Meeting documents

Prior to the commencement of the formal business of the meeting, Members and officers present stood in silent tribute to the memory of Mr Derrick Isham, a former Chairman of the Council, who passed away recently.  The Chairman read out a letter of thanks from Mrs Isham for the support of Members and officers at this difficult time.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 23 October, 2019.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes of the meeting of Council held on 23 October, 2019, be approved as a correct record.

By the Chairman of the Council.

By the Leader/Cabinet Members.

Chairman of the Council:

Aylesbury Town Council Events

The Chairman advised Members of a number of events being promoted by the Aylesbury Town Mayor.

Chairman’s Quiz Night

The Chairman reminded Members that her Charity quiz night would take place in the Oculus on 20 March, 2020.

Civic Service

Members were also reminded that the Chairman’s Civic Service would take place on 8 March, 2020 at St. Mary’s Church, Haddenham.

Christmas Singalong

The Chairman thanked all those Members and officers who had taken part in the singalong just before Christmas.

Holocaust Commemoration

The Chairman also thanked those Members and officers who had been able to attend the ceremony to commemorate victims of the holocaust and all other forms of genocide that had occurred since the second world war.

Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure:

Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (VALP)

It was reported that work on the VALP continued to progress.  The Inspector had concluded that the Plan was capable of being made sound.  At the end of December, 2019 a six week consultation on the main modifications recommended by the Inspector (to make the Plan sound) had been concluded successfully.

Approximately 850 individual representations had been received.  However despite officers’ best efforts to encourage the representations to be made on-line, a significantly large proportion of them were submitted either by e-mail or letter, thus increasing the time for these to be processed.

The Inspector had asked the Council to give a response to the issues raised in the representations.  Accordingly officers had continued to engage with several external consultants, including Bucks County Council to ensure that appropriate responses were given.  This stage could only be completed when all the responses had been received from the external consultants.  The Forward Plans team were almost in a position to submit AVDC’s response to the Inspector and it was anticipated that this would be sent by the first week in March.

The Council would then have to await the Inspector’s response before further progress to the next stage could take place.  It was hoped that the Inspector would accept the Council’s response, but there was a possibility that he might ask for further information or decide to hold further hearings.

Accordingly, it was considered that the VALP would not be found to be sound before the new Buckinghamshire Council came into being.  It was understood that the new authority would continue to prioritise the final stages leading to adoption.

However it was indicated that some of the VALP policies already had some weight in planning terms, and the proposed allocations were counted in the five year housing supply.

The arrangements previously notified to Members for adopting the Plan would not now go ahead.

The Cabinet Member expressed her thanks to the Forward Plans Team for their continued hard work and persistence in ensuring that the Plan continued to move forward towards formal adoption.

Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources:

Aylesbury Vale Broadband (AVB)

Members were reminded that AVB had been set  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

There were none.

Councillor Mordue

Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

To consider the attached report.

Council received a report on the proposed pay award for AVDC employees for 2020/2021.  The offer made by the Council had yet to be approved by the trades unions and staff representatives.

The negotiation of the pay award was a matter for AVDC, but had to be considered within the context of the move to unitary local government in Buckinghamshire i.e. to a single employer.  The draft budget for the new council included provision for a 2% uplift for all staff.  It was expected that the pay award offers made in Chiltern and South Bucks District Councils (C&SBDC) and Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) (all of which had locally determined pay rates) would be in the order of 2%.  At Wycombe District Council awards were determined nationally and this had not yet been agreed.

Whilst the pay award was an AVDC matter, Unison wished to consult with all its members in AVDC, C&SBDC and BCC at the same time.  Consequently, formal acceptance was unlikely to take place until after this meeting, necessitating delegated authority being given to the Interim Head of the Paid Service, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, to conclude the issue subject to it being consistent with the Council’s wishes.

The Council report, available to view in full on the Council’s website, included the following:-

·         The timeline for the pay negotiations.

·         Details of the Unison local pay claim (appended in full to the Council report).

·         Details of previous awards.

·         Information on the National Living Wage.

·         Details of RPI and CPI for the years 2016 to 2019 inclusive.

·         The position with other Buckinghamshire councils.

·         Consultation arrangements.

·         Financial details and the existing spinal column points and those if the award was approved as set out in the Council report.

Proposed by Councillor Mordue, seconded by Councillor C Adams, and

RESOLVED –

(1)  That approval be given to a 2% pay award with effect from 1 April, 2020 for all staff from Grades SG2 – SG12 who transfer to the new Buckinghamshire Council.

(2)  That approval be given to a 5% pay award with effect from 1 April, 2020 for all staff on Grade SG1 who transfer to the new Buckinghamshire Council or a minimum of £10 per hour, whichever is the greater.

(3)  That it be noted that the draft budget for the new Buckinghamshire Council incorporated a 2% uplift for all staff and that the cost for AVDC would be £450,000 inclusive of NI/Superannuation.

(4)  That the Interim Head of the Paid Service, after consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources be authorised to conclude the pay award provided that it was consistent with the offer set out above.

No written questions were submitted by Members during the period November 2019 to January 2020.

Members were informed that no written questions had been submitted during the period November, 2019 to January, 2020.

There will be an opportunity for Members to ask questions of individual Cabinet Members and Committee Chairmen.

Members had the opportunity to ask questions of individual Cabinet Members and Committee Chairmen about issues affecting their portfolios/Committee activities:-

(a)          The Future Homes Standard (Councillor Foster) – the Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure informed Members that the Council was preparing a draft response to the Government’s current consultation on changes of the Building Regulations.

(b)          Councillor Everitt (Councillors C Adams and Lambert) – on behalf of all Members, the Members asked for congratulations to be extended to Councillor Everitt who had been elected as the Member of Parliament for Milton Keynes North at the 2019 general election.

(c)          HS2 (Councillor C Adams) – the Leader of the Council informed Members that the Council was continuing to use all means possible to lobby and pressure the Government to stop HS2.

(d)          Data Harvesting / AVDC Website (Councillor Lyons) – the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources informed Members that he would respond to the Member on this matter although he did not believe that the Council harvested or passed any information to third parties.

(e)          Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (VALP) (Councillors Branston and Cooper) – the Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure informed Members that she believed that the Planning Policy team had sufficient Officer resource to work on the VALP.  This situation was being regularly monitored by herself and the Cabinet.

The Cabinet Member also informed Members that she was meeting regularly with the Chief Executive of the new Buckinghamshire Council, who had agreed that continuity of Officers working on the VALP pre and post 1 April 2020 was important.

(f)           Commercial Ventures (Councillor Christensen) – the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources agreed to provide Members with a summary of the financial position for the various financial ventures / activities the Council had undertaken since 2015.

(g)          Berryfields Medical Centre (Councillor Christensen) – the Cabinet Member for Planning and Enforcement was thanked for his efforts in relation to supporting a new Berryfields Medical Centre.

The Leader of the Council informed the Member that she was happy to work with him, including lobbying the Department of Health, in order for the Medical Centre to be built as soon as possible and by April 2021.

(h)          Gateway Offices Main Entrance (Councillor Monger) – the Leader of the Council informed Members that while staff, Members and visitors to the Gateway would continue to be encouraged to enter/exit the building by using the revolving door, it would not be possible to lock the main doors to limit access due to fire safety and disability access reasons.

(i)            Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan (VALP) (Councillor Monger) – the Cabinet Member for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure informed Members that a call for an in-depth investigation into the VALP process was unnecessary.  The Cabinet Member also stated that she would ask the Corporate Planner to provide information on a number of policies within the VALP that already had weight in planning terms.

(j)            Kingsbrook Parish Council (Councillor B Chapple OBE) – the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.