Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record

The minutes of the meeting held on the 22^nd September 2020 were agreed.

All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter:

(i)            any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPIs) and / or

(ii)           other interests arising under the Code of Conduct

in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at the meeting. Anyone with a DPI must, unless a dispensation has been granted, withdraw from the meeting during consideration of the relevant item of business.  If in doubt, advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer or his staff prior to the meeting.

The following Councillors declared non-pecuniary interests in minute 143 below.

·         Councillor Cooper (wife is current member of Freedom Leisure)

·         Councillor Bloore (current member of Freedom Leisure)

·         Councillor Morrow (current member of Freedom Leisure)

Six questions had been submitted. Five from members of the public and one from Councillor M. Cooper.

Question from Dawn Dawkes

The following question was read out behalf of Dawn Dawkes (she was unable to attend the meeting).

“Please can you tell me when the pool at village health club, Caterham will be open?

It had been a godsend for my mental health and physical exercise the last 2 years. I suffer from Achilles tendinitis and calf problems and cannot do a lot of the exercise classes or use the gym, so I used the pool for swimming probably 4 to 5 days a week. I am a fully paid up Premier member, and although I see that De Stafford is opening the timings before 8:30 am and after 7 pm are not suitable for myself or a lot of people.

A lot of people are suffering from mental health because of the virus and are really needing a ‘get away’, and this getaway is a little swim for some!!”

Paul Smith, the Interim Transformation Lead, responded (at the request of the Chairman) as follows:

“The Leisure provider Freedom Leisure has taken the decision to not reopen the Village Health Club. Information provided from Freedom Leisure indicates that this is due to the size of the facilities and that usage would be significantly limited due to social distancing thus making it unprofitable at this stage.

The deStafford facility is not owned by Tandridge District Council and any facilities provision is a matter between Freedom Leisure and DeStafford School.”

Question from Chris Shortman

The following question was read out behalf of Chris Shortman (he was unable to attend the meeting).

“How is it that the [Oxted] pool can reopen for swimming lessons yet remain closed to adult swimmers.  If the pool is being heated it must be suitable for Lane swimming as well. I have the following questions:

- figures of c £500k are being put forward as required by Freedom Leisure to reopen the pool.  Given the above statement if correct, how can that be justified and as this is a Tandridge community pool run by Freedom Leisure, what steps have TDC taken to verify these requirements?

- given that swimming plays an important part in the fitness of many individuals, both mentally and physically, how can TDC justify granting Master Park £500k for a future project that may benefit a few when there is an immediate need now to resolve COVID 19 issues?

-how is it that Freedom Leisure can offer more swimming lessons as per their Facebook page but not open the pool to adults.  Are they serving the community they manage the pool for and what are TDC going to do about getting the balance right?”

Paul Smith, the Interim Transformation Lead, responded (at the request of the Chairman) as follows:

“Information from Freedom Leisure indicates that the cost of extending the pool facilities would be increased and would not at this point be financially viable. This  ...  view the full minutes text for item 149.

A report was presented to the Committee regarding streamlining the process for approving the Council’s annual statement of accounts. It highlighted that in previous years, two committees had been involved in the process for considering the Council’s final accounts for preceding year and the associated external audit. This had involved two meetings (one for Strategy & Resources and another for Overview & Scrutiny) often in the same week leading up to the statutory deadline for publishing the approved accounts with a duplication of reports. Officers had identified a need to eliminate the duplication by enabling the process to be dealt with exclusively by the Audit & Scrutiny Committee.

            R E C O M M E N D E D – that the following delegated powers ‘to resolve’ be transferred from the Strategy & Resources Committee to the Audit & Scrutiny Committee:

·      approval of the Council’s annual statements of accounts; and

·      issues arising out of the financial audit of the accounts.

The Committee had resolved to move into confidential session for this item in accordance with Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Act and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

            R E C O M M E N D E D – that

A.    senior officers enter into negotiations with freedom leisure with the aim of  securing  the future of leisure facilities in the district whilst  cognisant of the financial situation of the Council;

B.    responsibility be delegated to the Chairman of this committee and the group leaders to agree a package not exceeding the equivalent of 12 months’ rent;

C.    any financial support to be conditional on the immediate full re-opening of the Tandridge Leisure Centre swimming pool, in alignment with government guidelines; and

D.    written reports on the progress of negotiations be provided to this Committee on a regular basis.