To receive apologies for absence (to include reasons, where appropriate) from Members/Officers

Apologies for absence were received from the following Members for the reasons so stated:

To receive and confirm the following Minutes of Council:-

Ordinary meeting – 15 October 2014

RESOLVED:         That the minutes of the meeting of Council held on the 12^th November 2014 were approved as a true and accurate record.

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008

None

(i)            Mayor (or person presiding)

(ii)           Cabinet Members

(iii)          Chief Executive

(iv)         Monitoring Officer

The Mayor informed Members that he had been overwhelmed by the number of outstanding commemorative events which he had attended over the last few weeks commemorating the Centenary of World War One and Remembrance Day.  He stated that they had been truly emotional experiences and he was sure that it would be similarly the case when he attended Archbishop McGrath School’s production of the play ‘My Boy Jack’; a representation of the experiences of families who lost sons during the Great War.  The Mayor thanked everyone involved in the organisation of these events, including Councillor David White who helped to organise an excellent Poppy Appeal Concert.

The Mayor also thanked Councillor Megan Butcher for inviting him to take part in her sponsored walk event ‘Touched by Cancer’ at Kenfig National Nature Reserve last month.  He reported that the event had been highly successful and had raised a considerable amount of money for a worthy cause.

The Mayor informed Members of some of the other events he had attended recently.  He had attended the opening of a new shop in Bridgend town centre of the Emmaus Charity, which offered support to homeless people.  He had also attended the launch of the ‘Girl Power’ activity centre at Brynteg Comprehensive and had taken part in Litchard Primary’s ‘Pink Assembly’ and School Council.

The Mayor asked all Members to consider nominations from their local communities for the Mayor’s Citizenship Awards.  The nominees may be a charity champion, an outstanding volunteer, or someone who generally goes above and beyond the call of duty to help others.  The awards nominations were due to open later this month and he would give further details at December’s Council meeting.

Finally, the Mayor thanked all the Members who attended his charity banquet at the Golden Well last month and commented that it had been a truly lovely evening in aid of good causes.  The Mayor also reminded Members that there would be two forthcoming events at the Heronston Hotel in aid of charity, namely a coffee morning on Friday, 21^st November, and a Nearly Christmas’ dinner on Friday, 5^th December to be hosted by the First Minister, Carwyn Jones.

(1)            Cabinet Member - Communities

            The Cabinet Member - Communities informed Members that the Council would again be supporting its town centres on the run up to Christmas with concessions for free parking within its car parks.  The proposed dates and times were in keeping with the previous tradition of operating concessions in the two weeks leading up to Christmas Day.  The concessions will operate from:

·             8^th – 13^th December after 2.00pm

·                15^th – 20^th December after 10.00am

·                22^nd – 24^th December after 10.00am

The Cabinet Member - Communities stated that it was hoped the free Christmas parking would encourage footfall into Bridgend and Porthcawl town centres for the Christmas period.

The Cabinet Member - Communities updated Members on the UK Steel Enterprise, a regeneration subsidiary of Tata Steel which had provided £5,000 to the Council to back its work in assisting local businesses. UK Steel Enterprise was originally set up in 1975 to support investment and business growth in areas affected by changes in the steel industry and now invests directly in growing businesses, providing equity investment and loan finance.  It has also serviced office space and workshop units in various parts of Britain including Cardiff and Ebbw Vale.

       The Cabinet Member - Communities stated that a cheque of £5,000 had been presented to the Council to support its work in capital investment and job creation, and two schemes were currently in operation: The Local Investment Fund and Green Shoots.  The former scheme offers financial assistance of up to £35,000 (although currently this is capped at £10,000) on the basis of up to 40% support of eligible expenditure by small and medium sized enterprises.  The latter scheme offers small grants averaging around £2,000 to micro enterprises who employ nine or fewer people. 

       The Cabinet Member - Communities informed Members that the Green Shoots project would finish at the end of December 2014 so the money from UK Steel Enterprise, matched with £5,000 internally from existing Bridgend County Borough Council resources, would allow continued Green Shoots type of support for new starts and micro businesses into 2015.  Although the amount was modest, probably enough to support four or five small investment projects, there was the possibility of further support after 2015.

(2)   Cabinet Member - Children and Young People

The Cabinet Member - Children and Young People announced that comprehensive preparations were being made for the Estyn monitoring visit to the Authority next month.  Members would be informed of the outcome of the Inspectorate’s visit which was expected to last three days. 

The Cabinet Member - Children and Young People stated that a recruitment process was underway for a new Head Teacher at Archbishop McGrath Catholic High School and the new primary provision for Garw Valley South.  Mrs Vivien Thomas currently a Head Teacher in Tairgwaith Primary School in Ammanford has been appointed as the new Head Teacher at Ogmore Vale Primary School.

The Cabinet Member - Children and Young People advised that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 419b

The Chief Executive updated Members on the budget consultation process, and announced that the last community engagement workshop was due to take place this evening at the Grand Pavilion, Porthcawl.  He explained that whilst the consultation itself was due to close on Monday, 17^th November this would be the last chance for people to take part and have their say.  He advised that some interesting issues and questions had arisen at the workshops, which provided positive feedback, with participants gaining a new insight into the difficulties in setting a multi-million pound Council budget.

He reported that the budget consultation had been widely promoted and publicised quite extensively, which included a special question and answer session on Twitter he had taken part in. He advised that this was a first for both the Council and himself, and analysis of the session had revealed that a total of 23,252 tweets and messages were viewed, resulting in a 475% increase in the Council’s current daily Twitter average.  He advised that it had demonstrated the growing appetite people had for using social media, which would become increasingly important in future Council interactions with local citizens.  He commented that it would be interesting to see how we could apply it in the event of any severe weather such as ice, snow or flooding this winter.  He informed Members that a Questions and Answers session had been agreed for a feature in next week’s Glamorgan Gazette, when he would be answering readers’ questions on the budget.  He hoped that Members would urge their constituents to take part in the budget consultation before it closed next Monday.

The Monitoring Officer informed Members of the following changes to Committee memberships:

·           Community Renewal and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Councillor H J Townsend to replace Councillor C E Smith;

·           Corporate Resources and Improvement Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Councillor J R McCarthy to replace Councillor C E Smith;

·                                   Town and Community Council Forum –

Councillor R D Jenkins to replace Councillor D R Pugh;

·                                   Development Control Committee –

A replacement for Councillor C E Smith would be confirmed.

The Monitoring Officer also informed Members of the following additional meetings required:

·         A special meeting of Cabinet is to be held on Tuesday, 18^th November at 10:00am.

·         An extraordinary meeting of Council is to be held on Monday, 24^th November at 4:00pm.

·         A special meeting of Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee to be held on Friday, 28^th November at 2:00pm.

The Monitoring Officer updated Members on the Special Cabinet meeting due to be held on the 28^th November 2014, and advised that the meeting may be required to be held at another venue, as the whole Council Suite was booked for other meetings on that day.

The Monitoring Officer further advised Members of a change of date for the Town and Community Council Forum which had been moved from Monday, 5^th January 2015 to Monday, 12^th January 2015 at 4.00pm.

The Leader announced that he had attended the town centre Remembrance Day event together with the Mayor and other dignitaries last Sunday.  He reported that he had been struck once again by the way in which the people of Bridgend County Borough turned out in huge numbers to demonstrate their great respect for the local Military community, and for the sacrifice of those who had fallen.  He thanked everyone who had attended, or taken part in the parade, and congratulated the organisers for enabling us to pay tribute to our Service men and women, both past and present, in such a fitting manner.

              The Leader stated that Members may have seen recent media coverage concerning talk about voluntary mergers and advised that a report was being prepared for a meeting of Cabinet on the 18^th November 2014, which would be recommending that this Authority responds to the Welsh Government with a formal expression of interest in a potential early merger with the Vale of Glamorgan Council.  He explained that as Members were aware, the Welsh Government had invited Councils throughout Wales to express their interest in potential early voluntary mergers with other local authorities by the 28^th November 2014.  He advised that if the report was approved by Cabinet, an extraordinary meeting of Council would be called on the 24^th November 2014, and if agreed, the Authority would respond to the Welsh Government with a formal expression of interest.  He advised that this was likely to draw a great deal of further media interest and stressed that it was important to note that the Authority was still at an early stage in the process and no decisions had yet been made.

              The Leader also announced that “Good Neighbours Stop Rogue Traders” was the message behind this year’s National Consumer Week, which gave the Trading Standards Team another opportunity to raise awareness of the dangers of rogue traders.  He advised that during the last week the Trading Standards Team had launched a new scheme which enabled elderly and vulnerable residents to nominate someone to deal with troublesome doorstep traders on their behalf.  Cold callers often targeted people at their homes in an attempt to sell the latest ‘wonder deal’, or offer to carry out unnecessary repairs on their homes which often ended up being of poor quality, unnecessary and at an extortionate price.  The Leader was sure that Members would welcome the new scheme, which would allow elderly residents to place a postcard on the front door, detailing their nominated neighbour’s address and telephone number.  The Leader informed Members that anyone interested in obtaining these postcards could do so by contacting the Trading Standards Team.

The Corporate Director - Communities presented a report for approval from Council to authorise the formal acceptance of a £2.5m loan from the Welsh Government’s Central Capital Retained Fund and to include the additional capital works within a revised capital programme.  The loan would enable site investigation and land remediation work to be undertaken so that the three sites could be marketed for residential development.  It was envisaged that the remediation proposal would generate confidence and act as a catalyst for further investment providing environmental benefits to the local community.

            The Corporate Director - Communities reported that an analysis of all prospective sites in the Llynfi Valley was carried out, including market testing and consultation with land owners in the area, which culminated in the proposed three sites being identified, detailed under Appendix 1 to the report.

            He reported that no match funding was required by Bridgend County Borough Council for the loan, which would be confirmed subject to further negotiation with the Welsh Government as to the terms of the funding agreement. 

The Cabinet Member - Communities stated that it was important not to underestimate this development as he believed that regeneration in terms of housing, wellbeing and education was vital for the Llynfi Valley.  He informed Members that only two sites were going forward for development, where it was hoped in time a total of 150 new houses would be built.

            One Member referred to the large deposit of winter grit currently being stored at Parcel B site (Maesteg Washery), held there as a cost saving initiative, and asked whether an alternative site would be allocated to accommodate the grit.  The Corporate Director – Communities advised that some investigation work would be carried out regarding the grit.  The same Member also asked whether there was a covenant restriction on the former Maesteg Comprehensive School site as to its use.  The Corporate Director - Communities advised that the Head of Service would be tasked to investigate and would respond when the facts were established.

RESOLVED:         That Council approved the formal acceptance of a £2.5m loan from the Welsh Government’s Central Capital Retained Fund, subject to satisfactory negotiations on the loan agreement, with the Corporate Director - Communities being given delegated power to approve the final terms of the Loan Agreement and arrange execution of it on behalf of the Council, subject to such powers being exercised in consultation with the Assistant Chief Executive - Legal and Regulatory Services and Section 151 Officer, to include the additional capital works within a revised capital programme.

            The Head of Finance and ICT presented a report to provide Council with details of the Council Tax base and estimated collection rate for 2015-16. The base is also used by Community Councils in calculating their precepts on the tax base for each community area, and details of these were included in Appendix A to the report.

RESOLVED:         That Council:

1.      Approved the Council Tax Base and collection rate for 2015-16 as shown at paragraph 4.1 of the report.

2.      Approved the tax bases for the community areas, as set out in Appendix A to the report.

The Section 151 Officer presented a report in order to:

·           Comply with the requirement of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s (CIPFA) Treasury Management in the Public Services: Code of Practice 2011 Edition (the Code) to the report as part of a mid-year review an overview of treasury activities;

·                                   Report on the projected Treasury Management and Prudential Indicators for 2014 -15;

·           Inform Cabinet of the proposed changes to the Investment Strategy 2014-15 included in the Treasury Management Strategy.

The report provided background information and paragraph 4.1.1 outlined the treasury position for the 1^st April to the 30^th September 2014.

The Section 151 Officer reported that the details of the debt maturity on the £96.87m long term borrowing, outstanding as at the 30^th September 2014 were detailed under Appendix A to the report.  It was noted that the long term liabilities figure of £21.26m as at the 30^th September 2014 included £19.54m for the Council’s Private Funding Initiative (PFI) arrangement for the provision of a Secondary School in Maesteg.

She further reported that favourable cash flows had provided surplus funds for investments at the 30^th September 2014 was £24.40m which included accrued interest, or stated as fair value in different instances.

The Section 151 Officer drew Members’ attention to Appendix B to the report which detailed the Treasury Management Strategy and projected indicators for 2014-15.  She reported that no long or short term borrowing had been taken during the period 1^st April to the 30^th September 2014, and it was forecast to remain at that level for the remainder of the financial year 2014-15.  She advised that it was originally forecast that £5m new Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) borrowing would be taken in 2014-15; however this was currently being reviewed and an update would be provided to Cabinet at its meeting in February 2015.

The Section 151 Officer advised that as a result of the mid-year review, it was deemed necessary to make some minor revisions to the Investment Strategy within the Treasury Management Strategy 2014-15, as detailed under Appendix C of the report, to allow for increased flexibility in the constantly changing financial market.  This would allow for increased secure investment opportunities available to the Council.  The proposal is to amend the Investment Strategy to invest in the major UK banks as a precautionary measure, as the credit rating agencies had stated that they plan to review EU banks’ ratings in line with each country’s implementation of the EU Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive commencing in the UK in January 2015, a year ahead of most other countries.  This meant that the UK and other Governments would be less likely to support failing banks.

The proposed changes were detailed under paragraph 4.6.2 of the report, and an extract of the revised Investment Strategy 2014-15, incorporating the proposed changes, are highlighted in Appendix D to the report.

The Section 151 Officer informed Members that the Treasury Management and Prudential Indicators  ...  view the full minutes text for item 423.

The Head of Regulatory Services presented a report, the purpose of which was to seek approval of Council to adopt the Council’s Statement of Licensing Policy for the period 2015-2020.  Under the Licensing Act 2003, Council is required to publish a Statement of Licensing Policy and review it every three years.  However, this did not preclude further amendments or adjustment if required, to reflect changes in legislation or operating models.

            The Statement of Licensing Policy sets out the policies the Licensing Authority will apply when making decisions on licensing applications and reviews.  The Policy attached at Annex A to the report was prepared in accordance with legislation and Statutory Guidance issued under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.

            The Head of Regulatory Services reported that partner organisations were consulted, primarily the South Wales Police (SWP), and were asked to report on any specific problems in their area, or in particular sectors of the licensed trade which were cause for concern.  A summary from SWP was attached at Appendix 1 to the report.  The report highlighted that during 2013-14 there were 461 licensed premises and 60 registered Members’ clubs within the Borough and the Council had received 206 Temporary Events Notices, with around 1370 persons who held premises licences.

            The Head of Regulatory Services further reported that recent developments had included greater partnership working and sharing of information with key partners, in order to tackle licensing issues, with significant concerns being reported on a monthly basis to Responsible Authority Group meetings with SWP.  This joint working was recognised at the South Wales Police Awards 2012 where the Public Protection Department had received an Award for Safer Bridgend Community Safety Partnership through work carried out in controlling the late night economy in Bridgend, notably violent crime.  This work had resulted in a significant reduction in the number of assaults, with Home Office figures predicting savings of over £1m to the public, with a further £100k in policing costs.

            He informed Members that SWP had made representations that a cumulative impact policy should continue to apply to named town centre streets.  This would result in applications for new premises licences, or club certificates, or variations likely to add to the existing cumulative impact normally being refused, unless the applicant could demonstrate that the operation of the premises would not add to crime and disorder or public nuisance.  He emphasised that this policy would not fetter the discretion of an individual Licensing Sub-Committee to give proper regard to future applications for licences within the town centre for a venue which might not have an adverse impact on the area.

            One Member asked whether crime statistics for other town centres in the Borough could also be reported as a comparison, and queried why the data only covered Bridgend town centre and had not included the hinterland.

            The Head of Regulatory Services advised that the figures were to highlight the need to continue the special policy and at this time, feedback from SWP in relation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 424.

The Assistant Chief Executive - Legal and Regulatory Services presented a report to seek approval of Council to appoint Mr Kevin Pascoe as a registered representative on the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee for a maximum term of four years.

He reported that Mr Geraint Isaac had recently resigned from his position as the Secondary School Parent Governor Representative, and following an election held in accordance with the Parent Governor Representatives and Church Representatives (Wales) Regulations 2001, Mr Pascoe was nominated to serve as the Secondary School Parent Governor Representative.

RESOLVED:         That Council approved the appointment of Mr Kevin Pascoe as the Secondary School Parent Governor Representative to the Children and young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee for a term of four years.

The Monitoring Officer presented a report, the purpose of which was to inform Council of the information reports which had been published since the last meeting.

RESOLVED:         That Council acknowledged the publication of the documents listed in the report:

To consider any item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency