The Chair altered the order of business as minuted.

The Chair will advise the meeting of the evacuation procedures to follow in the event of an emergency. This is particularly important for visitors and members of the public who will be unfamiliar with the building and procedures.

The Chair will inform the meeting whether there is a planned evacuation drill due to take place, what the alarm sounds like (i.e. ringing bells), where the closest emergency exit route is, and where the second closest emergency exit route is, in the event that the closest exit or route is blocked.

The Chair will inform the meeting that:

(a) in the event of the alarm sounding, everybody must leave the building via the nearest safe available exit and gather at the Assembly points at the far side of the Car Park. Nobody must leave the assembly point until everybody can be accounted for and nobody must return to the building until the Chairman has informed them that it is safe to do so; and

(b) the lifts must not be used in the event of an evacuation.

Any officers present at the meeting will aid with the evacuation.

It is important that the Chair is informed of any person attending who is disabled or unable to use the stairs, so that suitable arrangements may be made in the event of an emergency.

The Chair outlined the Emergency Evacuation Procedure.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 8 June 2022 (Minute Nos. 59 – 65) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 8 June 2022 (Minute Nos. 59 - 65) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chair will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary Interests (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

(c)           Where it is possible that a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that the Member might be predetermined or biased the Member should declare their predetermination or bias and then leave the meeting while that item is considered.

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

No interests were declared.  

Verbal update to be given at the meeting.

The Chief Executive gave an update following the recent water shortage on the Isle of Sheppey being declared as a major incident. She explained that due to a burst water pipe near the Kingsferry Bridge, residents on the Isle of Sheppey were without water until it was fixed. Southern Water (SW) had fixed the initial leak, but upon fixing this, they had discovered a second leak was present and this was the reason that water had not yet been turned back on. The Chief Executive said that several Council staff had been redeployed temporarily to set-up an emergency centre at Swale House and to give water to residents on the Isle of Sheppey. She informed Members that the Council were liaising with several government organisations through the Kent Resilience Forum meetings and SW to get regular updates on the situation. She added that vulnerable people were receiving water and staff would be redeployed until Tuesday 19 July 2022 if necessary, but she hoped the situation would be resolved by Sunday 17 July 2022and staff could return to their normal jobs.

Members were invited to ask questions and make comments which included:

·         Complimented the Chief Executive and officers at the Council for the swift response, updates and providing aid to the residents of the Isle of Sheppey;

·         considered the Council did not have enough staff to provide water to all the residents on the Isle of Sheppey and should ask the army for help;

·         requested an update on the bridge closure;

·         why were the Kent Fire & Rescue service pumping water onto the Isle of Sheppey?;

·         frustrated at SW’s response to the leak and the locations of the water stations;

·         could the Council consider asking local housing agencies for help?;

·         had voluntary groups been asked to help?;

·         could the Chief Executive ask Swallows Leisure centre if they could extend their opening hours at the weekend if the situation had not improved by then?;

·         concerned that once this situation had resolved SW would pump all the sewage back into the sea;

·         SW were too concerned about their reputation, rather than the residents of the Isle of Sheppey;

·         once this situation had resolved the Council needed to invite Southern Water to a future committee meeting to find out what happened and their future plans on preventing this situation happening again;

·         the road network to deliver water was vulnerable and could the Council consider a different method of getting water onto the Isle of Sheppey?;

·         a similar incident occurred in 2016 at a lower scale, and SW should have reviewed their pipes then to ensure it did not happen again;

·         did the Council have a list of emergency centres if the residents of the Isle of Sheppey needed to be evacuated?;

·         situations like this caused financial implications and the Council had reserves to cover this, but expected SW to compensate the Council, residents and any other business impacted from this; and

·         emergency training should be given to Councillors on how to respond to these situations  ...  view the full minutes text for item 192.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report setting out each recommendation one by one to be considered at the next Full Council. He explained that the first recommendation was for officers to be notified in sufficient time for any amendments to their reports going to service committees. The constitutional working group had discussed this recommendation and said it would give officers time to properly consider the amendment before it went to the service committee.

Councillor Mike Henderson proposed an amendment to remove ‘and seconder’ from the second line of 3.1.17 in the constitution (as at paragraph 3.4 of the report) as some Members who sat on the Committee were a smaller political party and could struggle to find a seconder for their amendments. This was seconded by Councillor James Hunt.

Members discussed the amendment and made comments which included:

·         Did not feel it was necessary as any member of the committee could ask another Member to second a future amendment regardless of the political party they represented; and

·         expected amendments to be rare and thought if members wanted to make amendments they could always ask other committee Members to second.

On being put to the vote the amendment was carried.

The Chair proposed the remainder of recommendation one as set-out in the report and this was seconded by Councillor Alan Horton. On being put to the vote recommendation one was carried.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the second recommendation which sought a change to Head of Planning delegations. The recommendation proposed that the Head of Planning wrote to town or parish councils to advise them where they had made a representation that was not based on appropriate planning considerations.

The Chair advised that the following amendments, as set out bold, had been put forward to Members in advance of the meeting.

“(1) The delegated powers in [2.18.15.1] above shall not be exercised in the following circumstances: […] Applications where the decision of the Head of Planning would conflict with any written representation received within the specified representation period from:

(i)            Any Member of the Borough Council;

(ii)          A statutory consultee;

(iii)         A Parish or Town Council;

Provided that any such representations from any of the above are, in the opinion of the Head of Planning, based upon relevant planning considerations.

(2) Where the head of planning determines that a representation from (i) above is not based on relevant planning considerations, the Member will be advised.

(3) Where the head of planning determines that a representation from (iii) above is not based on relevant planning considerations, they will write to the town or parish council to advise them of this. The ward Member(s) for the ward of which the parish falls within will also be notified.”

Members were invited to make comments on the amendments:

-       From experience, some Parish Councils had brought applications to Planning Committee which were ‘a waste of time’ as they did not bring the application forward with material planning considerations;

-       Parish Councils needed to have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 193.

Resolved:

(1)          That the report be noted.

Referring to paragraph 3.13 of the report a Member sought clarification on the deadline which residents had to meet to submit their Energy Rebate, as on the website it had been advised that the deadline date was 31 July 2022. The Revenue and Benefits manager confirmed that the deadline date was 31 July 2022. However, the Revenue and Benefits manager assured Members that if a household that was entitled to the energy rebate had not submitted a claim, a credit would be placed on their council tax account for them to reclaim. 

Resolved:

(1)          That the report be noted.

The Chair proposed the recommendations set out in the report and was seconded by Councillor Alan Horton.

Resolved:

(1)               That delegation be given to the relevant officer to consult with the public and major precepting Authorities on the introduction of a new income banded / grid scheme for working age applicants with effect from 1 April 2023 to reduce the administrative burden placed on the Council by the introduction of Universal Credit to better target the overall level of support for the lowest income families.

The Chief Executive introduced the report which set out the revenue and capital outturn position for 2021/22. She drew attention to page 30 of the agenda pack which showed the variances by service.

The Chair proposed the recommendations and was seconded by Councillor Alan Horton.

Resolved:

(1)          That the revenue underspend of £104,200 be noted.

(2)          That delegation be given to the Director of Resources to allocate the uncommitted underspends to the Budget Contingency Reserve.

(3)          That the capital slippage of £9,394,080 and capital expenditure of £6,082,880 against the Revised Budget as detailed in Table 4 and appendix I of the report be noted.

(4)          That the capital rollovers of £8,885,200 as detailed in appendix I of the report be approved.

Resolved:

(1)  That the recommendations in Minute Nos. 112, 113 and 114 be agreed.

Recommendations published 13.07.22

Resolved:

(1)  That the recommendations in Minute Nos. 177 and 178 be agreed.

The Meeting was adjourned from 9.20 pm until 9.33 pm.