Agenda and minutes

Councillor L Swindlehurst was substitute member for Councillor Smith.

DECIDED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Service Delivery Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 26 July 2023, be approved and signed by the Chair.

There were none.

·         Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

·         Other Interests

No interests were declared.

(At least two clear days notice required, in writing, to the Proper Officer in accordance with Procedure Rule 15).

Questions received from Councillor Flunder:

Q1. “Who has made the decision to fully close the indoor market areas for 6 months, from February 2024, without any scrutiny process whatsoever and not allowing the traders or any district councillors to look at other alternative options?”

Response from Councillor M Swindlehurst, Portfolio Holder for Leisure & Tourism:

 The Levelling Up Funding is a great opportunity to invest in the Leek Market Halls and to support a thriving town centre. We are developing designs and construction programme and currently no decision has been taken to close both the Trestle and Butter markets. Officers held a consultation event with the market traders of Trestle and Butter Markets in August and have scheduled one to one sessions with traders over the coming weeks to discuss the work programme and understand the impact the construction works will have on individual businesses. The market traders will be directly affected by the works and it is right and proper that they have the opportunity to share their views and be heard. Should a full closure of both markets be the preferred course of action to undertake the works most efficiently and effectively, a

  formal decision-making report would be prepared, setting out the rationale and justification and would be subject to the usual scrutiny processes.

In response to a supplementary question around the inability of traders to operate during a closure of the market, the Portfolio Holder advised that a decision had not been made to fully close the market and the Council was currently seeking the views of the traders. Further information would be available to the Panel in due course.

Councillor Flunder requested that all members were appraised of any proposals for the market.

Q2. “When will all district councillors be included in the Levelling Up funding consultation processes and not be excluded as they have been since the election. Also when will we, all the district councillors and business outside Leek be included in the mailing lists of  UKSPF and RSPF funding opportunities and when the application periods are open?”

Response from Councillor Price, Deputy Leader & Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Planning:

Since the election, a detailed report was presented to the first Cabinet meeting of the new administration on 20^th June 2023, confirming the award of LUF funding and outlining the current position with regards to delivery of the LUF Programme and presenting proposals for future development of the Programme. Further, the LUF Programme is an item on the agenda of the meeting this evening for discussion by members of the Panel. All decisions required in relation to the LUF Programme will be taken in accordance with the Council’s formal decision-making process which involves all elected members.

I am pleased to report that the latest round of UKSPF grant funding opportunities were launched on Friday 1^st September. We launched six new grants for local businesses and communities totalling over £1.3m. This funding is intended to support our local communities to thrive and I  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

DECIDED:

1)    That the Work Programme be noted;

2)    For an item on the Council’s Dog Fouling Policy to be added.

The Panel considered a report in relation to the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2023- 2027 which sought recommendation to approve adoption of the strategy following consultation.

It was a legal requirement under the Housing Act 1996 (as amended) for local authorities to carry out periodic reviews of homelessness and publish a Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy based on these results.

At the meeting on 1st March 2023, this Panel recommended consultation be undertaken on the Draft Review and Strategy with consultation questions at Appendix C of the report.

Following consultation, the Strategy and review documents were now ready for consideration and approval to adopt.

Members welcomed the comprehensive report and commented on the diligent work undertaken by the Housing Team.

Discussion took place around the level of support available to people that had been rehoused, viability issues in terms of the delivery of affordable housing by developers and the need to provide increased affordable housing in the area. Innovative examples of affordable housing schemes were described to the Panel by the Portfolio Holder for Communities.

DECIDED:

1)    Members NOTED the contents of the report and recommended Cabinet approve adoption of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2023- 2027 (Appendix A), in connection with the Homelessness Review (Appendix B)

Members received a report which made recommendations for the re-establishment of a working group to consider the future operations model for the Council’s Leisure Centres.

The Leisure Facilities Working Group was first convened in April 2021 by the Service Delivery Overview and Scrutiny Panel to scrutinise the proposals of the Leisure Transformation Plan.  This work led to a report approved by Cabinet on 14 February 2023.

It was now proposed that the working group was re-convened to further scrutinise the development of the leisure operations model.  Given the cross-Alliance nature of the area to be scrutinised it is also proposed that this be established as a joint working group with High Peak Borough Council. 

The Panel was advised that the membership of the group was not restricted to members of the Service Delivery O&S Panel. It was commented that the towns and rural areas should be represented on the working group.

DECIDED:

1)    That a joint working group be established with High Peak Borough Council to scrutinise proposals for the leisure operations model as detailed in paragraph 6.4 of the report;

2)    For meetings of the working group to be held via MS Teams;

3)    Group Leaders to advise Democratic Services of the members appointed to the working group.

The Chair to move:-

 “That pursuant to Section 100A (2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that exempt information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 100I (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the paragraphs indicated.”

The Chair Moved:-

“That, pursuant to Section 100A(2) and (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings whereby it is likely that confidential information as defined in Section 100A (3) of the Act would be disclosed to the public in breach of the obligation of confidence or exempt information as defined in Section 100 I (1) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act would be disclosed to the public by virtue of the Paragraphs indicated.”

The Panel received a presentation on the regeneration of Leek town centre following the successful award of Levelling Up funds.