Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Vice-Chairman for the remainder of the 2020-21 municipal year.

Councillor Catherine Young was appointed Vice-Chairman for the remainder of the 2020-21 municipal year.

There were no apologies for absence.

In accordance with the local Code of Conduct, a councillor is required to disclose at the meeting any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI) that they may have in respect of any matter for consideration on this agenda.  Any councillor with a DPI must not participate in any discussion or vote regarding that matter and they must withdraw from the meeting immediately before consideration of the matter.

If that DPI has not been registered, the councillor must notify the Monitoring Officer of the details of the DPI within 28 days of the date of the meeting.

Councillors are further invited to disclose any non-pecuniary interest which may be relevant to any matter on this agenda, in the interests of transparency, and to confirm that it will not affect their objectivity in relation to that matter.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests.

To confirm the minutes of the Executive Advisory Board meeting held on 12 October 2020.

The minutes of the meeting of the Executive Advisory Board held on 12 October 2020 were confirmed as a correct record, and would be signed by the Chairman at the earliest opportunity.

To meet Dawn Hudd, Strategic Services Director, to learn about her role and the Directorate’s future work streams.

The Leader of the Council introduced Dawn Hudd, recently appointed Strategic Services Director, together with her presentation regarding the Directorate’s role, responsibilities and future work streams.  The Director’s background in economic development and key tasks were noted.

The presentation was divided in to the following five Sections which formed the Directorate, namely, Strategy and Communications; Planning Policy; Regeneration and Corporate Programmes; Asset Management; and Democratic Services and Elections.

Strategy and Communications

The Strategy and Communications Section consisted of the following teams and the presentation outlined the main functions and Key Priorities 2021-22 for each team:

·             Strategic Planning and Risk Management

·             Performance, Governance and Reporting

·             Communications

·             Innovation and Economic Development

·             Voluntary Sector Support

The Director advised that this was a diverse Section which was fully occupied with the implementation of the new corporate programme of portfolio governance.  There was a need to ensure that all existing programmes and projects, in addition to emerging projects, were aligned to the governance process.

The following points arose from related questions, comments and discussion in respect of this part of the presentation:

·             The Council’s increased use of technology to communicate with residents during the COVID-19 pandemic was welcomed as a means of contact going forward and a database of residents who were acceptable to receiving Council correspondence and communications electronically was being developed.  Work was also taking place with colleagues across the Council to establish a central database of local contacts for businesses operating in the area to enhance communications.

·             In terms of risk management, every service manager undertook a risk assessment of their particular service area and identified risks would differ according to the nature of the service area.  Low level risks could include staff shortages, absence of grant funding to pursue projects and ICT failures.  Each plan and project was subject to an individual risk management framework.  In addition, a Corporate Risk Management Framework was currently being developed to identify significant risks to the Council as a whole.  The pandemic had led to an increased focus on risk assessment and management.

Planning Policy

This part of the presentation commenced with an explanation of the route that planning policy documents followed towards adoption.  This process flowed from the National Planning Policy Framework and National Planning Practice Guidance through the South East Plan Policy NRM6 (Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area) towards the Development Plan, which consisted of a number of emerging and adopted documents, to deliver adopted Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs) ultimately.  In addition to describing adopted and emerging planning policy documents, the presentation listed annual monitoring tasks, which featured updating and publishing certain documents in set timescales, other tasks and a summary of priorities.  The Director drew attention to the motion recently passed by the Council to review the adopted Local Plan: Strategy and Sites document and highlighted the importance of working closely with the Town Centre Master Plan Team to ensure that emerging documents supported the Guildford Economic Regeneration Programme and future updates of the Local Plan.  Design was a priority and  ...  view the full minutes text for item PMI5

It was confirmed that a special meeting of the Executive followed by an extraordinary meeting of the Council were now scheduled to take place on 30 September 2021 to consider the Regulation 19 consultation relating to the Local Plan.

To consider and approve the EAB’s draft work programme with reference to the Executive Forward Plan. 

It was confirmed that the Council Tax CAB Protocol item scheduled for consideration by the Executive on 21 September 2021 differed from the Fundamental Review of the Local Council Tax Support Scheme item listed on the EAB’s Work Programme for discussion at its meeting on 14 June 2021.