Agenda item

(i)

Question to Councillor Brailey from Councillor Leaver “As we are all aware matters are far from settled at a national level on future economic relationship with overseas trading partners, while businesses in North Devon that rely on exporting continue to need clarity on a range of issues in order to plan business activity effectively.  Will the Leader ensure that any Brexit risk assessment that has been undertaken, to prepare the council and businesses in North Devon in uncertain economic times, is published in full?”  Councillor Brailey’s response “Councillor Leaver thank you for your question. Yes.”  In response to a supplementary question, Councillor Brailey advised that the Head of Corporate and Community had written to a number of individual businesses inviting them to attend the conference on Brexit that had been arranged on 11^th March 2019 and was awaiting responses.

(ii)

Question to Councillor Brailey from Councillor Leaver “Would the Leader comment on what additional measures the council plans to put in place to address on-going and urgent concerns about climate change and its likely impact on the environment and future generations’ health and well-being.  Specifically, would the Leader support proposals for a cross party Climate Change Working Group to be established, to include experts from outside the council, to develop robust policies and procedures to address the Council’s own impact, and to work with the private and voluntary sectors, and the general public, to seek to reduce North Devon’s impact on Climate Change.”  

Councillor Brailey’s response “Councillor Leaver thank you for your question I think we have dealt with this under item 6 of the agenda. However, you will understand the Councillor Cann has for some time been very active and effective on these issues and has a working group that review these problems. I believe Council should thank Councillor Cann for his efforts thus far.”

(iii)

Question to Councillor Brailey from Councillor Tucker “I submitted to Full Council in September 2018 a notice of motion regarding car parking and the size of car parking spaces, which was referred to the Executive.  Five months later – February 2019 nothing has happened.  Why?”  Councillor Brailey’s response “Councillor Tucker thank you for your question, a report has been written but needs finalising, this report was due to go to the March Executive, however, the originator was asking for clarification on one aspect. The recommendation will go to Executive in April because clarification was not forthcoming prior to the Executive Agenda being published.

The likely recommendation is that “Executive agree to a full audit of North Devon Council managed car parks. This will create a full schedule of resurfacing and lining works required and identify any potential car parks where an increase to the sizing of parking bays may be viable.”

(iv)

Question to Councillor Brailey from Councillor Worden “When South Molton swimming pool was built on town council land using North Devon District Council money it was handed over to the South Molton Swimming Pool Trust to run.  NDC promised at that time to pay the Trust an annual subsidy of over £30,000 to be indexed linked to help finance the pool.  However, in recent years this subsidy has been reduced despite the original promise made.  Despite increasing prices and doing all that it could to attract extra swimmers the Trust found it difficult to make ends meet even though the Town Council also gave them a grant.  So in February 2018 the Pool was taken over by a charitable (non-profit making) organisation 1610 Limited.  The SMSP Trustees took advice at the time of signing in, February 2018, that barring extraordinary and totally unexpected financial conditions, the South Molton Town Council and North Devon District Council grants would continue – albeit at a diminishing rate, down to  zero – for the agreed term, another six years until 2025. Now it appears that we are breaking this as well as eliminating their grant altogether.  Does the Leader not agree that NDC has a moral obligation to continue to financially support the South Molton Swimming Pool?”  Councillor Brailey’s response “Councillor Worden thank you for your question.

Although there is some poetic licence in your points certainly this council never agreed to a £30,000 a year at any time. We have however given hundreds of thousands of pounds over the years. You can appreciate that at the time the South Molton Swimming Pool was built the future funding cuts to District Council’s was not on the horizon and we have seen significant funding reductions to this Council and we have had to cut out cloth accordingly and continually review our spending plans.  Since 2010, we have seen our budget reduce by almost £4million (to £12million) and our workforce has shrunk by 30% down to around 400 staff.  We have continually reviewed grants we pay out and have been consistent with our message to all third party organisations that grants are subject to the annual budgetary framework and we cannot guarantee funding to any organisation for more than that forthcoming year in question.  The grant funding to the South Molton Swimming Pool Trust has been continued to be paid for a number of years; however the financial context of how the pool is now run has changed due to the trust having outsourced the running of the pool to 1610 Limited (a private company limited by guarantee). I agree they are set up as a ‘not for profit’ organisation and have charitable objectives; but they are still a commercial organisation and run 17 sites throughout the Country; employ a CEO and have around 500 staff.  Many Leisure organisations are set up in this way and one such advantage of this structure is they can obtain relief in their business rates; therefore the industry has many charities, trusts, CICs and companies limited by guarantee but which they all still operate in the commercial market place.  An example of this is when 1610 Limited won the contract to take over the running of Torridge Council’s Leisure Centres, it did so after a competitive tendering exercise open to all types of leisure operators; in that regard 1610 Limited are a commercial operator.  Before 1610 Limited took over the running of the pool, myself and the Council’s Chief Financial Officer met with them together with the South Molton Town Council clerk and it was made very clear that grant funding would be honoured for the forthcoming financial year at that time (2018/19) however any future grant funding would be subject to the annual budget setting and thus future years could not be guaranteed.  I do have to correct you Councillor Worden; in that this Council did not agree that grant funding would continue at a diminishing rate, down to zero for another six years to 2025; as I have already stated all grant funding is subject to the annual budget process; and thus I could only agree the funding for that one year 2018/19.  Since this meeting, we have honoured the 2018/19 grant but have now also reviewed the financial accounts of 1610 Limited.  As mentioned above; they employ more staff than we as a Council do and 1610 Limited have a ‘general fund reserve’ of £1.5million; which had actually grown by £110,000 in the last published accounts to 31 March 2017.  The accounts also had a statement within them that they had seen ‘an underlying substantial growth in its core business’.  To put into context, the ‘general fund reserve’ of North Devon Council has a lower balance of £1.2million. Even though the swimming pool is not a direct service provided by the District Council, this Council has supported the Pool (and previous trust) for some considerable time and also invested a large amount of capital funding from section 106 funds into recent improvements.  However, the pool is now being run by a commercial operator which is bigger than the Council and so we now question whether this Council should be using publicly funded money from the Council Tax payers of North Devon to help fund an organisation when it does not provide a direct service to the District Council.”  In response to a supplementary question, the Leader advised that he had examined a number of historical documents dating back to 1993/94 and there had been no reference to the Council paying an annual subsidy of either £30,000 or £36,000.