Agenda and minutes

Call-In, Partnership and Regeneration Scrutiny Committee - Thursday, 21st November, 2013 11.30 am

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Venue: Council Chamber, Council Offices, Llangefni. View directions

Contact: Mrs. Mairwen Hughes 

Items
No. Item

1.

Declaration of Interest

To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

Minutes:

Councillors P.S.Rogers and R.G.Parry,OBE declared an interest in the matter as they were both farming on Anglesey.

 

Councillor R.Dew Jones declared an interest in the matter as he was farming on Anglesey and had been a former member of the Anglesey Young Farmers Club.

 

Councillor A.Morris Jones declared an interest in the matter as he had been a former member of the Anglesey Young Farmers Club.

2.

Exclusion of the Press and Public pdf icon PDF 82 KB

To consider adopting the following :-

 

“Under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during the discussion on the following item as it may involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 12 of the said Act and in the attached Public Interest Tests.”

Minutes:

RESOLVED under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during discussion on the following item on the grounds that it may involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A of the said Act and in the attached Public Interest Test.

3.

Matter referred to the Committee for consideration in relation to a Call-In of a decision

SCIENCE PARK DEVELOPMENT

 

Decision taken by the Executive on the 4th November, 2013.

 

3.1 Copy of the decision taken and the Application Form for Calling-in the decision.

 

3.2  Copy of the relevant report submitted to the Executive on 4th November, 2013.

Minutes:

A Call-In of a Decision form, duly completed and signed by 5 Members of the County Council viz., Councillors P S Rogers (Lead Call-In Member), Jeff Evans, T Victor Hughes, G O Jones, Raymond Jones, D Rhys Thomas was submitted to the Committee in relation to a decision taken by the Executive on 4th November, 2013, with regard to the Science Park Development. The Executive had accepted the recommendations contained within the report but had further resolved “to ensure the ring-fencing of any income generated, to invest in the smallholdings estate.” It was this particular resolution that had been called-in for scrutiny.

 

A copy of the Executive report and the call-in papers were submitted as part of the Agenda papers for this meeting.

 

Councillor P. S. Rogers as the Lead Call-In Member stated that his reason for calling the decision in was because he considered it to be inappropriate in these very difficult economic times to ring fence money to make further investments in smallholdings when so many other vital Council services faced severe cut backs or even closure.  He considered that the smallholdings estate should generate its own income so as to ensure continuation of the estate.He also questioned what happened to the income from over 6,000 acres of land let by the Authority each year? Also that until recently over £200k p.a. was contributed to the Council coffers and that by now there was no contribution?

 

Councillor Rogers thanked the five members who had supported his call-in and mentioned that some of the new members on the Council required clarification as to the background and problems facing the smallholdings estate. 

 

The Head of Service (Property) in reply drew the Committee’s attention to the various decisions taken by the Executive over the years as regards the governance of the smallholdings estate and in particular to the decisions taken on 7th September, 2010 “to ring-fence the rental income for expenditure on the estate” and on 5th October, 2010 “that the service should plan on the basis that capital and revenue funding will continue to be earmarked but that this policy be reviewed from time to time in the light of progress on clearing the backlog of property maintenance and the financial circumstances at the time.”        

 

The report to the Executive on 4th November, 2013 mentioned that the  disposal of land would still have to follow the Asset Management Policy and smallholdings policies unless it was approved by the Executive as a departure from normal policy. The Head of Service mentioned that the improvement programme was half way through the schedule of works and it was expected that the works would be completed within the next 2-3 years. The smallholdings estate would then be a very important asset to the Authority and in his opinion it would not be feasible to implement a policy change at this stage of proceedings. He further mentioned that the three yearly rent review was in the process of being considered by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.