Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 13 June 2007 (attached) and matters arising.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes for the meeting held on 13 June 2007 be taken as read and signed by the Chairman as a true record, subject to Mr P Boshier, Parish Clerk of High Ongar Parish Council, being recorded as a Councillor.

To discuss the following matters raised by Local Council’s:

i)            Quality Councils

At the Local Council’s Liaison Committee meeting on 7 March 2007, Councillor Ed Borton (Nazeing Parish Council) asked that the issue of Quality Councils be raised at this meeting. They would like to know how Quality Councils would affect local councils and how the delegated functions would affect them.

As this was very much a political issue, they asked that the Leader and the Cabinet be invited to participate in the debate.

(ii)            Community Involvement in Section 106 Planning Gain Decisions on Applications

(iii)            Update on Proposed Return Visit of Councillor Norman Hume Highways Portfolio Holder for Essex County Council

(iv)      Police Liaison Issues

(a)            Quality Councils

This item was raised by Councillor E Borton of Nazeing Parish Council. It concerned how the Quality Councils criteria affected local councils. The Leader of the District Council, Councillor Mrs D Collins, had been invited to the meeting to speak on this. The committee was informed that Essex had more Quality Councils than any other county in England. However despite the enhanced status that the Quality Councils’ title gave, there were still substantial problems facing local councils. In particular was the public’s perception of crime. Often residents did not feel safe, despite the District being a comparatively safe place to live. Therefore Councillors, particularly at Parish and District level, had an important role to play in being the eyes and ears of the community. They could report graffiti and rubbish and be an important point of contact for the public.

Councillor Mrs D Collins spoke of the Council’s record on recycling, up by 42%, and, with the introduction of the new waste management contract with fortnightly collections, there should be a better waste collection service.

Members of the Committee were concerned whether being a Quality Council was meaningful. It was unclear as to how far it changed the way they worked and their involvement with the public. It was felt that there needed to be devolution of power to local councils. An example was given of streets having their names changed and local councils not being consulted. Mrs Collins advised that the District Council would consult local councillors in future if a street was having its name changed.

The Deputy Chief Executive, Derek MacNab, advised the Committee that further work was needed in clarifying the role of Quality Councils and the Government was currently reviewing the policy. A further progress report would be made at a future meeting of the Local Councils Liaison Committee.

            RESOLVED:

That, a progress report concerning Quality Councils be made for a future meeting of the Local Council’s Liaison Committee in 2008.

(b)            Community Involvement in Section 106 Planning Gain Decisions on Applications

This item was brought to the Committee by Councillor Brian Surtees of Ongar Town Council. It concerned the level of community involvement in Section 106 planning agreements. It was felt that opportunities were being missed if Section 106 Agreements were not discussed with Parish and Town Councils as they were in touch with local need. They asked to be consulted about the potential for an agreement. The Assistant Director of Planning Services, Paul Sutton, informed the Committee that the Section 106 agreements were a planning obligation and not simply a way of obtaining funding from developers. It was about making developments acceptable in planning terms. Any agreements drawn up needed to be relevant to planning, fair, reasonable and related in scale.

The County Council had set out it’s policy regarding development over a certain size and was aiming for similar objectives with planning agreements. Parish Councils played an important role during the agreement phase, as in some cases they had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

Recommendation:

To receive a presentation from the District Council’s Assistant Head of Housing (Operations) on the operation of the local Choice Based Lettings Scheme.

1.         The implementation of a Choice Based Lettings Scheme is necessary in order to meet the requirements of Government that such a scheme be in place by 2010 at the latest. 

2.         Under a Choice Based Lettings scheme, all vacant social rented properties would be advertised to applicants on the Housing Register in a two-weekly publication, website, and other media giving details of location, type, rent, service charge, council tax band and landlord of the available accommodation.  Applicants would apply for a property by “expressing an interest” either in person, by post, telephone, text, email or Internet.  Limits to the number of “expressions” per applicant would be in place, which would include restricting “expressions” for properties to those households, which only have an assessed need for a particular property type.    

3.         At the end of the two weekly cycle, the Council would analyse the “expressions of interests” received and allocate each property following a prioritisation and selection process in accordance with its own Allocations Scheme.  In general terms, the property would be offered to the applicant in the highest band, who has been registered the longest, who had “expressed an interest” for the specific vacancy.  The results of the “expressions of interest” on each property advertised is then published in the next periodic publication, setting out the number received on each property, as well as the Band and registration date of the successful applicant.  This helps applicants to see how long the successful applicant has been waiting and gives greater transparency in the allocation of accommodation, as each applicant would be able to clearly understand how the scheme works.

4.         The Government encourages authorities to work in partnership and has made grants available to assist with set up costs based on a bidding process.  The Council took the lead in setting up the Herts and Essex Housing Options Consortium (HEHOC), which is a partnership of the following authorities:

Brentwood Borough Council

Chelmsford Borough Council

Broxbourne District Council

Uttlesford District Council

East Herts District Council

Epping Forest District Council

5.             Following the submission of a successful bid to the Government, HEHOC received a grant of £96,000.  Around £60,000 of the grant is funding a Consultant to Project Manage the implementation of the scheme, which will be managed by an external Choice Based Lettings Agency.  The balance of the grant will go towards the set up costs.

6.         Any Choice Based Lettings Scheme must be developed in a way that takes into account the needs of vulnerable groups.  This would involve close liaison with Social Care and a wide-range of partner agencies, ensuring that vulnerable people are able to participate fully in any scheme.

7.         The Assistant Head of Housing Services (Operations) will be attending the meeting to explain how the scheme works in more detail. 

8.         At the time of writing the report it is expected that  ...  view the full agenda text for item 16.

The Assistant Director of Housing Service (Operations), Roger Wilson, gave a presentation on the operation of the Local Choice-Based Lettings Scheme. The implementation of the Choice-Based Lettings Scheme was necessary to meet Government requirements. The scheme allowed all vacant social rented properties to be advertised to applicants on the Housing Register in a two weekly publication website, and other media outlets, giving details of location, type, rent, service charge, council tax band and landlord of the accommodation. Applicants applied by expressing an interest in person, by post, telephone, text, email or by the internet. Limits to the number of “expressions” per applicant were in place which included restricting “expressions” for properties to those households which only had an assessed need for a particular property type.

Following the two weekly cycle, the Council would analyse the expressions of interest received and allocate each property. The property would be offered to the applicant in the highest band who had been registered the longest, and who had expressed an interest for the vacancy. The results of the expressions of interest on each property advertised was then published in the next periodic publication, which set out the number on each property, as well as the band and registration date of the successful applicant. Applicants could see how long the successful applicant had been waiting and gave greater transparency in the allocation of accommodation.

The Council had set up the Herts and Essex Housing Options Consortium (HEHOC) which had a partnership with the following authorities:

Brentwood Borough Council

Chelmsford Borough Council

Broxbourne District Council

Uttlesford District Council

East Herts District Council

Epping Forest District Council

Following the submission of a successful bid to the Government, HEHOC received a grant of £96,000. Around £60,000 of the grant was for funding a consultant to manage the implementation of the scheme, through an external Choice-Based Lettings Agency. The balance of the grant went towards the set up costs.

The scheme was developed in a way that took into account the needs of vulnerable groups, this involved liaison with social care and other partner agencies, ensuring that vulnerable people were able to participate fully in the scheme. The scheme became operational on 19 November 2007. The committee asked for an updating report in a year’s time, reviewing the success or otherwise of the scheme.

RESOLVED:

That an updating report on Choice Based Lettings be brought back to this committee in a year’s time.

1. The District Council wishes to consult local  councils regarding changes to the cycle of Area Plans Sub Committee meetings.

2. The number of Area sub Committees was previously reduced from 4 to 3 but the four week cycle was not changed.  The result of this is that there is currently a meeting in three weeks out of every four.  The Council’s Constitutional Affairs Standing Scrutiny Panel has decided to recommended that the “fallow” week be discontinued from the new Council year and a three cycle adopted.

3. The reason for this change is to assist in achieving top quartile performance in dealing with planning applications. The proposal has been initiated by the director of Planning & Economic development and has been supported by the Panel. The recommendation will be considered at the Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 13 December 2007 and a final decision will be made at the Council meeting on 18 December 2007.

4. Enclosed is a brief paper from the Director of Planning & Economic Development which outlines the current performance of the Council against the three performance indicators which relate to development control and some comments on the implications of the decision.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive, Ian Willett, presented a report to the Committee regarding the proposed change to the Area Plans Sub-Committees’ Cycle. The District Council wished to consult local councils regarding changes to the cycle of Area Plans Sub-Committee meetings. The number of Area Sub-Committees had been reduced from 4 to 3, but the four week cycle had not changed, resulting in a meeting in three weeks out of every four. The Council’s Constitutional Affairs Standing Scrutiny Panel had decided to recommending that the “fallow” week should be discontinued from the new Council year and a three week cycle adopted.

This change would assist in achieving top quartile performance in dealing with planning applications which was the District Council’s stated objective. The proposal had been initiated by the Director of Planning and Economic Development and was supported by the Panel. The recommendation was being considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 13 December 2007 and a final decision was being made at the Council meeting on 18 December 2007.

The Committee members felt that not enough time had been provided for the local councils to discuss this. Their meetings were not part of the District Council’s cycle of meetings therefore the proposed change was likely to cause problems to their own arrangements for meetings. The committee was informed that under the proposed scheme the local councils would have to meet once a week to go through future planning applications which did not leave them adequate time to pursue errors on applications with planning officers. It was argued that the “fallow” week gave councils sufficient time in preparing for other meetings. It was observed that the status of being in the top quartile did not raise more funding for the Council.

Ian Willett assured members that a copy of the proposals would go to every Parish Clerk in the District.

RESOLVED:

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee  be asked to consider postponing consideration of the recommendation that Area Plans Sub-Committees be on a three week cycle until its January 2008 meeting in order to allow more time for Parish and Town Councils to consider the issue.

The District Council wrote to Parish and Town Council clerks on 30 October 2007 about the need to review their remuneration schemes where these have been in operation.

The recruitment of an independent person to a vacancy on the independent panel is currently in progress and it would be helpful if local Councils could give replies by the end of the year.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive, Ian Willett, had written to Parish and Town Council Clerks on 30 October 2007 regarding the need to review their remuneration schemes where these had been in operation. The recruitment of an independent person to a vacancy on the independent panel was currently in progress. The committee was advised that replies were needed by the end of the year.

To receive report from D MacNab (Deputy Chief Executive).

The Deputy Chief Executive Derek MacNab, informed the committee about the Youth Council. Currently 20 applications had been received for nominations and a further 5 had been received from students who lived in the District but did not attend a school or college within the Epping Forest locality. The Deputy Chief Executive told the committee that the students were having an opportunity to take control of the Youth Council and shape it. They could have their own Constitution, minute their own meetings and make bids via external agencies for financial support. The Chairman and members of the committee wished the Youth Council all the best for the future. Local council representatives raised liaison between the Youth Council and Town and Parish Councils. Derek MacNab stated that was something that would be addressed once the Youth Council was in being.

The Council has been Directed by The Secretary of State for Communities & Local Government (Hazel Blears) to amend the Local Development Scheme (LDS) submitted to GO East in October 2006.  This Direction requires the Council to produce a separate Development Plan Document (DPD) on "Gypsy & Traveller Site Provision", and for this DPD to be submitted for examination by 30 September 2009.

This matter was considered by Cabinet on 12 November 2007, and the amended LDS was agreed.  This has now been re-submitted to GO East for their approval. 

It is currently anticipated that the Issues & Options consultation for this DPD will take place in Spring / early Summer 2008.

The Council had been directed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to amend the Local Development Scheme (LDS), submitted to GO East in October 2006. The direction required the Council to produce a separate Development Plan Document (DPD) on “Gypsy and Traveller Site Provision.” The document was being submitted for examination by 30 September 2009. The matter had been considered by the Cabinet on 12 November 2007 and the amended LDS was agreed. This had been re-submitted to GO East for their approval.

The Committee felt that some of the local councils had been left out of discussions regarding the allocation of Gypsy and Traveller sites. There had been a public inquiry regarding one such site which had ended on its first day. However Paul Sutton of Planning Services advised the committee that they may have an obligation to take on more sites in the future. He would consult adjoining authorities but warned the Committee that difficult decisions would have to be made.

The receive a progress report on County Care’s Fifty Favourite Trees project

The purpose of the project is to determine the fifty favourite trees within the District via nominations from people and organisations within the District. The Project is being run  A website for the project had been set up at www.favouritetrees.org.uk.

Officers will be in attendance to provide an update on the exhibition at Waltham Abbey District Museum.

The committee received an update on County Care’s “Fifty Favourite Trees” Project. The purpose of the project was to determine fifty favourite trees within the District via nominations from people and organisations within the District. There was currently an exhibition about the trees taking place at Waltham Abbey District Museum, ending on 8 January 2008. Paul Sutton advised the committee that a poster was available for each Parish and Town Council.

Paul Sutton advised the committee that the Veteran Tree Hunt Project was receiving £40,000 from GreenArc. The hunt was going on until the end of March 2008.

Paul Sutton had advised the committee that there had been a consultation meeting on 27 November 2007. Local Councils were advised to consult the District Council’s website for details. Local Councils asked whether a programme had been devised for dealing with appraisals for each Parish area. Paul Sutton explained that the order of appraisals would be determined by resources in the Planning and Economic Development Directorate and priorities in terms of development pressures. For this reason Roydon and Nazeing might be the next appraisals to be undertaken.

The Chairman of Council informed the Committee that the Christmas Carol Concert was on Friday 7 December 2007. The Chairman requested that cards were sent back as soon as possible and that only one nomination for the Citizen of the Year Awards had been received.

Meetings of the Committee are scheduled for the following date next year:

23 March 2008

The committee were advised that the next meeting was on 26 March 2008.