Decisions

In August 2017 the Leader approved the Crawley Growth Programme LDR04 17.18 and following approval of the business case by the West Sussex Local Enterprise Partnership, delegated authority to the Executive Director Economy, Infrastructure and Environment (now the Director of Place Services) to progress the projects.  Redevelopment of the County Buildings site in Crawley, currently within West Sussex County Council ownership, is central to achieving committed outcomes in both the Crawley Growth Programme and the One Public Estate Programme. Initial viability work has identified the opportunity to deliver up to 195 homes and 4,780sqm of commercial space on the site offering an annual yield of over £1m and a significant capital receipt.  Much of the site is empty, has been dormant for a number of years and was declared surplus to county council requirements in January 2018 FR17 17.18.  A few services remain on the site and work in underway to relocate these.

The Cabinet Member has approved:

a)  The progression of plans to re-locate remaining occupiers in the property owned by the County Council at County Buildings in Crawley

b)  The allocation of £0.857m of funding in the Capital Programme to enable the demolition of the property owned by the County Council at County Buildings in Crawley: and to

c)   Delegate to the Executive Director Place Services the authority to award the demolition contract and progress the proposals to re-develop the County Buildings, Crawley site.   Additional key decisions will be published as appropriate.

Outside bodies are external organisations, including formal or informal partnerships to which the County Council is a party, which have requested that the County Council appoints an Elected Member or a representative to them or to which the Council expects to make appointments. 

Outside bodies are external organisations, including formal or informal partnerships to which the County Council is a party, which have requested that the County Council appoints an Elected Member or a representative to them or to which the Council expects to make appointments. 

Vacancies have arisen on the Council of Governors for the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust and Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which are outside bodies that the Cabinet Member for Adults and Health is responsible for making Member appointments to.

The Cabinet Member for Adults and Health has approved the following appointments to outside bodies vacancies until the end of the Council term (May 2021) as follows:

• Mrs Anne Jones to the Council of Governors for the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust;
• Mrs Joy Dennis to the Council of Governors for the Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust; and
• Mrs Jacky Pendleton to the Council of Governors for the Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

In November 2018 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service (HMICFRS) inspected West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service (WSFRS). The report was published on 20^th June 2019. The report judges the service to require improvement in terms of both effectiveness and efficiency and to be inadequate in relation to people.

WSFRS has developed an improvement plan to respond to the recommendations of the report and to ensure the Council can provide residents and communities with confidence in its actions.

The Cabinet Member for Safer, Stronger Communities has:

(1)         endorsed the Improvement Plan attached as appendix 1 to this report, subject to such changes as may be made as the Plan is further developed and delegates to the Chief Fire Officer authority to take such decisions as are required to implement the Plan; and

(2)         agreed to secure and commit the resources needed to meet the requirements of the Improvement Plan and for these to be available to the Chief Fire Officer for the implementation of the Plan.

18.1   The Committee considered a report by the Director of Law and Assurance (copy appended to the signed minutes) on a proposed delegation to the Standards Committee to receive reports from and review the recommendations of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in any instance where it is proposed that the recommendations are not accepted and to make a final decision on the County Council’s response. 

18.2   Paragraph 2.3 of the report set out a proposed addition to the terms of reference of the Standards Committee as follows:

‘18.    To receive reports from and review the recommendations of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in any instance where it is proposed that the recommendations are not accepted and to make a final decision on the County Council’s response.’

18.3  Resolved - That the County Council be asked to amend the Standards Committee’s terms of reference to include the additional paragraph set out in minute 18.2 above.

15.1   The Committee considered a report by the Director of Finance and Support Services (copy appended to the signed minutes) on the Pension Advisory Board draft Business Plan and budget for 2019/20.

15.2  Resolved - That the Business Plan and Budget for the Pension Advisory Board for 2019/20 be approved.

Outside bodies are external organisations, including formal or informal partnerships to which the County Council is a party, which have requested that the County Council appoints an Elected Member or a representative to them or to which the Council expects to make appointments. 

Following consideration of the report Cabinet agreed to:

•        Appoint David Edwards to the South East Regional Flood and Coastal Committee until the end of the Council term (May 2021)

•        Add ‘Transport for the South East’ as a new outside body under Highways and Infrastructure

•        Remove Outset Youth Action from the list of Outside Bodies.  This was not detailed in the attached report but agreed under ‘urgent matters’ to be added to the decision.

The call in deadline for this decision is 22 July 2019

The Council provides guidance on parking in new residential and commercial developments to inform the determination of planning applications by Local Planning Authorities (LPAs). It addresses the amount of car and cycle parking that is expected to be provided and includes advice to developers and the LPAs on the highway impacts of parking provision in new developments.

The current guidance was last reviewed in 2010 (residential) and 2003 (commercial) and needed to be reviewed again to ensure it is fit for purpose, up to date and consistent with current national planning policy and guidance.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has approved the Guidance on Parking at New Developments (Appendix A) for use by the County Council in providing advice on parking at new developments, replacing the relevant sections of ‘Standards and Transport Contributions Methodology’ (2003) and ‘Guidance for Parking in New Residential Developments’ (2010).

A study of the County Council’s street lighting equipment identified a cost-effective project to convert the street lighting throughout West Sussex to LED lanterns and introduce a Central Monitoring System (CMS).

The change to LED lanterns will greatly reduce annual electricity consumption.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has:

(1)         approved the capital allocation of £20.940m to convert the existing street lighting to LED and implement CMS on all street lighting in West Sussex; and

(2)         delegated authority to the Director of Highways, Transport and Planning, in consultation with the Director of Finance and Support Services and the Director of Law and Assurance, to approve the changes to the Street Lighting Private Finance Initiative Contract via the High Value Change and/or Deed of Variation.

The 2019/20 on-street parking charges review included all West Sussex permits, dispensation notices, parking bay suspensions and pay & display areas.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure reviewed adjustments to parking charges to make improvements to the administration of the Residents’ Parking Schemes, to correct any imbalance that exists between the on and off-street charges in some towns, to take account of inflation and to help facilitate future improvements in service provision.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has:

1)   approved the changes to on-street charges for reasons of consistency, demand management and to cover administration costs; and

2)   authorised the Director of Law and Assurance to amend the Traffic Regulation Orders to bring the proposed changes into effect on 1 September 2019.

The Lyminster bypass has been safeguarded through the Arun District Local Plan (2003) and it continues to be safeguarded in the recently adopted Arun District Local Plan. The proposed bypass will provide an important north–south link between Littlehampton and the A27 Crossbush.  It will help to deliver 700 new jobs and 1,260 new houses as part of the North Littlehampton development area, as well as realising safety benefits through Lyminster Village and improving journey time reliability.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure authorised the submission of a planning application in July 2018 (HT12 18/19) and planning permission for the scheme was approved at West Sussex County Council’s Planning Committee on 26 March 2019 subject to call-in by the Secretary of State.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has authorised the Director of Law & Assurance to –

• complete the necessary procedures for the acquisition of land and interests for the A284 Lyminster Bypass North, to make, seal and submit a compulsory purchase order to the Secretary of State for Transport for confirmation under the provisions of sections 239, 240, 246 and 250 of the Highways Act 1980 for the acquisition of approximately 9.45 hectares of land as shown on plan no. A284LY-CAP-GEN-00-DR-C-0208 (Appendix A which is exempt from publication) for the purposes of the construction of the new bypass and tie-in/improvement of the existing roads and accesses where appropriate; and
• to take all necessary action to secure entry on to all such land, whether by agreement or compulsorily.

At its meeting on 8 July 2019 the Worthing County Local Committee considered the Community Initiative Funding applications to the Microfund and those received via the West Sussex Crowd, as set out in Appendix A.

RESOLVED that the following grants from the Microfund be approved:

·       387/W – Action Painting Workshops Arts House CIC - £490.91 – Towards purchasing art materials and a mobile paint dryer for use by visitors to the community arts studio.

·       388/W – Worthing Community Board Games - £750 – towards start-up funding covering board game purchases, publicity costs and volunteer expenses.

And the following pledges be approved:

·       358/W We Are Food Pioneers - £1,000 – towards marketing materials and delivering ‘meet the bees’ sessions in schools.

·       364/W Creative Waves Community Arts - £1,000 – towards wellbeing workshop room hire and publicity costs.

·       354/W Worthing Rotary Club - £1,000 – towards the cost of hiring a circus tent and marquee stage for this year’s two-day August bank holiday event, subject to the project being fully verified and begins fundraising in the financial year.

·       368/W Adur and Worthing Poverty Truth Commission, Hear My Story - £1,000 – towards building resilient, trust-based relations between civic leaders / decision-makers, and local people directly experiencing poverty.

The following pitch was deferred:

·       344/W – Freedom Power Chairs, Disabled Visitor Facilities.  Members agreed to consider a pledge once they could see the level of community support through pledges from the public.  It was agreed this could be done via an urgent action decision prior to the next CLC meeting.

The following pitches were refused:

·       374/W Songs alive. Members agreed there was not enough background information to make an informed decision and the project had only 11 days left to fundraise so was very unlikely to be successful. The Committee advised the project manager that the project was more suited to applying to the Microfund. The project manager agreed to complete an application.

·       343/W Daisy Chain Project, Drop -ins. The project manager advised the Committee that funding for the project had been acquired through other means and the committee therefore agreed not to contribute a pledge.

The call in deadline is 16 July 2019.