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ISLE OF WIGHT ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL COUNCILS (IWALC)

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

Held on
January 16
th
2014 at the Riverside Centre, Newport

Present:
Officers: Councillors Gill Kennett, IWALC Chairman (Freshwater), June Davison, IWALC Vice Chairman
(Newchurch), IWALC Treasurer Dave Hardy (Lake), IWALC NALC delegate Dick Doran (Wootton Bridge). John
Medland, IWALC Secretary.
Other EC members, deputies and substitutes: Councillors Mick Thirkettle (Arreton), Roy Penney (Brading),
Peter Pugh (Bembridge), David Tolfree (Brighstone), Alan Lock (Chale), John Kingston (Chillerton &
Gatcombe), Veronica Cowan (Cowes), Tony Cooper (Fishbourne), Alison Child (Godshill), Aslam Javaid
(Gurnard), Geoff Lumley and Shirley Smart (Newport), John Kalaher (Nettlestone & Seaview), Jon Young
(Niton & Whitwell), John Ward (Northwood), David Moore (Ryde), Bob Blezzard (Sandown), Helena
Hewston (Shalfleet), Vince Fennell (Totland), Ken Knapman and Harry Rees (Ventnor), Val Taylor (Clerk to
Whippingham and IW SLCC Secretary).

Also Present:
Speakers David Newton, Green Towns, Cllr. Steve Stubbings, Deputy Leader, Isle of Wight Council. Clerk
Maxine Yule (Chair IW SLCC). There were also four representatives of the IW Trades Union Congress, Robert
Burton, Steven Butler, Michael Nobs, Derek Osborne and David Quigley.

1 Presentation by David Newton on the Green Town initiative to develop volunteer
organizations to work with local councils on sustainability issues.
This initiative to mobilise community volunteers is a home grown Island initiative three years old. It enables
volunteers to take direct environmental action. So far there are ten local groups in Bembridge, Brading,
Cowes, East Cowes, Gurnard, Newport, Sandown and Shanklin, Ventnor and Chale. Each has a different
relationship with its own town or parish council. Their specific make up and activities vary from one group
to another. However each group needs to have a Steering Group, written rules, an Action Plan, be
committed to continuous improvement and must sign up to the Green Towns Charter. Green Towns offer
equipment/ clothing, a tree nursery, publicity materials, networking workshops and a monthly bulletin of
green events. The Chair thanked Mr Newton and suggested that the monthly bulletin is circulated to
IWALC members. For more information please contact gogreen@greentowns.org.uk

2. To receive apologies.
George Cameron (Freshwater), Veronica Hattersley (Havenstreet & Ashey), Chris Riddet
(Northwood), Cathy Wright and Jacquie Mereweather (Sandown), John Whitney (Shalfleet), Vic
Hickin (Wroxall).

3. Declarations of Interest.
None were declared.

4. To approve the minutes of the Executive Meeting held on July 18th.
The Minutes were approved (Cllrs. Hardy and Blezzard) and the Minutes of the F&GPC were noted with one
alteration.

5. Matters Arising from the previous minutes.
No Matters Arising were raised.

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6. Discussion on a proposed precept rise with the IWC Deputy Leader Cllr. Stubbings.
Cllr Stubbings is also Mayor of Ventnor. Ventnor Town Council has this week agreed a precept increase of
20 a year. He proposed that if local councils raised their precept by 20 a year for each band D property
this had the potential to raise the equivalent of 974,000. This could be used to offset some of the massive
forthcoming cuts in public services.

Cllr. Lumley who is also Chair of the Oversight and Scrutiny Committee explained that the IW Council has a
budget of 312 million of which 273 is statutory expenditure (essentially adult social care and childrens
services). Of the remaining 39 million 28 million must be cut in the next three years, effectively ending IW
Council involvement in sports, leisure, economy, tourism, parks, public realm etc. The IW Council is no longer
able to raise council tax beyond 2% without calling a referendum which will cost 150,000

Therefore there will no longer be the rural argument of double taxation, paying for parish run services
through the precept and IW run services elsewhere through Council Tax. In future all non-statutory services
will be provided through local councils or not at all. It is expected that HMG will cap local council precepts
next year.

Local Councils additional funds would be spent as they dictated but most usefully on common shared
regional services located in one council. In this way rural parishes without public resources of their own can
contribute to maintaining services in neighbouring towns.

There was general agreement that the base rate of the precept has been kept too low to be an effective tool
but that the doubling of the precept for many local councils would be politically impossible. It was noted
that the public and many members of local councils have yet to understand the scale of the forthcoming
liquidation of IW Council services or simply refuse to believe it will happen. There was discussion on
advertising the crisis in the IW County Press.

Resolved: To circulate a special presentation to IWALC members explaining the facts of the crisis and the
proposal to increase precept before all rates are fixed.

7. Update on the campaign for Assisted Area Status
The Chairman introduced the TUC delegation and thanked them for raising the Assisted Area Status question
which is now being taken forward by IWALC. Steve Butler made the point that the HMG proposed AAS ward
by ward solution needs to be changed to be all Island. He explained that the allocation of AAS status is very
much a political process and that the EU Commission also has discretionary power over the NUTS
classification. Bob Burton spoke on the campaign for a living wage and Mike Nobbs reminded us of the loss
of 10,000 skilled jobs in recent decades.

Cllr. Rees reported that the consultation on HMGs AAS proposals. He will redraft IWALCs response to the
consultation arguing for the Island being reclassified in its entirety under Criteria 1073 C. Without such a
review the Islands case for NUTS reclassification will be lost.

8. Redrafted Consultation Protocol between IW Council and IW local councils.
The radically reduced draft agreed between Cllr Hardy for IWALC and Chris Matthews for the IW Council was
discussed. Cllr Hardy was thanked for his work on the redrafting.

Resolved:
Cllr Pugh to draft a paragraph on a procedure for resolving disputes.
New draft to be recirculated to the IW SLCC and returned to F&GPC.


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9. County Training Partnership Conference on February 12
th
.
The Minister expected will no longer be attending. Members are urged to support this conference by
encouraging attendance. Examples of best practice in individual councils are called for to be promoted at
the conference.

10. IWALC Representative Reports.
Cllr. Tolfree reported back from the Sustainability Forum highlighting the 30% decrease in the IW Councils
management of its land and requesting further examples to be added to the list of sustainable actions by
IWALC members already gathered. He also noted the potential for short term grants to promote cycling. For
more information on these grants please contact the Secretary.

Cllr. Doran had attended an Extraordinary National Executive Committee meeting and another meeting on
the latest new round of Leader funding. For more information on these grants please contact Natural
Enterprise.

Cllr. Rees reported on meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee discussing the budget and cross-
Solent ferries.

11. To receive the Secretarys Report.
The Secretarys Report was noted.

12. F&GPC recommended revision of the Secretarys contract.
The F&GPC recommendation on the Secretarys employment was agreed effective from January 1
st
2014.

13. To receive the Treasurers Report and budget proposal 2014-15.
The Treasurers report was noted and the following payments authorised:-

NALC Goods 191.11
Riverside Room Hire 16.00
J Medland Dec Salary 346.66

The proposed budget was accepted (Cllrs. Fennell, Javaid) with all in favour. However the use of deficit
budgeting relying on reserves is to be referred to F&GPC for further discussion.
The Chairman thanked Cllr Hardy for his work on the Budget and Cllr Hardy thanked his predecessor Cllr.
Blezzard for his assistance.

14. Choice of candidates to attend a Buckingham Palace Garden Party.
The two successful councils drawn from the hat by the Chair were Northwood and Gurnard.

15. Date and venue of next Executive Committee March 20
th
2014 at 1900, Riverside Centre.
The speaker will be Marc Griffin representing the IW Highways Authority with a representative of Island
Roads.
(Members are also invited to attend the February 20
th
F&GPC which will be addressed by David Thornton the
CEO of Visit Isle of Wight.) Please also note that Cllr Ian Stephens, Leader of the IW Council has agreed to
address IWALC at the EC on May 15
th
.)