Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Tom Partridge-Underwood, Macaulay Nichol, David Sims, Kevin Thurland, Charlie Best, Jon-Paul Carr, Joseph Smyth, Elliot Prentice, Ian Jelley, Jan O’Hara, Cedwien Brown, David Jenney, Steven North, Sarah Tubbs, Tim Allebone, Richard Levell, William Colquhoun, Leanne Buckingham, Dez Dell, Emily Fedorowycz.

The minutes of the Annual Council Meeting held on 26^th May 2022 to be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The minutes of the Annual Council meeting held on 26^th May 2022 had been circulated.

Councillor Larry Henson MOVED the minutes of the meeting held on 26^th May 2022 be agreed. Councillor Jason Smithers SECONDED the motion.

RESOLVED that: -

The minutes of the Annual Council meeting held on 26^th May 2022 be agreed.

Members to declare any interest as appropriate in respect of items to be considered at the meeting.

Councillors Howes & Weatherill declared a personal interest in relation to Agenda Item 11 and the motion on HMOs, due to their involvement in HMOs in the North Northamptonshire area. Both councillors indicated that they would withdraw from the meeting during discussion of that motion.

To receive any announcements from the Chair.

The Chair drew Council’s attention to a circus holding performances at West Glebe Park, Corby from 30^th June – 4^th July 2022. It was noted there were a significant number of the Circus company from Ukraine.

To receive any announcements from the Leader of the Council.

Councillor Smithers (Leader) related to Council the sad news that former county councillor Ian Morris had recently passed away. Councillors Smithers, John McGhee and Hakewill led tributes to the work of the former county councillor. Details regarding funeral arrangements would be circulated when received.

(i) Public Statements

(ii) Public Questions

Public Statements

Mr Blissett, a local resident, addressed Council with regard to the motion submitted relating to the funding bid for the proposed development of a traveller’s stopping site near Rothwell. Mr Blissett urged councillors to support the motion. The Chair thanked Mr Blissett for his contribution.

Public Questions

There were no public questions on this occasion.

To receive questions from members.

There were a total of 7 written questions submitted. The questions and responses were circulated to all members prior to the commencement of the meeting. Supplementary questions were presented and responded to during this agenda item.

To receive any presentations from the Executive.

There were no Executive Presentations on this occasion.

To seek approval from Full Council for the draft submission on Council size regarding future electoral arrangements to the LGBCE, as recommended by the Democracy and Standards Committee.

The report before Council set out the recommendations of the Democracy and Standards Committee meeting held on 12^th April 2022. The Committee had considered proposals of a cross-party member/officer working group which had been formed to formulate a response to the Commission’s current consultation on stage 1 (council size) for future electoral arrangements in North Northamptonshire.

Details of the Committee’s deliberation together with a copy of the draft submission papers had been circulated as part of the Council agenda pack.

It was noted in the report that the Committee were recommending in the draft submission that the council size be increased, effective from 2025, from 78 councillors to 99 councillors. It was further noted that alternative proposals from the Labour Group (84-86 councillors) and the Green Alliance Group (60 councillors) had been tabled in discussions.

The recommendations in the report were MOVED by Councillor Lora Lawman and SECONDED by Councillor Gill Mercer. Councillor Lawman drew Council’s attention to the reasoning use in suggesting an increase in councillor numbers which included the significant population growth projected for the area over the coming years, the current workload of councillors and council involvement in outside bodies.

RESOLVED that: -

(i)            The work of the Officer/Member Working Group on the first phase of electoral arrangements for North Northamptonshire be noted;

(ii)           The completed background evidence and information contained in the council size template at Appendix A, for submission to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) be approved;

(iii)          A Council size number of the Working Group’s recommended figure of 99, endorsed by the Democracy and Standards Committee, set out at the end of Appendix A be approved;

(iv)          The alternative options put forward by the Labour and Green Alliance representations, set out in paragraph 5.2 of the report, be noted; and

(v)           Delegated authority be granted to the Director of Governance and Human Resources, in consultation with the Chair of the Democracy and Standards Committee, to make any amendments to the proposed submission to LGBCE prior to its submission in light of any comments from this Council and any minor/typographical changes identified.

(Councillors Hakewill and Griffiths wished it recorded in the minutes that they voted against the recommendations).

To consider the report and recommendations from the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) into its review of Member Allowances conducted in 2022, following consideration by the Democracy and Standards Committee.

Council considered a report and recommendations compiled by the Independent Review Panel (IRP) following its review of the Members’ Allowance Scheme. Council had previously agreed that the IRP conduct a review of the Scheme 12-months after Vesting day and the operation of the new authority.

It was noted by Council that the IRP had the benefit of assessing the operation of governance arrangements at the Council for a 12-month period. Some representations from councillors had been received during the consultation period. These had been taken into account by the IRP together with research conducted on the operation of the governance arrangements since Vesting Day. This had led to the IRP recommending an increase in the Basic Allowance and an increase in some of the Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA); these recommendations were itemised in Appendix A together with the IRP’s rationale taken into account in the formulation of the proposed increases.

Councillor Lora Lawman MOVED the recommendations contained in the IRP report; Councillor Gill Mercer SECONDED these recommendations.

A recorded vote was requested.

Those voting FOR the report’s recommendations: -

Councillors Binley, Bone, D Brackenbury, W Brackenbury, Bunday, Carter, Currall, Dearing, Ekins, Hallam, H Harrison, K Harrison, Howell, Howes, Irwin, Jackson, B Jenney, G Lawman, L Lawman, Marks, Maxwell, A Mercer, G Mercer, Pandey, Pentland, Powell, Roberts, Rowley, Shacklock, Smithers, Smith-Haynes, Tebbutt, Tye, Ward, Waters, Weatherill, Wilkes.

Those voting AGAINST the recommendations: -

Councillors Addison, Anslow, Armour, S Brown, Lyn Buckingham, Griffiths, Hakewill, Keane, Lawal, Lee, McEwan, J McGhee, Z McGhee, Pengelly.

Those who ABSTAINED: -

Councillors Harrington, Henson.

RESOLVED that: -

(i)            The recommendations of the Independent Remuneration Panel (IRP) report be adopted in full effective from 1^st July 2022, as detailed in Appendix A.

To consider motions received in accordance with Meeting Procedure Rule 17 as follows:-

Motion 1

To be proposed by Cllr Jim Hakewill and seconded by Cllr Sarah Tubbs:-

‘This Council directs the Portfolio Holder for Rural Communities & Localism, Cllr David Howes, to carry out whatever steps are necessary to have the “Funding Bid for the proposed development of a traveller’s stopping site”, proposed to be located at Rothwell Green Space, north of Junction 3 of the A14 and south of Harrington Road, Rothwell, withdrawn immediately.

Further, that all feedback and background work on this proposal be retained, fed into the Gypsy and Traveller Site Allocations Policy and be considered during the proposed policy development.’

Motion 2

To be proposed by Cllr John McGhee and seconded by Cllr Zoe McGhee:-

‘This  motion is asking members to consider changing when planning permission is required for small houses in multiple occupation (HMO).

As it currently stands, people can apply to change the use of a property to a small house in multiple occupation (with between three and six occupiers) under permitted development rights, while larger HMOs have to go through the full planning process.

By removing the permitted development rights, any applications for a HMO, of any size, would be governed by the same rules.

Under article 4 of the National Planning Policy Framework councils are able to increase the requirements for applications for planning permission to HMOs, this has to be based on robust evidence and apply to small areas only so. We recognise that  there’s still a lot of work to do on this, but we are positive that by working together, we can improve the way HMOs are governed.

And as part of this motion we are asking officers to look into strengthening licensing requirements for the operation of HMOs, so they can be better monitored, and landlords held responsible for any negative impact on communities.

We ask the council to report back at the next full council with a plan on how to achieve this aim.’

The Chair informed Council that two motions had been received. These were detailed on the agenda paper.

Motion 1 - Traveller’s Stopping Site

“This Council directs the Portfolio Holder for Rural Communities & Localism, Cllr David Howes, to carry out whatever steps are necessary to have the “Funding Bid for the proposed development of a traveller’s stopping site,” proposed to be located at Rothwell Green Space, north of Junction 3 of the A14 and south of Harrington Road, Rothwell, withdrawn immediately.

Further, that all feedback and background work on this proposal be retained, fed into the Gypsy and Traveller Site Allocations Policy and be considered during the proposed policy development.”

Councillor Jim Hakewill MOVED the motion. Councillor Martin Griffiths SECONDED the motion. Councillor Hakewill expressed concern that the proposed course of action was not viable and did not meet the needs of local residents or travellers. Councillor Hakewill felt that there had been insufficient consultation. Councillor Griffiths felt that local resident’s views were not being fully considered and that the Council should consider delaying any decision.

Councillor Howes stressed that this was not a rushed proposal by the Council. The bid for Government funding had been fully costed and thought through. Councillor Howes stressed that the Government were seeking detailed proposals and would not consider substandard bids.

A recorded vote was requested.

Those voting FOR the motion: -

Councillors Addison, Anslow, Armour, Lyn Buckingham, Griffiths, Hakewill, Keane, McEwan, J McGhee, Z McGhee.

Those voting AGAINST the motion: -

Councillors Binley, Bone, D Brackenbury, W Brackenbury, S Brown, Bunday, Carter, Currall, Dearing, Ekins, Hallam, Harrington, H Harrison, Howell, Howes, Irwin, Jackson, B Jenney, Lawal, G Lawman, L Lawman, Marks, Maxwell, A Mercer, G Mercer, Pentland, Powell, Roberts, Rowley, Shacklock, Smithers, Smith-Haynes, Tebbutt, Tye, Ward, Waters, Watt, Weatherill, Wilkes.

Those who ABSTAINED: -

Councillor Henson.

The motion fell.

Guillotine Motion

It was MOVED by Councillor Jon Ekins and SECONDED by Councillor Helen Harrison, that the guillotine be extended until 5:30 pm. Full Council agreed this.

(Councillor D Howes and Councillor D Weatherill left the meeting at this point having earlier declared a personal interest).

Motion 2 - Houses in Multiple Occupation

“This motion is asking members to consider changing when planning permission is required for small houses in multiple occupation (HMO).

As it currently stands, people can apply to change the use of a property to a small house in multiple occupation (with between three and six occupiers) under permitted development rights, while larger HMOs have to go through the full planning process.

By removing the permitted development rights, any applications for a HMO, of any size, would be governed by the same rules.

Under article 4 of the National Planning Policy Framework councils are able to increase the requirements for applications for planning permission to HMOs, this has to be based on robust evidence and apply to small areas only so. We recognise that there’s still a lot of work to do on this, but we are positive that by working together,  ...  view the full minutes text for item C/11

There were no Urgent Items on this occasion.

Meeting closed at 4:55 pm.