Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence and notices of appointment of substitute Members (if any).

There were no apologies for absence.

To record any interests on agenda matters.

Members were reminded of the need to make declarations of interest where appropriate.  There were no interests declared under this item.

To receive any questions relating to items on the agenda from members of the public and replies thereto.

Note:   A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

The following members of the public asked questions:

Goff Welchman

In the written response to my questions at the previous Scrutiny meeting (which are being reported to you at this meeting) the S151 Officer, Mr Jarrett, stated that many/most of the Working Group's “lessons learned” were in place from the outset of the 3RDL company - but he was not specific. Would the Committee Chair, please ask the S151 Officer, Mr Jarrett, to inform me exactly which of the “lessons learned” were already in place from the outset of the company?

Response:

As has been confirmed on numerous occasions, prior to setting up the company, the Council has:

Secured legal, financial and banking advice.

Visited a number of Councils that had already set up similar entities.

Appointed 3 directors who had a cross section of construction (both residential and commercial) and financial experience.

Received briefings and reports to ensure clarity of understanding and decision making.

The company’s accounts have been audited by external auditors.

In 2019/20, further financial and governance advice was secured from external parties – all recommendations made by these bodies and other Council meetings were implemented.

Regular performance/risk reports were provided to the relevant Council meetings.

Prior to the soft close decision further independent financial advice was obtained regarding the ongoing viability of the company.

I believe this shows that the Council undertook sufficient due diligence prior to setting up and during the commercial life of its wholly owned development company.

Response from Deputy Chief Executive (S151) Officer

Louise Doyle

QUESTION 1 – KPIs

The Enforcement service is not meeting the needs of residents, or creating public confidence, or acting as a deterrent, I believe that needs to change.  The Local Planning Authority’s (LPA) approach appears to be enforcement averse, going beyond expediency or discretion or regularisation first.

Reporting new or closed or total case numbers is not a KPI

Will the LPA be creating measurable objectives, targets, timelines it can be measured against? 

QUESTION 2 – TRANSPARENCY OF CASE MANAGEMENT

Can a spreadsheet/breakdown of cases for the last two years be provided to Scrutiny or Planning so that elected members can have an insight into how cases are being categorised, investigated and closed?

QUESTION 3 – ENFORCEMENT NOTICES ISSUED

The LPA advised Scrutiny in July that 25 Notices had been recently been served. The DLU figures for the year to September showed 15.  Which data is correct please? How many Notices have been issued since and the total case numbers being quoted, are they opening numbers at the start of the quarter or closing numbers?

QUESTION 4 – ENF POLICIES 1-6

Does the LPA consider that it is working and planning to work in the future based upon what it is proposing today in alignment to Mid Devon’s Enforcement Policies ENF 1 to ENF 6?  I believe there is a disconnect and can anybody tell me what happens to the revised enforcement plans that was handed to the DM at the end of 2022.

QUESTION 5  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.

To consider whether to approve the minutes as a correct record of the meeting held on Monday 18 December 2023.

It was AGREED that the minutes of meeting held on 18^th December 2024 would be approved at the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee on 19 February 2024.

To consider any decisions made by the Cabinet at its last meeting that have been called-in.

The Committee NOTED that none of the decisions made by the Cabinet on 9^th January 2024 had been called in.

To receive any announcements that the Chairman of Scrutiny Committee may wish to make.

The Chairman wished everyone a Happy New Year.

To review the existing Work Plan and consider items for the committee’s future consideration, taking account of:

a) Any items within the Forward Plan for discussion at the next meeting;

b) Suggestions of other work for the Committee in 2024/25.

c) The order in which the Scrutiny Committee would like to Scrutinise Cabinet Members about their portfolios.

The Committee had before it and NOTED the *Forward Plan and the *Scrutiny Work Programme.

The following was discussed:

·         Staffing levels and staff morale – this would fall within the Establishment report coming to the Scrutiny Committee on 19.02.24

·         Motion 564 – Inclusivity and Community Engagement – Does Local Government work for women? – reporting back on 19.02.24

·         Protecting Rivers and Seas (Motion 583) coming back to Scrutiny Committee on 18March 24. The Director of Place and Economy was asked to invite representatives from South West Water and the Environment Agency.

·         The order in which Cabinet Members would be asked to present their portfolios was agreed as follows:

-       Cabinet Member for the Working Environment – 19.02.24

-       Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Regeneration – 18.03.24

-       Cabinet Member for Community and Leisure – 15.04.24

-       Cabinet Member for Finance – 17.06.24

-       When St George’s Court was transferred to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) the Cabinet Member for Housing and Property Services should be invited to present his portfolio and other Cabinet Members moved back appropriately.

Note: *report previously circulated

To receive a verbal update from the District Solicitor and Monitoring Officer

The Director of Legal, HR & Governance and Monitoring Officer gave a verbal report to confirm that Mid Devon District Council had received no requests under the RIPA regulations.

RIPA reports referred to covert surveillance in anything where an offence would attract a sentence, if convicted, of over 6 months imprisonment. Fly Tipping might be such an offence where covert surveillance might be used. Any application would be dealt with by the Director of Legal, HR & Governance and Monitoring Officer.

RIPA reports were audited by the Investigatory Powers Commissioners Office.

To scrutinse the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024 2025 and beyond.

The Committee had before it and NOTED the *Medium Term Financial Plan update for 2024/25 – 2028/29.

The Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the report mentioning that it was a report that covered five years across all funds and examined how the Council would strategically manage its finances to support the delivery of the priorities listed in the Council’s Corporate Plan 2020-2024 and in future years beyond that which will be covered by the future emerging Corporate Plan. The budget had to be affordable and be able to manage net spending within affordable limits. The Cabinet and Policy Development Groups had been kept updated and there had been dedicated engagements with business and public consultation within the budget element through the resident’s survey.

Consideration was given to:

·         The £90,000 shortfall would be taken from earmarked reserves.

·         Business Rates still had to be finalised but it was hoped that this would impact positively on the accounts and so the shortfall may be less than £90,000.

·         Community and Environment PDG’s still had to consider whether any further savings could be made.

·         The unfair terminology used by Central Government relating to “Core Spending Power” and the “Funding Guarantee”.

Note:   (i) *report previously circulated.

(ii)Councillor David Broom arrived at 18.38hrs.

To receive a report from the Director of Place regarding Key Performance Indicators relating to Planning Enforcement

The Committee had before it and NOTED a *report on Planning Enforcement within Mid Devon.

Consideration was given to:

·         A Review of KPI’s.

·         Officer Resource.

·         The permanent Planning Enforcement Officer had recently resigned, the Development Management department were now trying to recruit a permanent replacement but such professionals were hard to recruit across the nation. There was a limited pool of candidates across the country due to this being a subset of Planning Officials. An agency Planning Enforcement Officer had been recruited to join the Council on a temporary basis.

·         The implementation of the new Planning Enforcement Policy, as requested by a working group of the Scrutiny Committee. The draft policy could go through the Planning Policy Advisory Group (PPAG) or straight to Cabinet for approval depending upon the situation. The Chairman asked that it should be reviewed by the Scrutiny Committee.

·         The East Devon District Council Planning Enforcement model was being used as the base for the new enforcement policy.

·         Rates of pay and provision of professional development opportunities to attract staff.

·         The existing High Level cases would be picked up by the new Planning Enforcement Officer, but as they were more complicated matters, they took longer to deal with and so it was impossible to put a time scale on how quickly the backlog could be cleared.

·         The current predicament had not had any bearing on response times for the various classifications. The number of cases overall was creeping up.

·         Publicising those cases that had been prosecuted to send a message to others that Mid Devon District Council was not a soft touch – the recent success requiring the offender to demolish a building had been publicised but publishing regular case studies could be challenging.

·         Planning Breaches did not bring in any income, the Council had some power over fee setting of retrospective planning applications but it could never raise enough revenue to cover its costs.

·         Mid Devon DC was now the top performing authority in the South West for processing planning applications within eight weeks.

·         During the last Council 50% of Planning Committee decisions that were taken against the advice of officers were overturned at appeal. Planning Appeals took a lot of officer time and resources and took officers away from front line tasks. Enforcement performance did have scope for improvement but it was now in a much better position to be managed.

·         Within classifications, there are four classifications but only three are shown on the schedule, because the Highest category was included within the Higher Category

Note: *report previously circulated