Dear Residents,
We are pleased to have received the minutes from last Wednesdays full Council meeting at the Civic Centre, Folkestone. To view the complete minutes please click on the link below.
Of particular interest to us, from those minutes, is the following:
QUESTION From David Plumstead to Councillor David Monk, Leader of the Council
On 13th January 2016 report A/15/20 was presented to Council in which the Councillors were advised of the Chief Executive's use of urgent powers to purchase farmland for the sum of approximately £5 million within the area now referred to as Otterpool Park. In exercising his urgent powers to make a bid to purchase the land, the Chief Executive consulted with the Leader and Chairman of the Council, and also noted that the Monitoring Officer had consulted with the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee. Can the Leader please advise this meeting of the exact dates when the following sequence of actions took place and whether the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee gave his consent as required by the Constitution: 1. Date of consultation with the Leader Page 5 Minute Item 146 2. Date of consultation with the Chairman of Council 3. Date of consultation with the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee 4. Date consent given by Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee for the decision to be taken as a matter of urgency 5. Date of submission of the bid to purchase the land.
ANSWER: (From a prepared statement) Council officers noted that the land was available for purchase on 7 October 2015 with the closing date for tenders being noon Friday 20 November 2015. Between the land being put up for sale and the date for the submission of the tender the Chief Executive had several conversations with me. The exact date of these conversations has not been recorded. I was fully aware of the proposals. During this period the consent of the Chairman of Council was not required. However, the Monitoring Officer did consult the Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny on 9 December 2015 who gave his consent to the urgent decision. At the time it was envisaged that the decision would be taken by Cabinet but it proved not possible to do this. Finally, as I have said the date for the submission of the bid was 20th November 2015.
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION Can the Leader, in conjunction with the Chief Executive, explain the use of urgency powers as the decision contravenes Part 4 Clause 4.2 that consent is required by the Overview and Scrutiny committee Chairman, why was approval not sought prior to 20th November (when the bid was put in). Where is the evidence for this and can he provide it?
SUPPLEMENTARY ANSWER: The Leader informed that he was fully satisfied with the procedures carried out and if he could provide any evidence he would do so
As previously stated in our post of 28th October, we said that Councillor Monk struggled to answer at all, asking for guidance from the SDC Solicitor in attendance. The supplementary answer above from Councillor Monk is evidence to support our statement.
Taken from the same minutes.
Lastly he (David Monk) welcomed Cllr Claire Jeffrey to the Conservative group who he said was a lovely lady with a huge commitment to the residents of her ward and he looked forward to working with her.
He said that the conservatives are a broad church so if anyone else fancies joining them he would welcome it.
Well, there we have it: An invitation to us all. A broad church. Not a vernacular that comes to mind when describing Councillor Monk and his band of Councillors that purport to represent local residents. If anyone can offer an alternative description of Shepway District Council please let us know. We'll leave it there for now.
S&DRA.
