To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2007.

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2007 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive apologies for absence. 

Apologies for absence were received from Mr S Chapman-Allen, Mr M Fanthorpe, Elizabeth Gould, Mr J Gretton, Mr M Griffin, Mr D Myers, Mr M Spencer, Mrs P Spencer and Mrs L Turner.

Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests they may have in any of the following items on the agenda.

The Members’ Code of Conduct requires that declarations include the nature of the interest and whether it is personal or prejudicial.

The following declarations were made:

Messrs W Smith and P Claussen declared a personal interest in Cabinet Minute No. 79/07 of the meeting held on 18 June 2007 as non-executive directors of the ARP.  Mr Smith and Mr Claussen remained in the room whilst this item was being discussed.

Mr A Stasiak declared a prejudicial interest in Development Control Committee Minute No. 120/07(h) of the meeting held on 23 July 2007 as it was his own application.

Mr P Cowen declared a personal interest in Cabinet Minute No. 85/07 of the meeting held on 17 July 2007 the nature of which related to his connection with providing architectural services.

Lady K Fisher declared a personal interest in the following items:

• Council Minute No. 78/07(b)(ii) (Cabinet Minute No. 68/07 of the meeting held on 15 June 2007) the nature of which related to the ownership of land in the Thetford area;
• Cabinet Minute No. 95/07 of the meeting held on 17 July 2007 by virtue of her connection with agricultural businesses; and
• Council Agenda item 7(a) for the reason that her children attended Thetford Grammar School.

Mr T Lamb declared a personal interest in Council Agenda item 7(a) for the reason that he was a governor of Thetford Grammar School.

Mr R Kybird declared a personal interest in the following items:

• Council Agenda item 7(a) as an ex-officio member of Thetford Grammar School; and
•  Overview and Scrutiny Commission Minute No. 74/07 of the meeting held on 5 July 2007 by virtue of him being Mayor of Thetford Town Council which was an applicant for the Lottery bid.

Mr S Askew, Mr J W Nunn and Mrs A Steward declared a personal interest in Minute No. 95/07 of the Cabinet meeting held on 17 July 2007 the nature of which related to their connection with agricultural businesses.

Mr P Francis and Mrs S Howard-Alpe declared a personal interest in Development Control Committee Minute No. 120/07(h) of the meeting held on 23 July 2007.  The nature of their interest related to them being political colleagues of the applicant.

Mr J Rogers declared a personal interest in Minute No. 120/07(i) of the Development Control Committee meeting held on 23 July 2007 for the reason that he knew the applicant.

(including the engagements of the Chairman and Vice-Chairman)

The following announcements were made:

• The Chairman introduced the recently appointed Chief Executive Mr Trevor Holden.  The Members joined the Chairman in welcoming Mr Holden to Breckland and to his first full Council meeting. A letter had been received from Mr Keith Davis, the former interim Chief Executive wishing the Council continued success in the future; particularly with regard to the challenging year ahead with the implementation of the Government’s recent White Paper.  Members extended their thanks to Mr Davis whose undivided support and help during his time with Breckland Council had been greatly appreciated.

• A special welcome was extended to members of the Thetford Youth Council who had been invited to attend the meeting.  The Chairman was pleased to announce that Breckland Council had recently agreed to fund and support young people in Breckland via the Strategic Framework at its Cabinet meeting held on 17 July 2007.  The Youth Council had been awarded £500 from Breckland to improve their club and fund new equipment.

• Members were informed that Mr Tim Leader had been appointed as the Council’s new Deputy Chief Executive.  Mr Leader had a wealth of experience in local government, working as a barrister and senior manager in South Holland Council in Lincolnshire and before that at King’s Lynn.  Mr Leader would commence his employment once he had served his three months notice.

• Breckland’s Planning Department had been awarded more than £250,000 from Government Funds for maintaining their performance against high national standards.  Grants were only paid if linked to continued high levels of performance.  The sum of £251,437 had been the highest overall grant paid to a Norfolk Authority.  The funding was from the Government’s Planning Delivery Grant (PDG) and was provided to enhance local planning services. Congratulations were extended to the Council’s Planning Team.

• The Council’s Economic Development Team had won The Academy for Sustainable Communities (ASC) ‘Creating the Future Award for rural communities’.  Breckland had shown how small rural communities could be helped and supported by committed and inspiring leadership and by engaging local communities through genuine partnerships.  The Council extended their praise to the Economic Development Team.

• A follow up report from Ipsos MORI had demonstrated that Breckland Council had bucked the trend of falling satisfaction with an increase of 11% and had been listed as 8^th out of 370 in the list of ‘Councils improving Most over Time’.  Congratulations were conveyed to the Communications Team.

• The Chairman thanked all those who had attended his Reception on 27 July 2007.  He also extended his thanks to Sue Allen, secretary to the Chairman, for her assistance in the necessary arrangements.  He was pleased to announce that £750 had been raised from the raffle in aid of the Children’s Hospice in Quidenham and he thanked everyone for their generosity.

A list of engagements attended by the Chairman and Vice-Chairman was tabled, for the period 26 June to 1 August 2007, which included:

(i)                 Confirmed minutes of the meeting held on 18 June 2007.

Members are reminded that the recommendation at Cabinet Minute No. 70/07 was accepted by Council on 26 June 2007.

(ii)        Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 17 July 2007.

(i)            Cabinet: 18 June 2007

Members were reminded that the recommendation at Cabinet Minute No. 79/07 had been accepted by Council on 26 June 2007.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 18 June 2007 be adopted.

(ii)          Cabinet: 17 July 2007

1)            Dereham Town Centre Development (Phase 2) – Compulsory Purchase Matter (Minute No. 85/07)

A Member queried the need for the Council to be involved if it had no financial interest in the redevelopment.  He asked if the Council had ever used its statutory powers to acquire land other than for itself in the past.  The Member was advised that the Council had not applied this practice for the past 15 years; however, a piece of legislative practice had been included so that both parties would be treated fairly.  An independent arbitrator would be used to ensure that a fair price was paid for the said land. The Order would complete the re-development and thus contribute to the commercial growth of the town.

2)            Match Funding Progress Report as at 31 March 2007 (Minute No. 87/07)

The Executive Member for the Cabinet Office hoped that the Council would continue to support this initiative.  He informed Members that the match funding scheme had been a great success.  For every £1 of Breckland revenue match funding a further £14 had been invested and for every £1 of Breckland capital match funding a further £15 had been invested in the Breckland and Norfolk area. The total amount of Breckland revenue funding together with the total capital value of Breckland’s capital projects were highlighted.

3)            Social Inclusion Strategy (Minute No. 88/07)

The Executive Member for the Cabinet Office asked Members to endorse the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) Social Inclusion Strategy for Breckland.  He recognised that there was still much to be done to address social exclusion in Breckland, and that LSP partners needed to work together to achieve this.  Social exclusion affects vulnerable deprived and isolated people across the District.  The consultation had highlighted families at risk such as those suffering with mental health domestic violence or relationship problems.  The strategy would build on Breckland’s successful record of supporting local communities. Congratulations were conveyed to the Team for all their hard work on this matter.

RESOLVED that the LSP Social Inclusion Strategy for Breckland be endorsed.

4)                  Young People in Breckland – Strategic Framework (Minute No. 91/07)

The Democratic Services Manager advised that Cabinet had recommended that Councillor D Irving be appointed Young People Champion.

RESOLVED that

a)      a District Forum be developed that engages Young People in the work of the District Council;

b)      Mrs D Irving be appointed the lead elected member asYoung People Champion; and

c)      a revised planning formula through the Local Development Framework (LDF) be considered to ensure that the new housing development contributed appropriately to good quality open space and play provision.

5)                  Transfer of Public Conveniences to Town Councils (Minute No. 94/07)

The Democratic Services Manager pointed out that part (1)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 87/07a

Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 5 July 2007

i)              Review of Breckland Council’s CCTV System (Minute No. 75/07)      

A Member expressed doubts about the usefulness of CCTV systems as, in his opinion, they never provided the necessary evidence when required.  He asked if there was any real advantage in the Council continuing to support this review to which other Members disagreed.  The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission pointed out that the Member should have either attended the Overview and Scrutiny Commission meeting where a very thorough debate had been held on the matter, or read the paper that had been provided by the Acting Operations Manager for Community Services. Another Member was thankful that the CCTV systems were in place, as without these, the crime and disorder incidents would not have been reduced.

ii)             Adoption

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission meeting held on 5 July 2007 be adopted.

     (i)      Confirmed minutes of the meeting held on 2 July 2007

   (ii)      Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 23 July 2007

i)       Development Control Committee: 2 July 2007

         RESOLVED that the confirmed Minutes of the Development Control Committee meeting held on 2 July 2007 be adopted.

ii)      Development Control Committee: 23 July 2007

1)            Item 16 of the Schedule of Applications – Carbrooke (Minute No. 120/07(i))

A Member was assured that the letters he had requested had been sent to the relevant parties.

2)            Adoption

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Development Control Committee meeting held on 23 July 2007 be adopted.

Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 4 July 2007

i)              Review of Polling Districts and Polling Places (Minute No. 41/07)

A Member urged all Councillors to make contributions to the debate for consideration by the Working Group.

ii)             Community Safety – Domestic Violence and Hate Crime Co-ordinator (Minute No. 46/07)

The Chairman of the General Purposes Committee informed Members that he had now received sufficient information from the Safer Communities Manager to enable him to support the required two posts.  The matter would be discussed in full at the General Purposes Committee on 8 August 2007.

iii)           Adoption

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the General Purposes Committee meeting held on 4 July 2007 be adopted.

Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 11 July 2007

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Appeals Committee meeting held on 11 July 2007 be adopted.

Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2007

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 12 July 2007 be adopted.

To receive a presentation from the Business Transformation Director

The Business Transformation Director was in attendance and provided Members with a presentation that outlined the different phases that the Council was involved in with the Strategic Alliance.

The Strategic Alliance focused on putting customers first and delivering excellent, affordable services, through:

• Business Transformation – the re-engineering of services to deliver customer-focused efficiencies.

• Platform Building – partnerships with the private and public sectors,

• Trading – selling expertise.

(A copy of the presentation is attached to these Minutes for information).

Members were informed that a report with a recommendation would be presented to the next meeting of the Full Council.

At the end of the presentation questions were invited.

A Member wondered whether the Strategic Alliance could be implemented in part as there were a few services that did not require serious funding.  In response, Members were informed that the Transformation Champions had come up with a number of improved suggestions and he would be discussing the best way to move forward on these matters with the Executive Support Member.

In response to a question, the Business Transformation Director assured Members that Phase 1 had incorporated a robust business plan to take forward to Phase 2.

A Member asked whether the Strategic Alliance process had been re-assessed since it was first agreed.  The Chief Executive informed the Council that this had been one of the questions that he had first asked on his recent arrival.  He had been wholly content with the review that the Council had achieved entering into Phase 2 and he anticipated that Phase 3-Trading- would have the desired outcome.

The Executive Member for Strategic Alliance thanked the Business Transformation Manager for his sterling work.  He was pleased that the Council was moving forward into Phase 2.  Phase 2 would involve much more detailed negotiations and he assured Members that much of the risk element would be shared with the Council’s partner Capita.

To receive nominations for any changes to Committee and other seats from political groups.

RESOLVED that the following changes be noted:

1)            Development Control Committee

Alec Byrne to replace Kate Millbank

2)            General Purposes Committee

Shirley Matthews to replace Theresa Hewett

Report of the Interim Deputy Chief Executive

RESOLVED that Derek Mortimer be reappointed as the Breckland Representative.

At the end of the meeting Tory Hill, the Chairman of Thetford Youth Council, thanked Members for the invitation to attend Full Council.  He also thanked Members for accepting the application for the Youth Grant.

Members were reminded that a buffet lunch had been provided for the Youth Council and for Members who were attending the Risk Management Training at 1.00pm.