Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Clayton, Spear, Turton, Williams and Wilson.

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the meeting held on 12th December 2024 (circulated previously) be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Please telephone the Corporate and Community Services team to prepare a form for your signature before the meeting. Interests must be re-declared when the item is called. A declaration of interest under the Code of Conduct will be a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest, an Other Registrable Interest or a Non-Registrable Interest.  If the item directly relates to your interest you must declare the interest and leave the room for the item, save in the case of Other Registrable Interests or Non-Registrable Interests where you may first speak on the item as a member of the public if provision has been made for the public to speak.  If the matter does not directly relate to your interest but still affects it then you must consider whether you are affected to a greater extent than most people and whether a reasonable person would consider your judgement to be clouded, if you are then you must leave the room for the item (although you may speak as a member of the public if provision has been made for the public to speak) or, if you are not, then you can declare the interest but still take part).

There were no declarations of interest announced.

For discussion (attached), please see services listed below:

·         Building Control

·         Customer Focus

·         Environmental Enhancement

·         Environmental Health and Housing

·         Governance

·         Organisational Development

·         Place, Property and Regeneration.

Please note that the following Heads of Service have been invited to attend the meeting:

·         Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive.

·         Head of Governance.

·         Head of Organisational Development.

·         Head of Programme Management and Performance.

The Committee discussed the Service Plans (as previously circulated).

The Chair advised that the service plans were being presented to the Committee as part of their annual reporting process.

He explained that following the introduction of the 5 programmes to support the delivery of the Council’s Corporate Plan objectives, the service plans were now much more condensed and contained information only related to the day to day operation of each service.

There were five programmes established each with a Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) were as follows:

1. Customer Focus / Digital by Design – SRO Sarah Higgins.

2. Environmental Enhancement – SRO Mark Kentell.

3. Housing & Community Safety – SRO Nina Lake.

4. Regeneration & Economic Growth – SRO SarahJane Mackenzie-Shapland.

5. Organisational Development – SRO Nikki Gordon.

He added that the following Heads of Service had been invited to answer questions from the Committee:

• Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive.
• Head of Governance.
• Head of Organisational Development.
• Head of Programme Management and Performance.

He explained that with the uncertainty of devolution impacting upon the Council that it was important to ensure that the Council continued to operate as business as usual in the interim.

In response to questions from the Committee, the Heads of Service advised the following:

Governance

• With regards to a question related to the amount of engagement with Parish Councils in relation to the Community Governance Reviews under the Governance heading on page 5 of the report. The Committee was advised that consultation had been undertaken with Parish Councils via the Parish Forum, which was held on 27^th November 2024 and also via email to all the Town and Parish Councils. However, so far the response rate had been quite low.

In response request was made for an email being sent to all North Devon Councillors asking them to mention the Parish Reviews when they next attended their respective parish council meetings. The Chair agreed and also suggested that a note be added to the next Members Bulletin.

• With regards to the potential to delay boundary changes in light of the devolution situation, the Head of Governance advised that this was not a full community governance review, rather looking to address any current issues raised by Parish and Town Councils. He advised that this concern would be discussed with the Chief Executive.

          The deadlines were as follows:

Ø  End of consultation process – End of February 2025.

Ø  Terms of Reference – To be considered at Full Council in July 2025, which would allow sufficient time for feedback.

Organisational Development

• In response to a question regarding how the Council was managing the impact upon staff during the uncertainty surrounding the devolution white paper. The Head of Organisational Development advised the Senior Management Team were mindful of the impact of such unsettling times on staff; she added that it was vital that they were kept informed of the most up to date information and the purpose of them was to allay fears as much  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

(attached).

The Committee considered a report by the Car Parks Manager (circulated separately) regarding the Review of the North Devon Council (Off Street Parking Places) Order 2025.

The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive advised that following the Strategy and Resources Committee held in July 2024, a Car Park Review Working Party, which included cross party members, had been established and three workshops were held in October, November and December to discuss and agree on a revised charging tariff for North Devon Car Parks.

He advised that the Cross Party Working Party had looked at a range of data around, permits, income levels per car park, payment methods – which varied from car park to car park, 30-minute usage compared to hourly and car park charges locally and in neighbouring authorities.

He highlighted the following points:

• The report detailed a summary of the requests made by Parish and Town Councils, which were detailed on pages 5 – 9 of the agenda.
• The proposed off street parking order and associated increase in charges was detailed in Appendix A of the report.
• A summary of proposed increases for North Devon Council owned carparks was detailed in Appendix B of the report.
• The increase in yearly permits was made by comparison with other authorities as follows:

Ø  In the Torridge District Council area, a yearly permit was £500 and in the Mid-Devon District Council area, a 12-month permit was in the region of £491.

• Charges for short stay and long stay car parks were reviewed together with coastal car parks.  For consistency, it was decided by the working group to increase charges by 10 pence per hour across all car parks.
• Looking at long stay car parks, the working group agreed that as the Seven Brethren long stay car park was further away than other long stay car parks to retain the current all day charge of £2.50. However, the decision was made to increase all other long stay, all day car park charges by a £1 to £3.50.
• The working group agreed that the Green Lanes car park charges needed to be brought into line with other Council owned car parks, as this car park was within North Devon Council ownership.
• The Working Group discussed the car parks in South Molton.  There were two car parks in South Molton the larger long stay central car park and the short stay car park across the road known as the Sheep Pen. 
• The short stay car park had historically had an element of long stay to it and was next to a privately owned car park at the George Arcade, which charged 50p per hour. 
• To ensure consistency across other areas, the working group were proposing to apply the short stay charges to the Sheep Pen car park.
• The proposals to increase charges by 10p per hour were still cheaper than those of neighbouring authorities.
• Torridge District Council currently charged £1.50 an hour in its towns and £1.70 an hour in coastal areas.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

To consider the work programme (attached).

The Committee considered the work programme for 2024/25 (circulated previously).

The Chair advised that the Chief Executive Officer, Citizens Advice, Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon had been unable to attend the Committee meeting on 12^th December 2024 due to unforeseen circumstances.

He added that she had expressed an interest in attending a future meeting of the Committee and sought the Committee’s opinion on whether it would be appropriate to invite her to the meeting on Thursday 13^th February 2025 given the number of items that were scheduled for consideration at that meeting.

The Committee agreed that the Chief Executive Officer, Citizens Advice, Torridge, North, Mid and West Devon be invited to attend the meeting to present as the first item on the agenda for no longer than 30 minutes, which would involve a 15 minute presentation followed by a 15 minute question and answer session with the Committee.

The Committee discussed the other items on the work programme and highlighted the special meeting to discuss transportation and infrastructure, which was scheduled to be held in March 2025 on a date to be confirmed.

The Chair acknowledged that it was a wide scope and that he was mindful that the Committee should focus on a specific area when the time came to make arrangements for the special meeting to ensure that they achieved the best outcome for North Devon.

The Committee also discussed the potential to offer its services as part of the ongoing devolution situation as it evolved.

RESOLVED that the work programme for 2024/25 be noted.

Nil.