Agenda and minutes

Councillor V Dudley (Rogerstone), J Foster (Wentlooge), S Jones (Rogerstone) and T Ducroq (Nash), A Whitfield (Graig), T Jefferies (Langstone), J Small (Goldcliff)

The Minutes of the meeting held on 21 September 2017 were submitted.

A Graig Community Council representative asked could the retirement wishes be extended from the chair and the Community Councillors. 

Agreed:

That the Minutes were accurate subject to the above.

The Head of Finance and Senior Finance Business Partner attended the meeting to give an update on the Concurrent expenditure and the budget consultation.

The Head of Finance met with the Cabinet Member for Community & Resources, Councillor David Mayer to discuss the concurrent expenditure and it was advised that the precept would be the same for 2018/19.  Once the Cabinet Member had been informed of all of the options and reached an agreement it would be approximately 15-18 months before the decision took effect.

Langstone Community Council asked were there any factors that were affecting the delay that could be explained.  It was advised that because there was a change to the Cabinet Member Portfolios in May 2017 following the recent elections, that had put a slight delay in the proceedings. 

The Head of Finance reminded the Community Councillors of the options.

The Chair had also mentioned that the report went through a scrutiny review.

Whilst the Chair and Head of Finance couldn’t give an accurate timescale they considered that the deadline on a response would be in the next 12 months. 

In response to Graig Community Council’s query, there was a possibility that the whole grant could be withdrawn and although this optionwas not favoured by scrutiny it would remain an option for the Cabinet Member.

The Head of Finance moved on to the issue of the budget consultation and stressed that all Community Councils would be contacted as Newport City Council could not proceed with the budget until every single Community Council put forward their financial information.  It was therefore requested that Community Councillors gave their returns to Newport City Council by 26 January 2018.  If there were any delays, the Council would need to be contacted immediately.  Most Community Councils had their budget meetings or were due to have them in January 2018.

One of the Graig Community Councillors referred to the public consultation and whether the Community Councillors were able to contribute.  The Chair agreed that it was important for the Community Councillors to provide their input to the public consultation and a link would be sent out to all clerks.

The Langstone Community Council representative referred to P 15 of the Shared Community Charter: Land Use Planning ‘NCC will uphold its statutory duty…’.  It was felt that there was a need for with any S106 Agreements, however, not all developments would give rise to S106 opportunities.  Gareth agreed that they should be included in any information relating to S106 Agreements and advised that A Jenkins would contact planning to rectify this.

Langstone Community Council also mentioned electronic devices being used to circulate planning application details and the difficulties they have experienced as paper plans were no longer circulated.  If there were any issues, they could contact A Jenkins, who could obtain advice from planning.

Penhow Community Council suggested printing plans on A4 papers and piecing them together, or even zoom-in on plans with a projector and screen to focus on detailed areas, which was much easier.

Graig Community Council also advised the Chair that they had not been consulted on S106 monies available within their area but had contacted the Planning Contributions Manager to find out further information. 

Additionally, under ‘Practical Support’, page 15 would there be any training opportunities for Community Councils in the near future.  Gareth advised that Standards Committee would be sending a questionnaire to clerks to find out their training needs and if there was any general demand the Council could put training on for them.  There was however a limited training budget with this in mind specific training would need to be identified.

Graig Community Council referred to training whether planning services were able to provide a question and answer session.  This could be arranged however, planning services would have to be careful how they answer queries especially if the related to any ongoing planning applications, it would therefore need to be a generic Q&A session could be arranged, subject to resources. 

Wentlooge Community Council referred to the Planning Aid Wales training held at the Council Chambers in December, which was hugely beneficial, however there was a poor turn out.  It was suggested that another session might be arranged at a better time of the year. 

A Jenkins would look at contacting the CEO of Planning Aid Wales, or provide contact details for clerks.

The Chair advised that the Council could co-ordinate with Planning Aid Wales to arrange a future session.  Clerks could write to A Jenkins for a list of topics for planning and possible training.

Wentlooge Community Council mentioned that Monmouthshire Community Councils had praised the relationship that Newport had with the Community Councillors, with the Shared Charter and the quarterly meetings.

The Chair informed those present that information on the ABP Newport Wales Marathon and 10K Run was sent out to clerks for information via email with a copy of a route map and link to a website.  The organisers Run 4 Wales provided a contact number should the community councillors want to invite them along to a meeting before the event on 29 April 2018.

The Admiral Half Marathon that was due to take place in March was also discussed and A Jenkins would send the route out to clerks for information.

Wentlooge Community Council would arrange a meeting with all Community Councils within Newport to discuss matters relating to the service provided by One Voice Wales.  A Jenkins would be contacted to book a committee room.

Discussion ensued regarding Parliamentary boundaries, there were electoral proposals taking place however any information put forward would be from the Boundary Commission. 

The Chair advised that the Council would be undertaking a local community review.  A consultation would take place, including a look at natural boundaries.  This would be a technical process, and a scrutiny review and engagement with Community Councils would follow within the next 12 months.

In Committee Room 1 at 6pm:

Thursday 22 March

Thursday 21 June

Thursday 20 September

Thursday 13 December

The meeting dates were agreed:

Thursday 22 March

Thursday 21 June

Thursday 20 September

Thursday 13 December