Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Tim Allebone, Mark Dearing, Tom Partridge-Underwood, David Sims, Richard Levell, Michael Tye, Paul Bell, Steven North, Roger Powell, Wendy Brackenbury, Kirk Harrison, Simon Rielly, William Colquhoun and Matt Keane.

The minutes of the Full Council meetings held on 26^th January 2023 The minutes of the Full Council meetings held on 26^th January 2023 and 23^rd February 2023 had been circulated.

Under the minutes of the meeting held on 26^th January 2023, it was noted that Councillor Philip Irwin had been omitted from the list of Members present. This was corrected.

Councillor Larry Henson MOVED that the minutes (as amended) be agreed. Councillor Lora Lawman SECONDED.

RESOLVED that: -

The minutes of the Full Council meetings of 26^th January 2023 (as amended) and the 23^rd February 2023 be agreed.

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

No Declarations of Interest were recorded.

To receive any announcements from the Chair.

The Chair drew Council’s attention to an Urgency Report circulated after the issue of the summons and publication of the meeting agenda. This related to “Chief Executive Appointment – Permanent and Interim Arrangements.” The Chair indicated that this item would be tabled earlier in the meeting than indicated on the agenda.

To receive any announcements from the Leader of the Council.

The Leader of the Council (Councillor Jason Smithers) reminded Council that 1^st April 2023 would see the second anniversary since the formation of North Northamptonshire Council. The Leader thanked staff and Members for their work in establishing the Council since Vesting Day. An enormous amount had been achieved to date and it was recognised that the Council still had significant tasks and challenges ahead.

    (i)          Public Statements

   (ii)          Public Questions

 (iii)          Petitions

Public Statements

The meeting received Public Statements from the following local residents: - Ms Holmes (reference Motion 3 on the Agenda); Mr Coles, Ms Robinson, Mr Allen, Ms Reid & Ms Turner-Hawes (reference Motion 1 on the Agenda; Cllr Reuby (reference the Public Petition on the Agenda).

Public Questions

A question was received from a local resident Mr Gilyead with reference to the Wellingborough Walks. Councillor D Brackenbury provided a response.

Petitions

A Public Petition had been submitted under Part 2 Public Participation and Rights of the Council’s Constitution. Councillor Alison Dalziel introduced the Petition.

“North Northamptonshire Council awarded Keir a 7-year £30 million contract in September 2022 to maintain the roads in the North Northants area, to deliver what they call its "Community Enhancement Plan".

Sadly our roads within NNC are deteriorating before our very eyes and are in a shocking state of repair. Huge potholes are everywhere and new ones are appearing daily. They are causing hazards to drivers who are having to navigate roads to avoid the potholes, to prevent damage to their cars. This is despite an extra £1.5m which was spent in 2022 to improve the roads after a budget underspend. 

North Northamptonshire Labour Councillors want to hear from you - if you have potholes in your road or street. We have set up a short survey and will be collating the evidence to present to North Northamptonshire Council to call for action to be taken to fix our roads and highways.” 

Councillor Dalziel spoke to the “Fix the Pothole” petition. Councillor Dalziel highlighted public concern regarding the state of the roads within the North Northamptonshire area, a situation that the councillor stated was getting worse. Whilst recognising there had been additional investment including funding from Government, these amounts would not resolve the current situation to a satisfactory level. Councillor Dalziel echoed the concerns raised by some residents that there could be serious accidents if the issue was not more adequately addressed.

Councillor Dalziel suggested that an action plan needed to be developed, working with the Council’s appointed contractor, together with further investment to ensure there was a co-ordinated and effective approach to addressing the increasing problem of potholes on local roads.

Councillors briefly discussed the issues raised by the petition.

A resolution to forward the Public Petition to the Executive without Full Council comment or recommendation was MOVED by Councillor L Henson and SECONDED by Councillor J Ekins.

RESOLVED that: -

(i)               The Petition be forwarded without comment to the Executive to consider.

To receive any presentations from the Executive.

There were no Executive Presentations on this occasion.

Members noted that it is a legislative requirement that the Council published an annual Pay Policy Statement. The Pay Policy Statement provided transparency with regards to the Council’s approach to setting the pay of its directly employed workforce (excluding schools) for the year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

The report before Council sought approval of the Pay Policy Statement attached at Appendix A and asked Council to note that a package of new pay, terms, and conditions of employment and associated pay and employment policies for North Northamptonshire Council were still to be agreed.

The recommendations were MOVED by Councillor Jason Smithers and SECONDED by Councillor Helen Howell.

RESOLVED that: -

(i)               The Pay Policy detailed in Appendix A be approved; and

(ii)              It be noted that the terms and conditions of employment (including a new pay structure) will be considered by Full Council at a future meeting.

Full Council were being requested to consider amendments to both the Scheme of Delegation and the decision-making process relating to the Council’s responsibilities as the Planning Authority for North Northants. It was being proposed that any agreed changes would be effective for the Municipal Year 2023/2024 onwards.

North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) had responsibility for performing the role of “Planning Authority” within its area as detailed in statute. Any functions and liabilities resulting from performing this role rested with NNC.

“Planning” was a fundamental function of local authorities, subject to extensive legislation and often undertaken subject to wide public scrutiny. Members when undertaking their responsibilities on behalf of the Council (the “Planning Authority”) needed to ensure that all relevant representations, policies etc were considered prior to making their determination on an application for planning consent.

Any processes put in place by the Council needed to be lawful and ensure fairness to all relevant parties – applicants, statutory consultees and those submitting representations. Decisions must be made with regard to all material planning considerations associated with the proposal and the planning balance then applied. This, along with the test of reasonableness, would help to ensure that the Council had a sound decision-making process in place.

The Council was currently undertaking a comprehensive review of its planning service and its delivery to those using the service. The report before Members and Appendix 1 provided background to the steps the Council was undertaking to improve service delivery and enhance improvements in decision-making and governance.

In 2022, the Council requested that the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) undertake a Peer Review into all aspects of the provision of a planning service by the Council. The outcome of this review was reported to the Executive in December 2022, together with recommendations suggested by PAS. The Executive agreed to establish a Planning Transformation Board with responsibility for following through and overseeing the Council’s response to the PAS recommendations.

A range of work was being undertaken through the transformation programme including the harmonisation of the Planning Service’s back-office processes and customer facing operations to address the recommendations made by PAS. With regard to the Council’s Planning Scheme of Delegation and committee structure, the PAS Peer Review report identified a number of issues they felt the Council needed to consider. These included:

·             The governance structure is not efficient and effective for a council of this scale. Four planning committees have been retained exactly reflecting the predecessor council boundaries. These have been supplemented by an additional strategic planning committee that considers very large or contentious applications.

·             All five committees are scheduled to meet monthly. In the period from January to September this year (2022), several committees were cancelled and many were very short.

·             The same scheme of delegation applies across the committees although we heard that it is not consistently applied. An excessive number of householder and minor applications are considered by committee because of the current scheme of delegation.

·             The costs of taking applications to committee are much higher than  ...  view the full minutes text for item C/217

Full Council were being requested to consider proposals to change scrutiny committee arrangements and the Scrutiny Procedure Rules following consultation and recommendations received from the Democracy and Standards Committee. The proposals had been subject to both internal and external consultation. The Monitoring Officer had considered consultation responses when drafting the final proposals for Full Council; these responses were detailed in Appendices B & C accompanying the report.

As North Northamptonshire Council operated an executive model of governance it was required under statute to operate at least one scrutiny committee.

The purpose of the scrutiny function was to influence policies and decisions made by the Executive and other organisations delivering services to the public. This was achieved by reviewing key decisions made by the Executive, investigating important service delivery and strategic policy issues (i.e. through task & finish groups) and where appropriate through the call-in procedure challenging key decisions made.

Since May 2021, the Council had operated with two scrutiny committees. The Scrutiny Commission was an overarching body which was able to establish topic-specific task & finish groups undertaking work on the approved Scrutiny Workplan. The Finance & Resources Scrutiny Committee specifically scrutinised and monitored the finances of the Council, with particular attention to in-year monitoring of spend and input into consultation on the draft budget for future years (as part of the budget-setting process and consultation). It also monitored performance.

As the Annual Scrutiny Report 2021/22 recently presented to Council demonstrated, the scrutiny function of the Council had developed well since May 2021 with some important work undertaken. It was recognised however that the quantity of work required to be undertaken exceeded existing capacity and that there was a need to review scrutiny arrangements at both member and officer level. In particular, it was recognised that scrutiny’s role in relation to other public service providers required enhancement and that a more outward focussed scrutiny was needed.

A report was considered by Democracy and Standards Committee in November 2022 which commenced a consultation on proposals to change the structure of scrutiny. All Members were given the opportunity to attend a presentation on the proposals. They were able to feedback verbally and in writing. Senior Officers were also consulted on the proposals.The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny was asked to provide its comments on the proposals and respond to verbal feedback. The Constitutional Review Working Group which was a cross party meeting, considered both the initial proposals and the feedback and Procedure Rules prior to the Democracy and Standards meetings.

There was a need to ensure greater effectiveness and transparency in relation to the workload of the scrutiny function within the council. Current arrangements could lead to potential delays in undertaking work and duplication. Arising from member feedback and discussion at the Governance and Standards Committee, the following proposals were detailed in the report before Council: -

Scrutiny Management Board

It was recommended that a Scrutiny Management Board was established to avoid unnecessary delays, ensure strategic ownership of scrutiny remained with members and stopped duplication.  ...  view the full minutes text for item C/218

Full Council received a report seeking agreement to the virement of capital budgets to fund continued progress on the A509 Isham Bypass.

The A509 Isham Bypass formed the first part of a strategy to dual the whole A509 between the A14 south of Kettering and the A45 at Wellingborough.

As reported to Executive in November 2021, funding totalling £2.798m had been secured to develop the Outline Business Case and planning application for the scheme.

Since securing this funding it had become apparent that the work required was more extensive than previously thought and additional funding of £1.573m was required.

It was proposed to provide the additional funding through the virement of £0.742m of 2021/22 Integrated Transport Block funding, £0.558m of 2022/23 Integrated Transport Block funding and £0.273m of accumulated surplus Section 278 fee income.

The recommendations were MOVED by Councillor Graham Lawman and SECONDED by Councillor Clive Hallam.

RESOLVED that: -

(i)               Council approved the virement of £1.3m of capital budget from the 2021/22 Integrated Transport Block allocation (£0.742m) and the 2022/23 Integrated Transport Block allocation (£0.558m) to the A509 Isham Bypass; and

(ii)              Council approved to increase the capital budget for the Isham Bypass by £0.273m, which would be funded from the surplus Section 278 fee income.

The report before Council confirmed the methodology proposed to be applied to determine the revised political balance of the authority following the recent by-elections for Northall and Rushden South. It also proposed the apportionment of seats on committees in accordance with the application of the calculations.

Following the election on 6th May 2021, 78 Members were elected to the newly formed unitary authority for the first time.

Following the Northall by-election of 2^nd February 2023 and the Rushden South by-election of 23^rd March 2023, the report set out the revised political balance of the council as of 27^th March 2023, how many voting seats were available and set out political group’s nominations for allocation to those seats.

The Council must allocate seats on committees and sub-committees in accordance with the provisions set out in the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (“the 1989 Act”).

The recognised political groups will be invited to submit their nominations for the revised committee seats allocated to them.

The impact of the proposed changes would be as follows –

·        Kettering Area Planning Committee: the Green Alliance Group representation to reduce by one, with the Labour Group awarded the vacant seat.

·        Licensing & Appeals Committee: the Conservative Group reduce by one, with the Labour Group awarded the vacant seat.

The recommendations were MOVED by Councillor Jonathan Ekins and SECONDED by Councillor Andy Mercer.

RESOLVED that: -

(i)               Council approved the revised allocation of seats for the committees set out in Appendix A to the recognised political groups in accordance with the proportionality provisions and the Constitution.

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

Motion 1

To be proposed by Cllr Valerie Anslow and seconded by Cllr Anne Lee: -

“North Northamptonshire has a rich heritage in both buildings and the natural world. Among our assets are the parks and gardens which belonged to the former sovereign councils; there are conservation areas where planning rules are rigorous and aim to maintain the historic hearts of our towns and villages; tree preservation orders that can be applied to individual or groups of trees which have stood by our roadsides and in gardens and parks for many years. All of these features together help us, as a council to make decisions that are of benefit to the communities that reside here.

North Northamptonshire Council has firmly grasped the desire to be carbon neutral by 2030 and the council’s vision that acknowledges the importance of the natural world on carbon capture, flood defences, wildlife habitat and the health and wellbeing of its residents.

North Northamptonshire is also an area of growth and development which will benefit the people who live here, and getting the balance between the two, heritage and growth, can be fraught with difficulties.

One of those difficulties is evident in the way that 61 mature lime trees were due to be felled earlier this month on The Walks in Wellingborough to make way for a four-line road leading from the A509 to Stanton Walk SUE, and to move the utilities associated with the works. Following the protests of local residents, NNC negotiated a pause in the work to allow for an information event to be held by The Vistry Group, but those trees are still under threat unless, we use our authority to stop this senseless and unnecessary action and require the developers to find an alternative way.

This motion -

Ensure that reports to planning committee on applications where the granting of planning permission would involve the removal of trees protected by TPO(s) are supported by the advice of a suitably qualified officer. Furthermore, such reports to contain specific information to support decision makers to assess the weight considered appropriate by the officer to be attached to this material consideration to ensure that any resident or organisation relying on the system is treated equally and fairly, and that all local historic and natural heritage sites within NN communities are appropriately protected, while continuing the drive to provide homes and jobs for the community.

Motion 2

To be proposed by Cllr Emily Fedorowycz and seconded by Cllr Lyn Buckingham: -

“The Nene is one of NNC’s most important assets in terms of tourism and ecology and as such needs proper guardianship.

NNC has riparian responsibilities and also a major role in flood management. 

This Council will:

(i)              Ask the Environment Agency to provide the current levels of pollution in the Nene River and North Northants waterways;

(ii)             Engage with the EA and the Canal and River Trust to  ...  view the full agenda text for item C/221

Four Motions on Notice had been submitted. The Chair agreed the order of debate was changed.

Motion 3

Many residents in Corby and North Northants will remember the horrific murder of Collette Gallacher on Friday 8th February 1986, a SIX-year-old school girl murdered on her way to school! 

This council recognises the campaign that Collette’s loved ones have led in the family having full disclosure when murderers get released from prison and then go on to commit further crimes.

Council therefore requests that the Leader write to the Minister for Justice requesting:

(i)               That the Minister notes the limited consideration of victims in the offender release decision making process;

(ii)              That the Minister considers introducing measures to build the views of victims into the probation decision making process to ensure victims feel heard and considered;

(iii)            If a decision is made by probation services to release an offender, the Minister considers the retrospective addition to the sex offenders register where the conviction pre-dates introduction of the register.

The motion was MOVED by Councillor Mark Pengelly and SECONDED by Councillor Lyn Buckingham.

There was cross-Chamber support for the motion and the Leader of the Council indicated his full support. The role of Collette’s sisters, local media and the local MP in highlighting the campaign was acknowledged.

RESOLVED that: -

(i)               The Motion be agreed.

(Councillor Pengelly left the meeting at this point).

Motion 1

North Northamptonshire has a rich heritage in both buildings and the natural world. Among our assets are the parks and gardens which belonged to the former sovereign councils; there are conservation areas where planning rules are rigorous and aim to maintain the historic hearts of our towns and villages; tree preservation orders that can be applied to individual or groups of trees which have stood by our roadsides and in gardens and parks for many years. All of these features together help us, as a council to make decisions that are of benefit to the communities that reside here.

North Northamptonshire Council has firmly grasped the desire to be carbon neutral by 2030 and the council’s vision that acknowledges the importance of the natural world on carbon capture, flood defences, wildlife habitat and the health and wellbeing of its residents.

North Northamptonshire is also an area of growth and development which will benefit the people who live here, and getting the balance between the two, heritage and growth, can be fraught with difficulties.

One of those difficulties is evident in the way that 61 mature lime trees were due to be felled earlier this month on The Walks in Wellingborough to make way for a four-line road leading from the A509 to Stanton Walk SUE, and to move the utilities associated with the works.

Following the protests of local residents, NNC negotiated a pause in the work to allow for an information event to be held by The Vistry Group, but those trees are still under threat unless, we use our authority to stop this  ...  view the full minutes text for item C/221

To receive questions from members.

Full Council noted that the current Chief Executive (Rob Bridge) had resigned from his position having been successful in securing a position with another authority. Mr Bridge would be leaving NNC in early June 2023.

Full Council were being requested to consider the process for the permanent appointment of a new Chief Executive and Head of Paid (statutory appointment), in addition to the proposed interim arrangements for this post.

In order to ensure that the Council continued to have strategic stability and leadership, the report proposed that a process was commenced to appoint an Interim Chief Executive/Head of Paid Service.

The report also proposed that the Council commissioned an Executive Search Partner to commence a recruitment process for a permanent appointment to the post of Chief Executive in September 2023.

The report before Members provided details of the proposed procedure for securing interim arrangements, to be confirmed by Annual Council in May 2023, and the proposed procedure and process for recruitment and appointment to the permanent position.

In addition, the report indicated interim arrangements for other statutory officer positions including Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer.

The recommendations were MOVED by Councillor Jason Smithers and SECONDED by Councillor Helen Howell.

RESOLVED that: -

(i)               Delegated authority be granted to the Leader of the Council, in consultation with the Assistant Director of Human Resources, to commission an executive search company for a permanent appointment to the post of Chief Executive/Head of Paid Service;

(ii)              It be noted that the Employment Committee will approve the process for the recruitment of a permanent Chief Executive following appointment of an executive search partner; including the establishment of an Appointments Sub-Committee;

(iii)            The process and timeline for the appointment of an Interim Chief Executive be noted;

(iv)            It be noted that any necessary amendments to Proper Officer appointments during the interim period will be considered by Council in May 2023; and

(v)             The Executive Director of Customer and Governance be appointed as Returning Officer and Electoral Registration Officer until such time as Council determine the permanent appointment to the Chief Executive post.