Agenda item

Cabinet RECOMMENDED to Council that the Corporate Plan setting out the Council’s vision, objectives and actions for 2016–2021 be approved, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

Council APPROVED the Corporate Plan setting out the Council’s vision, objectives and actions for 2016–2021, as set out in Appendix 1to the report.

Councillor Peter Topping, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Staffing, proposed that the Council approved the Corporate Plan, setting out the Council’s vision, objectives and actions for 2016-2021, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report.

Councillor Roger Hickford, Chairman of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee, seconded the proposal.

Councillor Sebastian Kindersley made reference to the intention of the Council’s housing company, Ermine Street Housing Ltd, to act as an ethical landlord and was of the view that this implied other private landlords acted unethically.  Councillor Mark Howell, Portfolio Holder for Housing, said that this related to the additional support the housing company would offer, as much as it could, to those tenants who were experiencing difficulties, such as financial difficulties, for example.  He acknowledged that there were excellent private landlords operating in the district, some of which offered similar services.

Councillor Douglas de Lacey proposed an amendment to the Corporate Plan objective ‘homes for our future’, stated in the document as being to ‘secure the delivery of a wide range of housing to meet the needs of existing and future communities’.  His amendment was to include the words ‘in line with the Council’s Local Plan’ and add a new paragraph (i) under the objective to read ‘reaffirm the Council’s requirement for 40% of affordable homes’.

Councillor Deborah Roberts seconded the amendment.

Councillor John Williams moved an amendment to Councillor de Lacey’s original amendment, to add the word ‘emerging’ so that it read ‘in line with the Council’s emerging Local Plan’.

Councillor de Lacey accepted this amendment to his original amendment.

Councillor Ray Manning, Leader of the Council, said that the Council’s policy on affordable housing was included in other documents and that it would not be appropriate to include such reference within this high level Corporate Plan.  He also reminded Members that the Council’s policy in respect of affordable housing was 40%, subject to viability.  Councillor Simon Edwards, Deputy Leader and Finance and Staffing Portfolio Holder, supported this view and felt it would be unwise to commit to a value for affordable housing in the Corporate Plan.  Councillor Topping agreed that this level of detail was not appropriate for inclusion in the Plan.

Councillor Anna Bradnam proposed removing the paragraph in relation to affordable housing from the amendment, which Councillor de Lacey accepted.  The substantive amendment therefore became to add the words ‘in line with the Council’s emerging Local Plan’ after the words ‘secure the delivery of a wide range of housing to meet the needs of existing and future communities’ in respect of the ‘homes for our future’ objective.

Voting on the substantive amendment, with 17 votes in favour and 34 votes against, the amendment was lost.

Enough Members as prescribed in Council’s Standing Orders requested a recorded vote.  Votes were therefore cast as follows:

In favour

Councillors Henry Batchelor, Anna Bradnam, Nigel Cathcart, Jose Hales, Philippa Hart, Tumi Hawkins, Peter Johnson, Sebastian Kindersley, Douglas de Lacey, Janet Lockwood, Cicely Murfitt, Robin Page, Deborah Roberts, Bridget Smith, Edd Stonham, Aidan Van de Weyer and John Williams.

Against

Councillors David Bard, Val Barrett, Francis Burkitt, Brian Burling, Tom Bygott, Graham Cone, Pippa Corney, Christopher Cross, Kevin Cuffley, Simon Edwards, Sue Ellington, Andrew Fraser, Roger Hall, Roger Hickford, Mark Howell, Caroline Hunt, Mervyn Loynes, Ray Manning, Mick Martin, Raymond Matthews, David McCraith, Charles Nightingale, Tony Orgee, Alex Riley, Tim Scott, Ben Shelton, Hazel Smith, Peter Topping, Richard Turner, Robert Turner, Bunty Waters, David Whiteman-Downes, Tim Wotherspoon and Nick Wright.

Councillor Cathcart was of the opinion that something should be included within the Corporate Plan to reflect that the Local Development Plan should be adopted as a matter of urgency, as this was something that the Council needed to progress as quickly as possible.  He also felt that reference to the protection of conservation and the natural environment had been omitted from the document.  Councillor Topping reiterated that this was a high level document but welcomed the comments.

Voting on the original motion, with 31 votes in favour, 5 against, 13 abstentions and 2 not voting, Council APPROVED the Corporate Plan setting out the Council’s vision, objectives and actions for 2016–2021, as set out in Appendix 1to the report.

Enough Members as prescribed in Council’s Standing Orders requested a recorded vote.  Votes were therefore cast as follows:

In favour

Councillors David Bard, Val Barrett, Francis Burkitt, Brian Burling, Tom Bygott, Graham Cone, Christopher Cross, Kevin Cuffley, Simon Edwards, Sue Ellington, Andrew Fraser, Roger Hickford, Mark Howell, Caroline Hunt, Mervyn Loynes, Ray Manning, Mick Martin, Raymond Matthews, David McCraith, Charles Nightingale, Tony Orgee, Alex Riley, Tim Scott, Ben Shelton, Peter Topping, Richard Turner, Robert Turner, Bunty Waters, David Whiteman-Downes, Tim Wotherspoon and Nick Wright.

Against

Councillors Jose Hales, Philippa Hart, Peter Johnson, Robin Page and Aidan Van de Weyer.

Abstention

Councillors Henry Batchelor, Anna Bradnam, Nigel Cathcart, Tumi Hawkins, Sebastian Kindersley, Douglas de Lacey, Janet Lockwood, Cicely Murfitt, Deborah Roberts, Bridget Smith, Hazel Smith, Edd Stonham and John Williams.

Not voting

Councillors Pippa Corney and Roger Hall.