Decisions

The Community Initiative Fund is a County Local Committee (CLC) administered fund that provides assistance to local community projects.

The Director of Law and Assurance, in consultation with the Chairman of South Chichester County Local Committee and the Chairman of the Performance and Finance Scrutiny Committee, has used his delegated powers under Standing Order 3.45 to decide the following CIF applications:

West Sussex Crowd

·       582/SC – Chichester Ship Canal Trust - up to £2000 to deliver specialist repairs to the banks of Chichester Canal.

·       583/SC – Parklands Residents’ Association, Community Safety Drive – up to £1000 to purchase one speed indicator device to be deployed at various locations in Chichester.

·       590/SC – Westgate Gymnastics – up to £700 for purchasing replacement asymmetric bars, subject to the project satisfactorily completing Spacehive verification, and also entering the fundraising stage before the end of the financial year.  

Micro Fund

·       592/SC – Rotary Club of Chichester Priory, Rotary Christmas Tree at Chichester Market Cross - £550 subject to the agreement the tree is advertised as kindly funded by South Chichester CLC.

·       593/SC – Selsey Community Forum - £500 for running reminiscence sessions for people living with dementia.

The increase of housing increases the number of children of school age requiring a place in West Sussex Schools and can impact on the suitability of existing accommodation to enable the curriculum to be delivered.

Following a detailed review of Section 106 funds received for Education, an allocation is proposed to fund a number of small to medium sized capital projects at a range of schools across the County. The funds highlighted in Appendix A can only be spent on education infrastructure. As the funds have been received, the children that live in these developments are now attending the schools highlighted. Whilst the funds still have a number of years to be spent before they would have to be returned to the developers, it is proposed that the funds are spent now to provide for the pupils that live in these developments and to achieve best value for the funds available.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills has approved:-

(1)The allocation of £6.268m from Section 106 funds to deliver small to medium education infrastructure projects at named Schools in accordance with the requirements of the individual Section 106 Agreements and as outlined in Appendix A;

(2)The delegation of authority to undertake a procurement exercise for all projects outlined in Appendix A and to enter into contracts for delivery of the projects to the Director of Property and Assets, and

(3)The addition of 3 projects to the current year Capital Programme and the allocation of £291k from Section 106 funds for design fees to progress these projects as described in paragraph 2.2. Each of these schools are anticipated to require individual budgets in excess of £0.5m.

In May 2020, the government announced an opportunity to bid into the emergency active travel fund (EATF) for funding to provide temporary schemes that would facilitate walking or cycling in place of mass public transport in response to the Covid-19 public health crisis.

The County Council, in co-operation with all of the District and Borough councils, identified 7 schemes that would fulfil the government’s criteria and was successful in securing funding for all of these.

The schemes were implemented over a period of 8 weeks between July and September 2020.

A decision has now been made to determine the future of each of the schemes, the decision in relation to the Chichester scheme having been taken.

1)           The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has approved the removal of the two emergency active travel cycle schemes installed in Crawley.

2)           The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has approved the removal of the emergency active travel cycle scheme installed in Horsham.

3)           The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has approved the removal of the emergency active travel cycle scheme installed in Worthing.

4)           The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has approved the removal of the emergency active travel cycle scheme installed in Shoreham.

25 November 2020 – The Environment and Communities Scrutiny Committee, on 18 November 2020, considered the call-in of the emergency active travel cycle scheme installed in Shoreham and asked the Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure to reconsider his decision to remove the scheme.

The Cabinet Member has carefully considered all of the available information, including the call-in reasons and the comments made at the committee meeting. The Cabinet Member is also aware that the majority of comments received by the County Council (via the on-line survey and correspondence) were opposed to the scheme due to loss of parking, safety and lack of consultation though he recognises that the positive comments have been the highest for any of the county’s emergency schemes.

The scheme constituted significant changes to the highway but there was no time to undertake meaningful engagement with local stakeholders. The Department for Transport set out the funding criteria and the allocated funding on 27 May, and bids had to be submitted by 5 June - eight working days later. This resulted in an absence of public engagement/feedback and compromises in terms of the design, assessment and impact criteria.

As an emergency response to a unique set of circumstances the scheme has been a success but the conditions on the network have now changed and public transport options restored.  The Cabinet Member has, therefore, confirmed his decision to remove the Shoreham emergency active travel cycle scheme. The date of removal will be confirmed in due course.

The County Council is looking to progress a permanent cycle way scheme in Shoreham given the support and enthusiasm shown for a scheme through the ‘pop-up’ cycle way process. Any scheme in the town would be redesigned to make sure it is suitable as a permanent scheme. If taken forward as a priority for the County Council this would be subject to the Department for Transport agreeing additional investment as well as full and thorough consultation with the public and engagement with all relevant stakeholders. If agreed by the Department of Transport, this scheme would be added to the Tranche 2 cycle way work which will see permanent cycling improvements across the county.

5)           The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has approved the removal of the emergency active travel cycle scheme installed in East Grinstead.

In March 2020, the Cabinet Member for Environment approved the commencement of a procurement process to procure a concession contract to plan, install and operate a publicly accessible electric vehicle chargepoint network across West Sussex, and delegated authority to the Director of Environment and Public Protection, in consultation with the Director of Highways, Transport and Planning, to award the service concession contract to the successful bidder following the procurement exercise.

The Director of Environment and Public Protection, in consultation with the Director of Highways, Transport and Planning, has awarded Liberty Charge, as the single supplier, the concession contract for West Sussex Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Network for seven years to commence on 1 February 2021 with options to extend for a maximum of three years.

13 January 2021 – update

Post contract award, Liberty Charge requested significant changes to the specification and financial make-up of the service which fundamentally differed from the published tender. The published tender cannot be revised once bids have been received without significant risk of challenge from other Electric Vehicle chargepoint suppliers.

The County Council regretfully decided the only option was to abandon the procurement.

The establishment of a widely accessible county-wide charging network remains a priority for West Sussex County Council and the other partner local authorities. Officers will now take some time to review and consider the next steps to achieve this.

The County Council has a statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for all children who need a place.

There is a need to reduce the number of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) moving from maintained schools and academies into costly out of county education provision.  Increasing provision for children and young people with SEND through the creation of additional places in Specialist Support Centres (SSCs) will assist with the aim of enabling children to attend school locally.

In December 2019 Cabinet approved the proposal to develop phase two of the project for opening additional Special Support Centres in accordance with capital governance processes (decision reference CAB03(19/20)). Following this the County Council’s Multi-Disciplinary Consultant, Faithful+Gould Ltd. (MDC) were appointed to undertake full feasibility studies for the shortlisted Phase 2 SSCs. For each location, a minimum of two options were considered and surveys were undertaken to inform cost estimates and the options appraisal.

This report seeks capital funds to progress designs for 6 of the Phase 2 SSC projects following conclusion of the feasibility phase and identification of the preferred option for each site.

The proposal will positively impact on the outcomes for children and young people with SEND and enable them to be educated locally. This is also a key objective of the County Council’s SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2019 - 2024.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills has approved:

(1)An allocation of £880,000 to develop the designs for 6 of the Phase 2 SSCs, providing 70 places, funded from the SEND capital allocation within the approved Capital Programme as detailed in paragraph 2.3 of the report, and

(2)That authority is delegated to the Director of Property and Assets to take the decisions related to individual budgets, procurement exercises and contract awards for the projects to be designed.

Demand for places at single-sex boys schools in West Sussex has been declining in recent years and this is evidenced by a reduction in the overall number of families applying for boys schools as first preferences.  Reduced pupil numbers impacts upon the finances available to schools and thereby on how the school can deliver the opportunities required to both staff and pupils. 

To address these issues the governing bodies of The Forest School, Horsham and St Andrew’s CE High School for Boys, Worthing feel that conversion to become co-educational schools will not only enable increased pupil numbers but also increase opportunities for girls and provide a wider range of curriculum benefits for boys through co-educational subjects.

The Director of Education & Skills agreed to consult on the proposed significant change of character to alter The Forest School, Horsham from a single sex boys’ school to a co-educational school from September 2021 entry.  At the same time, the Governing Body of St Andrew’s CE High School for Boys, Worthing consulted on changing from a single sex boys’ school to a co-educational school from September 2021 entry. As St Andrew’s CE High School for Boys is a voluntary aided Church school, different regulations regarding who initiates the consultation apply. 

The proposed changes would mean the schools will no longer admit only boys as Year 7 pupils from September 2021 and each year of entry thereafter would be co-educational.  There are no changes proposed to have co-educational provision for any of the existing year groups on roll at both schools.  There are also no proposals to alter the single sex girls’ provision at either Millais School, Horsham or Davison CE High School for Girls, Worthing.

The initial consultations took place during June 2020 and following a review of the comments received the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills  took a decision to agree the publication of statutory notices to implement both changes with effect from September 2021 (Decision reference ES05(20/21)).

Statutory Notices were issued on the 6 August 2020. Members of the public and interested parties had the opportunity to make further representations regarding the proposed changes during a four week period that closed on the 3 September 2020. During this time one email was received in relation to the proposals for The Forest School, Horsham but this was not substantial or significant in content to amend, alter or delay the Cabinet Decision ES05 20/21.There were no representations received for St Andrews CE High School for Boys.

Notice of the intention to take the decision to determine the Statutory Notices was published in the Forward Plan on 8 July 2020. It was removed from the Forward Plan on 10 September 2020 as it was determined that a further decision would not be necessary.  Recent communication from the Office of the Schools Adjudicator indicates a further decision is required to enable action by that office. Due to the need for this matter to be determined by 3 November 2020 the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills has authorised that this urgent decision can be taken by the Director for Law and Assurance. The Chairman of the Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny committee has also agreed the taking of the decision is urgent and cannot be reasonably deferred. 

The Director of Law and Assurance, with the agreement of the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills and the Chairman of the Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Committee, has used his delegated powers under Standing Order 5.23 to agree:-

(1)  The conversion of The Forest School, Horsham to become a co-educational school with effect from September 2021

(2)  The conversion of St Andrew’s CE High School for Boys, Worthing to become a co-educational school with effect from September 2021.

25.1     The Committee considered a report by the Director of Law and Assurance about proposals for meeting arrangements to the end of December, County Local Committee (CLC) meetings in autumn, a review of the role of county councillors by the Member Development Group and continued monitoring of the capacity and resources to support Member meetings (copy appended to the signed minutes).

25.2     The Committee was generally supportive of holding virtual meetings until at least December 2020 in light of the ongoing restrictions due to the public health emergency, although was supportive of moving forward with hybrid meetings when restrictions are relaxed in due course. Some disappointment and opposition was expressed to the recommendation to cancel CLCs in the autumn of 2020.

25.3     Cllr Crow spoke with the permission of the Chairman as the Cabinet Member with responsibility for CLC provision. He commented that few other local authorities now had CLCs. The purpose of the meetings is to meet face-to-face with members of the public which is not currently possible. Hybrid meetings will only be possible when using the Council Chamber and existing legislation did not allow such meetings to be held. He supported the suspension of CLCs and, instead, virtual informal meetings could be held with Members.

25.4     The Head of Democratic Services advised that there was currently no technical capacity to support hybrid meetings though this was being purchased, would be installed in the Council Chamber and then tested; the equipment is not portable.  The next CLC meetings are scheduled in early 2021 and could be considered by this Committee in January 2021.  She confirmed that webcasting meetings significantly increases staff resources – between 34 and 40 hours of additional staff time would be required to webcast CLC meetings.

25.5     Members agreed to vote separately on recommendation (2) and recommendations (1), (3) and (4). Recommendation (2) was approved by a majority vote and recommendations (1), (3) and (4) were approved unanimously.

25.6     Resolved – that the Committee agrees:

(1)        The list of council/committee meetings to the end of December 2020 (Appendix 1 of the report);

(2)        Proposals for County Local Committee meetings in the autumn, as set out at paragraph 2.5 (and detailed at paragraph 2.3.2);

(3)        Proposals at paragraph 2.6 for a review of the local/community role of county councillors by the Member Development Group; and

(4)        That the Council’s capacity and resources to support member meetings should continue to be monitored by this Committee in liaison with all members.

27.1     The Committee considered a report by the Director of Law and Assurance about minor changes to the terms of reference of the Rights of Way Committee and the Pension Board and membership of the Pension Committee in the Scheme of Delegation in the constitution (copy appended to the signed minutes).

27.2     Resolved - to recommend to the County Council –

(1)        That the proposed changes to the Rights of Way Committee terms of reference and Delegation Code of Practice, as set out in Appendix 1 of the report, are approved;

(2)        That the amendment to the terms of reference of the Pension Advisory Board, as set out in paragraph 2.1 of the report, is approved; and

(3)        That the amendment to the membership of the Pensions Committee, as set out in paragraph 3.1 of the report is approved.

26.1     The Committee was asked to give further consideration to a proposed merger of the Planning and Rights of Way (RoW) Committees, to improve customer service and to offset some of the costs of establishing the Fire & Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee agreed by Council in December 2019, as set out in a report by the Director of Law and Assurance (copy appended to the signed minutes).

26.2     The Senior Adviser reminded members that the Planning and RoW chairmen spoke at the previous meeting and their views had been recorded.

26.3     With the permission of the Chairman, Cllr Urquhart advised that the RoW Committee’s workload had reduced over the previous three years due to the deregulation act and decisions being delegated to officers in consultation with the Chairman; and that neighbouring authorities reported that a merged committee works well. This, and other pressures being faced, made it difficult to justify the continued existence of separate committees.

26.4     The Committee was mostly supportive of the proposed merger, although noted that site visits could be problematic if several applications had to go to one meeting at any point. It was supportive because of the positive customer service impact; applications could be considered more frequently; and the experience of neighbouring authorities was known. The Committee believed that the merger should go ahead as soon as practicable after the decision is taken by the Council on 6 November 2020 because of this.

26.5     Cllr Walsh therefore proposed that (in recommendation (2)) the words, ‘from after the election in May 2021’ are deleted and ‘as soon as possible’ is inserted. He was seconded by Cllr Jones. A vote was taken and the amendment was agreed.

26.6     In response to members’ questions, the Senior Adviser commented that if the merger is to be brought into effect immediately, the next RoW meeting scheduled for early November would be the final meeting.

26.7     Resolved -

(1)        That the County Council be recommended to approve a merger of the Planning and Rights of Way Committees in the light of the improved customer service it would deliver to rights of way customers and the need to make savings as a result of establishing a Fire & Rescue Service Scrutiny Committee; and

(2)        That the Director of Law and Assurance be authorised to prepare the necessary revisions to constitutional documents for the County Council on 6 November 2020, to take immediate effect.

On the 15 May 2020  a care home support package was announced by Government backed by a £600m infection control fund . The specified purpose of the grant is to provide support to adult social care providers, including those with whom the Council does not have a contract, to reduce the rate of COVID-19 transmission in and between care homes and support wider workforce resilience to enable improved infection control. Previous decisions Report Ref: OKD17 20/21 and Report ref: OKD23 20/21 dealt with these arrangements. A further sum of money under Infection Control Grant arrangements will be allocated to West Sussex County Council for distribution.

On 17^th September 2020 the government announced a second support package for adult social care providers backed by a further £546m infection control fund.  The West Sussex allocation of this money is £10.958m. The expectation from government is that 80% of the money is passported directly to registered care home providers and other CQC regulated community care providers. The remaining 20% is allocated to the care sector, to support COVID infection control measures, based on local discretion.

The Director of Law and Assurance, in consultation with the Interim Executive Director of Adults and Health and the Chairman of the Health and Adults Scrutiny Committee has approved that;

(1)  80% of the Infection Control Grant Funding is paid to care home and other CQC regulated community care providers, in line with Government Guidance, subject to the government grant conditions, and the providers’ acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Council’s grant agreement with them; and

(2)  the allocation of the remaining 20% of the Infection Control Funding be subject to a further decision by the Executive Director of Adults and Health, to support  the care sector, in the county, to  put in place other COVID infection control measures, based on the Council’s discretion and made subject to appropriate grant conditions.

A decision is required for an award of a contract for enabling works for the Horsham Enterprise Park site in Horsham. These works are essential site preparatory works that will enable the early commencement of the commercial phases of the scheme and will be carried out between November 2020 and April 2021. A capital allocation of £2.717 million was approved by the West Sussex County Council Cabinet (CAB14_19/20) for this work to be undertaken via the Council’s Multi-Disciplinary Consultant (MDC) framework.

The Executive Director for Place Services has endorsed the award of the Horsham Enterprise Park enabling works contract to Axio (Special Works) Limited, as outlined in Section 2 of the report.

The Community Initiative Fund is a County Local Committee (CLC) administered fund that provides assistance to local community projects.

The Director of Law and Assurance, in consultation with the Chairman of the Central and South Mid Sussex County Local Committee (CLC) and the Chairman of the Performance and Finance Scrutiny Committee, has used his delegated powers under Standing Order 3.45 to decide the following CIF Applications:

West Sussex Crowd

• 587/CSMS – Worlds End Association, ‘Heritage pavement restoration’,  - up to £700 to be pledged - subject to the project satisfactorily completing Spacehive verification, and also entering the fundraising stage before the end of the financial year.  

Micro Fund

• 580/CSMS – HKD Transition, ‘Hassocks Repair Café’, £750.00 - to purchase equipment for the repair café.
• 586/CSMS – Bolney Community Café Society, ‘Welcoming our community to a COVID-secure space’, £612.00 towards purchasing COVID-19 safety screens, a bench and picnic table.

The County Council has a legal obligation under the Equalities Act 2010 to accommodate staff and visitors with disabilities.

A programme of works will be carried out at County Hall Chichester, Durban House Bognor Regis, County Hall North Horsham and Crawley library offices to ensure compliance and enhanced public duty.  Pending a possible change to the status of Centenary House, Durrington, works there will be limited to those that are the most critical in the short term.

The Cabinet Member has endorsed works to be carried out on Council buildings as detailed in paragraph 2.1 in the report and which are needed following an audit of compliance with accessibility requirements at the estimated value of £2.2m over four years beginning in 2020/21.

In May 2020, the government announced an opportunity to bid into the emergency active travel fund (EATF) for funding to provide temporary schemes that would facilitate walking or cycling in place of mass public transport in response to the Covid-19 crisis.

The County Council, in co-operation with District and Borough councils, identified 7 schemes that would fulfil the government’s criteria and was successful in securing funding for all of these.

The schemes were implemented over a period of 8 weeks between July and September 2020.

The Chichester scheme has been operational since it opened on 24 August and sufficient data has been gathered to help assess its impact. A decision can now be made to determine if the scheme should be retained, removed or substantially revised.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has approved the removal of the emergency active travel cycle scheme installed in Chichester.

Note: the decision was called in and considered by the Environment and Communities Scrutiny Committee on 18 November 2020.  The Scrutiny Committee supported the decision and the decision came into effect on 18 November 2020.

The County Council, in partnership with the South Downs National Park Authority, is required to undertake a Soft Sand Review (SSR) of the West Sussex Joint Minerals Local Plan (JMLP), which is part of the statutory ‘development plan’ for West Sussex.  The SSR considers the need for soft sand during the plan period (to 2033) and identifies changes to the JMLP to meet this demand, including the need for new site allocations. 

Informal public consultation on issues and options took place in January–March 2019 (under Regulation 18) followed by a formal period for representations on proposed changes to the JMLP in January-March 2020 (under Regulation 19).  In April 2020, the draft was submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination.

Following hearing sessions for the examination in August 2020, the Government-appointed Inspector has indicated that the submitted changes need to be modified to make them ‘sound’ and suitable for adoption.

Following approval, public consultation on the Proposed Modifications will take place during November 2020-January 2021, before they are submitted to the Inspector.

The Inspector will consider the Proposed Modifications and the representations made on them.  He will then report whether they are ‘sound’ and, if they are, they will be adopted by both Authorities as formal changes to the JMLP.

The Cabinet Member for Environment recommends to County Council on 6 November 2020 that the Proposed Modifications to the Soft Sand Review (Appendix A) be approved for public consultation on their soundness, followed by submission to the Inspector.