Agenda and minutes

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of interest received.

RESOLVED – that the minutes of the last meeting of the Council held on 28 February, 2017 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Mayor.

The Mayor advised that the fundraising for her Mayoral year had now drawn to a close following an Easter tea dance that afternoon.  She thanked everyone who had supported her charity events, including her skydive which had raised a significant amount of money for her chosen charities.

Members of the public who have requested the opportunity to ask question(s) on any item(s) on the agenda will have three minutes to put their question(s) to the relevant Councillor. Members of the public will be allowed to ask one short supplementary question.

There were no public questions for consideration.

To consider the attached general report of meetings held on 16 February and 16 March 2017.

Councillor Alistair Bradley, Executive Leader presented a general report of the Executive Cabinet meetings held on 16 February and 16 March 2017. 

Councillor Alistair Bradley, Executive Leader proposed and Councillor Peter Wilson, Executive Member for Resources, seconded and it was RESOLVED – that the reports be noted.

To consider the attached general report of meetings of the Committee held on 26 January and 30 March, and of the Performance Panel on 9 March, plus a task group update.

Councillor John Walker, Chair of the Committee presented a general report of meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 26 January and 30 March, and of the Performance Panel on 9 March, plus a task group update.

Councillor John Walker, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee proposed, Councillor Roy Lees, Vice Chair, seconded and it was RESOLVED – that the report be noted.

To consider the attached general report of meetings held on 25 January and 22 March 2017.

Members considered a general report of meetings of Governance Committee held on 25 January and 22 March 2017.

The Vice Chair, Councillor Anthony Gee proposed and Councillor Alan Cullens seconded and it was RESOLVED – that the report be noted.

To consider the attached report of the Director of Policy and Governance, which was approved at Governance Committee on 22 March 2017, and requires Council approval as a change to the Constitution.

Members considered a report of the Director of Policy and Governance, which was considered by Governance Committee on 22 March 2017.

The report proposed changes to the Council’s Arrangements for Dealing with Complaints about the Conduct of Elected Members and required Council approval as a change to the Constitution. 

The Vice Chair, Councillor Anthony Gee proposed and Councillor Alan Cullens seconded and it was RESOLVED – that the Arrangements for Dealing with Complaints about the Conduct of Elected Members be amended to include a specific provision for addressing the withdrawal of a complaint as detailed in paragraph 10 of the report.

To consider a report of the Director of Business, Development and Growth (attached).

Councillor Alistair Bradley, Executive Leader presented the report of the Director (Business, Development and Growth) which informed Members of the purchase of Oak House and surrounding land and confirmed the next steps proposed to be taken to support the Town Centre Masterplan and Market Walk Redevelopment. 

Work had started on the Flat Iron for the Market Walk Extension and on Fleet Street for the Primrose Gardens retirement village.  A commitment for the provision of sufficient car parking had been given as part of the Market Walk Extension scheme.  The long term aim was for the site currently occupied by Gala Bingo and Oak House to become a multifunction Civic Square.  The Council had purchased Oak House recently, and also Victory Park. 

Councillor Cullens raised concerns over the use of the Lancashire Regeneration Property Partnership (LRRP) and requested that the use of the LRRP be referred to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  Councillor Alistair Bradley agreed, in principle, for the LRRP to be considered, but indicated that procurement on a project of this scale was both extremely difficult and expensive. The Council was not a contracting organisation for projects of this size and expert advice had been taken throughout the process. 

The Executive Leader, Councillor Alistair Bradley proposed and the Deputy Leader, Councillor Peter Wilson seconded and it was RESOLVED – that the report be noted.

The Executive Leader of the Council will give a verbal update. 

The enclosed document is background information to the verbal update. 

Councillor Alistair Bradley, Executive Leader reported that plans for a Combined Authority for Lancashire had begun around two and half years ago and a proposal had been submitted to the Government last July.  Three holding letters had been received from the Government since Brexit. Earlier in the year Fylde Council had indicated that it was likely to withdraw from the Combined Authority, which meant it was unlikely a formal Combined Authority would be considered viable. 

However, Councillor Bradley reported that the Combined Authority continued to meet in shadow form, and was overseeing the development of a draft Lancashire Plan, which had been circulated to all Members.  The Plan included Housing and Public Services Transformation, which did not require any extra powers or money from the Government. Importantly, Chorley and other district councils could influence joint working and pan Lancashire discussions.

Councillor Bradley requested that Members consider the document and feedback any comments to him as soon as possible.

Councillor Alistair Bradley, Executive Leader proposed, Councillor Peter Wilson Executive Member for Resources, seconded and it was RESOLVED – that the report be noted.

To consider the attached report of the Director of Policy and Governance.

Councillor Peter Wilson, Executive Member for Resources, presented the report of the Director (Policy and Governance) which required Council approval as a change to the Constitution.

This was to align both the Contract Procedure Rules and the Key Decision rules for the Executive to give greater consistency in decision making. 

Councillor Peter Wilson, Executive Member for Resources proposed and Councillor Alistair Bradley, Executive Leader seconded and it was RESOLVED –

1.         That the Contract Procedure Rules be amended to require all High Value Procurements to have Executive Cabinet approval to proceed and Executive approval to award the contract.

2.         That the thresholds for Intermediate and High Value Procurements be amended to

a. Intermediate Value - £10,000 - £100,000

b. High Value - above £100,000

To receive for information, the following Licensing Policy updates agreed by Licensing and Public Safety Committee on 1 February 2017:

·         General Licensing Safeguarding and Suitability Policy

·         Street Trading Policy

Members received, for information, the General Licensing Safeguarding and Suitability Policy and Street Trading Policy which had been agreed by Licensing and Public Safety Committee on 1 February 2017.

The Chair, Councillor Marion Lowe proposed and the Vice-Chair, Councillor Anthony Gee seconded and it was RESOLVED – that the revised policies be noted.

Question from Councillor John Walker

What action is the Council/Lancashire County Council taking to alleviate car parking problems around The Hub, Primary School, Buckshaw Health Centre and the Original Community Centre in Buckshaw Village.

Question from Councillor Martin Boardman

The background to the question is as follows:

As part of the ongoing cuts to services by Lancashire County Council the "Supporting People" subsidy offered to local housing associations and care providers has been removed. The organisations in questions were notified in 2015 that these cuts would be coming, we believe exact timing of the removal of funding comes around September 2017. The residents of the Adactus run Sheltered Housing schemes in the villages of Eccleston and Mawdesley received a letter from Adactus in November 2016. In this letter Adactus stated "The council was facing huge financial challenge in having to make savings of £262m, by 2020/2021". The letter went on to state "Up to April 2017, the sheltered schemes and warden call properties have been subsidised by LCC Supporting People's Funding but this funding is no longer available to us from April 2017". That being said Adactus are proposing to change the 15 hours per week support provided by the scheme coordinator to 9 hours per week provide by a "Floating Scheme Coordinator". Not only will the roles hours be reduced but the responsibilities of that individual will now include managing maintenance, repairs and the safety of the buildings. I ask this council to consider out of that 9 hours how much of them will be with vulnerable residents providing support? I would say, none.

Adactus held a "drop in session",with all residents where the representative of Adactus stated quite clearly that this reduction was in direct response to a removal of a £67k annual grant from the LCC Supporting People fund, and if they had not removed this grant than there would be no need to change the staffing hours.

We believe this subsidy was also removed from the Chorley Council Run Cotswold House, however this council has taken the decision to fund the deficit to Cotswold house from the Council budget.

The questions therefore are:

·         Could I please ask the council to confirm if Adactus housing has reviewed all of the warden call services across all schemes and has cut hours equally across all schemes?

·         Could I also ask this council to write to LCC to ask that, in light of the recent 2% increase in Council Tax to be spent directly on social care would LCC be reinstating the subsidy to vulnerable elderly residents as was with the Supporting People Scheme?

·         Lastly could I ask this council to consider providing the shortfall in subsidy to our housing partner Adactus, who have stated that they would reinstate these essential services if the funding was available?

Question One: Councillor John Walker submitted the following question under Procedure Rule 8:

“What action is the Council/Lancashire County Council taking to alleviate car parking problems around The Hub, Primary School, Buckshaw Health Centre and the Original Community Centre in Buckshaw Village”.

Councillor Alistair Bradley, Executive Leader, advised that the Council had brought together the stakeholders in the area to devise a solution.  The Council had liaised with police colleagues, especially around pinch points like Tuesdays and early morning/late afternoon, regarding enhanced patrols and enforcement.

Some design work had been commissioned some design work with LCC that created car parking spaces and created a new one way system that would take vehicles around the back of The Hub on to Village Way.  Stakeholders discussed the proposal in Autumn 2016 and there was a consensus to proceed, but they recognised that it would not be universally popular and would need to be subject to wider consultation with residents.

If the scheme were to proceed it would need Buckshaw Management Company’s agreement as they will need to gift the land to make the new stretch of road and agree to remove the grassed area from the community centre car park and maintain it as a tarmacked area. 

The proposed scheme has been shared with LCC who have said that the scheme is practical and that, in principal, the new stretch of highway will be suitable for adoption by LCC as a highway maintainable at public expense. They have said that they are not in a position to make a financial contribution to its construction.

Stakeholder groups, including ward councillors, have been updated and asked whether their organisation will be able to contribute towards the £170,000 capital costs.

Discussions are now ongoing as to how to fund this and an update will be brought to a future meeting of the Executive Cabinet.  It was noted that the Clayton-le-Woods and Whittle-le-Woods Councillors had not been invited to a recent meeting at Buckshaw Village.

Question Two: Councillor Martin Boardman submitted the following question under Procedure Rule 8:

·                “Could I please ask the council to confirm if Adactus housing has reviewed all of the warden call services across all schemes and has cut hours equally across all schemes?

·                Could I also ask this council to write to LCC to ask that, in light of the recent 2% increase in Council Tax to be spent directly on social care would LCC be reinstating the subsidy to vulnerable elderly residents as was with the Supporting People Scheme?

·                Lastly could I ask this council to consider providing the shortfall in subsidy to our housing partner Adactus, who have stated that they would reinstate these essential services if the funding was available?”

Councillor Bev Murray, Executive Member (Early Intervention) advised that Adactus had reported that they had reviewed all of the services across all schemes in Chorley.  The hours were looked at on the basis of the number of properties and what health and safety checks were completed at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.C.426

There were no motions for consideration.