To receive any questions from councillors. Details of any questions from councillors (including a written response to them) will be set out in the Supplementary Agenda Pack which will be published on the day before the meeting.
Minutes:
(a) Councillor Keith Withamasked the Leader of the Council, (Councillor Julia McShane) the following question:
“Does the Leader of the Council agree that for a Councillor to wait for more than 21 weeks to not receive an answer to a query is unacceptable?
On 29th April I asked the Assistant Director, Planning, Claire Upton Brown, if the planning team could please advise me re: the Appeal decision for 21/P/00575, Foxwell Cottage, Hunts Hill Road, Normandy (appeal allowed with conditions) - How much has it cost GBC to pursue this case since inception?
I did have an acknowledgement from Claire on 15th July promising an answer (after 5 reminders). I also asked the Lead Councillor, Fiona White for help, and she kindly agreed to follow up my request, for which I thank her. But I’ve still received no actual response. The reminders were copied to yourself as Leader and the Chief Executive.
So, all I’m asking is that the Planning Department of GBC answers my question of 29th April. Can this please now be done via this Council Question?
And will the Leader discuss this example of a Councillor trying to obtain information within GBC with the Chief Executive, and consider how matters might be improved?”
Response from the Leader of the Council:
“Thank you for your question, in response to your enquiry regarding the Appeal decision for 21/P/00575, I can confirm that the following information has been gathered:
External Legal support £10,551.60
Counsel £4,000
£14,551.60.
The Council recovered costs of £15,000 for pursuing this matter, which included all of the above-mentioned external costs. However there is no record of the amount of staff time that was spent on this matter.”
(b) Councillor Catherine Youngasked the Lead Councillor for Planning (Councillor Fiona White) the following question:
Key to this is the collection and spending of S106 money to enable the delivery of this much needed local infrastructure.
Our S106 process at GBC is broken. There is insufficient resource to manage this, lack of up-to-date reports to monitor collection and spend, and as far as we can ascertain, no clear audit trail for us to keep track of this vitally needed money to ensure that it is going to the right people and is being used for our local communities. This money is designed to benefit residents, and residents have the right to know that GBC is safeguarding, managing, and deploying these funds effectively.
We are aware that a report to monitor S106 spend was due to go to Corporate Governance and Standards Committee last month and has supposedly been delayed until November this year. The last report seen was in November 2023. However, we are also aware that Corporate Governance and Standards Committee is due to be split to enable a clearer Audit Committee to be set up which might include monitoring S106 but that this has not yet been agreed. Apparently monitoring may move to one of the Overview & Scrutiny Committees, but again, that is not decided. All this causes further delay.
We cannot wait any longer to know where this money is, where it has been allocated, what has been spent, and as is clearly apparent, why it is not being spent.
Would the Lead Councillor for Planning, please commit to Full Council:
1. That an updated S106 Monitoring report is presented to the next meeting of the Corporate Governance & Standards Committee in November this year.
2. That this report includes a breakdown per ward of the following:
i. The date the deed was agreed.
ii. The initial contribution amounts.
iii. The purpose of the contribution.
iv. How much has been collected from the developer (and when).
v. How much has been passed to which receiving organisation (and when).
vi. What the receiving organisation spent the contribution on.
vii. The deadline for money to be spent.
3. That finance is found immediately to fund GBC staff resource to deliver this work and manage the process?”
Response from the Lead Councillor for Planning:
A report is programmed for the 14 November meeting of the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee. Information has been regularly shared in response to Councillors’ requests around both the collection and spending of Section 106 monies. Work is ongoing with the County Council to ensure that the Borough has clarity over how monies that are collected for spend by the County Council is being used.
The report to the November Corporate Governance and Standards Committee will provide an appropriate level of detail over an appropriate period of time for the Committee’s consideration. However, it will not cover the detail of every Section 106 Agreement the Council enters into.
The planning team are happy to deal with Ward Councillor specific enquiries as and when requested.
In response to the third part of the question, I can confirm that there is already a growth bid which is being considered within the current round of bids in respect of the provision of staffing resource to deliver this work and manage the process.”
As a supplementary question, Councillor Young asked the Lead Councillor whether the estimated figures illustrated in the Medium-Term Financial Plan in Item 9 on the agenda could be brought forward with immediate effect in order to provide the necessary resource and new systems required to manage and deliver S106 contributions.
In response, the Lead Councillor indicated that she could not disagree with Councillor Young about the difficulty in getting infrastructure delivered, even when good section 106 agreements had been negotiated with developers. However, some of these matters were not within this Council's control. The Lead Councillor also referred Councillor Young to the response that she and the council leader had made to the Deputy Prime Minister with regard to the NPPF, when they had pointed out the difficulties with infrastructure and had asked that the organisations outside this council who could provide the infrastructure should be put under a duty to cooperate with the council in delivering that infrastructure.
In response to the supplementary question, the Lead Councillor gave assurance that she would strongly advocate the allocation of the necessary resources to manage and deliver S106 contributions, as part of the budget process.