Decisions

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Adopt the revised Statement of Community Involvement (Appendix 1 to the report) subject to minor amendments with the updated version reviewed by Chair/Vice-Chair prior to publication.

(2)      Note the consultation statement (Appendix 2 to the report) and the changes made to the SCI as a result of comments received during the consultation period.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

1.    Agree to set-up of a County Deal Working Group;

2.    Agree the membership and Terms of Reference of the Working Group (Appendix 1 to the report);

3.    Delegate authority to the Interim Chief Executive, in consultation with the Chair of the Working Group, to make representations to Surrey County Council and/or other parties in connection with the process for developing a ‘Surrey County Deal’ proposal to government.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Agree to the recommendation of Option 2b, to lease a Skoda Superb Hybrid.

(2)      Agree to the installation of an electric charging point at a cost of £1,500.

(3)      Delegate to the Interim Chief Executive and the Chief Finance Officer, to proceed with the preferred option and agree terms.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Agree a new electrical supply is taken from the public highway as described in this report at a cost of £60,000, to be funded from the Capital Receipts Reserve.

(2)      Authorise the Head of Property & Regeneration, in consultation with the Head of Finance and Legal Officer, to include the works in the Agreement for Lease and progress the electrical supply upgrade at the appropriate time. 

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Appoint the following Members to the Capital Member Group: Cllrs Neil Dallen (Chair), John Beckett, Alex Coley, Nigel Collin and Kate Chinn.

(2)      Approve the increase in budget of £185,282 for the Disabled Facilities programme, in line with the allocation of central government grant funding;

(3)      Confirm the criteria for considering capital bids as set out in paragraph 9.1 of the report;

(4)      Confirm the criteria for assessing ‘spend to save’ capital bids as set out in paragraph 9.2 of the report.

The Committee resolved 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 involved 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.

Following consideration, the Committee agreed with 7 votes for, 1 vote against 1 abstention and the Chair not voting to:

(1)      Agree the interventions set out in Paragraph 2.16-2.19 of the report to be included in the submission of the Epsom and Ewell Shared Prosperity Fund Intervention Plan to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

(2)      To consider the further recommendations made by the Strategy and Resources Committee for future submissions.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Authorise the Head of Place Development, in Consultation with the Chief Legal Officer, to enter into a Collaboration Agreement and agree a Delivery Plan with HMLR and to enter into any other agreements necessary to facilitate the migration of the Council’s Local Land Charges service to HMLR.

(2)      Agree to allocate up to £18,000 of the Part 1 HMLR Transitional Payment to fund additional staff resource to enable the migration process to be delivered within agreed timescales.

Following consideration, the Committee resolved with 8 votes for, 1 abstention and the Chair not voting to:

(1)      Receive the report on provisional financial outturn for 2021/22;

(2)      Approve the carry forward £2.564m budget for capital schemes to be added to the 2022/23 capital programme.

(3)      Note that the external audit of the 2021/22 Statement of Accounts is underway and expected to complete in the Autumn. Should any material changes to outturn arise from the audit, these will be reported back to members.

Following consideration, the Committee resolved to agree:

(1)      The proposed changes to 2022/23 budgets following the re-basing exercise, as set-out in section 5 of the report;

(2)      The proposed contingency funding for the homelessness service in 2022/23, as set-out in paragraph 5.5 of the report;

(3)      The proposed strategy for setting the 2023/24 budget in Section 6 of the report, including:

                             i.That the funding options identified in Table 5 should be progressed;

                            ii.That a service-specific savings target of £243k should be set for homelessness;

                          iii.That Directors and Heads of Service should work to produce specific income generation and savings options to meet the remaining budget deficit of £1.704m.

(4)      That owing to the Council’s projected budget deficit, any additional new growth items supported by Policy Committees will need to be fully funded from existing budgets.

(5)      The budget setting timetable at Appendix 2 to the report.

Recommendations 1, 2,and 5 above were agreed unanimously.

Recommendations 3 i, 3 iii and 4 were agreed with 8 votes for, 1 abstention and the Chair not voting.

Recommendation 3 ii was agreed by the Chair’s casting vote following 2 votes for, 2 votes against and 5 abstentions.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Approve the updated Risk Management Strategy.

The following declarations were made by Members of the Committee in relation to items on the agenda:

Allotments

Councillor Julie Morris, Other Interest: In the interests of openness and transparency, Councillor Julie Morris declared that she was an allotment holder but came to the meeting with a clear and open mind.

Allotments

Councillor Steven McCormick, Other Interest: In the interests of openness and transparency, Councillor Steven McCormick declared that he is an allotment holder but came to the meeting with a clear and open mind.

The Minutes of the previous meeting of the Environment and Safe Communities Committee held on 22 March 2022 were agreed and signed by the Chair.

The Committee received a report reporting the results of the self-managed allotments consultation.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Note the outcome of the self-managed consultation.

(2)      Agree not to progress with options of self-management with all existing Council managed allotment site holders except for those who occupy plots at Epsom Common.

(3)      Agree a further consultation with Epsom Common allotment tenants to include a copy of the terms and conditions of the self-managed scheme, to be actioned once the current allotment database has been subject to data cleanse to ensure integrity of information stored.

(4)      Agree to a change in the self-management criteria to read: “At least 65% of the current plot holders support the application to join the self-managed scheme, non-responders will be treated as a vote to remain council managed”.

The Committee received a report proposing increases to the cost of Garden Waste recycling subscriptions and Bulky Waste collection charges with effect from 1 September 2022. This was proposed to help cover rising operational costs, such as for fuel, bins, AdBlue and staffing costs.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Approve an increase to the cost of new and renewed garden waste subscriptions from 1 September 2022 as detailed in paragraph 2.4.1 of the report.

(2)      Approve an increase to the cost of bulky waste collections from 1 September 2022 as detailed in paragraph 2.4.2 of the report.

The Committee received a report establishing the details of membership and meeting frequency of the Council’s Crime and Disorder Sub-Committee.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Agree the membership and frequency of meetings as set out in the report.

The Committee received a report requesting the Committee’s approval to the appointment of Councillor Phil Neale as the Alternative Transport Champion for the 2022-23 Municipal Year, in accordance with Article 17 of the Constitution.

Following consideration, the Committee unanimously resolved to:

(1)      Approve the appointment of Councillor Phil Neale as the Alternative Transport Member Champion for the 2022-23 Municipal Year.