Agenda and minutes

Special, Strategic Scrutiny Committee - Monday 12th December 2022 6.00 pm

Venue: Rennes Room, Civic Centre, Paris Street, Exeter. View directions

Contact: Sharon Sissons, Democratic Services Officer  Tel: 01392 265115 or email  sharon.sissons@exeter.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

30.

Declaration of Interest

Councillors are reminded of the need to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests that relate to business on the agenda and which have not already been included in the register of interests, before any discussion takes place on the item. Unless the interest is sensitive, you must also disclose the nature of the interest. In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, you must then leave the room and must not participate in any further discussion of the item.  Councillors requiring clarification should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer prior to the day of the meeting.

 

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were made by Members.

31.

Questions from the Public Under Standing Order No.19

Details of questions should be notified to the Corporate Manager Democratic and Civic Support via the committee.services@exeter.gov.uk email by 10.00am at least three working days prior to the meeting. For this meeting any questions must be submitted by 10.00am on Wednesday 7th December 2022.

 

Questions at a specially convened meeting of a Scrutiny Committee in accordance with Standing Order 17 (Call In) shall be restricted to questions about the subject matter of the decision being called in.

 

For details about how to speak at Committee, please click the following link -  https://exeter.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/councillors-and-meetings/public-speaking-at-meetings/overview/

 

Minutes:

No questions were received by the public.

32.

Community Infrastructure Levy: Partial Review Consultation pdf icon PDF 883 KB

In accordance with Standing Order No.17, Agenda Item 17 (Minute 124) of the Executive of 29 November 2022 on the Community Infrastructure Levy: Partial Review Consultation was called in by Councillors Sparling, K Mitchell, M Mitchell, Bennett, Harvey, Read and J Moore.

 

A copy of the Call-In document and report considered by the Executive are attached.

 

The Leader will be in attendance to answer any questions regarding the report and Executive decision.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair had advised that, in accordance with Standing Order 17, a special meeting of Strategic Scrutiny Committee had been called following the decision made by the Executive on 29 November, to commence a partial review, with a consultation of the Council’s Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Charging Schedule from December 2022 and, depending on the nature of the responses and any revisions, submit for examination.

 

For information, it was noted that the Executive on the 29 November had resolved the following:-

 

(1)  the Draft Charging Schedule (Appendix A of the report) and the supporting evidence (Appendices B and C of the report) be approved as the basis for a six-week consultation, commencing in December 2022;

(2)  delegated authority be given to the Director of City Development, in consultation with the Council Leader, to agree minor changes to the Draft Charging Schedule before it is published for consultation;

(3)  following the consultation, the submission of the Draft Charging Schedule, supporting evidence and consultation responses and other information be approved to enable an independent examination on the Draft Charging Schedule to take place, subject to there being no revisions to the proposed CIL charges; and

(4)  following the consultation, if any further proposed revisions to the CIL charges are proposed, that an updated draft be brought to the Executive in advance of submission for examination.

 

Following the publication of the decision made by the Executive and in accordance with Standing Order 13(1) Councillors Sparling, K. Mitchell, M. Mitchell, Harvey, Bennett, Read and J. Moore indicated that they wished to Call-In the decision.  The Members also known as the Subscribers gave the following reasons and grounds on which they had submitted the Call-In under Standing Order 17:-

 

The decision maker had failed to take account of relevant factors by:-

 

1. Deficient Process:

 

a) At the July 2019 Executive, and agreed at the subsequent Council, the allocation of a budget of up to £75,000 in order to instruct Consultants to review the Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule was allocated. The decision was for a review not a partial review, a partial review was not presented as an option in the paper.

 

b) There has been no report back or request to Executive and Council to change the decision to for partial review to be undertaken as an alternative option since the decision in 2019 above was taken.

 

2. Decision-maker failed to take account of relevant factors:

 

a)  The Executive have failed to take into consideration the consequences of not taking a full review. The issues for consideration which were set out on page14 in the procurement pack of 12th February 2020 ref no: PR 772019HR.

 

b) The partial review omits consideration of other factors such as the assumption is that the Exeter Development Fund will proceed, but as identified in the Council's risk register the fund is high risk, so if it doesn’t proceed then then there may not be sufficient CIL to contribute to required infrastructure.

 

3. Decision maker is wrong in fact  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.