Agenda item

Members’ question time will last up to 30 minutes, with questions being taken in the order of receipt and in rotation from each political group on the Council. The deadline for submission of questions is 15 February 2024 at 12 noon.

 

Questions should be submitted to democratic.services@adur-worthing.gov.uk

 

Questions can be asked of the following:

a)    The Mayor

b)    A Member of the Executive

c)    The Chairman of any Committee

d)    The Council’s representative on any outside body

 

Questions cannot be asked in relation to the following:

a)    A specific planning or licensing application

b)    A specific staffing appointment, appeal or Standards determination

First rotation: 

 

Question 1 from Cllr Richard Nowak to the Deputy Leader - Cllr Carl Walker

 

As you are no doubt aware, age is a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act. Given the recently announced reduced hours of operation of the Customer Call Centre and a two year commitment to services redesign which will no doubt see more and more interactions with residents being redirected via the internet, how does this administration propose to protect the many older residents of this town from becoming disengaged, disregarded and unlawfully discriminated against?

 

The Deputy Leader referred the question to the Cabinet Member for Housing & Citizen Services - Cllr Emma Taylor-Beal on the basis of portfolio responsibility. 

 

Cllr Taylor-Beal replied that age was indeed a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, although it was a bit of a stereotype, to assume that age in itself was a barrier to accessing online services. There will be some older residents who lack the confidence or the will to engage online which was understandable and fine. However, digital poverty was as much, if not more, of a barrier to people of all ages accessing online services.     

 

The current change to the contact centre, had been carried out to ensure that the Council's hard working and dedicated staff were able to focus on prioritised calls and follow up admin appropriately. It was anticipated that once citizens got used to the new and slightly reduced access hours, they would see an improvement in the number of people available to take calls within that time. 

 

The next phase of the organisational redesign, will see the Council go out to consultation with service users and speak to partners about how they can help the Council deliver the best possible service for all citizens. It would be at this point that a full equality impact assessment will be completed. The results of which would be considered when making choices about which and how many functions go online. There was no intention at all to stop people being able to call in if they wanted to. Instead, those who wish to help themselves online, will be able to when they like and support themselves without needing to speak to someone. This will free up the Council's highly skilled teams, to be able to help those who want and need this service and really value speaking to somebody.             

 

Question 2 from Cllr Hazel Thorpe to the Cabinet Member for Resources - Cllr John Turley

 

What contingency plan and budget does the Council have in place should the funding from Homes England not materialise? 

 

The Cabinet Member for Resources referred the question to the Cabinet Member for Regeneration - Cllr Caroline Baxter on the basis of portfolio responsibility. 

 

Following the September 2023 Worthing Joint Strategic Sub Committee, the Council had been exploring the potential sale of Teville Gate to Homes England.  Cllr Baxter looked forward to reporting on the outcome of this work at the March Joint Strategic Sub Committee, but as you will know, the aim of working with the national agency for regeneration and the delivery of new homes has been to see if the Council could break the seemingly never ending cycle of schemes that have failed to deliver.

 

Teville Gate was a complex site and much has changed in the last few years which means that securing a great scheme that delivers new homes for Worthing remains a real challenge.  The intention this time then, was that Homes England should purchase the site from the Council; secure planning permission; and commit to delivering the development as part of an integrated approach to the regeneration of the town.

 

The Cabinet Member looked forward to reporting on the outcome in March, but to answer your question directly, were this land deal not to go ahead for some reason, the Council would still be in a very good position to seek an alternative development partner and actively market the site using all of the due diligence that had been undertaken to get to this advanced stage.

 

 

Question 3 from Councillor Russ Cochran to the Deputy Leader - Cllr Carl Walker

 

Apart from use of CIL money, which is there for that very reason, how much, in financial terms and from what sources or available budgets, is being put into youth provision across the borough?

 

The Deputy Leader replied that the Council did not have a specific budget for youth provision because this was the responsibility of West Sussex County Council. However there were initiatives that the Council did support periodically through external funding, including for example: 

 

Using Safer Streets 4 funding, the Council had also funded Sid Youth and Audio Active to provide mentoring to children facing barriers to thriving. The Council had also supported local youth organisations to apply for funding from the Police Crime Commissioner. We continue to work closely with the West Sussex Violence Reduction Partnership to direct resources to services in Worthing that were supporting the most vulnerable children in the Borough.

 

There was one other fund - Youth Investment Fund - that was made available for specific infrastructure for youth facilities in Northbrook Ward. However, the requirements of this fund (land being owned / leased by the Council) were not in place for the fund to be accessible on this occasion.

  

 

Question 4 from Councillor Kevin Jenkins to the Cabinet Member for Housing and Citizen Services - Councillor Emma Taylor-Beal 

 

As of January 2022 you had 29.35 full time equivalent posts allocated to the contact centre, in January 2023 you had 33.23 such posts and now in January 2024 you have 29.3 such posts. Can you tell me now as of January 2024 how many of those posts are currently occupied by a member of staff and how many are being carried as vacancies.

 

The Cabinet Member advised that as at January 2024, the Council had 26.48 FTE occupied roles in the contact centre. Customer Services was part of Resident Services which was one of the areas within Organisational Design. The Council would be redesigning the service in a way that gave residents the ability to self-serve for transactional queries, but were still able to speak to advisors with more complex queries.  

 

This means identifying the best resourcing, structure and skills needed to deliver the service. The 4 vacant roles would be deleted as part of the redesign work. There was a further role which would remain vacant, due to secondment. The Council would engage and consult staff on the future model to get their views and engage residents to ensure the changes were as smooth as possible and focused on supporting residents most in need.

 

 

Question 5 from Cllr Noel Atkins to the Cabinet Member for Regeneration - Cllr Caroline Baxter

 

Can you please tell us in the form of full time equivalents, how many staff posts were allocated to the Coastal Office team as of the 1st January 2022, how many as of the 1st January 2023, how many are allocated now as of the 1st January 2024 and of that number in January 2024 how many of those posts are currently occupied by a member of staff and how many are being carried as vacancies.

 

The Cabinet Member replied that on 1st January 2022, the Council had 5 staff posts allocated to the Coastal Office. 

 

3 Coastal Wardens, 1 Senior Coastal Warden and 1 Support Assistant. This had not changed, and continued to be the case and has remained unchanged throughout the period January 2022 to date. 

 

All of these posts are currently occupied and the Council had zero vacancies. 

 

 

Question 6 from Councillor Richard Nowak to the Cabinet Member for the Environment - Councillor Vicki Wells  

 

In the budget proposals which are laid before us today, and in the light of the declared Ecological Emergency in the town, how much money has the cabinet member fought for and secured to ensure the delivery of the management plan for Cissbury Fields, which I would remind you is the premier flagship nature recovery and biodiversity gain project this administration has inherited from its predecessor?

 

The Cabinet Member thanked Cllr Nowak for his question. There was no question that the Council’s finances aren’t strained as a direct consequence of the national government. This couldn’t have happened under worse circumstances than the Ecological and Climate Crisis. 

 

In real terms, allowing for inflation, the Council’s spending power had been reduced by 40% in the last 13 years. This means government funding had reduced by 72% in the same period. The Cabinet Member could not fight for and secure funds that don’t exist. Given the financial constraints faced by the Council, a service redesign was in progress. Officers would be reviewing the resourcing needed to deliver this ambitious management plan. 

 

That said, it doesn’t mean that delivery of the management plan for Cissbury is going to be stopped in its tracks. It could be that the plan has to be adjusted to deliver elements over a longer period of time. The Cabinet Member gave a categorical assurance that the Cissbury Management Plan would be honoured. 

 

External Funding was paramount to the success of the plan and the Council’s Officers had already secured funding via South Downs National Park for 35 local varieties of apple and pear trees to create a community orchard. The trees will be planted by the end of March. In addition, they are standing ready to apply for CIL funding from South Downs National Park Authority and they are ready to apply for the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. The Cabinet Member was looking forward to seeing the rest of the management plan come into effect over the next few years.            

     

 

Question 7 from Cllr Hazel Thorpe to the Cabinet Member for Housing & Citizen Services - Cllr Emma Taylor-Beal

 

We appear to have an increased number of landlords who are buying up local properties for the sole use as air B&B’s. This impacts on our ability to provide affordable housing for local people.

 

A.    What are the statistics for such dwellings,

B.    how much Council Tax does the Council receive from such properties  and 

C.   how is the council dealing with this - does  the council have a policy to keep this phenomena in check ?

 

The Cabinet member replied that as at 15th February 2024, there were 493 properties classified as second homes. The Council did not hold data on these properties with regard to those being used as holiday lets.

 

If certain criteria was met for renting out properties for holiday lets, then they could be rated under Non Domestic Rates, instead of Council Tax. Again, depending on certain criteria, small business rate relief may also apply to those properties. There were currently 30 properties rated for Non Domestic Rates, 28 of those were getting small business rate relief and therefore no rates were due.

 

The total charge for the 493 properties classed as second homes, using current band figures, was £984,371.64

           

A report was taken to Worthing Cabinet on 6 February 2024 with regard to recommended changes in respect of Second Homes. The report identified decisions to be made by Full Council and made recommendations to change the council’s approach in respect of certain discretionary areas within council tax legislation. Having been agreed, changes to Dwellings Occupied Periodically (Second Homes) will take place from 1st April 2025. These changes arise from the The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 which enabled councils to make further amendments to the levying of council tax premiums within the Borough.

 

The report recommendations sought to reduce the number of empty homes within the Borough in line with the Council’s Empty Homes Strategy and to encourage the use of premises as main residence by local residents rather than as second homes. Having been confirmed earlier in this meeting, the application of a premium for second homes of 100% would be implemented from 1 April 2025.

 

Question from Cllr Kevin Jenkins to the Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing - Cllr Rosey Whorlow

 

Now that you and your cabinet colleagues are formally proposing to reduce the level of security patrols in the town centre MSCPs, what impact do you consider that will have on the night time economy?

 

The Cabinet Member replied that the current arrangement was put in place in order to support car park staff with respect to out of hours use of the car parks and we will be updating this approach to a more targeted one.  These are not patrols that were at any point designed as visible to users of the night time economy and we therefore don’t expect this to have a direct impact on the night time economy.  

 

 

* Councillor Russ Cochran left the meeting during consideration of item 7 at 11.20am