Issue - meetings

To consider the recommendations from the meeting of the Cabinet held on 17^th January 2024.

Any recommendations from meeting will be published in a Supplementary Papers pack to this agenda.

Recommendations from the meeting of the Cabinet held on 17^th January 2024 were presented for the Council’s consideration.

Planning Enforcement Policy

Councillor K. Taylor presented the updated Planning Enforcement Policy for consideration by the Council and recommended its endorsement.  Councillor H. Jones seconded the recommendation.

Councillor A. Bailes suggested that advice to enforcement officers about what would be appropriate and proportionate in enforcement should be included in the policy.  He commented that the Council should be open and transparent when it was taking enforcement action in order to ensure the trust of the public.  He also suggested that any review of the enforcement policy should be presented to the Planning Committee.  Councillor Taylor responded that as some enforcement action was sensitive it would not be appropriate to discuss cases in public, but Councillor Bailes’ concerns would be raised with the Head of Planning.

In response to a query about whether biodiversity should be included in the Policy, Councillor Taylor reported that 89% of the district was green belt and policies to safeguard this were maintained robustly.

A member suggested that some wording in the policy should be reviewed, for example reference to ‘trivial’, because of the impact that enforcement action could have on the public.  Councillor Taylor undertook to discuss this with officers.

RESOLVED that the Council’s Planning Enforcement Policy be endorsed.

Council Tax Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Policy – Council Section 13a(C) Policy

Councillor C. Hotham presented the draft Council Tax Discretionary Council Tax Reduction Policy for the award of section 13A(1)(C) reductions in Council tax.  The Council’s policy had not been reviewed for several years; amendments to the policy would ensure that the delegation to provide discounts in line with any future national schemes were in place and enable support to be provided speedily to any qualifying households.

Further to reference in the Policy to the flood recovery framework, a member asked about support for victims of flooding and actions undertaken by the Council to prevent future flooding.  Councillor Hotham gave details of the financial help available and proactive work undertaken by the Council in flood prevention.

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor C. Hotham and seconded by Councillor S. Baxter.

RESOLVEDthat

1)    The Section 13A(1)(C) policy be approved and adopted from 1^st April 2024.

2)    The Council’s scheme of delegation be amended to grant delegated authority to the Head of Finance and Customer Services, and the Financial Support Manager to reduce the Council Tax payable on a case by case basis, as provided by Section 13A 1 (c) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.

Council Tax – Empty Homes Discount and Premiums

Councillor C. Hotham reported that since the introduction of Council Tax in 1993 some properties had been eligible for council tax discounts, the levels of which had been varied by legislation.  Until 2004, dwellings which were unoccupied were eligible for a council tax discount of 50%.  Since then, amendments to legislation had given billing authorities the power to reduce or remove  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84