Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chairman for the Municipal Year 2015/16.

(A Member from the major Opposition Group)

RESOLVED:   That Councillor J Collop be appointed as Chairman for the remainder of the Municipal Year.

To appoint a Vice-Chairman for the Municipal Year 2015/16.

(A Member of an Opposition Group)

RESOLVED:   That Councillor I Gourlay be appointed as Vice-Chairman for the Municipal Year.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 16 April 2015 were agreed as a correct record.

To consider any business, which by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposes to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972.

There was none.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on an item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declaration of interests.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chairman of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before the meeting commences.  Any Member attending the meeting under Standing Order 34 will only be permitted to speak on those items which have been previously notified to the Chairman.

There were no Members present pursuant to Standing Order 34.

There was no Chairman’s correspondence.

To receive comments, and recommendations from other Council bodies, and any responses subsequent to recommendations, which this Committee has previously made.  Some of the relevant Council bodies may meet after dispatch of the agenda.

There were no previous Committee recommendations.

There were no matters called in pursuant to Standing Order 12.

(a)      Cabinet Decisions

Members are requested to bring to the meeting the agenda and any accompanying documents from the Cabinet meeting held on 10 June 2015.

Cabinet – 10 June 2015

(i)       Review of Overview and Scrutiny – Cllr Daubney and D Gates

(ii)      Exclusion of the Public and Press

To consider passing the following resolution:

“That under Section 100(a)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.

(iii)     Exempt - Acquisition of Morston Assets sites at the Nar Ouse   Regeneration Area – Cllr A Beales, O Paparega and M Henry

(b)      Schedule of Portfolio Holders’ Decisions

There are currently no Portfolio Holders’ Decisions to consider.

(i)         Review of Overview and Scrutiny

The Chairman explained that, in view of the timescales involved with the publication of the CSC agenda and the date of the Cabinet Meeting, he had asked for this item to be on the agenda.  However, he was happy with the proposals to deal with scrutiny in a different way.  He considered that it was important that all Members had the opportunity to be involved with the workshop and hoped that the whole process would be dealt with in an open manner.

The Leader understood the reason why the item had been placed on the agenda and added that he looked forward to the Task Group looking at different ways of dealing with scrutiny.

Councillor Gourlay echoed the comments made by Councillor Mrs Mellish at the Cabinet meeting and added that he was unsure as to how the sifting meetings would work, but understood that this would be considered by the Task Group.

Councillor Collop explained that the Leader had assured that a Task Group would be set up and would be proportional.

In relation to a question from Councillor Blunt regarding timescales, the Leader explained that it was hoped that the new structures would be in place by the New Year.

(ii)        Exclusion of the press and public

RESOLVED:   That, under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

(iii)       Acquisition of Morston Assets Sites at the Nar Ouse Regeneration Area

The Chairman explained that he had called this item to the Committee on the basis that the agenda had been issued before the Cabinet Meeting.  He asked the Portfolio Holder to consider giving a presentation prior to full Council for all Councillors on the proposals.  He also asked whether the Portfolio Holder would consider providing a site visit to the development site so that Members could be aware of the different parcels of land, particular for the new Councillors.

The Portfolio Holder stated that he was more than happy to arrange both of the Chairman’s proposals.

The Portfolio Holder then went through the report and informed the committee of the different areas on the sites and the associated ownership.   He considered that it would be in the public interest if the Council acquired the sites, much of which needed remediation which would be unlikely to be carried out by the private sector. 

The Chairman thanked the Leader and Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Industrial Assets for attending the meeting

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled to be held on Thursday, 16 July 2015 at 6.00 pm in the Committee Suite.

The next meeting was scheduled for Thursday 16July 2015 at 6pm in the Committee Suite, however it was noted that the Cabinet Meeting on 30 June 2015 has been cancelled