Visitors and members of the public who are unfamiliar with the building and procedures are advised that:

(a)      The fire alarm is a continuous loud ringing. In the event that a fire drill is planned during the meeting, the Chair will advise of this.

(b)      Exit routes from the chamber are located on each side of the room, one directly to a fire escape, the other to the stairs opposite the lifts.

(c)      In the event of the alarm sounding, leave the building via the nearest safe exit and gather at the assembly point on the far side of the car park. Do not leave the assembly point or re-enter the building until advised to do so. Do not use the lifts.

(d)      Anyone unable to use the stairs should make themselves known during this agenda item.

The Chair outlined the emergency evacuation procedure.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their families or friends.

The Chair will ask Members if they have any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) or disclosable non-pecuniary interests (DNPIs) to declare in respect of items on the agenda. Members with a DPI in an item must leave the room for that item and may not participate in the debate or vote. 

Aside from disclosable interests, where a fair-minded and informed observer would think there was a real possibility that a Member might be biased or predetermined on an item, the Member should declare this and leave the room while that item is considered.

Members who are in any doubt about interests, bias or predetermination should contact the monitoring officer for advice prior to the meeting.

No interests were declared.

The Information and Business Improvement Manager introduced the report. He explained that table 3, 4th Key Performance Indicator (KPI), Percentage of Household waste sent for reuse, recycling and comp the year end value was 40.70% and the 2022-23 target was 42%.

The Chair invited Members to make comments, which included:

·       Regarding the long-term empty homes brought back into use were Swale Borough Council (SBC) still working with the Kent County Council (KCC) housing scheme?;

·      asked for clarification as to why the Empty Property Officer post was deleted?;

·       were the planning application figures based on the application being received to completion?;

·       were the planning enforcement figures based on the enforcement case being logged and then acted upon?;

·       the long-term empty homes indicator was something that needed to be dropped so that officers could spend time on planning applications rather than empty homes;

·       was good to see the percentage of invoices paid was reaching the target;

·       although the planning indicators were below target, the number of minor applications that had been processed were 93.5%, other applications were 96.6% both of which were above target; and

·       only 4.4% of major planning applications had lost at appeal which showed that the planning department had worked hard on improving their service.

The Director of Resources responded to points raised and said that the long-term empty homes indicator was about the homes under SBC’s own resources which the Council did not have the resources to fund. She added that the Council had tried to fill the post twice and had been unsuccessful both times.

The Information and Business Improvement Manager responded to the planning indicators and clarified that the indicator for planning applications was the number of applications that had been received to the date of decision. The Planning enforcement indicator was based on the number of enforcement cases that had been logged up to the point of an initial response being issued to the complainant.

Further comments on the report were raised;

·      Thought that the missed bins figure were low as there was plenty of residents that often reports missed bins each week;

·      thought that the indicator for missed bins showed real concern with the contractor and thought the contract needed reviewing;

·      was aware that the refuse contractor did not always report missed bins correctly;

·      even though the Council had spent a lot of time educating residents on what could be recycled and what could not, there were still instances of residents putting the incorrect waste in their bins;

·      was there going to be a Member briefing on the future plans for street cleansing?;

·      needed to consider the communication sent out to residents about missed bins and how the Council could improve it;

·      the refuse contract was coming to an end, and this might create further problems;

·      were there staffing issues within waste contractor?;

·      KCC were closing recycling and reuse sites, and this would not help with the recycling figures;

·      noted that the different seasons affected the recycling indicators;

·      wanted to thank the Environmental Contracts  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92.

Resolved:

(1)  That the membership of the Appointments Sub-Committee, Disciplinary Sub-Committee and Statutory Officers Disciplinary Appeals Sub-Committee as per Appendix I of the report be agreed.

There was some discussion around the election of Chair and Vice-Chair and Councillor Mike Baldock proposed that Councillor Alastair Gould be Chair and Councillor Monique Bonney be Vice-Chair for the first meeting of the Planning Transportation Policy Working Group. This was seconded by Councillor Rich Lehmann and on being put to the vote was agreed.

Resolved:

(1)   That the membership of the Planning and Transportation Policy Working Group as shown in Appendix I of the report be agreed.

(2)   That Councillor Alastair Gould be elected as Chair for the first meeting.

(3)   That Councillor Monique Bonney be elected as Vice-Chair for the first meeting.

Resolved:

(1)  That Councillors Tim Gibson and Mike Baldock be appointed to the MKIP board.

(2)  That Councillor Tim Gibson be appointed to the South Thames Gateway Building Control Joint Committee.

Resolved:

(1)  That the Forward Decisions Plan be noted.