles' which describes how they will regulate gambling in their area. These statements must be reviewed every three years.

The Council last reviewed its Statement of Principles in 2021. The report pack included a revised statement that had been considered by the Council's Licensing Committee on 14 November 2024, and asked the Council to formally approve the revised statement.

The new Statement of Principles explains how the Council will regulate a range of activities including:

• Adult gaming centres
• Betting, including at race tracks
• Bingo
• Casinos
• Family entertainment centres

In particular, it explains what types of venues can have what types and numbers of gambling machines. It also reiterates the council's commitment to tackling problem gambling, saying:

To help protect vulnerable persons, applicants may wish to consider providing information leaflets or helpline numbers for organisations such as GamCare.

The statement also outlines the Council's commitment to working with other agencies to regulate gambling:

The licensing authority, in developing this statement of principles has had regard to the licensing objectives of the Gambling Act 2005, the guidance issued by the Gambling Commission and the responses made following the consultation.

Approve Amendments to Article 14 of the Constitution and Contract Procedure Rules (CPRs)

The Council's Constitution sets out how the Council is governed, what it does, and how it makes decisions.

The Constitution includes the Council's 'Contract Procedure Rules' (CPRs), which set out how the Council makes decisions about buying goods and services. These rules were last updated in May 2024 to include the new arrangements for regulating healthcare services brought in by the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

The Procurement Act 2023 came into effect on 24 February 2025 and introduced new arrangements for how councils buy goods and services.

The report pack included a revised set of CPRs to comply with the 2023 Act, and asked the Council to approve them.

The new CPRs continue to allow the Council to avoid competitive tendering in a number of circumstances, such as where:

the requirement is time critical.

or where:

renewals, repairs and upgrades to buildings, plant, appliances, machinery, vehicles or ICT equipment or software can only be efficiently carried out and supplied by the original contractor or supplier.

These new CPRs set out the process the council will follow to choose which suppliers to work with. For any procurement exercise, the Council first calculates the total value of the contract that they're seeking to award. They use this value to determine the extent to which they have to go out to the market, for example by inviting quotes from suppliers. This is set out in a 'Quick Reference Guide' to the CPRs, and ranges from simply procuring the items or service from the desktop for values under £5,000 to using the council's e-tendering platform for contracts worth over £100,000. In some cases, these procurement exercises are considered to be 'Key Decisions', which have to be approved by a Cabinet member or Scrutiny Committee.

In most cases, contracts worth over £100,000 are awarded by using the Council's 'model contract', but they can use different terms and conditions in specific cases, for example where they're working with a supplier on a National Framework.

The report pack included proposed changes to Article 14 of the Constitution to reflect the changes to the CPRs, and asked the Council to approve them.

Treasury Management Mid-Year Report 2024/25

The Council is legally required to manage its borrowing and investments in a way that minimises risk, saying:

It is important that treasury management policies adequately reflect risk and in particular security, liquidity and yield risk, in that order of importance.

The report pack included a report on the Council's treasury management performance for the first six months of the 2024/25 financial year.

The report said that the Council's investments had earned an average interest rate of 5.07% during this period.

It said that the Council is expecting to undertake further borrowing before the end of the financial year, but that it did not expect to have any difficulties complying with its borrowing limits.

The report asked the Council to formally note the mid-year treasury management performance.

Calculating the Council Tax Base 2025/26

The amount of Council Tax that each household in North Lincolnshire pays depends on the value of their home. The Valuation Office Agency classifies every home into one of eight bands based on its value, with Band D used as a baseline to calculate the amount of Council Tax payable.

The amount of money that the Council can raise by charging Council Tax depends on the number of properties in each band. To simplify the process, the number of homes in each band is converted into an equivalent number of Band D properties, using a standard formula set out by central government. The total number of Band D equivalent properties is called the 'Council Tax Base'.

The report pack included a report on the Council's calculations for the Council Tax Base for 2025/26, which included a number of changes to take account of discounts and exemptions for certain types of households.

This included a proposal to:

streamline the application process for the Council Tax Support Scheme for working age recipients.

The report pack proposed that the Council Tax Base for 2025/26 be 52,168.20.

It also included a calculation of the Council Tax Base for each of the Parish and Town Councils in North Lincolnshire, which is used by those councils to calculate how much money they need to raise through Council Tax.

The report pack asked the Council to note the calculated Council Tax Base for grant purposes, and approve the calculated Council Tax Base for the Council and the other precepting authorities. It also asked the Council to approve the changes to the Council Tax Support Scheme.

Greater Lincolnshire Devolution - Appointment of Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority Returning Officer and the appointment of the local returning officer for the Mayoral election on 1 May 2025

The Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority Regulations 2025 establish a new Combined Authority for Greater Lincolnshire and schedule an election for the new authority's mayor for 1 May 2025.

The report pack included a report asking the Council to approve the appointment of Rob Walsh, Chief Executive of North East Lincolnshire Council, as the Combined County Authority Returning Officer to oversee the election. Mr Walsh will be responsible for a number of tasks including:

ensuring that candidates and their agents comply with the requirements as to the content of candidate election addresses, and with the procedures for submitting them

The report pack also asked the Council to approve the appointment of Alison Barker, Chief Executive of North Lincolnshire Council, as the local returning officer for the election.