Agenda and draft minutes

The receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Pope.

Councillors Warne, Wormington and Atwood were not present at the meeting.

To receive any declarations of interest by members of the Council in items on the agenda. For any advice on declarations of interest, please contact the Monitoring Officer before the meeting.

No declarations of interest were made.

To note any Visiting Members or members of the public wishing to speak, of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Meeting Procedure Rules 18 and 19, and which items they wish to speak on.

There were no visiting Members or Persons registered to speak.

To approve the minutes of a previous meeting as a correct record. The only issue relating to the minutes that can be discussed is their accuracy.

Members considered the Forward Plan. 

Questions from Members and discussion included:

-       Whether the main modifications to the Local Plan were to be reported back to the Planning & Transportation CAB by March as stated within the Forward Plan. Head of Planning Carlos Hone stated that the department were dealing with all related work involved in the response to the Inspector’s initial findings letter and Members would be updated in due course when there was clarity on timings

No amendments were proposed.

RESOLVED – The Forward Plan as at 12 January 2023 be noted.

Deborah Dixon, Principal Policy Planning Officer, presented the report as set out in the agenda.

It was clarified by the Clerk at this point that Councillor Bailey, who had not been included in the roll call as a Member of the Planning & Transportation Cabinet Advisory Board, had been made a member of the CAB at Full Council on 5^th October 2022. He confirmed this and that he had no declarations of interest to make.

Questions and discussion from Members included the following:

-       The Neighbourhood Plan Working Party, steering group and Horsmonden Parish Council were commended by Members and the Chair for their good work and commitment.

RESOLVED – That the recommendations to Cabinet as set out in the report be supported.

Councillor Ben Chapelard, Leader of the Council, presented the report as set out in the agenda.

Questions from Members included the following:

-       Community Land Trusts (CLTs), such as the scheme being discussed in Cranbrook, had not been mentioned under the priority of genuinely affordable housing and social rental housing but were mentioned in the submitted Local Plan with recognition that TWBC were to work with them going forward. Whether this would happen in the next 18 months was dependant on the progress of the Borough Partnership’s Affordable Housing Strategy.

-       Digital transformation was not to streamline staffing costs but to make efficiencies for staff, such as virtual assistance on the website for issues such as reporting bins and giving higher permissions to call centre staff to be able to complete tasks without referring issues back to other officers. These efficiencies in turn could make savings.

-       ‘User Pays’ was the idea that users of specific services would pay for them rather than being subsidised by the entire Borough, which was introduced as a guiding principle by a previous Conservative administration. Due to the ongoing financial situation, it was important to charge for those services such as car parking. Other ideas for services which would be user-paid were still in development and not for public broadcast at the time.

-       The inclusion of Great Hall and Torrington car parks in the list for consideration of disposal in the Asset Management Plan 2023/24 meant they would not be disposed of until a full review of the parking strategy for Tunbridge Wells so there was some time before they were in a position to sell and by that point technology would have moved on to the point the cameras would need to be replaced. Likewise, in that period EV charging was likely to become far more necessary as more people bought electric vehicles.

-       The length of time it took to produce the Plan was due to the Borough Partnership being a new administration and every new Cabinet Member needing to understand their Portfolio before being able to do anything. The Plan had been in place since November but Cabinet were bringing it through the Cycle now with much already completed or in motion.

-       The Champions mentioned within the Plan were unpaid positions, unlike in previous administrations, which were filled by Members with areas of interest which aligned with the ‘Focus on Five’ and who supported Cabinet Members in delivering those priorities.

-       Transparency was a priority with a joint approach between Councillors Hall and Hayward on both safeguarding finances and digital transformation.

-       The Parish Chair’s convention mentioned within the Plan was expected to be a big event to get all Town and Parish Councils together as the Borough Partnership put their new Corporate Plan together in the next 12-14 months. This involved deeper engagement to try and understand the perspective of the towns and parishes within the borough. The emphasis on Town councils as well as Parishes would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item PT16/22

To consider any other items which the Chairman decides are urgent, for the reasons to be stated, in accordance with Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business.

To note that the date of the next scheduled meeting is Monday 6^th March 2023 at 6.30pm in the Council Chamber, Town Hall, Tunbridge Wells.

The next meeting was scheduled for Monday 6^th March 2023.