Agenda and draft minutes

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

Apologies were received from Cllrs S Robinson and L Knight. L Knight was substituted by Cllr L G J Kennedy .

To record any interests on agenda matters.

No declarations were declared under this item.

At Item 3 (Public Questions) Cllr L G J Kennedy declared an interest that he was a Director of the Devon Association of Local Councils (DALC).

To receive any questions from members of the public and replies thereto.

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

Councillor Barry Warren – Chairman of Willand Parish Council:

It is appreciated that this is all at a very early stage but whatever the final decision is it would appear that Town and Parish Councils will still have a function and need some guidance please. There must be some models or guidance from such proposed unitary authorities which are already in place.

Question 1:  What information is available as to the future of Town and Parish Councils after the new authorities are formed?

Response from the Chief Executive:

The process of local government reorganisation (LGR) refers to the intent, by government, to change the structure of principal councils in two-tier areas to remove county and district/city/borough councils, through the process known as unitarisation. This process does not impact on the existence of current town or parish councils, though clearly their relationship with their principal council in future will be with a different entity to those as present.

Question 2:  What is the expected time scale for any changes to be implemented?

Response from the Chief Executive:

Government expects the new unitary councils in non-priority areas to be created to take effect from 1 April 2028, though clearly this will be subject to future statutory processes being achieved to enable such a timeline.

Currently Willand Parish Council lease a number of open spaces/play areas from MDDC. Plans are in place for their maintenance, refurbishment and replacement equipment as existing comes to end of life. Contingency funds are set aside for this.

Question 3:  Is there any idea as to what will happen to the Leases?

(a)  Will they continue for the full term?

(b)  Should either side cancel the Leases now to stabilise the position?

(c)  What is likely to happen to Land wholly owned by the Parish Council?

(d)  Will District Council ‘gift’ or sell land to Town or Parish Councils for a nominal sum?

Response from the Chief Executive:

All existing contracts entered into by current councils will be automatically transferred to the new council, through a process known as contract novation. Local authorities often have long-term contracts for the provision of services (sometimes running to decades), and it is not the case that existing leases should be cancelled to provide stability – stability of continuance is the default position during any change, although clearly once the new councils are in existence, any contract negotiation at that point onwards would be with the new council. Land wholly owned by the parish council will continue to be wholly owned by the parish council. Any decisions on assets made before the change order is implemented, will continue to be a decision of the pre-existing asset holder (the District Council), and policy decisions will be taken by councils in the normal way.

Currently Willand Parish Council cut all the roadside verges within the Parish and they receive a financial grant which covers a good proportion of the cost from Devon County Council.

Question 4:  Will such arrangements continue?

Response from the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

To consider whether to approve the minutes as a correct record of the meeting held on Monday 9 June 2025.

There was an amendment to Item 5, Chair’s Announcements, fourth bullet point where the words “, until the Unitary Authority was in existence.” were added so that it read ‘Tasks that now resided with the County Council would need to be appropriately shared between Unitary Authorities that were to be created – whilst still ensuring that the existing District Council carried out their duties to the best of their abilities, until the Unitary Authority was in existence.’

Following the addition of the amendment, the minutes of the last meeting held on Monday 9 June 2025 were approved as a correct record and SIGNED by the Chair.

Under Item 11 of the minutes of the meeting held on 9 June 2025 ‘Value for Money and Best Practice in Mid Devon Housing Modular Social Housing and Delivery Report’, Councillor G Czapiewski wanted it noted that he had made the point that using prisoner effort in the construction of Modern Methods of Construction in Modular Homes, added social value nationally and that it and other value adds, quantified in grants awarded, needed to be explicit and referred to directly in proposals to councillors as they aided in decision making.

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

The Chair had no announcements to make.

To consider any decisions made by the Cabinet at its last meetings on 17 June and 8 July that have been called-in.

The Committee NOTED that none of the decisions made by the Cabinet at its meetings on 17 June 2025 and 8 July 2025 had been called in.

To receive a report from the Head of People, Governance and Waste and the Corporate Performance and Improvement Manager on the Annual Corporate Performance for 2024 - 2025.

The Committee received and scrutinised the performance indicators and information received in the *Annual Corporate Performance Report 2024/25.

The following was highlighted:

• The report provided performance information for the 2024/25 financial year. The report and the accompanying appendices were structured according to the five themes in the Corporate Plan.
• Section 2 of the covering report provided performance analysis on a theme by theme basis, with the focus on the Corporate Plan performance indicators.
• Further information on performance against the Aims and Objectives detailed in the Corporate Plan was provided in Appendix 1 to 5.
• Appendix 6 contained the performance dashboards for quarter 4. These contained 100 measures highlighting how services were performing across the Council. Those indicators that were part of the Corporate Plan were highlighted in yellow text.
• The Performance Dashboards had also been reviewed by the relevant Policy Development Groups (PDGs) and the Planning Committee. 

Discussion took place regarding:

• The Community Risk Register was under development and not yet published. The final draft had been completed and was circulating to the service specific leads to identify what mitigating actions the Council could take.
• The Council were represented by its Resilience Officer on a regional working group on Emergency Hubs which was led by the Devon Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum. The region were aiming to follow a consistent approach that met the needs of the responder agencies and provided the whole society resilience that was intended by creating an Emergency Hub. Locally, little had happened regarding Emergency Hubs as the Council were waiting for the common operating procedure before introducing the plan to communities.
• Householder Planning Applications, where the target was 70% of applications determined within 8 weeks in line with the Government threshold. A local target had been considered but had not been changed for the consistency of reporting.
• Capital slippage 22%, target 0% - this was because two of the nine projects had slipped. One was the Building Management System at Phoenix House was currently being scoped and the other one was the Cullompton Relief Road, which was now well underway after securing funding.
• As part of the budget process, an aspirational £0 budget was set for the use of agency staff in Corporate Services. In 2024/25 it had been challenging to recruit in key areas such as Finance and Legal which therefore required agency staff to fill those critical roles costing £200k.
• In the drive towards Net Zero how much attention were the procurement team giving to the Council’s own anti-slavery requirements? Should the spend be brought within the UK to ensure that slaves were not used in the supply chain? The Council focussed on modern slavery but the slavery outlined could be tackled through the Council’s procurement processes. An answer would be provided to the Councillor asking the question following the meeting.
• The Homes Dashboard showed a figure for unoccupied and unfurnished empty homes across the district including those in the private sector to explain the implications it had for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

To receive a verbal report from the Leader of the Council relating to the State of the District, the Cabinet’s priorities for the coming year and its performance in the previous year.

The Committee received and NOTED a verbal Annual Report from the Leader of the Council.

The following was highlighted:

• Over the past two years (2023/24 and 2024/25) the Council had seen the  satisfaction of their residents increase, up to 52% in the most recent survey - an increase of 11% on that recorded in 2023/24, and residents who felt well informed about the Council was up to 60% - an increase of 15%.
• The Council was trying new ways to work with their communities – such as through the ‘Let’s Talk Mid Devon’ platform, and working closer with their town and parish councils –through initiatives such as the State of the District debate, creating a new Cabinet position with responsibilities for Parish and Community Engagement, and developing community resilience plans in partnership with the towns and parishes.
• The Council had supported all 1,573 households who came to them experiencing homelessness in the past two years.
• Tenant satisfaction was strong and improving. Overall tenant satisfaction was up to 70%. 79% of tenants were satisfied that their homes were safe, and 72% of tenants were satisfied with the overall repairs service.
• The Council were building award winning, affordable, and energy efficient homes – helping to tackle the challenges of the housing crisis and the climate crisis
• The Council had advanced towards the top 5% of national performance for their recycling rate and reduction in residual tonnage (their 57.9% recycling rate put the Council 11^th out of 197 District authorities and they were 9^th for residual tonnage reduction). The Council was recognised nationally by The Office for Local Government for having one of the fastest increases in recycling rates nationally and were shortlisted for the National Local Government Chronical award for Environmental Services. Further options for additional recycling streams would be considered in the autumn following the successful Pots and Pans trial and the planned trial for recycling nappies and sanitary products.
• A £33.5 million funding package was signed, for the Cullompton Relief Road, in February 2025, with works due to start in 2026. This vital piece of long awaited infrastructure would be key to unlocking future development for the town. This, coupled with the recent announcement on the railway station, highlighted the hard work of Members and officers in bringing both of those initiatives forward.
• Over £1.8 million in funding had been secured over the past 2 years to support economic projects in the district, such as the delivery of the Tiverton Work Hub.
• Decision making on planning applications within Mid Devon continued to significantly exceed national targets, whilst the Council’s record of defending appeals against their decision making remained high reflecting sound justified decision making. 
• The Council were 11^th nationally in 2023/24, and up to 2^nd in 2024/25 (99.83%) for the collection of Business Rates.
• The Council supported the vulnerable in the community, with around £550,000 paid out in food vouchers and energy vouchers via the Housing Support Fund.
• The Council’s Leisure service had undergone a full  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

To receive a report from the Chief Executive regarding the latest developments on Local Government Reorganisation and Devolution.

The Committee received and NOTED an *update from the Chief Executive on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) and Devolution.

The following was highlighted:

• The report set out the how the process started and the background context and the progress that had been made since the initial plan was submitted to the Government.
• The report covered some of the policy positions and the practicalities while a lot of the pieces were still in flux.
• Clarity was being sought by Town and Parish Councils regarding the impact of LGR.
• Whilst some councils were working collaboratively, some were not because this was a competitive process. This made partnership working more challenging than normal.
• The Government had made it clear that they would not revise the deadline and that it was their intent to make sure that LGR happened everywhere in England.

Discussion took place regarding:

• The final proposal had to be submitted by the end of November 2025. The Government would then reflect upon the responses it received and go out to consultation in spring 2026.The indicative timetable that had been received was that the Government would make a decision in summer/autumn 2026. In recent times the Government had suspended local elections, however, elections would need to be held in 2027 for the new shadow authority.
• Having a majority in favour of one proposal would hold minimal weight with the Government. However, it was expected that the majority would coalesce around the proposal that was most compelling and credible, showing how the proposed authorities would exist and deliver better outcomes in future, for the grouping that the league described.
• In relation to Towns and Parishes, would their model need to change? (Would they need more time commitment, allowances, payment and certified training?)There was likely to be an opportunity for those Town and Parish Councils who wanted to take on more and become more involved. 
  All of the proposals were going to have to give some constructive thought as to how they engaged with the community at local level. Clearly, existing towns and parishes were going to be a really good way to start that conversation and continue it going forward.
• LGR had different phases; the current report explained what had happened and where the County was at present with a view to giving some reassurance and confidence that the Council were on track to achieve what the Council voted for, which was to get the proposal submitted. The role of scrutiny at the moment was to ask was the Council on track to get this done?
• The risk log at the moment was concentrating on, ‘Were the Council going to get this done and submitted now?’

There was a wider risk log around capturing the risks of implementation, which was a secondary phase because the Council were having to make those changes incrementally.

• Collaborative Data Sharing had been difficult both in terms of the sheer quantity of information and data that councils held. Plymouth had agreed to host a data repository and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

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 2025/26 including two proposals;

-       National Planning Policy Framework and Mid Devon District Council’s 5 Year Housing Plan

-       Extending/Enriching Apprenticeship Opportunities in Mid Devon District Council.

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

The changes to the work programme for the meetings in September were explained to the Committee.

Two work proposals were considered:

• National Planning Policy Framework and the Council’s 5 Year Housing Plan was included in the work plan for after the summer.
• Extending / Enriching Apprenticeship Opportunities at the Council would be included in the Establishment Report that would be coming to the Scrutiny Committee on 8 September 2025.

Note: *Forward Plan and the *Scrutiny Committee Work Programme were previously circulated.