A meeting of the BCP Council. Agenda, reports and other documents are available from:
https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=284&MId=5385
[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] a [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] down oh good evening members um I was just about to use the gavel but I clearly don’t need to um so good evening members members of the public and the Press um welcome to this full
Council um of the 9th of January 2024 and a very Happy New Year to everybody I’m councelor Leslie Deadman and as chairman of BCP Council I shall be chairing this meeting and I’m supported by the Vice chairman councelor Simon bull um I just need to set out some of
The housekeeping arrangements for the meeting and can you please note everybody um that the meeting is being recorded by the council for live and subsequent broadcast and it’s going to be published on the council website and it will be held for a minimum of 6 months right in order to ensure the
Meeting is managed effectively please could everyone follow the ground rules which are as usual for the meetings if you wish to speak please raise your hand clearly to indicate where there appears to be consensus in the meeting for a motion I will ask if there’s any dissension and
When a formal vote is required that will be by a show of hands if a recorded vote is requested um that requires support from a quarter of the members present at this meeting and also um could members indicate if they’re leaving the meeting oh excuse me um in accordance
With the Constitution I will allow for Comfort breaks as appropriate please avoid leaving the meeting in the middle of a debate obviously and um points of order which we may have tonight obviously can you please State the applicable constitutional provision and I know that all counselors will uphold the highest standards of
Conduct and rectitude during this meeting obviously we treat each other with courtesy and consideration and as a reminder although this is a meeting being held in public it is not a public meeting public are in attendance to observe the proceedings and the debate but can I request that all members of
The public remain silent throughout all items right so moving on to agenda item one which is apologies chief executive can you let us know the apologies for this meeting thank you chairman apologies have been received from councelor ceron Adams councelor Julie Bagwell councelor Judes but councelor Peter Cooper councelor Elena Colley
Councelor David dorton Gibson councelor Bobby Dove councelor Jackie Edwards councelor Rachel maidment and councelor Chris Matthews and I believe an fer and councelor an fer yeah yes thank you very much chairman uh chairman sorry thank you very much chief executive I think that was a promotion gr right uh Declarations of Interest
Item two U again chief executive could you report on this thank you chairman the only declaration I’ve received is from the director of Law and governance in respect of item 14 and she’ll leave the room uh when the council considers that item uh but if any member is uh
Minded to make a declaration of Interest then please refer to the flow chart that set out in the agenda for guidance and then follow that procedure thank you thank you chief executive um agenda item three is the confirmation of the minutes um that was the confirmation of the minutes of the council meeting
Meeting held on the 7th of November 2023 have we any dissension from confirming these minutes if if so put your hand up I I believe that’s I don’t see any hands um can we agree then by consensus that we agree the minutes thank you thank you members right agenda item four announ
Announcements and introductions from the chairman um first first of all I will go through um the engagements from the last full Council which was the 7th of November um since then obviously the chairman has attended remembrance services at P Purell cross and PRI church and all the other Mayors and
Civic dignitaries attended all the other um services on the 27th um with the officers in support I welcomed the Bournemouth University students for a small um a small demonstration of all the regalia which obviously we have um in this building and a tour of the chamber and I was very much supported by
Um all the officers so thank you very much on the 28 um with the mayor of Bournemouth I visited Winton Community Pantry um which was absolutely amazing there was so much there except the the only terrible thing was that we actually need a community pantry but um we do apparently and there were
Many people queuing up to use it on the 30th there was an art exhibition which I attended by the ser optimists and it was I don’t know how to put it because it was against violence against women and girls but obviously um the exhibition was was showing
Um showing part of the problems that women and girls have all over the world not only in this country country and that was really intriguing what the Arts University students actually felt about it all um in December with all the other Civic dignitaries and the leader uh we all
Went up to the admiralty Carol service that was in Aid of the royal Navy and Royal Marines charity and uh that’s well worth going to it was very beautiful on the 22nd I read a lesson at the Carol service at Christ Church prior on the 23rd
Um I had a very good time at Fair Haven Christadelphian Care Home Gwen Taylor um became a hundred and this was the first time I’ve actually seen the hundredth birthday card from our King so that was really intriguing and she had an absolutely fantastic birthday cake in
Fact she had three cakes she had one not not so that was really a cheerful day and um then that was the end of my announcements of functions attended Vice chairman do you have any announcements yes chair I attended on your behalf uh three events since the last council meeting the uh remembrance
Parade at pool on the Rememberance Sunday the Indian Cultural Association of dorsets a yappa Swami Patty Puja which was a very very Lively and interesting event uh I also attended the Royal British Legion um service of dedication for a new County standard at winporn M Minister thank you thank you Vice
Chairman um now members may recall that at the September meeting of the council a motion was put with regards to knife crime and as part of the resolution of the item it was requested that an update be provided to council from the portfolio holder so as part of our
Announcements um tonight I would therefore like to invite invite councelor Kieran Wilson who is the portfolio holder for housing and Regulatory services to see if he has an update for us on that coun thank you chair um thank you for the opportunity to update councilors on progress following the resolution of
Full Council in September um I was asked to report back on item D of this motion at the meeting um and just to remind uh Council of what that resolution was um that the portfolio holder for housing regulatory Services reports back to Council on the progress of the community
Safety strategy uh in particular paying attention to knife crime at the full council meeting in January this update to include figures on the current attainment of kpis set out in the community safety strategy these figures to be available via a dashboard and shared with counselors and relevant
Stakeholders um the chair of the CSP myself as Cabinet member and officers attended BCP Council overview and scrutiny panel on the 5th of December to provide the annual report on this subject the report contains a detailed overview of the crime disorder across the BCP area along with details of the
Significant partnership work taking place councilors can access the annual strategic assessment and key performance indicators for the CPS CSP uh along with the hotspot mapping uh and Trend analysis um the full kpi report is nine pages long so I don’t intend to read through the entirety of that report but
I did want to just update on a few key figures um but I do think um Sarah is very going to kindly uh circulate the report after this meeting after this item um but yes I did I did want to say that uh there was no statistical uh
Significant change in a public uh Place recorded violent crime between 2122 and 2223 um bucking a national Trend um there was a a 7.6% reduction between the number of recorded domestic abuse violent crime incidences in 2223 compared to 2122 um a 5% reduction in the total number of serious sexual offenses when
Compared um over the same period and a 12% decrease in the total number of all ASP reported to the police um with 10,952 uh incidences reported in 2223 as as compared to 12,440 in 2122 um and I did want to because um Sarah was um very keen on this to focus
On the the knife crime um under the serious violence Duty we are required to monitor from the 31st of January 2024 data around uh three of the following kpis a reduction in Hospital admissions for assaults with a knife or sharp object a reduction uh in knife and sharp object enabled serious violence recorded
By the police and homicides recorded by the police knife crime is recorded against Crime groups such as violence against the person possessions of a weapon public order Etc rather than a specific category of knife crime depending on the incident and therefore requires the police uh data to be
Flagged when a knife has been involved so um the sirious needs uh the Syrian violence needs assessment identified that there were uh 422 flagged occurrences in BCP in 2223 45% of these were classified as violence against uh the person uh of those 194 occurrences 34% were assault
With injury 26% were common assault and 20% were the most serious violent crime we held our keeping uh young people safe conference in November coinciding with operation skepta a week of intensified action against knife crime this included speakers um who who spoke on the importance of being persistent with our most vulnerable
Young people due to their complexities um and these key key speakers included uh Ben canilla trust all organizations were able to provide practical tips for attendees to take away to help our young people be as safe as possible we are holding uh the the same conference again
Uh this year in 2024 in addition to our five weeks of action of round life crime between the 15th of April and the 17th of May which is currently under development focusing on education support prevention and deterrence around life crime I hope this has um a useful update to council uh and I
Think it’s really important to note that we are the seventh safest policing area across the country uh when compared across all policing crime recorded rates so yeah I hope that was really useful um if anybody wants a copy of this happy to send it round and Sarah is going to send
The report around so thank you cheers yes thank you very much councelor Wilson I think that was very detailed and very helpful and um that does answer part of the motion um there’s one more thing on announcements that I must make reference to and that’s the passing of Randolph
Meech he was a past pool burrow counselor in our Legacy pool Council he was the sheriff of pool in 1984 and he was the mayor of pool in 1987 um and I believe that we have councelor Trent who wishes to say a few words about um about Randolph meech is that
Right thank you thank you councelor Trent is that um yes thank you um yes sadly former pool mayor Rand meech um passed away just before Christmas and his funeral service is at 11:00 a.m. this Friday coming Randolph was a member of pool Council representing the hamworthy ward
In which he lived for 23 years from 1976 to 199 6 throughout that time he was a member of the housing committee housing was one of his specialities and his passion he was first sheriff and then mayor of pool during 1987 1988 during his maral year he raised over3 30,000
For youth Outreach projects a huge effort he was a Founder member of the turling Moore Community Association and started the the turling Moore youth club in the 60s he was also passionate about youth work and volunteered with imp Paul’s youth services for over 35 years I I had the honor of serving
Alongside him as his vice chair when he was chair of housing in the early 1990s we were probably the first current or recent I’m not sure at what time he ceased to be a tenant tenants of the burough that had actually served in both of those key positions
Um Randolf was in instrumental in Paul being one of the first of the um councils in the country if not the first to involve tenants in the running of the housing service and um this this followed a a rent strike in the 1960s so he was quite
Radical in his uh younger years um this became embedded in pool subsequently in poor Housing Partnership and now it’s embedded in BCP homes so his what he started way back then has carried on through um in addition to the above he held other offices including chair of the key
Advice Center governor of South Road school hamworthy first and middle schools Herbert Carter secondary school chair of Education appeals panel in Ino and the hamworthy money advice project friends of hamworthy Park the key advice committee key for your trust and of course Paul housing Forum he was clearly
A busy and dedicated counselor and I can tell you from my own personal experience he was also a man of principle and um you know I have a separate tale to tell of that but um we both in our roles differed uh the last minute over a um situation he um
Basically decided that it wasn’t such a good thing that was happening in the long term he turned out to be right that’s the kind of person he was actually he was determined um spoke his mind but more than more often than not he was right so
Um you know I do hope that we um remember him for all his work I know there’s only a few of us actually here that would have known him or met him him but I do hope that um he will be finally remembered and um you know and I think
He’s actually contributed towards some of the good things that are happening in BCP now thank you thank you thank you uh very much councelor Trent he was clearly very forward thinking um does anybody else wish to say anything about um about um Randol meech members anybody
That can stand can I ask you just to stand for a moment in silent tribute okay right thank you very much members and thank you counselor Trent for admitting that you were sometimes wrong that’s an unusual thing for a counselor thank you members we’re going to move on now to agenda item
Five uh which are the public issues that we have um this evening before us and the time for questions and statements and petitions um normally commences immediately after this item Declarations of interest and they are restricted the whole group to 15 minutes although at the discretion of the
Chairman um this time can be extended I don’t think we need to do that tonight however um if a question to which an answer is to be given is not reached within this time limit uh a written answer will be provided so um nobody is going to miss
Out um and obviously members no discussion is allow about questions or statements so um public questions first now I believe Adam Osman has submitted a public question regarding count a climate change are you coming forward um Mr Osman thank you thank you if you can come here that would be
Fine thanks and I believe councilor Broadhead will help you out with it well done thank you if you ask your question and then I know councelor Millie Earl who is the Deputy leader and portfolio holder for collected communities is going to respond so if you put your question first thank
You yeah thank you for having me um Adam I’ll show you my question oh yes so what I’d like to ask is uh fundamentally we know we need to act radically to combat the effects of climate change uh but I’d also really like to highlight on top of that the 100
Cyclist killed per year uh in the ukuk we need to have the number of miles driven in order to meet climate change goals even if we switch all cars to electric vehicles in order to combat this in the most cost efficient way possible a 20 m per hour speed limit
Would really encourage more cycle Journeys and pay dividends in public health through air quality and fewer fatalities you have a one in 10 chance of dying at 20 mil an hour but a one in four at 30 mph how can we justify four times more public deaths especially when a lower
Speed limit has been empirically proven to reduce average Journey times will BCP Implement a default 20 m per hour speed limit and further to this will you listen to the recommendations of the upcoming Community assembly on 20 miles hour thank you thank you Mr Osman and um councelor Earl I believe you’re
Going to answer Adam thanks for your summary on the benefits of the 20 M hour speed limit as a default and for your questions 20 M hour by default in a builtup urban area would be beneficial to people walking wheeling and cycling and as you highlighted also benefit the public
Health and air quality I represent New Town of heands ward in Po and we have seen the benefits of large scale 20 M hour speed limit which was introduced produced in 2010 and extended in subsequent years to cover almost the whole Ward I would like to see other
Communities able to benefit from the safer and healthier environment like we have parties forming the three towns Alliance highlighted an intention to improve Road Safety by implementing 20 m per hour speed limits in more areas or as the default speed limit in our election material many other urban areas
Across the country are ahead of us in making that progress is important that we are we have collaboration from Dorset police in enforcing those speed limits and we are working with them on a means to provide for that in 20 20 m per hour zones so will BCP Implement a 20 M hour
Default speed limit yes that is Our intention there will be some roads that are exempt on the basis of need and capacity it is also likely that the roll out will take some time working alongside communities and finding a means of funding such a widespread change will we listen to the
Recommendations of the upcoming Community assembly on 20 miles hour we’re keen to hear the views from the whole community on proposed changes but we will be pleased to receive the output from your assembly deliberations and I’m grateful for your efforts and the efforts of volunteers to engage in the
Debate um I would also like to add that we have a meeting later this week with representatives of the 20s plenty for us organization so we can learn from their experience places and those that have implemented change before thank you thank you thank you councelor L thank you Mr
Osman um now we have um Ralph doe who has submitted a public question regarding the oil spill in pool Harbor uh which I know we all remember was in March 2023 Mr do would you like to come to the um rostrom here if you ask your question councelor
Andy Hadley who who is the portfolio holder for climate response environment and energy is going to respond to you thank you uh good evening in March 2023 there was an oil spill in Paul Harbor resulting in temporary restrictions on fishing and the consumption of fish and shellfish from the
Harbor and limiting also leisure activi is in the harbor uh no official report has yet been made available to the general public in spite of early Promises to the contrary nine months have now passed in view of BCP councils and businesses Reliance on revenues from tourism I would like to know what
Measures the BCP Council has taken to one ensure the oil spills will not impact leisure activities and tourism in the area two monitor oil production and exploration in Paul Harbor and Bournemouth Bay and three engag with relevant authorities the environment agency the Paul Harbor Commissioners and Dorset County
Council to ensure they carry out their tasks with due diligence and communicate their findings to the general public thank you Mr do um councelor Hadley are you going to respond Ralph thank you for your question um BCP Council were a supporting agency in the multi- agency
Response to the oils bill and we were able to render particular experience and assistance in the use of our flood and Coastal erosion teams drones to help assess the spread and in loaning aess officer to pool Harbor Commissioners as the organization with the lead responsibility in the instant response
You ask what measures PCP has taken to ensure that ORS will not impact leisure activities and tourism in the area Dorset Council leads on licensing the witch Farm Works since it sits within their planning area the environment agency and health and safety executive have continued to investigate the
Circumstances of the leak and we will continue to raise relevant questions on behalf of residents and tourists to the area as part of the local resilience Forum BCP Council has played a significant role in the multi- agency Incident Management and Recovery groups the containment of the spill was in no
Small part aided by prior planning from all those Partners involved your second part of your question was how will we monitor oil production and expiration in pool Harbor and pool Bay um BCP Council are involved directly in the monitoring of shellfish in the harbor and we will work with other agencies particularly through
Dorset Council as the lead Authority on monitoring the operation of the prenco which Farm Works around the harbor offshore exploration in pool Bay is separately overseen by the Marine Maritime organization BCB Council myself and officers work closely with our colleagues at dorsa Council to ensure ongoing monitoring of the operation as
Part of the licensing conditions of their operation your third part of your question was how will we engage with relevant authorities to ensure they carry out their tasks and communicate findings to the general public Communications have been key throughout the instent response our officers continue to be involved with the local
Resilience Forum response to the a bill with a multiagent recovery coordination Group which has been meeting since the incident happened in March 2023 and subgroups focusing on health and Community environment and business and economy these have overseen the recovery through joint working with the agencies mentioned ensuring they carry
Out their tasks where and where appropriate communicate findings to the public we will continue to be engaged with planning for any future perceived risks to the delicate ecosystems around the harbor and with ongoing remediation work which is helping to inform the environment agency’s investigation ations into the cause of The Spill and
Their determination on whether any enforcement actions will follow when relevant this will revert to usual business for both councils and the recovery coordination group will be stood down we have been invited to join the witch Farm Wells sit’s local yison groups and coincidentally I attended the first one of those this morning since
2019 uh um so that group is has met and and intends to meet every six months going forward I have been asking for any updates or outcomes in the agency’s findings to be communicated to the public as and when they become available because there is still possible
Enforcement or legal action um this has not been possible to date thank you thank you very much for your reply thank you thank you councelor Hadley and thank you Ralph we now have Sue Chapman um Sue has submitted a public question regarding CH climate change are you coming forward yes thank
You I think you know the ropu would you like to ask the question and then again councelor Hadley uh will respond thank you thank you good evening bcp’s local plan does its best with the disgraceful hopelessly inadequate policies of our climate illiterate GL genocidal denying government our bias feere is in deep
Trouble our youngsters will have an unbelievably difficult future as systems fail ecosystems fail migration and resource Wars accelerate and the natural world collapses all hands- on Deck are overdue we must all help to salvage and survive what we can while we can please can BCP without further delay share the more a
Lower data and explain its accelerating significance as well as the need to collectively find better support systems and fossil fuels and other dangerous practices in a leaflet to go to all Council taxpayers to all heads and leaders and to be shared sensitively with all pupils and their parents thank
You thank you councelor Hadley is going to answer thank you chair thank you sue for your question and request and thank you for acknowledging the progress of our local plan work especially the debate at the recent overie and scrutiny board last month highlighted the challenges in attempting to raise the
Standards of construction whilst we Face a crisis in particular to get developers responding to the needs for young people to find secure and Ava affordable homes there is a small cost premium to ensuring that at least our new housing stock is better equipped for Energy Efficiency and resilience to more
Extreme climate events and we should be trying to achieve that as you rightly point out the present government are undermining progress on climate mitigation the manner lower data that you highlight is taken at an observatory in Hawaii that has plotted the global atmospheric CO2 levels continuously since
1957 it shows the continuing climb in CO2 over the last 75 years well past the Ambitions to limit global warming and it corroborates other research around the world um I have included in my answer so it will appear in in the minutes of the meeting a couple of graphs from from
That Observatory which show the the the temperature changes over that period and and it is quite worrying despite all the meetings and promises for Global action since the concerns were first raised in the 1991 Rio Earth Summit and the alarms raised by you and others locally this
Inex exorable rise is a huge concern and it manifests locally in warmer weather with more extreme rainfall events as we’ve seen very recently over Christmas in engaging on the issue with families and children in particular another concerned local grandmother has been working tirelessly to share information in an accessible format with schools and
Via our library service her book and teaching guide is called planet earth needs our help the updated annual climate plan will be coming to the environment and place scrutiny Committee in the spring which will include our role in informing and educating the public and we’re also reviewing measures relating to our
Carbon emissions through our corporate corporate plan sorry our corporate performance reports as they are refreshed for 20245 we do need to improve our public engagement with the climate and ecological crisis by a variety of means and we do take that challenge seriously the threat should be a core concern for
Everyone living in the BCP area to take personal action we are Beyond avoiding climate change and indeed Salvage and survive sums up the task for us all thank you thank you very much thank you councelor Hadley um Daniel Parkin has submitted a public question is Daniel here yes thank you could you come
Forward yes if you’d like to ask your question and then councelor Slade will be answering this okay uh following the BC CP local plan working party meeting on the 5th of October a traveler site was allocated at brankston triangle within the tolber uh bankson Woodward please confirm which
Other sites were previously in this plan and subsequently removed why were these sites considered unsuitable and replaced by the Bron triangle where concerns such as a site entrance and a fence protecting the snci snci is not suitable why was this site suddenly considered more suitable when previous planning
Applications on the site have been declined why was the area included at such short notice when the local plan commenced back in 2019 were minutes taken in the local plan meeting of the 5th of October as I understand an officer stated well it has to go somewhere please confirm also
Whether gagging orders were given to the working party and why thank you leader thank you Mr Parkin for your question the new BCP local plan is required to provide for our local population and this includes our Gypsy and traveler population the council has an existing site for those members of
This community who live in specialist accommodation rather than traditional homes and like all populations their future Generations are entitled to a home a local plan that does not include provision for them would be thrown out by the inspector as it would not be sound I should stress that these homes
Are quite different from the need for a Transit site or temporary stopping place which are not required under the local plan but their provision does enable the police to do their work in responding to unauthorized encampments say not relevant to the local plan in terms of uh sites considered we
Have never had any sites uh previously no sites were promoted to us by private land owners and there were no planning applications for permanent Gypsy and traveler sites which have been declined there was a planning application for a Transit site in the green belt but this
Was refused and and we have chosen a strategy whereby we are not releasing any green belts in addition to that already approved so in summer 2023 we turned to our Council land Holdings for potential sites we assessed several sites and the preferred site was the bransom Triangle the site meets all the
Relevant criteria with its own access with limited impact on neighboring homes and without other restrictions the site was in use during the early discussions hence it not being considered in the first meeting but was handed back during the process with vacant possession the local plan working group was set up to
Enable councilors from across the political Spectrum to guide the preparation of the local plan there are no gagging orders but it would be inappropriate for a counselor to share privileged information with the public whilst the strategy is being prepared thank you thank you thank you leader um
I’m going to ask the chief executive have we gone through our 15 minutes yes chairman we have just exceeded 15 minutes so your discussion whether you wish to extend it um yes members I am going to extend on this occasion so um and I think the next question comes from Alexia
Parkin um and it’s going to be read out by Daniel Parkin so stay there then Daniel please this is regarding the allocation of employment land at tobert Heath uh so Daniel for Alexia can you ask the question and Council Slade leader of the council portfolio holder for dynamic places will again respond
Thank you Daniel thank you it is my daughter’s understanding that there may be a common consensus from Cross party counselors that employment land should be removed completely from the site and hope those in favor of protecting the environment and the many species involved May support her consense tonight why does the council
Feel the need to completely encircle one of BCP council’s Flagship sssi natural reserves nature reserves sorry um with the very real potential of net losses in biodivers University with no real accountability do you believe you can redesign Nature by deliberately ignoring the significance of how the established habitants of that whole area are
Independent and the reason why Wildlife is thriving the reduction in the land allocation does not protect the heath at all so the compromise is worthless also where have the employment numbers come from and why allow planning permission to convert other commercial units into residential units if employment needs
Are to be met again in the region this is an sssi area not an industrial park thank you can I ask the leader to respond thank you the BCP local plan is required to meet development needs for employment land and providing employment land helps support local businesses and
Give local people job opportunities the amount of employment land required is calculated through an established methodology considering housing requirements and economic forecast that has to be robust and defendable at the local plan examination we have policies within the local plan to protect existing employment sites but some existing commercial units have been lost
To residential uses through the government’s permitted development legislation which allows for these changes of use without the need for full planning permission this has largely impacted dated office stock the land at tobut Village will help us meet our employment needs ensure a choice of employment sites exist across the area
Rather than over Reliance on the airport business parks and support our University and the potential for graduates to set up businesses in the local area we have worked closely with natural England to ensure that there will be no harm to torit Heath the biodiversity impacts have been carefully
Considered and the proposals can achieve an overall net gain in biodiversity to resolve concerns raised by the public and counselors we have halved the land area for 9.8 to 4.7 hectares to create a large a larger buffer to the heathland thank you thank you than you
Leader thank you um Daniel and Alexia as well thank you um our next um member of the public is Harr Stuart Jones I Think I’m reading oh yes the chief executive is going to read um this question it’s about the alloc allocation of employment land thank you thank you
Chairman this is a public question from Harret Stuart Jones will the council please remove the final four 4.7 hectares of employment allocation from Farm Tober Village in the draft BCP local plan these fields have been shown to be functionally linked to the internationally important and irreplaceable toet Heath and are
Essential to protect this area the precious green heart of our town there is no proven need for this extra new employment space many thousands of local residents including cross party counselors are dismayed to say that this ill-considered allocation has been carried forward into the new local plan thank you
Leader thank you thank you for the question the answer to which is broadly the same as the previous question however I would add this site has already been allocated and agreed through a government inspection process through the pool local plan it is crucial that land for employment is
Spread across the three towns to ensure that it is ensure that it is accessible to people and offers L land for a range of employment types this is an important part of bcp’s available overall employment land and previously the allocation was just under 10 hectares we have listened to the concerns raised by
Some local residents and in trying to reach a compromise have reduced it to 4.7 hectares retaining the employment land in the part furthest away from the heathland it should also be noted that the whole area was allocated for employment land under the pool local plan and as such a planning application
Was submitted to develop the whole site this is now the subject of an appeal to the planning inspectorate a further update on the situation relating to this site is being provided at planning committee next week the appeal will be considered against the current 2018 pool local plan it is
Highly unlikely that the new BCP local plan will be given much consideration because there are objections to the allocation and because the plan will not be adopted before the planning appeal is determined it is likely to be determined under the basis of the existing local plan thank you leader and lastly Andrew
Jolly has submitted a public question on the schools block funding transfer transfer sorry this is going to be read out by the chief executive um and councelor Richard Burton portfolio holder for children services will respond thank you chairman it’s a public question from Andrew Jolly has the council done any impact assessment or
Consultation on reducing the schools block funding transfer by 11% because such a cut will likely bankrupt most schools in the area how can the council be certain there will be new send provision built locally and in a reasonable time frame given free schools need sponsors take years to process and
I’ll be holding to DFE granting permission and providing funds how are the P how the public are supposed to have faith in the children’s services department who produce and publish a plan where the number one risk is that it can’t all be delivered legally councilor Burton thank you chair
And thanks to Mr Jolly for the question I’m grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to highlight the issues that we have with the high KN block deficit and its implications although he hasn’t mentioned it in his question directly I’m assuming that the question is referring to the safety valve invite
From the DFE um I’ll divide the commands into three bits to make it easy to follow um the first part about the school blocks funding there’s no impact assessment on reducing the schools blocks funding by 11% as such a transfer is not an option that the council can
Impose any transfer greater than 0.5% requires both agreement from the schools forum and the Secretary of State although the secretary of state does have the power to override the schools Forum this was discussed at the last schools Forum as we need to demonstrate that DFE at all avenues to reduce the
Growing High KN block deficit has been explored the schools Forum on the 13th of December last year agreed that only Surplus schools block funding could be transferred to support the high needs budget and that all schools receive their national funding formula allocations in full a further meeting
With the schools forum is to take place on the 15th of January where we are looking at all the options the council cannot take the 11% as I said earlier on uh but the Secretary of State could make that decision U and he will be aware of that option
We have Illustrated the impact of that in our modeling which we have shared with the DFE and their advisers um the maximum 05% transfer has been happening regularly over the preceding years and is very likely to continue as a result of the debate at schools Forum there are now schools that
Are looking at other ways that they can help to ease the financial pressures on the deficit SE separately from any transfer um on the second part of the question the new uh sand provision built locally the council has already started work on putting in bids for the new free
Schools a very good bid was put in last year which was light by the vfe however however they went with a private sector bid instead another bill will be submitted later this week you are quite right in saying that we are beholding to the DFE vages as we are with the
Inadequate funding that we received the high block from central government however the only way to provide good opportunities for pupils with need specially provision um is to expand places in the maintained sector and we have to no alternative but to follow the correct procedures to achieve this um
The last part of the question about the published plan uh the BCP Children’s Services Department have not published a plan as described above what I believe that it is being referred to is scenario one in the DSG management plan with rapid balancing again from the schools Forum from the 13th of December
23 this scenario is included to demonstrate why a 5-year plan isn’t achievable uh it says I quote from this the plan here uh it is very unlikely to meet the second requirement of the mission statement namely provide a good service this scenario is not acceptable later in the same document there
Scenario two DSG management plan potential in delivery but very challenging assumptions this is is a 15-year plan which might be workable and doesn’t have the same level of risk much of the challenges proposed in scenario 2 or or changes uh to day-to-day working within the department who are working
Primarily to facilitate better outcomes for our children and young people with sent and at the same time delivering better value for our residents any capital investment into the council or capital expenditure by the council will as always be be a decision made by either cabinet or Council depending on
The amounts uh there will be a full opportunity for member engagement with this process and for the public to ask questions in the normal way thank you chair thank you counselor and um I’m assuming that this will be sent um to Mr Jolly the written version um thank you members of the
Public statements now um Item B on this list we have a public statement regarding graffiti in the tlut village underpass from Joe keing would you like to come forward thank you good evening everybody graffiti in tolber Village Under pass was reported in October two further reports and social media contact followed yet lack
Of action prompted phone calls to BCP after an unsatisfactory response assistance was requested from Ward counselors and MP Connor burns the graffiti was cleared the next day this incident should be the last of its kind we shouldn’t live in a community where it’s acceptable for young impressionable children to walk past such abusive
Language and anti-semitic phrases it’s our duty to Shield vulnerable children from this to prevent this happening again please ask yourselves how long is it considered acceptable between a report and any action the failings of cleaning vehicles or lack of training doesn’t justify a delay of 3 months What Faith Can the general public
Have in their Council if they are ignored and have to enlist the help of their counselor and MP thank you thank you thank you very much um Andrew Jolly a public statement on the safety valve Andrew are you able to come forward and um read this out it’s not it’s not 5%
It’s thank you thank you apologies I heard it okay this safety Val scheme simply kicks the highes deficit can down the road until after the general election it’s being imposed by the same Tory ministers who introduced and oversaw austerity and it offers absolutely no guarantee any accepting councils will avoid bankruptcy or the
114 safety valve is little more than a transfer of historic levels of debt away from central government and places it squarely on our most vulnerable children and their Educators and it will be doing so for decades to come no one’s probably considered properly considered the viability or
Societal impact of this plan and many of the assumptions are outside the council’s cons control the suggestion of an 11% cut to school funding is is devastating being no doubt this plan of an 11% cut will bankrupt Local Schools decisions so damaging to the Future Generations should not be left to unelected
Officials counselors must be able to scrutinize these proposals before it’s agreed voters are entitled to know who supported and who enacted this plan thank you thank you um Sheila Warner can you come forward a public statement regarding the planning committee thank you the microphone since it’s establishment in
2019 BCP Council has had one planning committee the e quotes the leader of the council saying the creation of a western BCP and an Eastern BCP planning committee would allow for a more localized decision-making process tobert and branken woods residents Association observes that this is a transparent carving up of
Bournemouth into a pool planning committee and a Christ Church committee if the council considers that one planning committee is inadequate to serve the whole area then surely the three towns Alliance which is not a one and 1/3 and a one and 2/3 towns Alliance should be proposing three planning
Committees one for each of the three towns on attending the council’s corporate strategy meeting I stress the need for Unity a Christ Church at ND aptly sumed this up with united we stand divided we fall thank you thank you Sheila um and thank you all the residents who
Have put questions and statements uh which was very encouraging that so many people take such an interest um and council is reminded that the details within the public questions and these statements are personal views of those residents who are addressing the council item C in this section is petitions and
There have been no petitions received for the meeting we move on now to recommend ation from cabinet and the other committees um council is asked to consider the recommendations 6 to 11 they’re separately set out on your agendas and can I highlight that there are decisions on some of these issues
Which have been taken under delegated powers by the relevant bodies therefore they’re not before the council we move we move on to um item six cabinet of the 13th of December 2020 23 minute number 66 and this is the medium-term financial plan or the mtfp update um councelor Cox I understand
That you will move this recommendation and that councelor brown will second the move so councelor Cox can I call on you first please thank you madam chair can I just as a point of order I believe we were supposed to be sitting today or are we sitting or standing because I I I
Understood we were supposed to be sitting can I can I just clarify then councilor Cox since you asked me we are standing if we are able to stand because it shows the camera who is speaking but we must be very sure that none of us um interferes with the microphone so I’m
Asking you to put your lid down good point but I understand that there are some members who can’t stand very good point thank you I just wanted to clarify okay uh thank you very much Madam chair uh there what i’ would like to do is to move move the Motions but I
Um as as usual I’d like to remind uh councilors uh of where where we’ve come from uh and we started uh in May after the elections with a44 million pounds deficit in our medium-term budget in our medium-term plan um and I would also remind councilors
That in the current year 2023 to 2024 we have taken3 million pounds out of reserves in order to balance the budget uh and that is a completely unsustainable position and not only did we take3 million out of reserves for the current year we took 30 million out of
Reserves for the previous year and we took 30 million out in the the one before that so far we’ve stripped 90 million from reserves now I this morning I had the pleasure of uh of meeting Simon hore the minister for for duok uh who who advised a gathering of Finance
Counselors um very knowledgeable saying that we should his advice was we should take U these deficits from our reserves unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to tell him that we didn’t have any reserves to take that from um because of the position we’ve been left
In but there you go uh as you can see from table two um the we’ve actually made the officers and members have made significant progress to balancing the budget for 2425 and that’s been done by making some very difficult decisions uh on what we can fund and what we can’t
Fund um we’ve got there and in fact I think it says6 million in in the papers but actually we’ve actually got to we actually for a nan we got to a balanced position and then of course the government intervened and there was an unfunded uh increase in the National
Living wage very nice for people who have have got that increase of course but it was completely unfunded for local government um they also decided to strip us of 1.8 million pound from the services Grant when it came to the financial settlement and of course since then we’ve also had an unfunded Fosters
Allowance increase again very good for the for foster foster parents but it was unfunded so we have to pick up the the tab but we still have some way to go before we can balance the budget and there’s only a few weeks left however I I’m confident we will get
There in the end um so I want to formally uh uh put forward uh the recommendations as set out acknowledge the progress that we’ve made so far endorse the uh medium-term financial plan that we’ve we’ve got at the moment and approve the continuation of the council tax support scheme into
2425 I also like to uh put forward a recommendation that that we apply the council tax premium on second homes and entty homes premium and approve the formal determination as required by the leveling up and regeneration Act of 202 three thank you thank you counselor Cox um councelor Brown are you going to
Second the move I can’t oh so sorry coun yes happy to I was looking in totally the wrong direction there and I’ll reserve the right to speak later um thank you counselors any counselor wishing to speak on um on minute 66 leader oh sorry leader I can see you
Waving way but I can’t see what your sorry chair I was just letting a a colleague know that they’d left their light on and that would mean we wouldn’t be able to hear other people speaking but okay but now you’ve drawn attention to that she’s feeling very embarrassed I’m
So sorry for draw I had no idea what we what was going on there I thought somebody wished to speak nobody wishes to speak I gather um is that right nobody’s got their hand up so um counc brown councelor brown do you want to speak at all before councelor Cox winds
Up I’ll I’ll speak briefly chair thank you um I won’t run through obviously cabinet um noted the progress that’s been made and actually you know it’s really sort of been the focus of all portfolio holders since since May really in our primary focus is actually to deal with the financial issues that we’ve
Inherited um in coming to take over the administration of this Council since May um the budget preparation has been really really detailed actually I’d like to thank all the officers involved and it’s not just the sort of corporate directors but it’s actually right through um departments and managers
Going right through their sort of detailed budget to help us sort of find find the the Gap to fill fill that 44 million pound Gap and actually as my colleague said you know we just about got there until um the government announced the increasing National living wage substantially more than I think
Probably all councils had anticipated and that added I think about another six s million pounds to our Gap plus then the the the um government settlements added 1.8 million so to be honest it’s about another eight million so the Gap actually with what the government decisions made later is actually there
Were a 52 million pound Gap that we’re having to fill we just about got to the 44 million then they pushed it further and further so it’s it’s really over 50 million that we’re having to having to deal with this year and without the reserves to to fill that Gap as previous
Administrations have have taken that approach to avoid the difficult decisions um I’m sure you all listen to the cabinet meeting before Christmas when when I I spoke on this as well so I W bore you with with the points that I made there um but actually I would like
To just endorse the recommendation that’s before Council um regarding the um second homes and empty homes Surplus is something additional council tax collection it’s something we really do need to sort of fund the council obviously we’re Li very limited in terms of our council tax increase we can only
Increase 4.99% without a referendum and it’s one of those avenues that you wouldn’t necessarily always want to go down this route but actually I think Council have sort of discussed this before and approved it so we want to push ahead with that approach and we need to make this decision tonight to
Push ahead with that thank you councelor brown councelor Cox do you wish to sum up um I don’t think I really need to I will just let it lie as it is thank you right thank you councilors um we’re going to move to the vote do we have a consensus on this um
Proposal agreed thank you sorry no coun oh councelor Haynes yes um chairman yes I wish to vote again right then we have a show of hands then please um all those in favor majority I’m informed there’s a majority here hands down do you want to abstain those against yes thank you that
Was everybody for all those against thank you your hands down and abstentions thank you that that was carried by a majority thank you councilors um item seven cabinet on the 13th of December 2023 um minute number 67 the corporate strategy 2023 to 2027 which is the high level summary um
Councelor Slade I understand you’re all going to move the recommendations and councelor Earl will second the move thank you thank you chair um this is the new corporate strategy to replace the corporate strategy and the big plan that were together working uh uh uh under the previous administration
Just to take you on a short Journey when we uh BCP Council was formed we underwent a full corporate strategy uh consultation adopted the corporate strategy at Council uh around about the same time of the year actually about six months after uh the council was formed and that corporate strategy then went on
To have a set of uh delivery measures and delivery plans that that that were being assessed by over the following years then when there was a change of administration uh a big the big plan was devised that didn’t go through a a period of consultation with the public
And it was never adopted uh by the council in this chamber uh but it was used uh as a as a marker against which future policies were delivered uh between 2021 and 2023 we made a commitment to review and simplify things so that the public understood what our vision and values
Were uh and I’m really pleased that we were able to undertake a full public consultation of the corporate strategy which included a number of really successful Road shows uh drop in uh sessions um School competitions uh a member session officer sessions strategy sessions that over a period of a few
Months has delivered us a new corporate strategy uh which has been through scrutiny and through cabinet um and I’m bringing it here today to be adopted the one thing I I want to um recommend this um item C uh is just a reminder that when we did the original corporate
Strategy we decided to align our strategy with the UN sustainable development goals uh which is something we felt passionately about and then uh since then the the big plan was aligned with the purpose goals uh which were formerly referred to as the leveling up goals and they are similar to the UN
Sustainable development goals but they’re focused solely on the UK um we want to continue to do that I need to pay um real tribute to the consultation team particularly Bridget Weber um who’s no longer working for the council she did such a great job in listening to what it was we wanted to
Deliver and running that that work uh and her team Sophie uh Vicki and others have done a great job in in uh moving that forwards the document gives us a really good narrative about what people want to see where they live and I hope that if
You look at the appendix a no it’s not the one the um yes the appendix one consultation report this this public document gives us huge amounts of really good feedback from our residents about what they like what they don’t like what they’d like to see different and I hope that over the
Coming months um we as as members and officers will use that information um as a a real lever to understand how we can improve things for people the next steps for for this document is it needs to have have its delivery goals it needs to have its
Plans it needs to have the measurables and as I indicated um at scrutiny last night we need to take uh in the spring uh all of the the measures so that our corporate performance reporting um is we can be all be held to account by it so
This is step one the the development of the delivery plans will follow in the spring uh and at that point we will start working and being judged against the performance of this corporate strategy with its delivery plan so with that I want to commend that thank you
Thank you leader you just just managed to yes very very informative though councelor Earl you’re going to second I believe yeah happy to second but I’ll uh reserve my right to speak a little bit later um counselors do we have anyone wishing to speak on minute sorry 67 yes councelor
Tarling thank you very much and very detailed report um I I i’ I’d like to endorse I think the comments made about the The Works done on it is fantastic the only concern I have is the respondent profile and that under 35s are quite under represented under representative in the
Uh in the respondent um was an adjustment made to wait to adjust this uh respondent profile in the uh corporate profile is there something that under 35s perhaps or should we be reaching out to uh younger people in our uh in our Council area thank you thank you thank you councelor
Tarling sorry councelor canavan thank you chair and um thank you to all those involved who have got this paper uh to this point I wonder if I might just ask for a couple of points of clarification please um I’ve noted in the paper there is time scales for the delivery plans to
Be done by April uh and apparently a report to Cabinet uh in April I’m just wondering if the leader could explain what opportunity there will be for any oversight or scrutiny of these plans given that they touch on a number of different service areas so I understand
The plans going to come for to Cabinet but what what opportunity will there be for any oversight of those plans so that we may be able to question them and ask uh ask um you know for more details on them that that’s my first point uh chair
My my second point is there are lots of good things in the vision document about the preservation of green open space and about the involvement of the community but I’m just wondering what value we can actually place on that given that the announcement today of the closure of the Kings Park
Nursery the that announcement today has come completely out of the blue and apparently no consultation with anybody uh so I’m just wondering um you know where that where that accountability lies great statements in this document but you know when it comes to the when it comes to the cut um how much Credence
Can we place on on the aspirations of that document when we see announcements like this coming in the way that they have thank you thank you councilor I’m sure that will be addressed in the leader summing up I’m oh councilor Broadhead thank you very much um Madame
Chairman um a question that I’d like just addressed in the summing up as well the leader had pointed out the previous administration used their big plan document which is essentially their political priority to help um to judge against the policies that that Administration was creating in this document under the background papers it
Talks about the three towns Alliance priorities paper um which isn’t actually attached within this document so um in the summing up and wonder the whether the leader will commit to releasing that document so that we can see um what those three town Alliance priorities are
It is referred to in this document um so that we can assess um their priorities moving to the bo of the future thank you thank you councelor Broadhead is there anybody else wishing to speak before councelor Earl do you wish to speak now oh I’m so sorry oh I’m so sorry
Lawrence thank you chairman um I wasn’t going to speak this evening but um councilor canan’s taken um the words out of my mouth because uh as the ward counselor the for Kings Park amongst other areas um I I feel very bitter uh towards the administration for not Consulting and talking to Ward
Counselors uh which councelor Dove and I are for Kings Park and I hope that uh there’s a real fuss made of this because I I think it’s very wrong to close an establishment that’s been open for so long and has done so much good work in the community uh without consulting with
Us counselors thank you thank you counselor do I see any more hands before yes councelor Earl councelor Earl then thank you chair um I hadn’t intended to but as it’s come up from um both councelor Caravan and um uh councelor I’m so sorry Lawrence Williams Williams I was thinking Lawrence because
I know Lawrence but yeah of course councelor Williams um I just want to address very briefly um uh Kings Park Nursery and how we came to that decision I think it’s really important to say that as an Administration we have to be very clear um and it’s partly in the
Corporate strategy as well that we’re going to take responsible decisions um to try and deliver a balanced budget for 2425 um do not get me wrong I went and visited the nursery it’s a an amazing place they do wonderful work the volunteers were brilliant and the staff
Was so dedicated um it was not an easy decision to make what I do want to do though is give some assurance that even though the commercial aspect of the nursery is closing because we’re subsidizing it as a council to the tune of £85,000 a year which we don’t have
For commercial you know to to commercially um to uh prop up commercial businesses which aren’t bringing in money and in fact are costing us money year on year that area um and the site will be retained for Community use partly because it’s part of the five
Parks act and partly because I think we can actually do something really good on that site so now’s the opportunity to start looking to the Future even though we’re not going to have a commercially run Nursery there anymore I think there is opportunity for Community I think there’s opportunity for you guys as
Counselors to lead on that as well and look at what we could do with it but it just can’t continue to operate as as a business that loses money for the area thank you L where is councel oh councelor Bartlet you wish to come in thank you uh chair I’m not aware of
How this decision has been published whether it comes out as a formal decision by a portfolio holder if it’s been how it’s been published formally but one would expect any plans to be published in advance and potential decisions made known to overview and scrutiny to give them an opportunity to
Uh uh look at particular decisions are coming forward I’m not aware that these uh decisions have been made aware to uh overview and scrutiny and I think it’s very regretable that decisions like this are seemingly taken behind the scenes and announced uh at short notice particularly when they have not even
Been discussed with the ward counselors involved thank you thank you councilor Bartlett um yes George second you chair very kind um to acknowledge me um I just wanted to speak as uh as the councelor which ad joins on the uh Kings Park nursery and just bring the attention and and to Echo counil
Bart’s point is that this has come out of the blue as a decision to I think the majority of the members in this particular chamber um but it also came out the blue to our residents I have received now three emails and uh two WhatsApp messages um since this was
Announced at roughly about quarter past 4 this afternoon it seems unfortunate that the communication strategy um wasn’t planned out for this and it seems unfortunate that as Ward counselors um even though it is a joining my ward literally On the Border um we had no sight of this before and
Having to pick up pieces to try and explain why it is that this decision um seems to come without any sort of justification any scrutiny any consultation with the um W with the public that live in the area and use it um one of my uh one of my messages
Actually identified that the Kings Park nursery and answer to councilor Williams part is possibly um celebrating its 100th centuary anniversary this year and I do understand the commercial aspect and the requirement to save as many as much money as we can um for our budget deficit however 85,000 on the spur announced this
Afternoon without any sort of consultation or even a heads up to the ward counselors is a very unfortunate situation and if there was any way that this decision could be reviewed or at least explained to the members in this chamber who it was that made this CH this decision and what mechanism that
They actually used um that would be very much appreciated because it seems like a mistake particularly by a new Administration as regards its communication so three emails two WhatsApp messages when it was only announced at quarter past 4 this afternoon councelors um I think we need
To get back to minute number 67 and uh councelor Martin I believe you had your hand hand off thank you chair just a very very quick point I think everybody needs to remember that the Kings part Nursery is one of a number of very difficult decisions that have been made or are
Being made to balance the budget and the reason we’re in this position is that those difficult decisions which should have been made in the last three years by the previous conservative administration were not made because they Ed reserves to avoid having to make those difficult decisions and they’ve left it
For other people to do and that’s why we’re in this position thank you councelor brown thank you chair yeah just to speak briefly partly to get back to the what we’re looking at here anyway about the um corporate strategy and and the the visions and Ambitions um I was really
Pleased you know there was a lot of real detailed sort of discussion going on and lots of workshops we had in the early days of the three towns Alliance and and then the public consultations G come back and it has you know a lot of people are cynical about public consultation oh
It doesn’t matter you know they’ll do what they want but we did amendments were made in in response to that public consultation you know emphasis was changed and and we restructured things because of what the people said told us that was was important and I’m really pleased with as the portfolio holder for
Health and well-being that you know that that’s at the heart of a lot of what we’ve got in here and it’s and it’s referenced in in many of the points on that that overall um statement and throughout the sort of detailed um strategy so I’m really pleased I don’t
Like the terms corporate strategy I like it much more as a sort of vision for for our area um but I’m really pleased with the sort of outcome of all the work and I must admit going through those workshops it wasn’t always clear where we would get to it and what would come
Out of it but with the results I’m really pleased with and just very briefly because the points been raised about Kings Park Nursery I I would just like to to sort of add that as councel Martin said there’s a lot of real difficult decisions we got to make about
Finances and difficult Cuts we’ve got to come up with funnily enough this was one that the the conservative Administration actually had slated in for the in their medium-term financial plan for 20242 and councelor Williams says you know didn’t know anything about it but he voted for that conservative budget in
February of this year which included this slated in for the medium-term financial plan 2425 so he voted for that um and I think that’s important to note councelor Co I you wish I’m sorry I didn’t hear apologies councel br’s already made the point this as I said it’s 44 million
Pounds it was it was on a list of 200 lines of savings to be made that was one of the one of the smaller ones it was a no-brainer as far as I was concerned because we were losing money on a commercial operation thank you councelor Cox if you
Turn your microphone off councelor chaler thank you chair um just to to kind of go back to this this issue with regards to a lack of consultation of course the the Kings Park Nursery isn’t the only Southern decision that’s been made and I understand some of the rationale behind that however another
Decision that was made without any really advanced warning was the close of access to pool park now the ongoing consultation there and the monies used on that could actually be put towards keeping King C and I think there should be some attention PA to that thank you
Thank you councelor cheler we I’m trying to stick very closely to the minute number 67 so I hope if anybody else wishes to speak is umon yeah councelor sammon as long as we’re on the topic of corporate strategy thank you so um God I think when it comes to
This I’d like to say buckle up this is only the start of the impacts of years and years of austerity and I’m sure there’s plenty of political Capital to be made points scoring against the admin maybe they didn’t consult that well and communication wasn’t perfect but this is
The tip of the iceberg the money’s all gone you know and it’s amazing that some people in this chamber who were part of the previous administration who spent all the Mone and part of the government who brought the country to its need don’t start every statement with I’m really sorry
About what’s happened up until now but I’m ready to try and sort this out it’s ridiculous we’ve got just wait until climate change kicks in we’ve got to be realistic and practical about the scale of the problems we face this is nothing we’ve got much worse to come and we’re
Going to have to be adults about discussing this and not do the point scoring that’s that’s my two bits that’s I’ll pipe down thank you councelor smon Alan oh Council Allan at the back thank you could I just ask a simple question I’m sorry is about Kings Park but this
Is obviously a nursery that is loved by our local residents I mean I think Council Fara has quite clearly shown that just by the response that there’s been can I just ask has it been looked at is whether there is a way of making this a more commercial Nursery is this
Something that the community would like to get around and actually work towards making this more commercial it seems to be that have you given this an opportunity to thrive before you’ve made this decision thank you thank you councelor Alan um I think we’ve all had a very good debate even if
We’ve gone a bit off topic Council um can I call on the leader now to sum up thank you um just without wishing to go into all of those various issues um next month we have the budget coming up and uh you know I am pretty sure that the
Two to 300 lines of the budget where difficult decisions are going to have to be made there will be discussion about things that people would rather weren’t happening uh but as has already been said uh we are in this position uh because 100 million pound worth of reserves has been flushed down the
Toilet in the last year and difficult decisions haven’t been made I just wanted to uh reflect on the specifics around this paper because we are here to adopt the corporate strategy so that our team can go off and work through those delivery plans um to first of all answer
Councelor canavan who I believe was present at last night’s overview and scrutiny board last night we looked at the corporate performance reports for Quarter Two of 2324 and those corporate performance indicators are related to the existing corporate strategy so when we see the new delivery plans which we
Have specifically um asked to be smart targets responding to councelor Kate samon last night who was referencing actually some of the targets very woly we need to have Smart targets so that we can be held to account um and typically they go through scrutiny on a quarterly
Basis and it’s obviously up to the chair of scrutiny and his team how often they want to take them but they are published on a quarterly basis so the performance against the corporate strategy should be something subject to scrutiny to answer the question of councelor Tarling about
The age profile when the uh consultation was um was was out in the community we made a deliberate effort to delay the the consultation period to ensure that the universities had returned uh we felt it was important that um their future future Generations should have their say whether they actually responded to it
They had the opportunity we had Road shows at the university the college at schools there was AO a children’s competition uh and we were outed about in supermarkets and shopping centers so the opportunity is is there for for everybody to engage um you know should
They wish to do so um comments have been made about you know how can we say we’re going to do this and then in the next breath you know um make a difficult decision we’ve specifically changed the the vision document which you can see at appendix 2 to talk about our vision
Vision and Ambitions when we started this journey we were clear about what we wanted our our you know how we would do things but we quickly realized that actually with with 44 million pounds or 50 million as it now is needing to be found it wasn’t right to say we will do
This now because we would be setting ourselves up to fail and so the language was changed to Ambitions and that’s deliberate so that we actually the direction of travel and the other thing I just wanted to clarify with relation to councelor Broadhead was that the um three towns Alliance priorities is
Referred to as a background document and is as a background document is is available to be published so I have absolutely no qualms with that the point is that that has been used as our basis for delivering a strategy that will be adopted by the council
The the big plan your plan which was your background document never was adopted by this Council and it did not face the scrutiny that we have put this document through and that’s what matters finally just to say you know about consultation um the reason that this has
Come out today is because we have to tell people in a timely fashion uh that are relevant the ward counselors were notified of course it’s gone straight on social media as soon as the affected people have been told this is is going to form part of the budget a as
Councelor salmon said some very difficult decisions you’re going to hear about at the budget some of them require consultation some of them are just decisions that we have to make because we have to find 50 million pounds uh staff have been notified there is a process to be followed that process has
Been followed uh and I know that councilor L has issued a press release and at the appropriate time we’ll be happy to explain what other options were looked at what is being done done to work with the school and the college that use that space and how you can turn
An organization from A Loss making one into a community one as was done with cherry tree nursery is it cherry tree nursery in pool park which was similarly losing money at Somerset Council have just announced the closure of all three of their nurseries for exactly the same
Reason thank you I commend this paper and I hope we can get it adopted thank you very much um leader that was um as we um have spent a lot of time on this I’m going to for a change actually read the recommendations because I think
The members of the public who might be watching will be a bit confused about what we’re talking about so it’s recommended the consultation report summarizing feedback from residents and stakeholders be noted the revised corporate strategy high level summary be adopted the corporate strategy and supporting Performance Management
Framework continue to be aligned to the UN sustainable development goals and purpose goals now members um as we’ve had so much debate I think we ought to have a vote by show of hand so we’re going to ask that all in favor okay have you counted excuse me Members thank you um those
Against okay you surviving we have none against none against so sorry and um abstentions thank you members um while I recover can we move on to item eight which is minute number 68 the consultation on the draft sorry the vice chair might this item Vice chairman could you read this
Out for us thank you item 8 is the uh from the cabinet 30th of December minute number 68 consultation on the draft BCP local plan and the draft BCP sill charging schedule councilor Slade I understand that you will move the recommendations and then councilor fips will second the
Move thank you uh this paper has been to scrutiny and cabinet and I want to thank all members who engaged so positively during the process a number of changes have been made as a result of the scrutiny process which was a helpful exercise a further workshop for counselors looking at how viability
Worked and the issues in trying to deliver affordable homes uh was carried out and I hope members found this useful and have a greater appreciation of the considerations that have to be made by officers in setting the parameters for development every local authority authority must have a local plan which
Enables it to demonstrate its vision for the future provides the freedom to determine where home should be built what type of homes they will be and how neighborhood should develop over 15 years as you’ve heard in the residents questions it also determines the location of land for employment energy generation and Community facilities
Without a local plan the council loses its ability to make such decisions and leaves us open to speculative development when BCP Council was formed it was given until 2025 to deliver an adopted local plan for the whole area replacing the three existing ones the process began with a call for sites
Where Developers could suggest land they owned and in response officers assess their suitability and where relevant have included them the issues and options consultation uh allowed the principles of development and placemaking were to be established and the council created its evidence base and we should be work and in particular
Worked hard to challenge the starting point we had which was that we should use the standard methodology to build 42,000 homes we did not agree with this and it led us to setting a locally derived housing needs figure much closer to 25,000 homes which in turn has meant
We’ve been in a position to create a strategy that does not require the the uh release of any further Green Belt sites in the last six months work on the local plan has not only picked up pace but change to reflect the needs of our communities with the introduction of 33
Ward policies developed alongside counselors strengthening our response to climate change including the need to adapt and mitigate and we’ve updated the draft recently to ensure that all homes will be required to be carbon zero carbon ready more recently we’ve also reflected issues raised by construction industry on whom we rely to deliver the
Plan the inspectors of the plan would not only need to determine that the plan is sound but that it is deliverable so there is no point having a perfect plan if we cannot build the homes members have rightly challenged us on trying to increase the number of affordable homes
And during the last few months changes have been made to ensure that where we can plan we’ve changed the housing mix and requirement to fund Community infrastructure we’re now at the stage where the draft plan needs to go to public consultation and onto inspection all comments made in that time will be
Included in the pack to the inspector in order for the plan to be deemed sound it must meet the requirements of national policy and there are elements that we simply cannot overturn whilst we may not believe that developers should make as much profit as they seem to do we have
To accept that viability is determined through National policies and I’ve indicated my keenness to raise our concerns with the LGA and do what we can to make the case for more affordable housing um where it’s viable we should seek its delivery and the same is true for Community benefit accessible homes
Green space Etc the period through inspection will take many months and likely to extend into next year there will be challenges modifications and the inspectors will be requesting more information and we’ll hear arguments from developers promoting their sites about why they should be allowed the final plan will come back to be CCP
Council for adoption next year before it replaces the current three local plans further Evidence bases will be submitted as they become available and as they are requested I want to thank Steve dring Laura bright and the whole strategic planning team and councelor Margaret fips lead member for strategic planning
For all the hard work and counselors across the political Spectrum during the previous Council and this one who’ve been part of the local plan working group this is not a perfect plan but we must have a plan and we mustn’t let F perfect be the enemy of good let’s get
Ourselves a sound local plan and then we can build on making it better over time and de delivering the places that we want to be proud of thank you leader can I can I assure everybody that I haven’t got anything infectious I just caught my breath so I
Haven’t come into the chamber with anything um councelor fips I believe you’re going to speak yes thank you chairman I’d like to Second uh this proposal and um reserve my right to speak thank you members who wishes to speak on this councilor Broadhead thank you very much um uh
Chairman I do have an amendment which I’m just going to send round now um while it’s pinging its way around I would like to start by in many ways similar to The Leader thanking all the council staff and indeed all counselors uh for the true cross- party Spirit of
Working on this very important plan for the last four years um as Alita said the cross party local plan working group which which I set up a few years ago I think is a shining example of what we can achieve when we work together um and
The fact that we finalized much of the local Plan before the local elections and there’s been quite few changes since then so few I think is a testament to the work work of that and that I think alongside coupled with the work that many of us have been doing at a national
Level to secure the excellent changes in the leveling up and regeneration Bild to protect our precious Green Belt means in large like the leader I think we have a plan that works but as always chairman there I is room for improvement and that’s why the conservative group is
Putting forward a package of changes to the proposed plan which focuses on a few areas of changes that we would like to see in specific Wards and I’ve sent that round to all counselors uh a few points and I’m sure a few colleagues are going to talk in more detail about these
Changes um we have worked with the planning team to put forward these um uh changes and they have confirm to us that these changes can be put in place without putting any of the part of the local plan at risk particularly with regard to inspectors so everything that
Is in here is absolutely possible the planning team have also confirmed that should any changes in this be adopted no change would have to be made to the uh launch of the consultation as well so it wouldn’t affect the time frames uh and it wouldn’t put put in Jeopardy any of
The hard work that has been put forward um I don’t have very much time to speak so I’m sure my colleagues will talk about the specific areas that we’re going to be covering but in Broad terms uh in the camper Cliffs and Westborn areas there is a strong view from
Councilors in in those areas that because of the local constraints that the windfall figures are are too large so there is a reduction in the windfall figures in those um Wards as well as some other minor details as well uh in the kinson ward area um there is a a
Strong feeling that the important former kinson bath site whilst it talks about Recreation education and Community uses should um should delete the section um U suggesting there could be a care home there as well and I think that has a lot of support in the um from Red local
Residents and the tobet and Bron wood section um we have and we’ve heard the strength of opinion from residents earlier on today recommended removing the toet Village employment area we saw the strength of feeling at the local um uh recent planning application where where that was rejected by the planning
Committee we have ample room within the employment uh hectarage not to include this so we will be removing that and for the uh Gypsy and Trava suggested allocation for the Brom uh triangle site uh we are recommending there is a better spot for that in the land that is
Currently allocated in north of A35 for sports Recreation education and Community we’re recommending that that could include permanent and drip SE traveler pitches as well uh chairman my colleagues will talk in more detail um but I would like to put this package of mend Ms together really to cover those
Four areas and as I’ve said we’ve got confirmation from the planners um this would um uh not put the um the plan at risk and also although there is a small reduction in the number of figures because our local plan policy has been to combine um the uh the process of
Making sure we’ve got local need combined with the local constraints um that it is something that we could successfully um argue for robustly um when it comes to inspection stage thank you chairman councilor Broadhead um need as this amendment is quite long I think all members have now got a
Copy of it on their laptops we are going to adjourn for the officers to consider what the next steps will be thank you councelor Broadhead so we’re going to go off the air now [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] here [Applause] is [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] down [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause]
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[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] right thank you members I think we’re all back in the chamber um and I know some people have had to go home through illness I’m going to call upon the chief executive to um say why we had the adjournment after uh councilor Broadhead
Put his Amendment and to explain the next steps thank you chief executive thank you chairman uh following some discussions I believe that Council of Broadhead will bring forward a different Amendment uh to the recommendation and uh effectively withdraws the First Amendment and then we’ll take the debate from there if that’s okay
Okay right calling Council Broadhead again then thank you madam chairman I will be brief I will not go over the background again and thank you to the uh chief executive and monitoring officer for some further advice on this nothing uh Madam chairman is as easy as it seems
And um I am advised that because we are actually considering the recommendation in front of us um that the amendment should be limited to the recommendation and it’s not quite as simple as amending the text of the the local plan itself um so in in what I am proposing uh however
Because I do think that these are uh a worth of debate tonight and I’d be really interested to hear colleagues um views on each one of the uh items that we put forward whether they support them I would like to amend the recommendation to insert a new bullet point which would
Be bullet point F and that bullet point would re for the director of planning in consultation with the portfolio holder to consider the conservative group’s uh suggested amendments to the um BCP draft local plan as part of the process colleagues I think what this would
Enabled um uh to happen is for us to have a full debate on our recommendations tonight uh for colleagues to decide if there were some of those that you feel that you could support or couldn’t support um and then what we will do as a conservative group
Is continue to work with the officers uh in a further dialogue to provide the narrative and evidence moving forward to try and get some of those what we feel are worthwhile amendments um uh added to the draft local Plan before it cons puts to consultation so that would be my uh
Recommendation the process would then be if that was accepted by this chamber that that would then go forward um for consideration uh and I’m sure many people could have an input on that so I sincerely hope that the spirit of those being considered formally that colleagues will lend their support to
That request this evening thank you thank you councilor Broadhead um I believe you have a seconder I saw a second coun far standing is a point of order is that councelor farco a point of order it is indeed chair um could the uh could yourself for the monitoring
Officer just remind us of the procedure for actually um uh submitting an amendment I think we missed a trick here and actually that all members get an opportunity to look at the the amendment and all I’ve heard here is the amendment spoken and then seconded without actually having sight of what the
Amendment is that we’re supposed to debate thank you thank you councelor I’m going to ask the chief executive or the monitoring officer to answer that I think the councilor was referring to the the normal process of circulating the written wording of the amendment which uh we we can do yes the new
Amendment which we can do uh we’ll just we’ll do that in a couple of over the next couple of minutes circulate it okay yeah does is that satisfactory councelor Fara it is and thank you very much for accepting the point of order chair thank you um so we are now
Debating the amendment I imagine would members prefer us to circulate it before we start the debate or members happy to do you want it circulated right has everybody got a copy of it or do you want Council broa to read it out again no not the one councilor Broadhead can you stand up
Again and clarify we are now adding not your long Amendment but your short Amendment which is f thank you I thought I thought I’d been clear but perhaps not enough um colleagues will have all had the suggested changes that we were hoping to include as a formal Amendment
As part of the local plan and the change in Word instead of making that as a formal Amendment what we are doing is um suggesting that the amendment is that that document and those changes are considered as part of the next stage um of the process before um publication uh
Of the consultation so the essentially it’s exactly as I’d said before the amendments are as we’ve suggested in that document so that’s a document you’re considering formally the amendment is whether you agree that that document should go into the system or not thank you chair and and the wording
Is that the director of planning consultation with the portfolio holder consider that Amendment as part of the next stage of the process right thank you I think that’s quite clear leader do you want to come in on uh yes I I um I think this
Is a ridiculous thing to to throw in at this point when we have had a process I’m aware that um EV we referred to the ward uh briefings we had a fantastic session run by our planning officers uh every single counselor was allocated their own dedicated planning officer
Everybody was offered a second meeting uh I understand that not all of the uh the wards referen in here actually engaged fully with that process we then had a uh scrutiny meeting where some issues around torbot Woods were debated the vote was lost at that meeting of
Scrutiny uh none of the others were raised at that meeting we then had cabinet nobody from the conservative group bothered to turn up to Cabinet to actually even discuss the local plan uh you know they turned up and no interest at all in making their case there has
Been a process and last week we then had a two-hour session um on the local plan and and and actually trashing out some details uh and none of these things were were raised then even though we went off the original brief of affordable housing there is the opportunity every Ward
Counselor here has got things about their Ward that they’ve had to take on the chin things that they’ve gone for the greater good we are going to take a bigger density in the town centers we’re not going to deliver on green belt and at this stage to throw in these are the
Things we don’t like in our Wards completely undemocratic there is a process they haven’t followed it this should be thrown out uh and if they choose then to engage with the the public consultation so be it but this is not the way to do it and it’s utterly disrespectful to our planning officers
So I propose that we just vote this down and move on councilor councelor Tarling yeah thank you very much uh unfortunately lead’s stolen pretty much everything I was going to say there um I just want to pick up on one point though that Council Broadhead uh made was that
If we accept this amendment that um we would continue to work or the conservative uh uh group would work with the planning um Team going forwards it does that mean that if we don’t vote for it they won’t work with us going forwards uh and to Echo what um the
Leader just said um one of the councelor ward sessions I went to there were some noticeable absences from the conservative uh members W members um at that stage and uh you know I think it’s highly disingenuous to throw this in at the last minute so I I certainly won’t
Be supporting the amendment thank you sorry councelor Andy Martin thank you chair I just wanted to add well I wanted to ask a question actually councilor Broadhead is talking about working with the offices in the next stage of the process the next stage of the process is the public consultation
So does this have any implications for the time scale on the public consultation which is very tight and it’s very urgent the second point I would make and a few months ago councelor Broadhead in an email to me said I was the type of counselor who put people off
Going into local government not quite sure why he said that but he said that this is exactly this this kind of grandstanding behavior and nonsense from someone who has been a leader of the council Deputy leader of the council and has a high profile in the local government uh local government
Nationally you should know better than to do this throw this in at the last minute it’s a it’s a shocker even by your standards thank you c councelor da hello thank you yes thank you Council Broadhead um it’s not surprising that you and the other seven conservative councilors who bed to turn up
Tonight uh jump on the bandwagon of my campaign to reclaim kinson bass and try to score points by suggesting a change to the local plan for the said site it’s a Pity that the three t kinson T counselors didn’t ask for this to be changed earlier for example when the
Previous local plan was published or when the two current Tory counselors for kinson didn’t bother attend the local plan walkthrough meeting when it was initially kicked off so I would say that it’s just point scoring and I’m very disappointed that this game should be played at this stage thank you councelor
Bartlet thank you madam chairman um sorry okay yeah uh I I was involved with in the very early days of the uh working group uh for the new local plan and it was raised in fact by Council Broadhead the whole objective of that process was
To ease the flow of the local plan to approval so there will be no stops at the last minute and it’s exactly what we’ve got tonight which is really unfortunate I have to say and and I’ve heard what what’s been said um but whilst there is an objection to what’s
Happening here tonight we’ve got to remember people still have the right to make their views about the local plan and they’re perfectly entitled to make those views tonight how you handle it is a different matter personally I have a whole range of issues about the local
Plan in lots of detail I should be making those along with all the public members of public with the consultation because we’ve got to a point where we have to progress the plan whatever you know it is in an acceptable position at the moment it’s been through a lot of
Work in debate and now it is in a position that it can go go forth for public consultation I should be putting my input to that at that point and I hope members who have not taken the opportunity to put their input into the plan during the process that we’ve gone
Through over the last few years uh should have should have taken at that point so I think we’ve got to move on and I I I won’t support this um this amendment at this point point it’s too late I’m afraid thank you I think councilor far was
Next I’m sure colleagues would agree as elected World councilors we’re here to listen to the community we represent kinson and West H how residents have expressed their priority of retaining the ulman B site for Ledger and Community use you know in in fact one of my colleagues
Over to the left to the left of me um she she actually started the petition and she was in the Echo saying that residents wanted to retain it for that purpose so I don’t understand why she she’s not keen on supporting our recommendation this evening so I therefore I support the recommended
Kinson Ward Amendment and I hope colleagues will do too thank you thank you councelor far councelor Haynes I believe you um showed yes um thank you Madame chairman um and I have to say that as Ward counselors both myself and cast chaler had fully engaged with our allocated strategic um planning
Officer and it would come as no surprise that actually they are fully aware uh that we are still unhappy with the windfall allocation um for reasons which I will probably not bother to explain because I can read the mood in the room that uh our amendment is very unlikely
To carry but having said that I think I probably will take the opportunity to say that we’ve been allocated 320 units and windfall sites and I would say uh to quote a phrase that was actually used a perfect plan that is not deliverable and I would say from the perspective of a
Ward counselor that knows her Ward very very well in terms of where there may be potential opportunities those opportunities are now few and far between so to try and find 320 units to be developed we have Conservation Area we have now uh no extra units to be developed in sandbanks
Um there is very little opportunity so it is not realistic and what I don’t want is to have a plan with targets that are unrealistic and that’s really where I’m coming from and as I say it’s not that we haven’t bothered to engage with the allocated officers we
Have and having spoken to Residents they’re unhappy with it so I’m bringing it to council well whether it’s it’s supported or not supported I want to make that view clear thank you thank you councelor Haynes um councelor sumon so I’m I’m no fan of bureaucracy and
Process and all of that getting in the way of good ideas and whatnot but um and I think there probably are maybe some good ideas in what Phil’s brought to the council so the stuff on Talbert he I I can probably get on board with that I think Michelle’s campaign about you know
The nursing home in kinson and all that that sounds a solid idea as well but I I’m worried that Phil’s done these good ideas of this ear by not bringing them up sooner and I’m sure there are very good reasons of local politics why you
Do it like this and all that that I absolutely hate you know I can’t stand a lot of stuff about the way local government works and this is definitely one of It ultimately I think look there this just doesn’t fly does it this just doesn’t work there are
Some sensible things suggested in here but the way the local plan thing works yeah I’ve got my head around it I’m new and I get that the next stage of the process isn’t a bit I mean this is a pointless discussion can we just vote
This down and get on I think there are lots of things that need to happen and make the plan better in terms of from an environmental point of view that Sue Chapman spoke to earlier we can’t do that now at this stage we just got to
Get on and get this bit done you know and then we’re looking at using is it spds that’s what other councils have sorted this kind of stuff out that’s what we need to do next and all of that just need to get on now and vote this I probably down
Thank you councelor salmon I think councelor Fara you were next thank you very much chair um might I move that the motion now be put um because this debate’s going nowhere because the amendment is quite clear that they wish to uh um add an amendment that at some
Point or to read it now thank very much to the Democratic service of staff that the director of planning destination in consultation with a bolf holder for dynamic places the considered conservative groups amendments to the draft local plan as part of the process set out in the recommendation I suggest
That the motion now be put members we have a mo um have a point of order that the um amend the the amendment now be voted on so we need to vote on whether we do that so right all those in favor of voting on the amendment now those against guess
Extensions right we’re going to the vote on sorry was there a query there councilor Broadhead do you want to sum up before we go to that vote thank you very much I’d be delighted to and I’d like to address a few of the points that have been raised um the leader quite
Rightly talked about the meetings that many members have had um with uh with with officers and others uh about the planning process throughout the whole way through the local plan process including within their own Wards and she’s quite right but one of the examples that we put forward in this
Amendment uh the ward councilors um Karen rampton and I were only told about the proposed um um change which had never been consulted on as 48 hours before publication so yes there has been a process but quite often that process has been ignored and things have been
Landed on us um I I don’t get into the you should have been here type of politics but I would point out the reason leader that I wasn’t at the cabinet meeting that you refer to was because I was in London meeting ministers campaigning on behalf of BCP
And look at my social media it’s it’s true it’s true I’m sorry I wasn’t there because I was still trying to do my job so I’m really sorry I wasn’t there but I was still doing my job as a local counselor uh councelor Tarling brought up the point around U well does this
Mean if he doesn’t vote for this tonight that councelor input will stop well yes it does because what if we vote for this tonight this is the document that goes to consultation and that is what then goes through to the inspector unless there are no major changes so actually
This amendment gives a little bit of further input on those specific areas that I’ve raised councelor Martin uh talks about the time scale implication I can’t speak on behalf of the the council clearly but my understanding is because these amendments are quite minor I don’t think it would imp impact the timetable
For the uh consultation process um councilor da talked about the kinson bath site well councilor da sorry to inform you but the conservatives have actually had this as a campaigning uh part for a number of years of commitment to the kinson bath sites and the Leever
Leisure and Community use so much so it was in our last two sets of election literature which I will send you there is a difference however between campaigning and doing and if you did vote for this amendment tonight that would help in your campaign uh to try
And keep this rather than voting against would be tantamount to accepting that you’re happy for a care home on that site um councelor bartler points out around the the consultation and there is absolutely there is a chance of the consultation but as i’ said earlier if we agree tonight without any further
Recommendations this document in front of you Sands these recommendations we’ll go to consultation the wording says any major changes if there are no major changes that will go to the inspector that will be the local plan and finally to councilor sammon um yes this is a
Little bit last minute in terms of the amendment but all of the nearly all of these issues I have been going out and many of these U many colleagues have been going out since the local plan has been um um the process has been going through tonight however is the
Opportunity to actually vote on it I’ve been talking about the Dipsy and traveler situation I’ve been talking about the tobet village allocation colleagues have been talking about the over allocation in their Wards and Council far and councelor Adams in kinson have been talking about the kinson bath site that’s why putting it
Forward you could put your hand up and say no or you could let this be part of the process and say yes thank you sorry I thought you going to say something yes um counselors what we’re voting on now is the amendment which was now to add the full version of um
Council broad head’s original amendment to the document before us so that was um f was it not yes it was a new F that the director planation yes do you want to read that out okay thank you chairman the a confirmation that the uh amendment is to
Add paragraph F that the director of planning and destination in consultation with the portfolio holder for dynamic places consider the conservative groups amendments to the draft local plan as part of the process set out in recommendation B the insertion of that extra recommendation is what you’re
Being asked to vote on right thank you councilors um show of hands for those in favor of adding this to the document thank you those against sign you not voting particular yes that’s fine abstentions one one abstention thank you uh right the amendment was not um sorry members we’re now going back to
The original recommendation which was um spoken to originally by the leader um who wishes to speak who wishes to speak on um our original motion right and don’t forget that you can speak on this even if we’ve spoken previously so this is councelor Tarling first thank you very much uh I’ve almost
Lost my thread it’s been that long with this amendment but um I want to thank this and appreciate that there is further work to do um especially relating to the nutrients uh work and that’s at the moment work uh development work in Christ Church uh my ward is
Actually being held back at the moment for provision of homes but I do acknowledge that this is still very early days in the Imp mentation of uh nutrients and that part of that legislation and I hope that it’s part of development of our local plan that we research this further um secondly it’s
Been mentioned already about the the role of the district valuation office and the affordability testing um and I thank the leader for the fact representation has being made at National level uh unfortunately not something that we can address um at BCP level uh and being a member of the
Planning committee it is frustrating time and time again to find out that affordable homes are not being provided uh because of uh uh the affordability test uh the assessment being done by the uh District valuation office so yet again I thank the leader for the
Comments she made uh on the um on the representation we’re making at National level thank you councilor akenhead thank you so in the corporate strategy that we took be um that was agreed earlier there was um mention of good quality homes that are accessible sustainable and affordable for all and in the
Consultation that went with it there was um I felt quite a lot of emphasis on how important it was for us to build affordable housing as a counselor for p Town Center I’m also very aware that in this local plan a lot of the housing new housing
That’s allocated is in my ward and I know that the residents in my ward are concerned to make sure that their children can afford houses and that’s the doctors and nurses who come to work in our hospital and the teachers who come to work in our schools can afford
Houses to live in houses or maybe Flats as they’re in the town center and so I was very disappointed that within the local plan there is a zero affordable housing is the amount that developers need to provide within the Town Center my ward and it is the same for Bournemouth Town
Center now I have challenged this and I do understand that this is not the fault of our officers and it is not the fault of the administration I do understand that if we ask for too much in the local plan we might end up with nothing and that’s I find really frustrating that
Because of some national rules the way that they work out the viability we cannot ask for that affordable and social housing that we so dearly need um so I will be voting for the plan but there is a gap and so I’m going to ask through the chair I would like to
Ask if the leader of the council will commit to um the council developing a strategy that explores the different options what can we do and defines exactly how we can within this plan provide the affordable and social homes that are so dearly needed in our area thank you um thank you
Counselor um I think we have now counselor Kate salmon thank you chair um others spoke well on the appropriateness or otherwise of the amendment process that we’ve just gone through so I didn’t feel that I needed to add my voice at that time however there was a part of council bro
Broadheads amendment that I would have been minded to support and that was the element relating to the land allocation at Highmore Farm I’m of the opinion that this piece of land should not be developed but be retained in its entirety as green space in order to
Support and dare I say it even enhance and expand our precious Heath and habitats I recognize and I’m grateful for the reduction in the size of the land allocation for strategic employment Highmore Farm I understand that the local plan must provide a certain Quantum of such land allocated in order to pass its
Inspection do I wish we could do more yes and I’ve argued for more consistently during the last few months as the draft local pl’s been developed but I also realize that we have essentially run out of time at this point and that a local plan must go forward to the
Inspector otherwise we risk missing our 2025 deadline for its adoption which would leave us at the mercy of distant officials with no investment in our local area that would seem to be failing our local communities at a fundamental level so with a bit of a heavy heart I’ll be voting for this
Motion thank you councelor councelor rampton yes U thank you madam chair and I just want to be absolutely crystal clear with everybody in this chamber um that I’m supporting what councelor Broadhead said about the very late notice of the allocation of land at brankston triangle we literally had an
Email at 9:00 p.m. on a Wednesday evening saying well we want comments by Friday that same Friday it was outrageous yes it was a local plann working party yes it was cross party but the members of that working party were told instructed not to share any information with even the councelor
Colleagues gagging seems to be a bit of a kind of thing about this uh this council at the moment but there you go so I would just like to make it clear that that was not discussed at the meetings that we had with the um with the planning officers which we did fully
Engage with one of the Ambitions of this emerging local plan is to conserve and enhance our protected habitats and in terms of BR tobert branks and woods I’m afraid that two of the inclusions fail in that regard the land at branks and triangle of course is part snci and
There are slow ones there are sandal lizers there are rare butterflies there are deer they’re all either inhabitants or their visitors the designation of specialist housing is a very loose term but it’s it’s not suitable to have an allocation of a permanent Gypsy and traveler site with the associated
Vehicles the permanent brick buildings um the access is actually really difficult it’s a really low bridge to get under there um so it’s completely inappropriate uh there would be um families living there there would be predation from their pets uh on the on the very um you know the snci as well as
The tri s side because the bridges would take um pets across the bridges to the um to the heathland so I’m not saying do nothing there of course I’m not is absolutely right I’ve had a conversation with a portfolio holder uh specialist housing of some kind like extra care or
Dementia care would be eminently suitable for that site and it is big enough to take that so that’s that site um Madam chair and of course colleagues have and and um other members in the chamber have mentioned the site at uh at tobet Village and removing the employment land from that and I
Obviously 100% support that and you heard from our residents earlier who are also off that mind uh and finally just one more thing Madam chair which is the conservation area brumstead Road doesn’t seem to feature in the local plan in terms of the ward-based allocations so I
Wonder if that was just a a bit of a mistake I’m hoping it is and that that can be added in because the conservation area at brunadol and not forgotten about thank you thank you councelor rampton councelor da I uh thank you um I just want to say
Thank you to the planners who’ve actually completed this and done this local plan and have actually listened to the voices of me and the residents of kinson when we asked for the uh the insertion of uh the wording around the site for kinson bath to be allocated for recreational educational and Community
Uses or a care home I think it’s really important that that option has been put in and has been as as documented and now it’ll be down to the residents to actually lead forward now they have that option to decide and I will be working with the residents obviously to to um
Find out what they really want so thank you and I’ll be voting for this thank you um councelor Andy Martin yeah thank you madam chair can I just first of all Echo what the leader said at the outet um thanking the officers but also thanking my Christ Church independent colleague councelor fips for
Some tremendous work in the last uh six seven months to prod to to get to where we are today and particularly like to just emphasize the environmental aspect of uh the of the plan and I’m really grateful to Steve dring and Laura and the rest of the team
Because a couple of things they’ve done have been really important first of all in our Ward policy in highcliff and also the Strategic policies I’m referring to um the old Christ well still in existence Christ Church local plan which has has some really robust environmental policies to protect uh our natural
Environment uh and following lobbing by uh councelor the other councilor Martin and myself and uh particularly a a certain resident in h Cliff who’s on the parage council Mr sofianos um they have Incorporated all those robust policies into uh into the into the into the BCP draft plan and that’s really important
It’s going to be important for Christ Church in terms of protecting our environment it’s also going to be really important uh I think across the connation uh the other point I would make a really specific point uh under policy Environmental Policy ne2 uh the planning team have um
Incorporated into into that the words ecological networks now that might not seem very much but actually that’s really important in protecting our um alongside our ancient Woodlands our scn uh uh and um all our other local local um green spaces Etc so that’s really important and I thank the team
For that never been more important I think to make sure that the environmental side of uh the local plan is robust as it can be and I’m sure as everybody knows in this chamber uh the UK is one of the world’s worst nature depleted countries uh and I
Think this local plan will serve us really well uh going forward thank you I think that was it was coun councelor Beasley thank you very much Madam chair um had I been uh in time to speak uh to the amendment earlier on there were two points that I wanted to raise
Unfortunately I was cut off uh because the debate was drawn to a close uh and I just like to ask uh the leader if she would commit uh to these two because in Westborn and Westcliffe uh we uh fully uh engaged with the uh allocated planning officer spent a lot of time
With her uh on two occasions and I had anticipated these two have been uh incorporated as part of the outcome of that the first one uh relates to uh the wording that’s used uh around 4f uh within um strategic policy p32 uh and it talks about subject to
Council agreement of a car parking strategy for Bournemouth town center and West Hill um and what I’d like to know uh in terms of getting a confirmation out of it is would we be able to actually stipulate a specific timetable to address the urgent need for a public
Car parking strategy in order to establish both the need and usage of public car parking provision it’s been talked about for for a very long time it has never been nailed down I anticipate quite a bit of work has been done on it by officers but that is really
Fundamental to deciding how public car parking provision is allocated and what can then be done on those sites if anything at all without that we’re working in a vacuum the second uh point was around uh paragraph three in um Westborn and Westcliffe uh and it relates also I think to what was being
Said about cord Cliff windfall sites as well um and my concern there is that I seriously believe that they should be reduced uh in my ward from I think it’s 500 to 200 uh and why do I think that well yes we all know they need to address local needs and local
Constraints uh but the capacity for windfall sites is limited for the future and in in terms of the board I represent along with councelor dorton Gibson who sadly isn’t here tonight because he’s unwell um is that 500 is an unrealistic and extremely unlikely to be anywhere near something that will be met in
Practice so there’s no point doing it unless we’re convinced that it can be delivered and I don’t believe that it can and as a result of that I think the inspector is therefore very likely to challenge that high High figure and we may well find that he rejects it uh and
So I would hope that that could be looked at again uh and on the basis that we want something that’s realistic and that the inspector will support uh I think it is something that needs that second look I had anticipated that planning officers were actually doing that in this specific case from the
Conversations that we had had uh Madame chair so I’d asked the leader she could address those two points maybe not tonight but outside of this meeting and it would be extremely helpful I think not just to the residents of my ward but also to the infrastructure of the town
Thank you madam chair thank you thank you councelor Beasley and can I just say that we’ve all been well not me obviously but the members have been running over there three minutes quite radically and councilor Beasley just has I’ve been very lenient today but I wish we could try and keep ourselves within
The 3 minutes otherwise uh it goes on for rather a long time um who did I have to speak councelor Brown thank you thank you chair I’ll try and keep to the three minutes you can cut me off if you want but um just very briefly just to reference back to the
Amendments proposed earlier at the last minute um A lot’s been said but I really feel that’s disrespectful to all members in the war because if you reduce numbers or remove employment land or you know from one Ward from from their wards that impacts on other Wards you know if if
You cut the employment land well somewhere else is going to have to accommodate that and that’s very disrespectful to other Ward counselors here that you know would then have to accommodate that whether it be housing numbers whether it be employment land very disrespectful to Creekmore colleagues by suggesting actually move
The The gypsian Traveler site to their Ward without discussing with them um and you know I think it just risks putting the whole draft local plan being found unsound because they’re taking it away from one area but not talking about where else that needs to be accommodated
But moving on from the Amendments I’d just like to thank all the planning officers and and councelor fits and and everybody involved for their really hard work in sort of pushing this forward um I really welcome the ward profiles which we’ve got in this draft local plan I
Think that’s really useful not just for Ward counselors and the engagement with Ward counselors but actually I think that will really help the public consultation because it helps people to really understand the plans in their local community and how it affects their local shops and the local streets and
The local parks um the kinson bath site I’d like to thank councelor da for raising that um I’m going to take an interest in that one partly from my role as health and well-being in terms of a care home on that site but also actually for many many years I swam there every
Week so I know the site very very well so thank you for raising that and I’ll be watching that one um just on a slightly different subject I want to talk about the sill charging schedule ever since Sil came in many years ago I’ve taken quite an interest in in in
Structures and the amount of money it raises and how it works and I think this is a really good move to have a seal charging schedule that all areas of town contribute even some areas Town centers fairly small but actually that all areas raise funds towards Community infrastructure I think that’s a really
Important principle so I welcome that and overall you know I’ve got experience around the country of sort of local local plans but draft local plans really often just drift for year after year and they put local areas at a real risk of spe speculative developments if
If they found that a valid local plan is not in place so I think it’s really good that under this Administration within seven or eight months of coming in that we cracked on with this got us on schedule to meet the government demands for a BCP local plan and pretty much
Remove the chance of us having speculative developments across BCP so I think it’s really good that this administration’s cracked on with that and I think we to be congratulated councelor fips and everybody else that’s been involved thank you councelor Brown councelor rby thank you chair um I don’t think it
Comes as any surprise to anyone probably that we don’t really see that this um local plan as it is at the moment goes far enough towards tackling climate change or climate mitigation however it does go further than what we’ve got at the moment and that’s a reason that I’ll
Be supporting this going forward but also I want to reassure probably the residents more who look towards us as a green group to fight on their behalf against um climate change and what we’re able to do that in accepting this and taking this forward to public consultation and hopefully adopting it
Does not mean that that’s what we see as right for the next five years I think as um councelor Joe Samu alluded to earlier there are other methods there are other ways that we can get through different policies in the future which will continue to fight climate change as we
See the need for these to come into place much more urgently um and that’s not just through spds uh also through the um local transport plan which will be coming and many other ways that are going to be coming forward over the next few years and the other thing I want to
Speak to is the ward policies on this and I think they’re really good in the fact that they’ve been broken down into Ward policies and this gives a real opportunity for residents to be able to take ownership and take control in their local communities for the formation of
Real um neighborhood plans to be formed these are an Absolut fantastic foundation to be able to build build these from and let residents have much more ownership and take control of more sill money as well in their areas to develop their communities and our communities in the way that we see more
Fit which can suit the residents so I will be supporting this and the war policies I think are a really strong foundation and starting point for us to move on from thank you thank you councilor Rigby um I’m going to come to councelor fips did you just reserve your right to speak
Councelor fips as the second thank you thank you chairman so I’m just going to basically do a little bit of an overview and then pick up on certain points I’m sure those that I don’t pick up on um uh the leader will um do so in her summary uh um
Basically with the merger of the councils we have a requirement in law to have a local plan as we know our three plans are now well out of date um and we’re in a situation where if we don’t get ourselves a plan it’s just basically going to be open house for developers if
We don’t watch it um so we did an issues and options as we know in 2022 and from that one of the big things that came out was actually our residents don’t want to be a city we’ve got three towns and that’s way they like it and there are
Every everywhere is individual um they don’t want to just become one um with everything the same so we then decided the best thing to do was to actually change the plan or change the direction of the plan from where it was going before and that’s where the individual Ward policies came in and
It’s been great to hear from some people that they really appreciate that and I think everybody does because most people have really engaged in this and I do hope you have been able to take ownership of the policies in your ward and you you have engaged and and it’s
Been been really good so it’s given us that chance to build on the individuality of areas um instead of BCP just to having policies all the same so we’re looking at communities first we’re starting from the bottom up rather than the top down it’s also a great
Opportunity uh to deliver as best we can on the climate and ecolog ecological emergency and I do hope you feel that we have done that because we really have tried hard to make this a theme throughout the whole plan um we’re never going to please everybody we know that but we have done
Our best um we’ve been listening and those of you that have engaged with us I hope appreciate that um following overview and scrutiny and cabinet we have made a few changes and those are already um uh summarized in the appendix to the report you’ll see that there um we did those
Separately to try and make it easy rather than putting red lines through a plan and make we think that was quite difficult they’re they’re there in black and white and you can see then you have a clean copy of the plan as to what it
Looks like at this time in its sort of final all final draft stage um some of the key changes have been and one of them uh councelor Martin has mentioned about the environmental issues have really beefed up um our environment policies at the request of counselors um the new nppf National planning policy
Framework has just been released only a week or so ago and it confirms what’s in our plan we don’t have to release the green belt it also confirms that the government standard methodology for identifying housing need is just the starting point for determining a housing Target and this is how we have
Formulated our plan from that starting point but we have established evidence based on local housing need which is the way it should be we’ve updated um our policy and E3 biodiversity following recent uh the recent issue of government legislation on implementing biodiversity net gain with a preference now for Onsite
Provision that’s in the plan um after debate at overview and scrutiny we updated policy C2 sustainable construction and low carbon energy to include the requirement for zero carbon ready homes which reflects the current government consultation on future home standards which comes in from 2025 we also housing targets
Coun can I just ask you to wind up now because you get way over minutes I was going to going to go into affordable housing a little bit have I got any leeway or would you like me could I could I just say one thing on affordable housing okay so we held the
Briefing as you know and we have looked at this in depth and there are some issues that were mentioned about this um and so using the formula of guaranteed Financial contribution for Town centers and affordable housing numbers elsewhere we felt that this was definitely the best way forward um because with
Affordable housing Financial contributions we should achieve over the plan period around around 25 million to build affordable homes and the delivery of around 1500 homes within developments and I wanted to make that clear um it’s I just want to stress that we really do need this plan and I do hope
That you will please vote to take it Forward I could say a whole lot more but hopefully the leader will pick up on the things that I haven’t thank you thank you councelor FIP sorry to cut you off um leader I believe you want to um sum up the end of the debate
No further people indicating no no I hope not no I don’t think I’ve missed anybody no that was councilor was my best to Rattle through and hopefully I won’t miss anybody out so my I’m my goal here is to try and respond to everybody uh councelor taring talked about
Nutrient neutrality this is a major problem that we face and it’s going to it is inevitably going to push the delivery of homes in Christ Church to the later years of the plan we need to work as hard as we can to work with whoever we need to and I’m very happy to
Work with councelor Broadhead in his capacity with the conservative councilors Association he doesn’t represent BCP uh he represents conservative Council Association um and our both of us and councelor hilard who are all involved with the local government Association to make this happen and in my most recent meeting
With Sir Christopher Cho he has actually tried to arrange a meeting with defra so we can move this forward councilor akenhead I’m grateful for your support and recognize that how difficult this is when you’re so passionate about affordable homes um and I just want to
Say I met with six forers today at cill school and this was top of their agenda um so um we do have a housing strategy due later this year and I’m happy to work with councelor Wilson and the director of communities to make sure we include this in that councelor Kate
Salmon totally recognize your concerns Highmore Farm has been a story for many many years um the allocation was included in the poor local plan it was removed from Green Bay out you know that’s something that’s very difficult to re um restore and as you know there’s a live planning application I think we
Need to make the best of what we will have left regardless of the outcome of that and to improve biodiversity net gain everywhere that we can uh councelor rampton just for clarity your conserv Conservation Area in brunstein road is on your ward map it’s not mentioned in
The Preamble uh Steve dring has said he’ll make that Amendment for you um but you know I think we we’ve talked about um the Highmore Farm to to the ends of the Earth and I’m incredibly disappointed that councilors in Creekmore don’t appear to have been consulted before someone tried to shift
The proposal across to to that um that Ward um councelor da da did I say that right um I think the it’s really interesting that extending the options around the allocations is something that that I think we should be welcoming and in fact if you look at the uh the
Bransom triangle site that also talks about specialist housing it’s doesn’t specify that it’s only one type it’s about that so the the ability for us to um Flex things and increase the options as they meet the needs of community I think is it reflected andm environment brilliant proud we’ve lifted them uh
Councelor Beasley I can confirm that we have finally got the initial data through on the carox strategy but there’s a lot more work to come uh We’ve literally had the the sort of draft findings and as far as I can tell it’s likely to be the Autumn before we are
Going to have the output but we are getting there and of course windfall is windfall and we don’t we’re not going to turn down applications for windfall so if we’re looking at reducing the number of windfall um uh properties that would be a bit of a crazy thing to do because
We should take the windfall assuming that it meets um meets planning policy specifically um there is an issue as Council Brown said about the knock on effect we’ve got to deliver 1,600 homes a year and if we take from one Ward the allocation got to be made up somewhere
Else councilor rby finally I think I’ve covered everybody there um I think you’re right we do need to go further but this is our solid start and I’m really grateful for your support in recognizing that we’ve moved a long way from where we were I think that the
Difference um over the last six months thanks to officers listening to what was being said to them I think we need to pay tribute to them um and I absolutely agree with you we should see more neighborhood plans as they can deliver real ownership by community unities for
Communities and the more of them we can get through the better um I think I’ve covered everybody that’s commented I’d be really grateful if we can get this through the the uh consultation period um is Shifting slightly by just a few weeks because of a a period of time in
The we are going to be assessed under the new nppf National planning policy framework uh and in order to do so it can’t the consultation has to happen once that the the um Guillotines come down down on the old one so this will go out in the next few weeks uh with an
Intention to go to inspection in around about May so uh things are still pretty much on track for a 2025 adoption and who knows what the revised local plan will look like next year once it’s been through the ringer um thank you everybody and particularly thanks to all
Of the officers who worked so hard over four years thank you um leader that was a masterful summing up um members I’m going to ask for a show of hands on this the recommendations are a b c d and e we’ve already voted on the amendment
Which was at f um can we have a show of hands all in favor those against thank you thank yous oh sorry yes sorry abstentions thank you that’s three thank you that that’s passed thank you um right we’re moving on to item nine which was um cabinet 13th of
December 2023 minute 70 and this is oh thank thank you councelor tling that’s the way to leave a meeting um right um Council new build housing and acquisition strategy councelor Wilson I understand you’ll move the recommendations and I think councilor Earl will second this move uh thank you
Chair um this report is an update to the council’s new build uh and acquisition strategy often shorten to scen as it sets out the council’s ambition for housing delivery over the next 5 years citing important aspects in delivery of the homes we need these are key projects uh planning and construction commitments
Partnerships as well as the surrounding context and and the outlying success that we’ve already had at the heart of the report and recommendations is the site at hillborne school uh previously approved in 2018 and uh 2022 uh for 110 new homes that will be built to high en environmental standards
And the site will be 100% affordable with 50% of the homes uh being rented at Social rent levels and 50% of the homes being uh for shared ownership in order to get Spades in the ground this year we need to approve a revised capital budget of 33.3 6 million pounds which will see
The gross development of the value more than the cost of it and over the 50-year period of the loan it will generate a 9 million pound Surplus for the h which can be invested into new homes the report also asks us to accept a deed variation to our homes England Grant and
To accept the grant agreement in relation to our single homelessness accommodation program all of these have been checked and approved by our legal team and without which we won’t be able to secure this much needed funding uh the main uh contributor to report Nigel Ingram is no longer working for the
Council so I would just like to put on record uh our thanks for all of his hard work um not just on this report but also um in his years at the council um so I’m happy to forward the recommendations as set out in the paper as they will come
To achieving our overall goal of giving everyone a safe place uh that they can call home thank you thank you councelor Wilson councelor Earl I believe you’re seconding yes happy to Second members um we can go to the debate on this do I see any hands raised for
Debate no councilor ear then do you wish to speak as your seconding um yes I mean I’ll be really really quick all I was going to mention was that I’ve had a real pleasure of visiting um homes in my ward and adjacent Wards which had been built
Through uh BCP to provide much needed social housing often at different tenure agreements um and I think it’s brilliant that we’re going to have a real mix and we’re focusing on this as a council thank you right members do we have consensus on this can we agree agreed thank thank
You moving on to item 10 um cabinet 13th of December 2023 minute number 72 am I on the right page here yes I supposed to yeah right we’re moving a bit faster now right um vehicle charging infrastructure and local electric vehicle infrastructure structure um councelor Hadley I believe you’re moving this recommendation and
Councelor Burton is seconding thank you chair um so this is an opportunity from a Department of Transport uh um to take a to receive a grant of 1.4 million um and 373,000 revenue um in order to implement or to accelerate the the um uh um the the electric vehicle charging points
Particularly around residential areas support um people who do not have off off-road parking um as a part of receiving this grant we need to demonstrate that we have um a public electric vehicle infrastructure strategy U um for the years ahead and and so that
Is also um before us tonight to to to be uh approved um the key area as I said is is is around U um increasing accessibility in residential areas and part of that is because they’re they’re not felt to be economically viable for the private sector to provide without
Assistance from us um the costs are uh um increased because U um connection to the grid is always a challenge and and uh um and that that is um a difficulty um the revenue element will support our planning and delivery of of the sites um and there is the potential with within
This and and it’s highlighted to support multimodal hubs and Car Club locations as well um there was public consultation as part of the process on this and we had 366 respondents um which um included 192 suggestions for locations for the EV charging points and 63 locations where
People were suggesting EV car club uh um uh um locations which is really welcome um this doesn’t cover destination charging which is the high power charging for our visitors U um and and perhaps more the commercial centers mam chair I recommend this to council thank you
Thank you coun yes thank you chair I’m very happy to Second this and I reserve my right to speak if needed later right so do you want to call coun councelor Car Brown uh thank you madam chair um we uh would like to move an amendment which we
Have shared with the um the group uh sorry with the council members um so yes I’m just notifying you that we would like to move an amendment on this um yes can we can you tell us what the amendment is please councelor yes very happy to um as I said it’s been
Shared but I’ll read it out um and it’s to add to the recommendations a point D which would say uh continues to investigate a range of Technologies and solutions such as gullies popup and lamp post charges to facilitate and establish comprehensive on Street electric vehicle charging on residential roads to help
Residents without access to driveways to transition conveniently and affordably to electric vehicles which is a crucial part of our Ambitions to address climate change thank you do you have a second counselor I think second third fourth and fifth are you going to fight it out who yes sorry chair somebody just woke me
Up um for second chair and reserving my right to speak during the debate ask councle councelor Hadley having sorry councelor councelor Hadley having heard the amendment you would you um accept this on your motion mad Madam chair I I would and I would refer members to um
Page 668 of your pack U um um there is a uh um a a a paragraph EV 2.2 which if I could read because it’s quite short this is actually in the strategy as as as as as planned but it also gives some of the reasons why perhaps U um the on Street
Technology hasn’t been considered at the moment but recognizing the technology is fast changing um I’m very happy to accept the recommendation the paragraph concern says uh EV 2.2 to consider all available residential charging options with Solutions designed to balance the needs of residents businesses and visitors whilst keeping it safe and
Accessible network of foot ways and minimizing the amount of Street furniture and clutter the council’s EV consultation feedback highlighted a clear preference for charge Point infrastructure targeted of residential streets to be in the carriageway and not on the footways this will reduce clutter and improve maintain space for pedestrians individual site service will
Be required to assess potential encourage relocations so it’s in the strategy and I accept the amendment as as proposed thank you so members we have an amendment proposed osed and seconded and accepted by the original um motion putter I believe the leader wishes to speak briefly on
This have we have we adop we’re now speaking on the substantive as amended no okay you want to clarify yeah so just to clarify the the council needs to take a vote to agree the amendment that which then becomes part of the substantive you then have the
Debate and there’s no no discussion on whether should or shouldn’t be given it’s just a straight vote once the proposer has accepted the amendment which it has done nothing so I mean I’m happy to I I can outline briefly for you why I’m making the amendment if it helps
Clarify for thank you coun I’m just saying if it helps clarify for the chamber thank you counselor there’s no need to speak further but if it’s not necessary then I will accept the amendment uh accept the thank you very much members we’re going to the vote on
Accepting the amendment can I have a sh of hands in favor right that’s pretty much unanimous thank you now we can go to the debate on the um on the substantive um motion thank you councilor SL are you speaking on the substantive motion thank you briefly
Thank you I will be brief um I I absolutely welcome this piece of work and uh uh there was an announcement earlier this week or late last week that BT are actually making uh a trial of using the uh defunct BT boxes to be used uh for this very purpose and uh whilst
That obviously isn’t listed in here uh there are other conversations we need to be having with BT about the various bits of infrastructure that they hold in our communities particularly in places like kinson uh and Broadstone that have these massive great um buildings that we could
Perhaps repurpose so um I um it would be really good for us to approach BT and say we’re accepting this money we’d like to move forward with it we’re already doing actually a pretty good job in my experience driving around in my uh relatively low um Range uh EV it’s much
Easier to charge your vehicle in this area than it is in a lot of other places so we’re already doing pretty well um and if we can take it one step further and help people that otherwise couldn’t get uh EV let’s do it any more members wishing to speak
Before we go to the vote councelor Brown thank you chair yeah I’ll I’ll just speak briefly um I really welcome this this this plan just to sort of make it clear to about what we’re doing around EVS I don’t have an electric vehicle myself at the moment but I do a
Lot of work around the country with the the um electricity networks and I know Council had the point about constraints on our electricity networks and the problems that causes us and it’s I think it’s really important that we work with ssse as our local um Network operator to
Sort of to to overcome those issues and and in those in the work I do around the country I’m often involved in discussions about um how people aren’t left behind in the transition to Net Zero and the introduction of electric vehicles and and the introduction of you know domestic heating move moving over
To electric and air source heat pumps and those sorts of things and how we don’t how we make sure that it’s not just those people in the leafy suburbs with driveways that that can plug in their electric vehicles about how everybody can benefit from from this
Shift so I do really welcome the um the additional the amendment and because I think that just helps to clarify that that actually it’s not just for those people who got the money to buy electric cars or they got money to install air source heat pumps on their houses we
Need everyone of all communities to be able to benefit from from the shift to to to Net Zero thank you I don’t see any more hands did um sorry where we got to councilor Burton did you you reserved your right do you want to speak before
We go to the vote um I would love to speak about this actually but I’m not going to because I don’t think I need to oh very strategically done then thank you um members then on this particular item can we have a consensus vote is that agreed I think so thank you very
Much I’m having suggestions of a very short Comfort break so we will break for five minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes then [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause]
[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] St [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] okay yes right members we’re live now item 11 AUD audit and governance committee um 30th of November 2023 minute number 46 this was the review of The council’s Constitution and this is the recommendations of the Constitution review working group um councelor Andrews I understand
That you’re all going to move the recommendation and councelor fips is going to Second the move thank you thank you madam chair that’s correct and for those who trying to find which page we’re on it’s page 709 on the uh agenda um yes um the new Administration agreed
To have two planning committees instead of one and to change traffic regulation order decision- making uh with more Community involvement um audit and governance committee have been discussing both of these and hence the recommendations you have before you this evening firstly dealing with the planning committee the council has
Operated as a single committee since the council was formed however many requests have been made for area based committees many other councils have area committees which have seen to support more localized decision- making so a& have agreed the following the number of area based committees should be two split on
An East and West basis to be named East and Western BCP planning committees the planning service is already being restructured to establish an East and West teams so the alignment with those is very important for efficient working indeed there was a statement from um Sheila Warner earlier this
Evening um mentioning the fact that perhaps there should be three as opposed to two um but on the basis that um the officers are splitting it between an east and west I think it’s logical to carry on with the suggestion of two now the dividing line between the two areas is to follow
The formal walled boundaries two specific areas were determined using historical data to provide as best possible an equal balance of Officer workload for each area also for committee workloads and the number of counselors the recommended number of members for each committee is 11 which is a reduction on the current number
Political balance rules will apply to each committee but local representation from political groups is to be encouraged the intention is to have courtly briefings for all committee members that’s both East and West to promote consistency uh training now training was considered uh and it is vital for all members and indeed potential substitutes
On planning committees um um that has been covered and the proposed constitutional changes that uh you have in the track draft there is a new section referencing mandatory training there have been obviously situations where substitutes have attended planning committees and perhaps they haven’t had full training and this
Is very important that even substitutes get trained up now there is also reference to tag um and the other item in this report and together with licensing and appeals committee all of these crazyy judicial committees are to have mandatory training now transport Advisory Group tag the council currently
Refers all traffic regulation orders and other transport related matters to cabinet for approval the new admin has indicated a desire to promote Community involvement and local representation on issues which affect specific loyal localities and ask the Constitutional working party and to consider the introduction of tag a& are recommending
That the transport ad group also be established from May 2024 based on the following principles the membership comprises of one member from each formally constituted political group I think there’s seven in total only non-executive members can serve on that Ward counselors May attend and speak subtitute members are not permitted tag
Meetings are to be open to the public and where possible live streamed meetings of tag will be approximately a fortnite part of each cabinet meeting um now where there is no significant or contentious objections uh received the idea is that the decision can be delegated to officers public
Participation will be allowed and that’s very important councelor Andrews you’re going well over your three minutes so you’re going to be winding up any I have just one more more sentence basically I understand it’s important therefore all the proposed constitutional changes are set out in the track copy which is
Attached to the agenda which you have before you so I so propose items 11 a to c set out on the agenda thank you thank you councilor Andrews um can I call on councelor fips who is seconding yeah happy to Second and reserve my rights to speak thank
You councilor is any debate on this motion councelor Bartlett thank you madam chair uh with respect to recommendation a uh when the shadow local Authority created a single planning committee there were concerns that it may not cope with the number of applications coming to the committee this did not materialize and the single
Committee has accommodated its workload for over the past four years or so with relative ease full Council was previously considered a similar request to introduce area based committees and this was rejected the latest attempt to introduce area planning committees is stated to improve local representation but planning decisions are driven by
Planning policy as required by regulations contained within the national planning policy framework and the local plan and not by the personal views of planning planning committee members we should also remember that the role of w councilors in planning applications was enhanced specifically to ensure that local viewers would be
Properly presented to the planning committee this is important that planning committees exercises Authority in a consistent way across all parts of the colation creation of another committee makes this hugely difficult not just because there will be two sets of counselors all battling with a complexity of policy-driven decision making but particularly when you
Consider that Bournemouth will be split right down the middle we’re one with one committee on the East and another on the west I would ask you to consider how does this Arrangement improve consistency or improvements in decision making introduction introduction of a second committee adds more complexity Administration time training Dem
Democratic and planning officer support and costs given this there are no logical reasons that I can see to change the current one committee arangement only reasons not to so if this is obvious to me why is the A&G constitutional working group made this recommendation and why was this
Sanctioned by the A&G committee the answer is simple neither committee committee seriously considered the rationale for the change they only considered what needed to be done constitutionally to accommodate the change for a decision that the administration had always already agreed to make please watch the A&G committee meeting recording and you will
Understand why I have drawn this conclusion it is clear to me that the proposed change is unnecessary it does not add value in any respect only cost and will result in inconsistent planning decisions across the conation members I have sat on the planning committee for about seven years and I can tell you
That if you agree to this change it will be a big m mistake this is why full Council has rejected similar proposals before and why you should reject it now thank you madam chair councilor Andy Martin thank you madam chair um just very briefly uh I completely disagree
With my good friend councelor Bartlett and I’m sure um councelor fips will pick up uh his points in her in in um in her summing up um or rather councilor Andrews can I just thank councilor Andrews and Margaret fips for uh their work on this and helping to for to to us
To deliver a Manifesto commitment for suddenly from Christ Church’s point of view I don’t know whether that was a commitment from other groups as well um both in 2019 uh and in 2023 um for for the benefit of uh members who weren’t here in the last Administration or the in the last
Council um it was in fact councelor fips who brought uh um a request to full Council for this to be considered at that point I think it was three planning committees and a bit of a plug for the four Parish councils in Christ Church who all club together to fund a uh a
Feasibility report from a planning consultant uh who who has worked on all the local neighborhood plans who recommended or advised that this was perfectly feasible it was done in other areas and worked perfectly well um so uh that Margaret fips brought that to full Council it was rejected by the previous
Administration um but here we are exactly two years later with that about to be implemented if it is if it is passed um which just goes to show uh that politics is the art of the possible so thank you for bringing this and getting this sorted out thank you very much councilor
Ramp yes um thank you madam chair for allowing me to speak on this proposed model for non-arab based planning committees as Mrs Warner said earlier in her statement Bournemouth has been carved up with four Wards in the west and the remainder in the East and please ask yourself what connection in planning
Terms has Tolbert and branks and woods for example with hamy or Bearwood and Merle whereas three WS werone winon West and winon East have natural affinities at audit and governance when I was um subbing I queried why only option three was in the paper in any detail I feel
That this council is being bounced into a costly and unnecessary change financially almost £100,000 plus sras and presumably an srra for tag as well although that isn’t mentioned in the report well that could pay for Kings Park or maybe even a couple of padding pools couldn’t it another recre increased resource on
Top of the estimate uh Accord to paragraph 44 or reduced support well for an Administration which has shamefully allowed a major application to be appealed on grounds of non-determination presumably the workload is already very heavy so I would have got that in order before making such a radical and
Expensive costly uh and mistaken change thank you councelor councelor sumon councelor Joe sumon I believe you indicated so um yeah I feel like this is solving a problem that doesn’t exist I can’t get my head around the the need if there’s a need for separate areas to have their
Own planning committee why isn’t it free why is it only two but my understanding having had a go at being on planning committee is that the decisions are Quasi judicial or whatever the Latin is or whatever that is and so it should just be consistent the whole way through
This just seems to be rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic I can’t see any justification for this and I a I I’m not sure how a tag come into this I thought we were just talking about splitting up planning committee but on the splitting up planning committee it does just seem to
Be creating an extra administrative burden if there’s more stuff than one committee can handle they put on additional sessions like they’ve done previously I don’t see the point and I think it would be really hard for us to explain to Joe public what the point in this is and it’s probably a bad
Idea Council de pan thank you chair I I fully support all the proposals in this U motion um having served on the transport advisory um group in pool for a little while I know how useful that was um and now on planning committee I’ve been on the BCP planning committee from
The start I’m now chairing it and I very much welcome the idea of um dividing it um or mention has already been made of the motion that was brought to the previous Council two two years or so ago U proposed by councelor fips I was the her seconder because I’ve also been
Advocating that having only one committee for the whole of this area was um stretching um abilities to cope with the wide um geographical knowledge that was needed uh other Council has councils as have been said have uh several committees um some as many as three or four or even
More two is a start um it may in due course prove that that needs to be adjusted I’m not that advocating that I think two will should work very nicely but it will give us more chance to look at hopefully more applications um the numbers we’ve been getting recently
Coming to committee have been quite limited um with two committees that will give increased scope should Ward counselors feel on behalf of their residents they need to call more applications in it will give us capacity to deal with them so as I say I very
Much welcome it and on the cost issue um and reference to extra sras well that is not an our gift that is uh decided by an independent reviewer um if they deem that um uh sras need to be reduced in in amount that is the that is their
Decision and we have to go along with it uh so cost should not be an issue democracy always has a price and it’s a most people think it’s a price worth paying within reason so as I say I fully support this proposal thank you counselor councelor
Rigby thank you chair um I’ve got two two questions on this actually hopefully um the proposer can answer one and you the second chair um the first one is with this splitting into two planning committees when it comes to political balance on these committees does that mean that only councelors who are from
Wards in the East could sit on the East BCP planning committee and west on the west and where is that outlined is that change in the Constitution that this going to be the case or are we just going to end up with a situation where we have for example Christ Church
Independents or poor people for example who may have enough members to have seats on both we then have to switch political balance and then that takes a full uncontested vote at full Council for that to be happen so I’d like a bit of clarity around how that would
Actually work and are we creating an addition Problem by separating this um the tag side of things fully supportive I’ve wanted a tag group for a long long time and I’ve um asked the leader a lot so chair my um question to you would be could we vote on the recommendations in
This separately please thank you yes you wish to vote on a b and c separately yes I think that’s something that I can just agree on um councelor Jillian Martin I believe you indicated thank you madam chair um I um I sit on the I sit on the planning
Committee I wholeheartedly agree with Marian um about the the fact that it’s once every four weeks once a month um and it does I I think my reason for supporting this would be the workload the sheer workload and it would benefit members of the public uh because the meetings the planning committee starts
10:00 sometimes goes on till 3:00 in the afternoon I do I do feel sorry for members of the public that arrive to speak on a Case uh and they might not be heard till 1:00 so they’re sitting there in a strange environment for 2 or three
Hours waiting for their case to come up and I think so doing it for Lightly for that reason alone would be a good idea uh I I agree with Joe as well actually in that Joe Salon councelor J sumon in that it needn’t be geographical though
It could be the still the whole of the conation but but fortnightly instead of for every four weeks thank you thank you councelor Martin I don’t see any more hands so councelor oh so sorry councelor chaler I didn’t see your hand genuinely that’s okay I know you want to
Move things along um and and really my my point is is just purely around with regards to the planning committee are we saying that there is so much work that we need to split that level of workload or are we then going to encourage more applications to come to planning
Committee um and encourage more councilors to actually maybe propose or use uh uh the calling in process to do so um otherwise you know I I agree with Council samon we are solving a problem that doesn’t really currently exists and actually just increasing costs at a time
When we be being told and we’re all aware of how much we need to try and cut them thank you thank you counselor councelor Haynes were you actually indicating or waving to councelor chaler no I was just indicating that councelor chaler thank you madam chair I thought you were thank you um councelor
Hadley thank you chair um I don’t have a strong view on on the the planning committee it’s not I haven’t served on the planning committee myself um I I do think there is something about about consistency of policy but equally um particularly for members of the public
The the accessibility and as it’s been raised the length of the meetings is something that is a concern um I have those sat on tag in the op Council and also chaired it in the first year year and a half of um BCP Council um and I do
Think there’s value in giving the public U the opportunity uh um very often they’ll get very passionate about parking and and W lines and and very small matters that we don’t really get the airtime in cabinet to consider in great detail um but to be able to query
With officers and with with members U um of tag I think is is a valuable uh thing uh to Aid democracy for for for for people in the in the in those those issues so I support uh um what it’s planned thank you thank you councelor Hadley um I was
Going to say councelor leader I think it’s the leader wishes to speak be councelor slate if you like I don’t mind um so uh two very brief things on tag absolutely support tag I I’m really glad we’ve managed to uh bring this back and I think it’s only positive um on that on
The planning committee I just want to make ref reference and I did raise this may have been at cabinet um that uh there have been there hasn’t been as many cases go to Committee in the last couple of years as as we might have expected and I I don’t know why that is
It may well be that there have been fewer planning applications coming through because of um covid and and a decline in the market but one area which uh will be coming through um assuming that we make the the the change that we intend to is is that all Council planning applications and applications
On public land uh we um in consultation with the new director of planning we absolutely believe that anything the council does subject apart from putting a sign up or you hugely minor anything that requires a full planning application should come to committee it should be dealt with transparently and
Openly that could see quite a dramatic increase in the number of applications that need to come to committee um for the purpose of of being transparent and they are likely to have a lot of public interest and certainly a lot of member interest so although there hasn’t been as much coming through
Historically I fully expect over the last next year or two to see those come forward by quite a big increase and you know if workload is an issue then this absolutely is is important uh and it’s important that people know that they are dealing with people who are recogniz
They really understand that that part of the community uh that they’re being asked to serve on so for that reason I I support um the division into into two committees three committees it would mean if you split it into three towns and I recognize that that our residents
Still in in the in the gallery um it would be virtually impossible for the for the councilors of Christ Church to have some Independence and have a committee that was big enough to be a planning committee there are only 10 counselors in Christ Church and you need a planning committee of probably at
Least seven people so I I think that would be impractical and and while I understand the Divide of Bournemouth we are all one place now BCP councelor Burton you indicate yeah thank thank you chair um yeah I just wanted to talk about the idea of the the two committees um and
Squaring with Joe public um in my experience a Joe public would really like this because in my ward uh one of the um things which are is sent to me many times when people are cross about planning decisions is those councilors who don’t even live here have made that
Decision that they don’t understand the area um it is a c ey judicial yes um except elected members do make that decision um if you want consistency if you totally want consistency why do each local Authority have separate planning committees why isn’t it done totally quazi judicially or judicially uh
Centrally um my ward is right next to wimbor uh which is a Dorp area uh planning decisions get made differently there um and yet they still affect us so um ideally I would also like three areas but I totally get the the leader’s idea that actually it could not be serviced thank you
Counselor counselor canavan chair could I just ask for response to councelor R’s point about councilors who represent wars in the East not being able to represent not being able to sit on the planning committee for West because that was not my understanding of the paper my understanding of the paper was that you
Could do both councelor fips do you wish to speak before the summing up yes thank you I’ll try not to take as long as last time so um I’d just like to start off really with this the shadow Council before the merger um and I remember standing up
There as I believe other there were others as well who supported this and said well actually one committee isn’t a good idea for such a large area and we were told at the time by uh a counselor who’s actually still in this chamber um that this actually was was temporary we
Got to start with something and it could actually be reviewed and I I know there are those who remember that exactly and here we are now over four years later and thank goodness we’ve got to the review finally um area committees do work very well in other councils Dorset has them and they
Don’t seem to have a problem with it so I don’t see why we should um at the end of the day this was a cross party um well I see cross part there were from different um groups on the Constitution working group and it was unanimous that
We brought this to and it was agreed at order in governance and here we are so I do believe that this does give local representation representation um membership will be down to political balance but you would expect that groups would actually say well you live in that era you go on that
Committee that’s how it will work and it will be up to groups it will be up to counselors but they will be area committees and they’ve actually been formed and determined subject to data and it’s all here in paragraph 16 they’re pretty equal as far as the workload it’s a workload for officers
And counselors and I obviously fully support this and I think it is something we absolutely should be doing it works in other places why shouldn’t it work here um as far as tag is concerned um I don’t obviously it’s a much better Arrangement cabinet actually request this it’s going to bring their workload
Down so they don’t have to consider every single um traffic regulation or that comes forward it’ll also give the public and councils two bites of the Cherry if you want to go to tag and have a go about a traffic regulation order you don’t like and it still gets going
Forward you can go to Cabinet as well so and so can members of the public so I believe this is more representation yet again so I’d ask you please to support both of these thank you I apologize members I thought we’d finish the debate but councelor farar do you want to come
In yes thank you very much chair I know it’s a little bit out of order um to come in um for the seconder um who reserves their right to speak um it’s one of these ones whereby uh I think it’s valid to vote on the component part
Separately um having sat on both the uh planning and tag uh essentially I’m I’m sold on the fact that sometimes I’ve been asked as a as a as a counselor as a member to consider officer time um when related to calling things in and I’m sure there’s other
Members here that might well have experienced the same thing but essentially I am uh I am sold on the fact um that um it does make sense because one of the things which I raised before is that I don’t believe that the council should be marking their own homework so any Council application
Should actually go before the committee that is the correct way to actually get it into the public domain M rather than it be de rather than it be um uh delegated and a decision made not necessarily based upon only the um uh the mppf and the variety of the
Regulations but without the input of the representation of the members and the residents and the wards so I will be supporting this motion that we actually have the two simply because there will be more workload because the council will have to bring its own particular applications to committee to be decided thank
You councilor Broadhead thank you madam chairman a very brief um point for me because we haven’t had a answer to councelor rby and councelor pan canavan’s uh question but I do know the answer uh and the answer is um you cannot suspend political balance for any committees so
Um technically each of the Committees for instance would correspond to the full political balance so as you suggested um my understanding of the political balance would be that the Chris Church Independence for instance would have an allocated space on that committee now it is within the gift of full Council to go
Against the political balance but that will be a decision for later so yes political balance isn’t just based on the uh areas of which this is um uh splitting up uh and and furthermore as well the any member of the council can sit on any committee so somebody from
Hamworthy has every right if put forward by the labor group for instance uh to sit on the Eastern committee there is nothing in in here which bars any members from sitting on it as is my understanding so you know i’ just go back to councelor samon’s point at the
Beginning um I won’t be supporting this because this this is this is the wrong solution to the wrong problem um if that makes sense um as Sheila Warner said earlier on I could see the argument we’ve had the argument made before for a separate planning committee for each
Town great but as we’ve heard from the leader that that wasn’t viable due to numbers and I think there’s a credible argument for one committee as councilor Bart has said which crosses um one um BCP and as the leader said we’re we’re one place now apparently um uh and and
You know so that gives a consistency but splitting it down the middle doesn’t resolve the commitment that some have made for a planning committee for Christ Church it doesn’t um fix the issue at all so and and furthermore has issues regarding political balance and and
Other things so it just seems like a bit of a mess um that’s all I’ve got to say but I won’t be able to support it thank you councelor Andrews can you wind up please thank thank you um I’ll be brief although quite a few people spoken I’ll like to mention them Council
Bartlett saying that perhaps there’s not enough work and referrals well in the paper the idea is to have a review after 12 months to see how the whole system is working um uh Andy Marty was saying it was a Manifesto commitment yes um he referred to the independent report that
Crush commission which recommended more than one committee uh Council rampton was pretty concerned about the cost I can assure you for the tag there is no uh SRA um uh as has been mentioned by one of the other councils democracy does come with a cost and particularly on
Planning which is uh CRA udal thing it’s something that needs to be supported uh councelor Joe sumon was saying why why change um well split into two will actually mirror what the officers are doing splitting it into east and west and so it will actually improve decision- making because it will mirror
What the offices are doing um Marin leum welcomes the idea of one committee and is’s a positive way forward Council Rigby’s query um which Council Broadhead has effectively answered already um political balance will apply so councilors in the East and the West um know those councilors in the East and
West in terms of Ward split um you will not be the people people who can solely sit on a committee indeed you might even end up with a situation that the chair of planning um uh on East and West is the same person so in fact they can only
Claim One S um Council Chanda was saying um why why change it well as I said already we’re going to look at it after 12 months to see whether it’s working um the leader of the council um did actually comment about the fact that all BCP applications will be coming to
Committee that will increase the workload um councilor Burton mentioned about a residence particularly in our our war I’m merly stroke bwood Council as well were particularly upset with uh counselors from Miles Away M making decisions but of course linking back into that thing councilors you know make
A decision well some councilors live in one part of BCP but represent another part of BCP so you know their local knowledge may actually uh could apply to to to the east and west um I agree with everything councelor fips has said and uh Council Fara agrees with the
Commitment that the that the lever has made um so I think um ding particular on planning it’s something that should be done we’re going to look at it after 12 months to see whether uh it’s a success um and tag that is a definite Improvement on what’s been happening to
Date and clearly also with the mandatory training not just on planning but tag but other quaz AAL committees that will improve the decision making ac across the board on things which we could perhaps be legally challenged on so I would like you to support the recommendations I’m happy for three
Separate votes to take place so um without any further Ado perhaps we can go to item a please thank you right members oh thank you councelor uh members we want to go to the vote on item a on um on number 11 so we’ve all got that on our sheets
We all know what we’re voting for show of hands all in favor thank you those against those abstaining thank you members that’s carried item uh number I don’t know number Item B um Item B on your sheets All In favor right those abstaining sorry those in favor thank you
Everybody thank you members anybody against anybody abstaining thank you right thank you so the whole thing was carried wasn’t it yes so it’s really car so um the whole A and C were Carri item 12 on the agenda calendar of meetings yes thank you for 2024 and 25 and 20125 and
26 um I believe the leader is going to present this for us I’m very happy to table these calendars and just for the Assurance of members and members of the public um Democratic services are hoping to have our electronic calendars populated by the end of this month or
Early February so that we all know what we’re doing for the next 18 months councilor are you going to Second this before we go to the vote or debate I’m happy to Second it members is there any debate on this can we have a consensus then agenda item 13 BCP future places
Appointment of director and changes to articles of Association councelor Slade I understand you will move the recommendation I certainly am um this is uh is a sort of technical thing here in that we currently have uh non-executive the the company as you know BCP future places is is being closed uh but there
Is work to be done to actually formally close the company under legal um the legal duties uh we currently have non-exec directors they are obviously costing us money each month uh they are quite uh content to complete their work and in order to close formally the
Organization we need a a director to do that and so the council is proposing to appoint Chris Shepard uh with in the in that position there are three options the other one is to go into liquidation wouldn’t recommend that the other one is to keep paying on on exec directors so
This feels like the most sensible option and uh we can then conclude the period of BCP future places I commend this paper councilor Earl I believe you were seconding this yes happy to Second members do we have any debate on this issue councelor canaban thank you chair um I welcome
Paragraph one in the background to this paper because it confirms The View which we’ve held for some time that this company was never needed in the first place uh and I also welcome the indication that the existing directors will resign tomorrow I want to se a couple of points
Of clarification if I may one is can you please confirm the final absolute final date that this company will be closed down and also could you clarify why is it necessary for powers to be delegated to the chief executive to appoint additional directors if we’re closing it down any more members wishing to
Speak leader can I ask you to sum up um yes I can sum up but I may have to come back to councelor canavan with the date of the final closure my understanding is it’s no longer operational but there are going to be accounting measures that need to be
Sorted out one of the the the matters in relation to the um in relation to the closedown is establishing the value of each piece of work and the capacity within BCP Council to be able to assess whether what the whether the value of that work is something that we wish to purchase so
It’s as much about capacity as anything else my understanding is that that should be done by the end of the first quarter of 2425 so we should be looking at uh June uh which is is as as really as as fast as we can expect our officers to do their
Work I am uh assured with the single director is not going to be paid for being a director so that that Financial issue is there um I’m afraid I don’t know the answer about why there might be the need for additional directors um that isn’t in the paper but I’m happy to
Find that out for you unless somebody is able to clarify for me right now if through you chair if you’re willing to allow to clarify that I don’t get it wrong thank you just simply to allow any changes to be made should the uh should Chris sheeper change his role should he
Resign should he leave the council or for any other reason just to allow us to make sure because we only have one director it’s important that we maintain a director and should that circumstance change Council meetings are irregular and infrequent so just to give the power to ensure that we always have one
Director thank you for the clarification um members do we have a consensus on this or do we need to go to a show of hands agreed thank you very much um oh agenda item 14 thank you me members will note that um Janie Barry has left the
Room this is agenda item 14 appointment of the director of Law and government as the council’s monitoring officer councelor Slade I understand that you will move the recommendation and councelor Earl will second this thank you chair um as you’ve seen uh Janie has left the room but hopefully
Not the building hopefully we haven’t put her off at a first meeting um you’ll know that the chief exec had to make the Urgent decision to bring uh Janie Berry in um because of the timing of the cycle of our of our Council meetings uh but I
Hope that you will appreciate that Janie has come in to be our monetary officer and the Constitution requires that we formally appoint her as a council so hopefully I don’t need to say anymore you’ve all met her tonight and I think she’s had a baptism of fire so uh with
With that I I’ll say no more councelor o yes happy to second that members any debate I think not is that a vote need to check yeah consensus on this counselors thank you and as the leader says yes she we we’ve tried her out we think she’s
Okay members agenda it agenda item 12 notices of motion in accordance with procedure rule 10 um this is a motion lift the ban motion on Asylum Seekers ch um councelor gillet um can you move the motion oh sorry councilor for some reason I was looking over there I’m so sorry yes
Please do I’m moving slowly around the the room as I get reallocated um so um so yes so this motion is um in respect of the uh the LIF the band Coalition which is a a group of organizations which are campaigning to restore the right to work to everyone who’s waiting
For more than 6 months for a decision on an asylum claim um I want to focus on the reasons that are very pertinent to BCP um and ICM which is the Asylum Seeker Support Agency which is based here in Bournemouth on holdenhurst road uh most um Asylum Seekers are able and
Willing to work but instead they are completely dependent on the state the council and charity support in BCP where they are housed by houses for Ukraine between pastures or ICN the council receives no council tax equating to between £75,000 and £200,000 a year in Lost Revenue the um the Asylum Seekers are
Willing to work and to support themselves and yet they find themselves forced into squeezing the resources of our local charities in a national survey 52% of Asylum Seekers were forced to use food banks at some point during their application this Compares nationally with 6% of children and 1% of adults in
The general population not allowing Asylum Seekers to work is needlessly putting pressure on the food banks in BCP and this is particularly absurd when most Asylum Seekers who have been remained in in six months within the process are are in professional jobs from their originating countries um the
Final pressure on the ban which I just going to cover is that um when the refugee status is granted the immediate drop in support which then occurs U is often could given a very very short notice it can be as little as a week it’s supposed to be 28 days but quite
Often it can be as little as a week and that has led within BCP to a large number of people being made homeless in fact in a an foi which was uh done at the uh at the end of last year 90 Asylum Seekers um were registered as homeless
In the first 10 months of 2023 in BCP putting unnecessary pressure on our local groups such as ICN hope for food Faith Works the trust trust and some mongos all of which have being needlessly stretched by this and we need to allow the economy to uh to to to flourish and
That’s do you have a seconder councelor councelor Rigby thank you thank you chair yeah really really really pleased to be able to Second this and I think it’s such an important motion to bring and such an important thing which BCP Council should add its
Name to um and begin to use our voice to campaign for the Dignity of Asylum Seekers here um I was going to stand up and rattle off a load of figures about how longum claims take and how long people are here and how long people are
Living in hotels for on barges for how they’re isolated and how it is really really impacting people’s mental health but I think what to do this and to do it justice is to give this some sort of humanity we hear so many stories of Asylum Seekers so it come to this country
And they’re spoken about as though they’re not people and this is what we’re talking about we’re talking about people and we’re talking about giving people the right to work the right to Integra into our communities the right to make friends not to be separated and put off to one side and just left
Without kind of ignored and stuck in the side so what I want to talk about is this lift the ban they’ve got a very core belief and that is the belief that people who have risked everything to find safety should have the best chance possible of contributing to our society
And Integra ating into their new communities this means giving people seek an asylum the right to work so they can use their skills and live in dignity very very simple very straightforward and to give you an idea of the impact that it has on people who have come to
This country and how being able to work would greatly improve not just their lives but our lives as well and those around them um I want to read something from an asylum Seeker who is um currently living in Bournemouth and they’re involved in um V Celeste program
Which is using art and performance to um for people who are both in recovery and who have English English as a second third or fourth language and they’ve worked a lot with um a lot of the Asylum Seekers currently here and they put on a fantastic Nativity Play called the
Refugee in Nativity um and also a play called hopeful earlier last year you should really go and look at it but um one of the guys who was involved in this he’s just wrote a few words in if I’m going to do something I don’t usually do and actually read something and I’ll
Read it for if that’s okay um V NOA provides us with the opportunity to enter the society because of the friendly and intimate relationships it promotes between people especially refugees through visan NOA I have made many friends each from a different nationality Von NOA taught me some of
The culture of England and led me into society when I came to Von NOA I was alone and eager to continue my work and life in art V NOA made this possible for me and allowed me to act again and breathe again in the theater and now
Many people know me and respect me and my art in the future I can work more easily and better improve my life I think everyone needs to work especially refugees work helps to learn the language and improve conditions by working it is easier to get into the community and learn English culture
Unemployment causes depression and certainly no Society needs depressed people and finally when we are able to work and have permission to work we can also pay taxes and this will reduce the government’s additional expenses for accommodation and food for refugees I’m going to leave it there because I think that says everything
Chair members is there any debate on this councelor Fara thank you madam chair and this motion is made with obvious good intent and on the face of it it’s difficult to suggest why anyone would not support it but there are a couple of aspects about the motion that
Prevent me from supporting it my first point is that regards subpar 7 and that talks about enabling those seeking Asylum to work would allow them to provide prove their ability to pay rent and therefore reduce the risk of them requiring Council support for housing once they are granted leave to remain
Now I am aware that it is illegal for a landlord to rent a property to anyone that does not have the right of residency in the UK hence technically this point canot actually be accomplished the second point is that this motion requires a change in legislation to be
Affected by government the benefits of the change would appear to be obvious so why is the government not already taken this action here in lies the weakness of this motion as we do not know if this change has been considered by government government and if it has what are the
Reasons for not implementing it there’s always two sides to an argument and we’ve only heard one side of this in this motion not the other and I would like to understand why the government is what why the government has not taken this Seminary obvious action before could it be that the government believed
That such a step would actually increase the numbers of people seeking asylum in the UK may I also suggest that the real cause of this problem is the length of the time the Asylum seeking process takes sorry Asylum process takes and the answer to resolving this problem is to speed up the Asylum
Process this is a matter for national government and as a local Authority we should not make recommendations to government without the authority having a full understanding of all aspects of the issue and for this reason reason while simplify saying in every respect with the humanity humanitarian issues that have been identified raised tonight
I can’t support the motion thank you councelor farar I did call you ini thank you very much chair um similar to Council of Bartlet I’ve got my my query relates to um perhaps the wording of the uh of the resolution or resolve um that we have here for
Myself the the council believes is a preamble it’s the um it’s it’s it’s the gist it’s the resolution which is important and the resolution in this particular case is the second part is for the lead to write to the appropriate um minister or Secretary of State to lay
Out from our perspective as a local Authority and I think that’s right and that’s what local Authority should do um that there should be changes within the legislation um but my query on the on the resolves to is on X um which is join the lift the ban Coalition which is
Campaigning to restore the right to work I’m not convinced that that is the correct terminology to restore the right to work because technically I don’t believe that they have the right to work so I would ask perhaps that there is a small Amendment on the wording um to
Remove the word resoles and to oh sorry to restore and to um put another um verb or noun um in there um simply because I don’t believe that this actually suits the council to restore it’s not within our power thank you to to resolve I should say councelor gillet councelor gillet um
Councelor Fara has suggested that the word restore is changed to don’t know what he suggested to give would you accept that yeah I mean it’s it says restore because prior to 2002 people had the right to work at that time um the um the it was much much quicker to go for the
Asylum process so it was deemed that it was no they were they were joining up with other um International agencies so it was deemed that it wasn’t important um because most at that time most Asylum cases were going through in about a um in in two to three in two to three
Months whereas um so that’s why it’s become a pertinent issue because prior to 2002 Asylum Seekers did have the right to work thank you councelor I think that’s clarified I think councelor Fara we can keep restore thank you chair with that explanation I do accept the word restore and I will be supporting
The uh the motion coun Martin I thought we’ve got the leader for oh the leader is um next to speak thank you chair um I completely support this motion and uh just want to reassure members that uh this has been fully discussed with uh suitable officers uh
When uh we were asked to consider this motion I went to Kelly anel director of communities and to our specialist officer who works with um Asylum Seekers and refugees to understand the implications of what the lift the bang Coalition was asking of us whether there was a financial uh cost to the council
And whether this would actually be something that was meaningful one of the things which they uh explain to me and which has become obvious in the work that that we do with Kieran is that when somebody uh is um is given asylum in this country after whatever period that
It might be they are typically given seven days in which to leave their temporary accommodation that is not time for them to be able ble to gather a deposit get a job be able to evidence to a landlord that they are in a position to pay the
Rent if we allow people to work during the time that they are Asylum Seekers after a period of six months which we understand from the professionals involved uh with working with Asylum Seekers it can take six months for them to settle be in the right place and
Actually be in the right mindset to be able to cope in this country um if we restore that right we can give them the opportunity to firstly pay their way and reduce the burden on the taxpayers but secondly to be able to establish themselves in work and then go on to be
Able to go out and not become uh emergency housing cases for us to have to fill so I think that that fear is unfounded uh the other thing I just want to add is that when uh I had my last meeting with the Secretary of State Michael Gove and my next meeting is
Coming up next month with um the chief executive we actually raised this with him and said that we had jobs that we would like to fill within the council and we asked him at that point personally to consider actually allowing this so that we could fill some of our
Vacancies and we could restore the dignity to the people in this area that are living in this way so I completely support this there are plenty of other councils signed up to this plenty of big businesses plenty of other organizations uh and I think joining the LIF of Bank
Coalition and me writing again to government and reminding them of the conversations we’ve had can only be a good thing for all of our communities and help to build the understanding of the plight of people uh who are Asylum Seekers councilor Broadhead thank you um Madam chair I I
Think it’s really important that we make it clear that there is a distinction between Asylum processes and labor migration channels it’s essential that we have a robust system process that works effective ly and swiftly in the interest of refugees and is not open to abuse by those that would seek to come
Here to work that doesn’t mean that we need to be Fortress Britain the government are putting in place effective management um migration programs and continue to create a number of work routes to allow people to come and work here legally in a way that boosts our economy and many entry routes
Of people who want to work in the United Kingdom those however there are granted Refugee status can work immediately and of course everyone appreciates the important contribution the skills and knowledge of refugees can make to our society and to our economy however our Asylum system exists to help those
Fleeing persecution those that want to come here to work must do so through the various economic rots rather than abuse the Asylum system um chairman they’re actually not my words at all they’re the words of the labor Minister for immigration when labor brought this policy in in
2002 and actually I don’t agree with labor on many things but I do think that the labor government was right to make make that change in 2002 as the then Minister said um there’s a real danger and Council Bartlett pointed this out earlier on that the reason that labor
Brought this in was because there was a real danger of well they’d seen evidence of falling into the Trap of many people abusing the Asylum system um which actually puts further pressure on our um Asylum system as it is to be economic migrants and that is a reason to answer
Councilor bartlet’s um suggestion earlier on why successive governments since have not changed this policy so I think we can all probably agree that we need to support our Asylum Seekers as much as possible I agree with many of the things that the leader has said about the support that we need to offer
Them when they are uh granted Asylum status um but the every single word that I said earlier on came from labor in 2002 I think labor have got it right then I don’t think many things have changed there is still that risk of abuse in the system so in this I’m
Supporting labor and I won’t be supporting the motion councelor rampton thank you madam chair it’s really late I’m really tired I’m not going to speak I’m just going to say I can’t support the motion I agree with everything that councelor bartett has said Thank You councelor Jillian
Martin thank you madam chairman I just wanted to correct it might be a misunderstanding or he might have made a mistake but I believe that the right to rent you get a right to rent certificate you don’t have to be a British citizen to get that so that’s that’s for people
That have come from abroad CU if you’re a British citizen you can just show your British passport instead so I just wanted to correct that thank you thank you councelor gillet do you want to um sum up briefly essentially this motion is about supporting um Asylum Seekers It’s also
About supporting our local agencies that are put under a tremendous amount of needless pressure um such as our food banks and our our homelessness Services um it’s also um as well as that it’s about um sort of bringing together um a policy which recognizes the absolutely huge fundamental changes that took place
In 2020 which completely turned our Asylum we’re not dealing with 2002 anymore we left the Dublin convention in 2020 and that has CH fundamentally changed how Asylum Seekers come to the come to the UK and how they’re being processed so to to say that we’re dealing with what was being dealt with
In 2002 I think is actually disingenuous but that’s why I recommend this to the uh um you can say the house but I don’t think we’re quite a house as yet councilor gillet but it might feel like it sometimes um I’m going to ask for a share of hands on this please um
The resolution is part X and part part 10 and part 11 sorry I’m going I’m tired um counselor show of hands all those in favor yeah all those against abstentions right thank you so that’s passed yeah thank you that resolution is passed item 16 questions from Council
Um right thank you members we’ve got two questions from councilors this evening um councilor far you have a question for the deputy leader and portfolio holder for connected communities on funding bids submitted to the community in infrastructure neighborhood portion thank you councelor f thank you madam chairman uh last summer councilor Adams
And I supported a funding bid by the community infrastructure neighborhood portion of for fun Community Sports Association which was to match much needed upgrade uh much fun muched upgrade for the multi-use games area this was duy submitted on time however since then there’s been no communication back confirming whether the bid was
Successful or not because the the assessment panel has been repeatedly delayed in making the decisions this means the local charity was left in limbo regarding the availability of funding not knowing if they should seek funding elsewhere so the facilities are left unusable unfortunately and leaving them in a position whereby other
Funders leaving them in a position whereby other funders towards the upgrades may not not continue to be so patient at time of writing on the 15th of December it currently stated that the following on the council website round five will open on June 2 23 with bid
Accepted till the 31st of July 23 and we’ll announce successful grants Awards on September 23 further down the page it goes on to State round five closed uh 31st of July successful bids will be announced on no in November 23 uh now it is now January 24 five
Minutes later uh please can the cabinet member confirm the date when the successful grants will be announced so that Fern Sports Association and other Charities will have an idea when funding will be granted thank you thank you who’s going to answer this question councilor thank you Council far um applicants were
Notified of the decisions regarding their applications on the 22nd of December I’m delighted that Fern Heath Community Sports Association was successful in their bid along with 27 other community projects across 16 Wards it’s regrettable that the decision period took so long this was down to trying to find a suitable date for the
Seal panel to meet due to the availability of counselors and officers and also the capacity in the planning team who are working hard to finalize the local plan thank you councilor far do you have a supplementary yes I do thank you and it is a question isn’t it yes I’m
Pleased to hear funds have since been awarded despite the unfortunate delay uh what does the cabinet member intend to do to improve communication with funding applicants to avoid them being left in limbo in future thank you councilor I think really when we’re looking at the next rounds we need to
Make sure that they’re they’re aligned with the timetables of other things that are going on within planning um really this got left behind because of of that timetable alongside huge amount of work in the local plan hopefully now we’ve passed the local plan through Council um
The next round should be a lot smoother um and um you know we’ll have a bit more more of an opportunity to get a bit more pace around it rather than it being sort of sporadically rounds here and there so I’m hoping it’ll be smoother from here on in
Thanks thank you councelor canavan I believe we have a question for the leader thank you chair can I thank the leader for her email to councilors dated the 22nd of December 2023 and the information regarding Devolution the leader will recall that I raised with her an article in the Press
Indicating that the leader of dorsy council would be presenting a paper to their cabinet outlining a wesex model that included Somerset and Wilshire and Swindon could the leader indicate what further discussions are planned whether a joint strategy has yet been agreed if any work has yet been done on a possible
Financial model and at what point a paper is likely to come forward to BCP cabinet on this leader thank you madam chair uh thank you councilor canavan for the question and the opportunity to clarify the current position the previous administration took a paper through the previous cabinet in December 2022
Setting out a number of options to explore around Devolution this gave authority to the cabinet to continue to explore options at the time there were four options pan Hampshire a partnership with Dorset Great Southwest and Central South at that time and now there was a view that we would not be interested in
A mayoral model just stress that is still the case the papers at the time looked at the pros and cons of each option and we contined to look at them when we came into Council in the summer there have been meetings with members across the various options but
During one of those meetings I raised the opportunity to look at a Wessex deal bringing in unitary councils from across the region that covered both rural and urban areas we have now met with the leaders and chief Executives of the six councils and have a further meeting
Planned next week at this time officers have been asked simply to create a working document that looks at where we might be aligned no further details have been agreed we are also aware that both options the government the current government has on the table will not
Work for us and we will not be able to move much further forward than a decision in principle the leader of Dorset has chosen to share this update with his Council as he has elections in May and is Keen to make progress during this term as it Formed part of his own
Earlier commitments the other leaders have made it clear alongside me that this is not a key priority for their local authorities at this time but that we would want to be in a position to be ready should the circumstances change either under the current government or the next government I would expect to
Bring forward a paper to cabinet in the early summer with an update on the options that remain open to us as councils and no decisions or significant spend will be taken without the full Democratic process being followed councilor can thank you chair my supplementary question is then when
Because at the meeting of the on uh Southwest meeting this morning um a report was given by both Devon and Cornwell about substantial progress which they have made on a Devolution model which does not include a directly elected mayor so they’re well underway in those authorities and Devolution is coming so when through
You chair are we as a council going to be able to take a view on this look at the risk look at the options and look at what the U potential situation is in terms of funding from government thank you thank you as as I say there were
Four options that were being considered by the previous administration uh it is was fairly clear that there was not an appetite to simp simply have a Dorset and BCP deal otherwise people would say what was the point of lgr you might s of just have one Council uh the pan Dorset deal uh
You can read about it it’s been falling apart because of uh difficulties between uh the Hampshire County Council and Portsmouth uh so that deal is no longer practical Great Southwest would not be a deal because Devon and Cornwall are doing their own Devolution deals and in fact Plymouth have refused to work with
The Devon deal so it that not practical and Central South which would be um something which would be uh the the central South um urban areas that we all thought was a great idea uh is Not Practical because Hampshire won’t allow there to be a contiguous area so those
Deals that were on the table at at the early stages when we came in are really not practical this idea about going with Wes um has only come forward within the last three months those deals with cormal and Deon have been on the table a lot longer government has to actually
Progress those deals with us we are not yet in that position I fully expect to bring forward a paper to cabinet in the early summer with an update on the options so your timetable of when early summer thank you very much uh of course it is worth saying that those deals with
Uh that Devon and corwall have announced have the approval of government and the the the T the two different tiers neither of them are offering what we would want what we do has to be right for our residents and if it’s not right for our residents we won’t do
It thank you leader we move on to agenda item 17 urgent decisions taken by the chief executive in accordance with our constitution chief executive thank you chairman I took two decisions since the last council meeting one was the appointment of Janie as director of Law and governance and uh as
Monitoring officer on intering basis now confirmed by the council the second was the approval of the submission of the LEP integration template in order to meet the government’s time scale which was that we had to submit it by the 30th of November thank you members um I think
We’d all like to welcome Janie Barry and I hope she’s appreciated our meeting um and at the beginning of the meeting counselors I did say I know that all counselors will uphold the highest standards and treat each other with courtesy and consideration I think we all have it’s been a very long meeting
So thank you very very much um I think we’ve all done very well and we’ve had a very very good debate on all this we’ve had an average of 13 people speaking on each item so that’s been very good um I will close the meeting but can you
Remain seated while the feed goes off please until we we go [Applause]