Agenda, decisions and minutes

To confirm the Minutes of the Meetings held on 7 March 2023 and 21 March 2023.

The Minutes of the Meetings held on 7 March 2023 and 21 March were confirmed as a correct record.

To receive from members, declarations of interest in relation to any items included on the agenda for this meeting, in accordance with the Waverley Code of Local Government Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest raised under this heading.

The Chairman to respond to any questions received from members of the public for which notice has been given in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.

The deadline for receipt of questions is 5pm on Tuesday 28 March 2023. .

There were no questions from members of the public.

The Chairman to respond to any questions received from Members in accordance with Procedure Rule 11.

The deadline for receipt of questions is 5pm on Tuesday 28 March 2023.

Cllr Maxine Gale, Milford ward, asked the following question:

“Will the Waverley Borough Council Executive please consider adopting a formal policy to require all SANG provided in Waverley to be fully funded and maintained for a minimum period of 80 years to avoid undue costs and expense falling on householders in new developments through higher levels of service charge?

My understanding and concern is that these increased costs would also have to fall on occupiers and/or providers of all forms of affordable housing.”

In response, the Leader advised that he was happy to add this to the forward plan of  matters for the Executive to consider, and agreed that it seemed a sensible approach subject to fully understanding the details. He noted that the upcoming elections meant that he was not able to give any further commitments, but he was sure this was a matter that any future Executive would want to explore.

The Leader invited Portfolio Holders to give brief updates on current issues not reported elsewhere on the agenda:

·         Cllr Andy MacLeod reported that work was continuing to address the issues at Brightwells House in Farnham, and lots of positive enforcement work was happening across the borough. Car parking income continued to recover towards pre-pandemic levels of activity.

·         Cllr Paul Rivers advised that the Landlord Services Advisory Board had held its last public meeting of this council year last week, and it continued to be an effective way of bringing the Tenants Panel and councillors together to improve landlord services for tenants. In the last year the Board had contributed to the HRA budget-setting, the review of flexible tenancies and subsequent change to the tenancy agreement policy and strategy, the senior living consultations, the review of quarterly performance reports, monitoring of contractor performance and the Asset Management Strategy, and the HRA Hardship Fund policy which delivered rent credits of £200 to 93 tenants in recognition of their homes having particularly poor energy performance.

·         Cllr Rivers concluded by noting that the Social Housing Bill had begun its final stages in the House of Commons and its intent was to bring forward a stronger and more proactive regulatory regime to drive up standards and hold landlords to account for the service they provide to their tenants. The Landlord Services Advisory Board would be key to demonstrating how Waverley’s tenants were truly involved in decision-making.

·         Cllr Kika Mirylees reported that Surrey County Council had now resumed mowing of highway verge cutting and weed control. Waverley would be cutting meadow areas once a year to promote biodiversity. Waverley had now received the Offer Letter from the Arts Council in respect of the £734,000 MEND Grant for Farnham Museum, which set out the terms and conditions for the grant, including a deed of covenant between the council and the Arts Council.

·         Cllr Townsend noted that the economic development and planning portfolios had been extremely busy, and challenging, and there were further challenges ahead for the new administration, including biodiversity net gain and nature recovery strategies.

All the Executive Members thanked officers, councillor colleagues, and particularly their fellow members of the Executive for their hard work and support for the work of the administration over the last four years. The Leader added his personal thanks to Cllrs Clark and Palmer who had given apologies for the meeting, and past Executive members, Cllrs John Ward, John Neale, David Beaman, Michaela Martin and Anne-Marie Rosoman.

Finally, the Leader thanked the Elections team, noting the huge amount of work over the last couple of weeks leading up to the close of nominations, and the work still to come over the next month.

The Executive to respond to recommendations from the Overview & Scrutiny Committees.

The Leader introduced the recommendations from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings held in March 2023.

The Executive had discussed the recommendations at their informal meeting with the Chairs and Vice-Chairs of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees, and the Leader thanked Cllr Peter Marriott for attending.

The Leader addressed the recommendations, as follows:

R23-20-2-12      Assets Investment Advisory Board update. The Executive rejected the recommendation and referred the matter to a future Services O&S Committee to consider in the context of the Local Planning Enforcement Plan, noting the resource implications of proactively monitoring developments in the way the O&S committee suggested.

S14-03/23-7.1Clean Air Strategy Action Plan. The Executive agreed the recommendation and noted that the comments of the O&S Committee had been addressed in the final version of the Strategy approved by Council in March.          

The purpose of this report is to seek approval to place the order to upgrade the Civica W2 Electronic Document Management system to W3. This software is used to manage the documents from all major line of business applications including Revenues, Benefits, Housing, Planning and Environmental Health.

The provision of £115k for this renewal is within the 2023/24 General Fund Capital Programme for IT.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Executive authorise the IT team to place the order for the upgrade of Civica W2 Electronic Document Management system to W3 in line with the Capital Programme proposal.

RESOLVED that IT Team be authorised to place the order for the upgrade of Civica W2 Electronic document Management System to W3 in line with the Capital Programme proposal.

Reason: this action is recommended to provide considerable additional functionality within the Civica platform including the public Planning document portal. It is also required to maintain the software within our security environment and to enable remote hosting.

[Overview & Scrutiny Committee – Resources]

The Leader introduced the report and moved the recommendation.

The Executive RESOLVED that IT Team be authorised to place the order for the upgrade of Civica W2 Electronic document Management System to W3 in line with the Capital Programme proposal.

Reason: this action is recommended to provide considerable additional functionality within the Civica platform including the public Planning document portal. It is also required to maintain the software within our security environment and to enable remote hosting.

The purpose of this report is to seek approval to place the order to renew the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for Waverley. This is the licence agreement to run the software that underpins most of the activity of the authority. This includes Microsoft Office, Exchange/Outlook, SQL Server, Windows Operating system.

The price for the Enterprise Agreement is set by Microsoft and the only option for negotiation is which reseller you contract with and the uplift margin they charge. We currently use Bytes as our reseller and have a 1 year extension option on the contract. Crown Commercial Services have run a tender process for Enterprise Agreement that has been awarded to Phoenix Software.

The provision of £145k for this renewal is within the existing IT service revenue budget.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Executive

1.         Delegate authority to the Joint Strategic Director, Transformation & Governance to approve the purchasing of the annual Microsoft Enterprise Agreement on the best commercial terms available each year provided that the sum is within the relevant budget as approved.

2.         Authorise the IT team to renew the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for 2023/24 for Waverley with either Bytes or Phoenix Software depending on best price and terms. The provision for the licence is within the existing IT revenue budget.

RESOLVED that:

1.         authority de delegated to the Joint Strategic Director – Transformation & Governance to approve the purchase of the annual Microsoft Enterprise Agreement on the best commercial terms available each year provided that the sum is within the relevant budget as approved.

2.         the IT Team be authorised to renew the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for 2023/24 for Waverley with either Bytes or Phoenix Software, depending on best price and terms, The provision for the licence is within the existing IT revenue budget.

Reason: to be able to continue running the Waverley IT estate.

[Overview & Scrutiny Committee – Resources]

The Leader introduced the report and moved the recommendation.

The Executive RESOLVED that:

1.         authority be delegated to the Joint Strategic Director – Transformation & Governance to approve the purchase of the annual Microsoft Enterprise Agreement on the best commercial terms available each year provided that the sum is within the relevant budget as approved.

2.         the IT Team be authorised to renew the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for 2023/24 for Waverley with either Bytes or Phoenix Software, depending on best price and terms. The provision for the licence is within the existing IT revenue budget.

Reason: to be able to continue running the Waverley IT estate.