A huge agenda meant for an eventful and well-attended meeting last night (24 February at Selwood Academy Hall) – thank you to everyone who came along!
Highpoints included a presentation by Andy Mallender, about the Walkers are Welcome scheme, which was positively received by Cllrs and the public. The scheme has proved encouraging for towns and villages, with one of the main benefits of gaining accreditation being an economic boost and increase in tourism. Councillors also welcomed the internal One Planet Action Plan and asked for further details at a later time.
Councillors discussed their response to central government, regarding the Housing and Planning Bill 2015-16, which was first raised at the Planning & Advisory Group – setting out objections by the Town Council to the proposed bill – the full report can be found here, Cllr Pippa Goldfinger encouraged others to learn more about it and put forth their opinions to their local MP.
There was a passionate debate around the Ethical Decision Making Matrix – which ensures the Council is continuing to make ethically based decisions when buying goods and services. Cllrs agreed that the current document was not in a user friendly layout and should be reviewed before being approved. It was decided to bring a revised version of the matrix back to the next finance themed Council meeting.
The Council’s pioneering panels was also a hot topic on the agenda; Councillors agreed whilst Panels served a lot of merit in bringing people and ideas together, they took up substantial time from the staff’s work programme. It was decided that direct involvement by Cllrs in areas of their interests and expertise would better pave the way for focusing on areas of the Council’s work. Councillors agreed that by assigning a ‘Project Sponsor’ to particular projects or themes, could better support the Council’s range of work.
Completing the evening were recommendations from the Grants Advisory Group being approved.
The agenda and reports for last night’s meeting are here and the draft minutes will be posted online over the coming week.
