Decisions

In the absence of the Leader and the Deputy Leader under Executive Procedure Ruel 2.1 a chairperson was appointed to preside over the business of Item 4.

RESOLVED: To appoint Councillor Catherine Houston to preside for Item 4 of the agenda.

Decision:

1.       Procurement of a suitably qualified company to carry out a review into the most effective governance structure of North Downs Housing Limited (NDH).

2.       That the review included a detailed options appraisal into the future operation of NDH – including options to wind up the company or to continue operations in a commercially viable manner.

Reason(s):

1.       NDH has experienced difficulties meeting its interest and debt repayments from its operating surpluses.  A review of the company’s viability is required.

2.       The Board of Directors of NDH have asked the Council to consider options for the future of the company, following an options review undertaken by NDH by Savills.

Other options considered and rejected by the Committee:

Do nothing.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

Councillor Angela Goodwin in respect of being a director sitting on the North Downs Housing Board of Directors.

Decision:

1.       Approved the charitable accounts for the financial year 2022/2023 to be presented at a Trustees meeting for the following charities:

·        Guildford Sports Ground Charity (also known as the Woodbridge Road Sports Ground) (305056).

·        Burpham War Memorial Recreational Grounds Charity (304982).

·        Public Walks and Pleasure Grounds Charity (Allen House Grounds) (305054).

·        Arundel House (Hamilton Fellows) (200491)

·        The Mayor’s Local Support Fund (258388)

·        The Racks Close Open Space Charity (1058137)

2.       Authorised the Joint Strategic Director of Finance to convene a Trustees meeting for each of the charities to agree the accounts and annual return.

3.       Recommended the committee the Finance Transformation Officer as an administrator of all the authority’s charity accounts with The Charity Commission.

Reason(s):

To comply with the legal requirement that the charities must submit annual returns to the Charity Commission. If the Trustee fails to submit these returns, it could result in the Charity Commission removing the charity from its register and taking further action.

Other options considered and rejected by the Committee:

None.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.

Decision:

1.       Noted the changes the Chief Executive was making to ensure the Corporate Leadership Team had greater oversight of the Council’s companies, their objectives, business cases, and performance as summarised in paragraph 6.3 of this report;

2.       Noted the proposed revised governance arrangements relating to the Council’s company interests, set out at Part 3(1) of the Constitution, (Responsibility for Functions), as set out in para 6.1 to this report and appendix 1 and 2, and provide feedback on the proposals to the Monitoring Officer, by way of consultation;

3.       Noted the proposed revised governance arrangements relating to the Council’s company interests, set out at Part 3(2) of the Constitution, (Terms of Reference of Council, Leader/Executive and Committees), as set out in para 6.2 of this report and appendix 3 and 4, and provide feedback on the proposals to the Monitoring Officer, by way of consultation;

4.       Noted the Monitoring Officer’s intention to recommend to the GBC Corporate Governance & Standards Committee that they recommend to full Council the adoption into the Constitution of revised Parts 3(1) and 3(2) to reflect appendix 2 and 4, subject to the feedback of the Executive Shareholder and Trustee Committee.

Reason(s):

1.       It was considered that improvements could be made to the governance framework to ensure the shareholder had greater oversight of the Council’s interests in companies.

2.       Good practice would be for the Council’s senior officers to monitor the performance of the Council’s interests in companies, and to bring forwards reports to the shareholder in a regular, timely and transparent way with appropriate recommendations.

3.       Whilst the shareholder function was exercised by the Leader as an Executive function, there was currently no mechanism in place for scrutiny of such executive decisions and good practice would be for the Council’s overview and scrutiny committees to provide effective scrutiny of the shareholder role.

Other options considered and rejected by the Committee:

None.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.

Decision:

1.       Noted the Council’s interests in ‘Guildford Sportsground Management Company’, ‘Guildford Borough Council Holdings’ and ‘North Downs Housing Limited’ and the dissolution of 75 Ash Street Management Company Limited;

2.       Delegated authority to the Joint Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to appoint an additional Director to the Board of Guildford Sportsground Management Company as soon as possible and to replace Ian Doyle and Kelvin Mills with alternative appointments on behalf of the Council;

3.       Delegated authority to the Joint Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to appoint an additional Director to the Board of Guildford Borough Council Holdings Limited as soon as possible and to replace Ian Doyle with an alternative appointment on behalf of the Council;

4.       Noted that the Joint Chief Executive will encourage the Directors of Guildford Borough Council Holdings Ltd to make 4 additional appointments of Director to the Board of North Downs Housing Ltd, with one being a Guildford Borough Council officer, as soon as possible;

5.       Approved the draft work programme set out at paragraph 6.4 and delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer to deviate from the work programme where appropriate, in consultation with the Leader of the Council;

6.       To receive a report in August 2024 from the Lead Officer for North Downs Housing Ltd recommending an options appraisal be undertaken to inform the future of the Company;

7.       To receive a report in November 2024 from the Lead Officer for Guildford Sportsground Management Company reviewing the objectives and arrangements for the Council’s Interest in that Company;

8.       To receive a report in November 2024 from the Lead Officer for Guildford Borough Council Holdings Ltd reviewing the objectives and arrangements for the future of Guildford Borough Council Holdings Ltd.

9.       To receive a report in November 2024 from the Council’s Statutory Officers starting the process of reviewing the governance arrangements and Council’s interests in Charities and Trusts.

Reason(s):

1.       To enable the Council to fulfil its duties in respect of the shareholder function competently, robustly and transparently.

2.       To enable the Council to be able to fulfil its duties in respect of best value and continuous improvement in respect of its interests in companies, and to keep under review the objectives, strategies and plans, and performance of each of its companies.      

Other options considered and rejected by the Committee:

None.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

Councillor Tom Hunt in respect of being the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Guildford Borough Council Holdings.

Councillor Angela Goodwin in respect of being a director sitting on the board of North downs Housing.

Councillor Tom Hunt declared a non-pecuniary interest in respect of Item 4 as he held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors for Guildford Borough Council Holdings.

Councillor Angela Goodwin declared a non-pecuniary interest in respect of Items 4 and 6 as she held the position of Director sitting on the Board of North Downs Housing.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Julia McShane who was replaced by Councillor Richard Lucas.

The minutes of the meeting help o 28 February 2024 were confirmed. The Chairman signed the minutes.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 July 2024 were confirmed as correct. The Chairman signed the minutes.

Decision:

The Executive adopted the Planning Contributions for Open Space in New Developments Supplementary Planning Document as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

Reason(s):

Adopting the SPD would support implementation of adopted LPDMP Policy ID6: Open Space in New Developments. The SPD described the types and standards of open space required in new developments and explained, with worked examples, how the amounts of onsite open space and financial contributions in lieu required by the policy are calculated. This advice would provide increased certainty to developers. The SPD would replace extant guidance on open space in the Planning Contributions SPD 2017.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

To reject the SPD or instruct officers to make amendments and resubmit the document to Executive.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.

To recommend to full Council (meeting date tbc)

1.       To approve the procurement and expenditure necessary to acquire replacement Pay on Foot parking equipment; and

2.       To approve the procurement and expenditure necessary to acquire replacement Pay and Display parking payment equipment in collaboration with Waverley Borough Council.

Decision:

That Executive recommended to the Extraordinary Full Council meeting on 13 August 2024 that Council:

1.       Approve funding up to £650k from the capital car park maintenance reserve budget to fund a replacement barrier pay on foot (PoF) car park payment system.

2.       Approve funding up to £250k from the capital car park maintenance reserve budget to fund a replacement/upgrade to the pay and display (P&D) car park payment equipment.

3.       Authorise the Assistant Director, Commercial Services, in consultation with the Joint Strategic Director, Finance, to take any action in relation to the procurement and letting of contracts in respect to the P&D equipment, this could be undertaken as a joint procurement by GBC and WBC to obtain best value for both councils.

4.       Authorise the Assistant Director, Commercial Services, in consultation with the Joint Strategic Director, Finance, to take any action in relation to the procurement and letting of contracts to replace the PoF equipment, which could be combined with the P&D procurement to enable suppliers that offer both systems to bid and maximise the procurement opportunity for the Council.

Reason(s):

Reason(s) for Recommendation:

1.       The existing PoF car park payment equipment was 13 years old and maintenance, upkeep and the availability of spares was becoming increasingly problematic. Replacement equipment would allow for the introduction of a modern, ticketless, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) system providing an improved service to customers, greater opportunities to future-proof payment provision and offer flexibility to maximise income generation, better business intelligence and reduced maintenance issues.

2.       Most of the existing P&D car park payment equipment was around 10 years old. Although maintenance, upkeep and the availability of spares were not currently problematic, over the course of the next few years, this was likely to become more of an issue. More importantly, the replacement / upgrade would expand the availability of contactless technology across all pay and display car parks, providing an improved range of payment options / service for customers, the ability to introduce ticketless parking and provide greater opportunities to future-proof payment provision and offer flexibility to maximise income generation and reduced maintenance issues.

3.       A joint procurement by GBC and WBC for the P&D equipment would help derive best value through economies of scale and further increase alignment of the equipment and systems that the two organisations use. Recently GBC and WBC had adopted the same handheld enforcement devices, back-office penalty, and permit processing software and both Councils had recently taken the decision for GBC to perform enforcement duties in WBC’s off-street car parks. Combining the P&D and PoF procurements, allowing suppliers that offer both systems to bid, could help derive further savings even if their respective implementations follow slightly different timelines.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

Do nothing or do only some of the recommendations.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.

Decision:

1.       Approved the membership and terms of reference for the Executive working groups recommended to continue as set out in the appendices to the report;

2.       Agreed to dissolve the Financial Recovery Executive Working Group and the HRA Housing Management HRA Board; and,

3.       Established the Housing Operations Board and approve its terms of reference and membership.

Reason(s):

To assist the Executive to select or set up appropriate, properly resourced groups to provide support or undertake work on its behalf.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

None.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.

To endorse the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan.

Decision:

1.       The Executive endorsed the LCWIP Report subject to clarification of the detail in respect of the proposal for the inclusion of CWZ18 (Station Parade, East Horsley) with proposals for CWZ29 (Bishopsmead Parade); and subject to confirmation of the deadline for the inclusion of any new sites to Phase 1 for which local funding could be available.

2.       That the Joint Strategic Director Economy, Planning and Place be authorised, in consultation with the Lead Councillor with portfolio responsibility for Planning Policy, to make such minor alterations to improve the clarity of the LCWIP as they may deem necessary.

Reason(s):

1.       Endorsement would enable SCC as the Local Transport Authority to adopt the report through their democratic process by showing Borough ‘buy-in’ to the report.

2.       To enable SCC to access DfT funding and other funding streams for active travel infrastructure development.

3.       To endorse the report would align with the Council’s corporate objectives and planning policy on transport, climate change and air quality.

4.       The endorsement would give greater planning weight to the LCWIP Report at planning determination and provide an updated borough-wide network plan for walking & cycling.

5.       To enable minor alterations to be made to the LCWIP should they be necessary prior to publication.

6.       The Executive considered the questions raised by Councillor Catherine Young required clarification.

Other options considered and rejected by the Executive:

Do not endorse the LCWIP Report. This may delay the potential for future investment in walking and cycling.

Details of any conflict of interest declared by the Leader or lead councillors and any dispensation granted:

None.