Agenda and minutes

to approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Executive held on 18 June 2020;

E.01/20

The minutes of the Executive meeting held on 18 June 2020 were confirmed as a true and correct record.

Members are invited to declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests, including the nature and extent of such interests they may have in any items to be considered at this meeting;

E.02/20           

Members and officers were invited to declare any interests in the items of business to be considered during the course of this meeting but none were made. 

a period of up to 15 minutes is available to deal with questions submitted to the Council in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules;

E.3/20 

No questions were received.

E.04/20            

Members were presented with the Executive Forward Plan setting out items on the agenda for Executive meetings for the next four months and noted its content with the following amendments:

-        The Devon District Procurement Strategy was deferred to early 2021 to enable officers more time to consider the consequent impact of the recovery plans and to make sure that any adopted procurement strategy aligns to those, along with the Climate Change and Biodiversity Action Plan.

-       Environment FCC contract review was moved from 17 September 2020 meeting to 22 October 2020 meeting

E.05/20          

The Lead Member for Budget Monitoring and Operational Finance presented Members with a report that enabled them to monitor income and expenditure variations against the approved budget for 2020/21, particularly in light of the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic, and provided a forecast for the year end position. The report set out an overall projected shortfall of £1.313 million for 2020/21.

The projected £1.3 m shortfall was noted as primarily due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and included the Central Government grant already received.  Officers confirmed that finances were being monitored on a monthly basis and figures would be revised subsequently to this monitoring.  There would be a Members Budget Workshop on 27 August 2020 to explore options for an amended budget for 2020/21.  It was reinforced the importance of Members attending this workshop.  Officers were thanked for all the work involved.

It was then RESOLVED that the Executive note:

i)     the significant forecast income and expenditure variations for the 2020/21 financial year and the overall projected shortfall of £1.313 million (14.0% of the total annual Budget of £9.411 million).

ii)    the loss of income streams already experienced by the Council in April 2020, May, and June 2020 of £1.247 million in total as shown in Section 6 of the presented agenda report.

E.06/20           

The Executive considered a report that informed Members of the debt written off during Quarter 4 up until March 2020.   The report advised that Debts up to the value of £5,000 could be written off, under delegated authority, by the Section 151 Officer.  The report stated that permission needed to be sought from the Executive to write off individual debts with a value of more than £5,000.

Officers clarified that there were nine individual cases over £5,000, all of which were in relation business rates debt, and related to either insolvency or bankruptcy. 

It was then RESOLVED that the Executive:

1.      noted that, in accordance with Financial Regulations, the S151 Officer had authorised the write-off of individual South Hams District Council debts totalling £57,837.35 as detailed in Tables 1 and 2 of the presented agenda report; and

2.    approved the write off of an individual debt in excess of £5,000 totalling £237,831.07, as detailed in Table 3 of the presented agenda report.

E.07/20          

The Lead Member for Health and Wellbeing presented the Committee with a report outlining the changes to the costs involved in providing the pest control service to residents due to the end of the last contract and following the procurement process for a new contract.

Reduction in service was expected to be 50% but officers would monitor this and undertake a review if this was significantly different.  The importance of a review being undertaken was recognised by Members and an additional recommendation was PROPOSED and SECONDED that sought to present the outcome of a review back to the Executive in twelve months time,  When put to the vote, this addition was declared CARRIED.

It was then RESOLVED that the Executive:

1.     approved the removal of free pest control (rats and mice treatments) service for residents and replace it with a free service for benefit recipients only (Option 4 refers at paragraph 4.4 of the presented agenda report);

2.     accepted and approved the tender from Terminix to deliver the service in South Hams area;  and

3.    request that officers undertake a twelve month review, with the outcome then reported back to the Executive

E.08/20           

RESOLVED

That in accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business as the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A to the Act is involved.

E.09/20           

Members considered an exempt report that outlined the proposed approach to further support of the Fusion Leisure Group.  It was noted that this item had been brought forward as an urgent item in light of the associated time constraints.

The Lead Member for Health and Wellbeing updated on the current situation with the Fusion Leisure Group following the impacts due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Members sought clarification about facilities available to residents, potential long term impact, what Fusion would be paying for and what these monies would cover. 

There followed a full and frank discussion and it was then RESOLVED that the Executive RECOMMENDED to Council:

(NOTE: THESE DECISIONS, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF E.09/20 WHICH WAS A RECOMMENDATION TO THE SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING HELD ON 30 JULY 2020, WILL BECOME EFFECTIVE FROM 5.00PM ON MONDAY 10 AUGUST 2020 UNLESS CALLED IN, IN ACCORDANCE WITH SCRUTINY PROCEDURE RULE 18).