Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Michael Braley, Juliet Brunner, Carole Gandy, Gay Hopkins, Alan Mason and Paul Swansborough.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

Councillor David Bush declared a disclosable pecuniary interest in Item 8 (Executive Committee) as detailed separately at Minute 20 below.

The following Members signed a form to indicate that they wished to be granted a dispensation to discuss and vote upon matters involving Non-Domestic Rates, Discretionary Rate Relief and associated policies and guidance, a dispensation agreed at the most recent meeting of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee:

Councillors Joe Baker, Rebecca Blake, Andrew Brazier, David Bush, Brandon Clayton, Bill Hartnett, Rachael Smith, David Thain, Pat Witherspoon and John Witherspoon.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 9^th June 2014.

(Minutes attached)

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 9^th June 2014 be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Mayor.

a)         Mayor

The Mayor’s announcements were as follows:

i)          Elaine Daykin, BEM

The Mayor led the Council in congratulating Elaine Daykin, one of the founders of Special Olympics Redditch, on her receipt of the British Empire Medal in the recent Queen’s Birthday Honours. The Mayor reported that Elaine still devoted a great deal of time and effort to ensuring that Special Olympics Redditch remained the tremendously successful organisation it had become.

The Leader of the Council added his congratulations to those of the Mayor, noting that Elaine and her husband Ron had been honoured by the last Mayor in recognition of their work for Special Olympics Redditch, and other members of the Council then proceeded to add their own tributes to Elaine and Ron for the work they carried out.

ii)         Inspector Ian Joseph

The Mayor then led the Council in bidding farewell to another individual who had served the local community with great devotion and diligence over a number of years. Inspector Ian Joseph, District Inspector for Redditch, had announced his retirement after a long and distinguished career with West Mercia Police.

The Leader of the Council reported that, having known Inspector Joseph for many years, he was aware that Inspector Joseph held the Borough very dear and frequently went above and beyond the call of duty in carrying out his role. Members added their thanks to those of the Mayor and Leader, noting that Inspector Joseph would be a difficult act to follow.

iii)        Mayor’s announcements

The Mayor advised that, since the previous meeting of the Council, she had attended a number of engagements, including Hosting a visit to the Town by the President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, a Primrose Choir concert here at the Town Hall, a Special Olympics event at the Alexander Stadium, the Fly the Flag for the Armed Forces Day, the Worcestershire Summer School Games, the Cookhill Flower Festival, the opening of a Learning Garden at Webheath First School Academy, the Freedom March for the 37^th Signal Regiment, the judging of drawings by school students in connection with World War One commemorations, a fund raising concert for the Alzheimer’s Society, the Summer Concert of Worcestershire Youth Music at the Palace Theatre, the Redditch Friends Together Ball at the White Hart in Headless Cross, Astwood Bank Carnival and that afternoon’s visit by Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne.

iv)        Forthcoming engagements

The Mayor advised that forthcoming engagements included the Consecration of our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, a production of Me and My Girl at Norbury Theatre, a Freedom of the City parade for the 214th (Worcestershire) Battery, Royal Artillery in Worcester, the Scarecrow Day event at Forge Mill Museum, her own Civic Service at St Stephens on 7th September, her Charity Comedy Night at the Palace Theatre on 9th September and Bromsgrove Civic Service.

v)         Dementia Friendly Town

The Mayor advised that one of her chosen charities for the year, Redditch Friends Together, wished for Redditch to become a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

No questions have been submitted to date under Procedure Rule 9.2.

(Other than in exceptional circumstances, no questions on Notice are permitted for meetings which fall within a formal election period.)

No questions had been submitted.

No Motions have been submitted under Procedure Rule 11.

(Other than in exceptional circumstances, no Motions on Notice are permitted for meetings which fall within a formal election period)

No motions had been submitted.

To receive the minutes and consider the recommendations and/or referrals from the following meetings of the Executive Committee:

8^th April 2014

Matters requiring the Council’s consideration may include:

·         Planning Response to Stratford-on-Avon District Core Strategy - Focussed Consultation: 2011 - 2031 Housing Requirement and Strategic Sites Options.

24^th June 2014

Matters requiring the Council’s consideration may include:

·         Local Development Scheme 2014 and Community Infrastructure Levy;

·         Non-Domestic Rates - Discretionary Rate Relief Policy; and

·         Land to the Rear of Middle House Lane.

(Reports and decisions attached - Minutes circulated in Minute Book 1 – 2014/15)

The Council considered the minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee held on 8^th April and 24^th June 2014.

In relation to Minute 6 (Local Development Scheme 2014 and Community Infrastructure Levy [CIL], Executive Committee meeting, 24^th June 2014) there was some discussion as to the benefit of the Borough adopting a CIL. It was explained that Officers at this stage were merely being instructed to draft a CIL for initial consideration through the Planning Advisory Panel and that the Council was proposing to retain the ability to enter into Section 106 planning obligation agreements.

RESOLVED that

1)        the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 8th April 2014 be received and all recommendations adopted; and

2)        the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 24th June 2014 be received and all recommendations adopted.

(Prior to consideration of this item Councillor David Bush, declared a disclosable pecuniary interest, in view of the nature of his employment, and withdrew from the meeting during consideration of the item on the Planning Response to the Stratford-on-Avon District Core Strategy – Focussed Consultation: 2011 – 2031 Housing requirement and Strategic Sites Options)

To formally receive the minutes of the following meetings of the Council’s Regulatory Committees:

Audit & Governance Committee               24^th April 2014

(replaced by Audit, Governance and Standards Committee)

Licensing Committee                                  7^th April 2014

Planning Committee                                   12^th March 2014

                                                                        9^th April 2014

                                                                        14^th May 2014

                                                                        11^th June 2014

(Minutes circulated in Minute Book 1 – 2014/15)

Members received the minutes of recent meetings of the Audit and Governance, Licensing and Planning Committees.

RESOLVED that

1)        the minutes of the meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee held on 24^th April 2014 be received and adopted;

2)        the minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 7^th April 2014 be received and adopted; and

3)        the minutes of the meetings of the Planning Committee held on 12th March, 9^th April, 14^th May and 11^th June 2014 be received and adopted.

To confirm the Council's Constitutional arrangements.

In accordance with best practice the Council reviews its constitutional arrangements regularly.  This year, the only changes made have been to update the constitution to reflect changes to officer titles and resulting from Council decisions.

(Constitution documents available in the Group Rooms for Members and on the Council's website)

Members considered the draft Constitutional documents which incorporated amendments agreed over the course of the preceding year by the Council.

The Council was reminded that Officers had the delegated authority to make minor typographical changes where necessary and several were planned in response to comments received in response to circulation of the draft documents.

RESOLVED that

the Council’s Constitutional arrangements for 2014/15 be agreed.

There were no Urgent Decisions to note.

To consider any additional items exceptionally agreed by the Mayor as Urgent Business in accordance with the powers vested in her by virtue of Section 100(B)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

(This power should be exercised only in cases where there are genuinely special circumstances which require consideration of an item which has not previously been published on the Order of Business for the meeting.)

There were no separate items of urgent business to consider at this meeting.