Decisions

At the Chair’s invitation The Executive Director of Finance read a short statement on behalf of Grant Thornton updating on the progress of their work which covered the following points:

• Grant Thornton (GT) continues to liaise with EY over the completion of their audits and have plans to start the final accounts audit in Mid-September.
• GT’s IT auditors have reviewed the key IT systems and are just awaiting the output from this work.
• GT will shortly be arranging a VFM meeting to discuss their approach to completing the VFM work for 2021/22 and agree the timing of that.
• Ciaran McLaughlin and Paul Harvey from GT have meetings arranged with all the Executive Directors and the Chief Executive on 5 July and we will be doing those meetings in person to build knowledge and understanding of the Council.  The aims of the meetings are to allow the audit team to understand key responsibilities, risks, projects, and developments in each area across the Council. 

The Assistant Director Finance (Accountancy) advised that the new auditors required the legacy audits to be completed to really begin their work.

Members were advised that the NBC and NCC audits were still not finalised, it was however noted that the difficulties with completing the NCC audit were because of a national issue.

The NBC audit was slightly behind due to ongoing queries. Members were advised that the deadline of the 31^st of July would be missed, as the audits cannot be completed until the accounts are closed.  The council was responding to every query as quickly as possible.

The Chair advised that the external auditors would attend the September meeting.

RESOLVED: That the update be noted. 

At the Chair’s invitation the Executive Director of Finance presented the report. Members were advised that the Internal Audit Plan had been forwarded to the new Chief Internal Auditor who had proposed a quarterly view of the plan.

A member put to the committee that there be no deep dive in September as a large amount of work would be ongoing, the committee agreed.

The Chair presented the recommendation to the committee.

RESOLVED: The Committee noted the work programme.

At the Chair’s invitation the Executive Director of Finance presented the report. Members were advised that the terms of reference for each area had been set out.

The recommendations were presented to the committee.

RESOLVED: The Committee considered the Audit and Governance Committee Annual report.

At the Chair’s invitation The Assistant Director of Finance (Accountancy) gave a verbal update to the committee and noted that they would receive a full written report at the next meeting. Members were advised that all fraud officers were counter fraud specialists and that the fraud prevention training would be provided again. WNC had applied for the NFI pilot which investigated housing tenancy fraud, this would mean that the council would have access to data that it would normally have to pay for.

A member noted that there was a huge problem with sub-letting within the private sector.

The recommendations were presented to the committee.

RESOLVED: That the committee noted the report.

The Planning Policy the Committee:

a)    Approved the updated West Northamptonshire Local Development Scheme (Appendix A of the report) which is to be brought into effect upon the expiry of the call-in period for Planning Policy Committee decisions.

b)    Delegated to the Assistant Director: Growth, Climate and Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Planning, Built Environment and Rural Affairs, authority to make minor editorial and presentational changes to the Local Development Scheme in its final published form.

The Planning Policy Committee:

a)    Noted the responses received to the spatial options consultation as summarised in appendix 1 of the report and confirmed that they should be fully considered in the preparation of the draft plan for public consultation.

b)    Confirmed that the end date of the plan-period to be covered by the WNSP be reduced from 2050 to 2041

c)     Agreed the next steps in the preparation of the WNSP as set out in paras 5.15 and 5.16 of the report.

The Planning Policy Committee:

a)    Approved the Proposed Main Modifications to the Northampton Local Plan Part 2 for consultation

b)    Approved the Proposed Additional Modifications to the Northampton Local Plan Part 2 for consultation subject to the inclusion of a further additional modification deleting reference from paragraph 13.7 to ‘potential transport links to the north via the route of the former Northampton to Market Harborough Railway’

c)     Approved the Proposed Changes to the Policy Map for consultation

d)    Delegated to the Assistant Director: Growth, Climate and Regeneration, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Planning, Built Environment and Rural Affairs, authority to make minor editorial and presentational changes to the consultation documents in their final published form

The Planning Policy Committee:

a)    Agreed the content of the draft South Northamptonshire Local Plan Part 2 –Employment Allocations Supplementary Planning Document, subject to changes being made to paragraph 3.2 to include a fuller extract from the local plan; paragraph 3.20 and the last sentence of page 38 to refer to exceptional circumstances for the consideration of larger units; and the inclusion of a new section following paragraph 1.27 to refer to cumulative impacts. The precise wording of these changes to be agreed with the Portfolio holder for Planning, Built Environment and Rural Affairs.

b)    Agreed that the Council should undertake a six-week public consultation on the document.

c)     Delegated authority to the Interim Head of Planning and Climate Change Policy to undertake minor editorial changes to the draft SPD including those in respect of paragraphs 1.14-1.22 and the details of the public consultation

The Planning Policy Committee:

a)    Agreed that the Community Infrastructure Levy regimes in place for West Northamptonshire be amended to include Discretionary Social Housing Relief for Discounted Market Sale housing.

a)

The Planning Policy Committee:

a)    Agreed the suggested response to the consultation from North Northamptonshire Council as set out in paragraph 5.8 of the report.

The Planning Policy Committee:

a)    Noted and welcomed the progress in making the Kilsby Review NDP by the Kilsby community.

b)    Accepted the Examiner’s recommended modifications in respect of the Kilsby Review NDP.

c)     Approved the proposed decision statement to “make” the Kilsby Review NDP set out in Appendix 1 of the report, subject to recommendation b) and any necessary factual alterations.

d)    Agreed that on being “made”, the Kilsby Review NDP will replace the Kilsby NDP which was made in 2016.

e)    Agreed that delegated authority be given to the Interim Head of Planning and Climate Change Policy to make further minor editorial changes to the Kilsby Review NDP to address any factual and typographical errors and to reflect the fact that the document will be in its intended final form.

1.     The Planning Policy Committee approved the Housing Action Plan for publication on the Council’s website, in line with Government requirements, subject to paragraphs 6.9 and 7.2 and Table 6 being amended to state that monitoring of sites of 50 or more units will be undertaken four times a year.

The Planning Policy Committee:

a)    Agreed that the conservation area boundary as set out in Appendix B of the report be designated and supersede the designation that was made in 1997.

b)    Agreed that delegated authority be given to the Interim Head of Planning and Climate Change Policy to make further minor editorial changes to the Canons Ashby Conservation Area appraisal and Management Plan to address any factual or typographical errors and to reflect the fact that the document will be in its intended final form.

c)     Agreed that the conservation area appraisal and management plan for Canons Ashby be adopted as a supplementary planning document.

d)    Agreed the Local List entries for Canons Ashby set out in Appendix C of the report.

e)    Agreed that an Article 4(1) for Canons Ashby in accordance with the proposals in the conservation area appraisal and management plan be made subject to consultation (Appendix D of the report).

The Planning Policy Committee:

a)    Agreed that the conservation area boundary as set out in Appendix C of the report, amended to exclude areas BA3, BA4 and BA5 as identified in Figure 4 of the consultation draft be designated and supersede the designation that was made in 2000.

b)    Agreed that the proposed changes to the Cottesbrooke Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan in response to representations, as set out in Appendices A and B of the report be approved, amended to exclude areas BA3, BA4 and BA5 as identified in Figure 4 of the consultation draft and consequential changes to the text in the Appraisal and Management Plan and the schedule of responses and actions. The precise wording of these changes to be agreed with the Portfolio holder for Planning, Built Environment and Rural Affairs.

c)     Agreed that further minor editorial changes be made to the Cottesbrooke Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan including to reflect that the document be in its final adopted form.

d)    Agreed that the Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, as amended in a) and b) for Cottesbrooke be adopted as a supplementary planning document.

e)    Agreed the Local List entries for Cottesbrooke set out in Appendix D of the report.

f)      Agreed that an Article 4(1) for Cottesbrooke in accordance with the proposals in the conservation area appraisal and management plan be made subject to consultation (Appendix E of the report).