Decisions

The Minutes of the Meeting of the Strategy and Resources Committee held on 27 November 2018 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

In the interests of openness and transparency, Councillor Tella Wormington declared that she had been attending the Emily Davison Memorial Project Group and had made a personal donation to the fund.  This was not considered to give rise to a disclosable pecuniary interest under the relevant legislation that would preclude Councillor Wormington from taking part in the debate or voting on the matter in question.

No questions were asked or had been submitted by members of the public.

Note: This item was moved up the running order with the consent of the Committee.

The Committee:

(1)          Approved the use of S106 funds as set out in section 4 of the report to enable the Council to make a contribution of up to £20,000 towards the provision of the Emily Davison statue in Epsom Town Centre;

(2)          Agreed payment of the Council’s contribution is conditional upon the Emily Davison Memorial Project not achieving the necessary level of funding from other sources in the first instance and a contribution of up to £20,000 would make the project viable.

The Committee:

(1)          Approved the Data Protection Policy attached at Annex 1;

(2)          Delegated authority to the Chief Legal Officer to make such amendments as may be necessary to the Data Protection Policy as may be required to reflect legislation or good practice.

The Committee approved the use of £23,000 from the capital receipts reserve to fund the additional budget, subject to the Environment & Safe Communities Committee supporting the increase in budget at the meeting on 29 January 2019.

The Committee:

(1)          Noted the comments of the Financial Policy Pane on the proposed amendments to the Financial Regulations at paragraphs 3.4 and 3.5;

(2)          Recommended the updated Financial Regulations for approval by Full Council subject, in the interests of operational efficiency, to the amendment of paragraph 6.13 to permit the reallocation of resources (up to £50,000) between committees to be agreed by the relevant committee chairmen without the need to report to the relevant committees and Strategy and Resources Committee.

The Committee:

(1)          Approved the Pay Policy Statement for 2018/19 and

(2)          Authorised the Chief Executive to make such amendments as were necessary, identified at the meeting, prior to its submission to Council.

The Committee recommended the 2019/20 service estimates, including the increases to the fees and charges set out in the report, for approval at the budget meeting of Full Council in February 2019.

Note: This item was moved up the running order with the consent of the Committee.

The Committee:

(1)          Adopted the scheme set out in Annex 1 of the report as the method of awarding Retail Relief to Business Rates payers in Epsom & Ewell, with effect from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2021;

(2)          Agreed that from 1 April 2019 Epsom & Ewell Borough Council will charge a Council Tax Long Term Empty Premium of 100% on properties that have been left empty for longer than 2 years;

(3)          Agreed that, from 1 April 2020, Epsom & Ewell Borough Council will charge a Council Tax Long Term Empty Premium of 200% on properties that have been left empty for longer than 5 years;

(4)          Agreed that, from the 1 April 2021, Epsom & Ewell Borough Council will charge a Council Tax Long Term Empty Premium of 300% on properties that have been left empty for longer than 10 years.

The Committee submitted the Capital Programme for 2019/20 as identified in section 4 of the report to Full Council for approval on 19 February 2019.

The Committee:

(1)          Received the External Audit Plan (Annex 1 to the report)

(2)          Received the Grant Certification Letter (Annex 2 to the report)

The passed a resolution to exclude the Press and Public from the meeting in accordance with Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that the business involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act (as amended) and that pursuant to paragraph 10 of Part 2 of the said Schedule 12A the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

It was resolved:

That the Committee rejected the motion that the Council should agree that the first half an hour of parking in all Epsom & Ewell Borough car parks should be free.

It was resolved:

That the Committee supported the budget increase of £23,000 to the Ashley Centre Car Park safety fencing scheme, subject to the agreement by Strategy and Resources committee to the funding from the capital receipts reserve.

It was resolved:

(1)      That the Committee recommended the 2019/20 service estimates, for approval at the budget meeting of Full Council in February 2019.

It was resolved:

That the Committee:

(1)      Submits the Capital Programme for 2019/20 as identified in section 4 of the report to the Council for approval on 19 February 2019.

It was resolved:

That subject to the approval of Council, the Committee:

(1)      Agreed the fees and charges for 2019/20 as set out at Annex 1 and Annex 3 subject to the wording “NEW SUBSCRIBERS” being deleted from the charge for fortnightly collection of a small garden waste bin (non-direct debit payment), listed on page 62 of the agenda;

(2)      Noted the parking fees and charges agreed by this Committee on 23 October 2018 as set out in Annex 2.

It was resolved:

(1)      That the Committee authorised officers to explore opportunities to improve the garden waste service as outlined in the report.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Environment and Safe Communities Committee held on 23 October 2018 were agreed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

No declarations of interest were made by councillors regarding items on the agenda.

No questions had been submitted or were asked by members of the public.