Agenda and minutes

The Committee noted the nominations of Cllr Carole Cockburn as Chair and Cllr Phillip Townsend as Vice Chair for the Municipal Year 2023-24. This was unanimously agreed.

To receive apologies for absence and note substitutions.

Members who are unable to attend this meeting must submit apologies by the end of Wednesday 14 June 2023 to enable a substitute to be arranged, if applicable.

Apologies were received from Cllr Dave Busby and Cllr Ruth Reed attended as substitute.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 14 March 2023 and published on the Council’s website. 

The minutes of the meeting of the Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 14 March 2023 and published on the Council’s website was agreed as a correct record. 

To receive from Members declarations of interests in relation to any items included on the agenda for this meeting, in accordance with Waverley’s Code of Local Government.

There were no declarations of interest submitted for this meeting.

The Chairman to respond to any questions submitted by members of the public in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.

The deadline for submission of written questions for this meeting is Wednesday 14 June 2023.

.

There were no questions submitted.

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

The deadline for submission of written questions for this meeting is Wednesday 14 June 2023.

There were no questions submitted.

The Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee is responsible for managing the Committee’s work programme.

The current work programme (attached) includes items agreed and takes account of items identified on the latest Executive Forward Programme (Annexe 2) as due to come forward for decision.

Recommendation

Members are invited to consider their work programme and make any comments and/or amendments they consider necessary, including suggestions for any additional topics that the Committee may wish to add to its work programme.

The Chair outlined the work programme and encouraged members to suggest items for future meetings. The committee were advised that Claire Upton-Brown had submitted apologies for this meeting but would attend the meeting in September to give a comprehensive update on planning development and the progress on the improvement action plan.

To receive a short presentation from Executive Heads of Service under the O&S Services remit.

Community Services – Sam Hutchison

Environmental Services – Chris Wheeler

Regulatory Services – Richard Homewood

Commercial Services – Kelvin Mills

Regeneration and Planning Policy – Abi Lewis

Planning Development – Claire Upton-Brown

The Committee received presentations from:

·         Executive Head of Regulatory Services – Richard Homewood

·         Executive Head of Environmental Services – Chris Wheeler

·         Executive Head of Regeneration and Planning Policy – Abi Lewis

Each gave a brief overview of their teams and responsibilities.

Ian Doyle, Joint Strategic Director for Transformation and Governance,  provided an overview on behalf of Kelvin Mills, Executive Head of Commercial Services, alongside Tamsin Macleod who updated the committee on the new Leisure Centre contract and Charlotte Hall who updated on the refurbishment work for Farnham Museum. Members were advised the Project Initiation Document (PID) was now drafted and agreed to circulate.

Sam Hutchison, Executive Head of Community Services was held up, however, it was agreed that a written overview would be circulated for members information.

As advised earlier in the meeting Claire Upton-Brown, Executive Head of Planning Development would be attending the meeting in September to give a comprehensive overview of her service as well as updating on the issues with Planning Development.

The Corporate Performance Report provides an analysis of the Council’s performance for the fourth quarter of 2022-23. The report, set out at Annexe 1, is being presented to each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees for comment and any recommendations they may wish to make to the Executive.

Pages to note under the Services O&S remit are pages 59 to 86 of the agenda (pages 41-68 of the document).

Jenny Sturgess, Policy and Performance Officer, explained to members the purpose of the Corporate Performance Report and what the committees remit was in relation to this. They were advised that the report was primarily the ownership of the Executive but that members were encouraged to consider the report and highlight areas that may need further investigation/action.

Cllr Jerry Hyman had registered to speak on this item and asked members to look at the planning performance relating to national indicators and how the improvement action plan was performing.  Members were advised, as previously outlined, that this would be addressed at the next meeting with Claire Upton-Brown, Executive Head of Planning Development.

Members then commented on the Q4 report.

Chris Wheeler was asked about the indicators E3a and E3b which were showing as not meeting the target. He advised that software issues had meant some bins had been counted as missed when they had not been put out for collection as the operators had been unable to log them as not there for collection.  He also highlighted that the numbers missed were a small percentage of the total number collected and that the target/aspiration was a high one.

It was noted RP1- Actual number of dwellings commenced (all housing providers) was still hugely under achieving.  Abi Lewis advised this was an ongoing issue which was out of the control of Waverley Borough Council as the council were at the mercy of developers commencing their builds after applications are granted.

Officers were asked if the Saturday Night Project, launched at Godalming Leisure Centre, would be rolled out to other areas? It was explained that it was already in hand in Farnham and Cranleigh and would be rolled out to Haslemere in due course.

Members asked if the Planning Development – Improvement Action Plan could be circulated prior to the September meeting.

To receive an update from Andrew Longley on the Local Plan Part 1.

Andrew Longley and Matthew Ellis presented an update on the LPP1 review with a PowerPoint summarising the report.

It was highlighted there was a requirement to update the Local Plan every five years and that LPP1 was now due for review.  Following a Full Council meeting in February it was agreed ‘Having undertaken a review of LPP1 … the Council resolves that LPP1 requires updating and instructs officers to explore all options including updating the plan immediately to make it broadly compliant with the latest NPPF (noting that the housing numbers produced by the new “Standard Method” are a starting point only) and taking particular account of any Habitat Regulations constraints on an increase in housing numbers, followed by a more detailed update of LPP1 and LPP2 together to produce a single Local Plan at a later date…’.

An external review had been carried out by DAC Planning and recommendations were made.

Two options had been put forward which was:

a.    Comprehensive update of the Local Plan.

b.    Partial alteration to the adopted LPP1 to address housing supply and related matters.

Officers advised that the initial focus would be to gather evidence and the pros and cons of each option were outlined.  Officers recommendation was for option a as there was a high risk of us failing examination with option b.

The next steps and potential timetables were outlined.

Cllr Jerry Hyman had registered to speak and advised he had concerns regarding the timescales for the comprehensive review. He advised the agreement at full council had been for a minimal review not a full one and it would be important to apply Waverley constraints first in order to ascertain how many houses could be justified.  He suggested two working groups be established to look at the challenge toolkit and this review.

Members discussed the comments and felt officers should apply the council’s constraints and get the numbers that could realistically be achieved and put forward our own Local Housing Need numbers. Officers advised that the constraints was certainly something that would be carried out as a priority and Waverley would not just accept the numbers the council had been given but provide evidence of what is achievable. The committee also raised concern about the unmet housing need from neighbouring authorities that is forced upon the council and felt this should not be accepted and argued against. Officers advised that paragraphs 7.16-7.18 explain these issues and how they will be addressed.

Members also raised the issue regarding the affordable housing numbers provided after applications are approved as developers often come forward with viability studies after approval indicating the affordable housing cannot be accommodated.

The Committee also discussed the impact this review may have on Neighbourhood Plans. It was requested that going forward the discussions on housing numbers and spatial strategy should be conveyed to all neighbourhood groups as soon as they are available.

The Committee NOTED the proposed recommendations to the Executive on the approach to updating the Local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To consider, if necessary, the following recommendation on the motion of the Chairman:

Recommendation

That pursuant to Procedure Rule 20 and in accordance with Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items on the grounds that it is likely in view of the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during the items there would be disclosure to them of exempt information (as defined by Section 100I of the Act) to be identified at the meeting.

There were no items to discuss in exempt session therefore the Chair closed the meeting.