Decisions

2        BARTON UPON HUMBER NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT PLAN PUBLICITY AND INDEPENDENT EXAMINATION – The Director: Communities submitted a report informing the Cabinet Member that the Barton upon Humber Neighbourhood Plan (2024-2039) was submitted to the council on 15 November 2024, and seeking approval to publicise the plan and submit it to an Independent Examiner.

Following various community engagement events, the draft Barton Upon Humber Neighbourhood Development Plan (BNDP) was duly consulted upon in September 2023, which the council responded to. Comments received at the Regulation 14 consultation were assessed, discussed by the steering group and amendments were made to the BNDP and Design Code as necessary.

The council’s response to the Regulation 14 draft plan consultation included several objections regarding the designation of Local Green Spaces. These were reflected in the Consultation Statement.  An assessment of each of these spaces would be undertaken by the Examiner.

The BNDP and Design Code, under Regulation 15 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012, was submitted to the council on the 15 November 2024. In accordance with statutory requirements, the council must publicise the BNDP in accordance with Regulation 16 of the Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012.

The Regulation 16 consultation, which would be carried out by the council, would inform local residents, businesses and a range of statutory and non-statutory organisations of the BNDP, Design Code and supporting documents. During the publicity period the council, in consultation with Barton Upon Humber Town Council, would appoint an Independent Examiner to assess the plan. At the end of the publicity period any comments received would be passed on to the Examiner who would then carry out an assessment of the plan.

Following the assessment, the Examiner would issue a report to the council and Barton upon Humber Town Council. If the BNDP met the basic conditions, the Examiner would recommend that the plan proceeds to the referendum stage or may suggest further modifications to the plan so that it met the basic conditions before it could proceed to referendum.  If more than half have voted in favour of the plan, the plan would be adopted.

Resolved – (a) That the contents of the report be noted, and (b) that Option 1, set out in the report at paragraph 2.1, to publicise the submission version of the Barton upon Humber Neighbourhood Development Plan for a six week period and appoint an Independent Examiner, be approved.

7        PRIORY LANE COMMUNITY SCHOOL – NURSERY PLACES – The Director: Children and Families submitted a report providing a summary of the responses to the formal consultation on changing the age range at Priory Lane Community School to accommodate nursery age children, and seeking approval to extend the age range to include provision for 15FTE nursery pupils, following the outcome of the consultation.

Priory Lane Community School was in the Kingsway and Lincoln Gardens ward. Around half of all funded three and four year olds took-up the extended entitlement for working parents in the Kingsway and Lincoln Gardens ward. This was creating an additional demand for funded nursery hours in the ward which was likely to be impacting on the take-up of funded places by universal three and four year olds.

Currently in the school catchment area there were three private early years providers. Each setting was aware of the school plans to create a school nursery. It is expected with the full roll out of 30 hours for working parents and the offer of all year-round provision the setting would fill with babies and two year olds giving limited capacity for three and four year olds.  The school would be funded for each Early Years Foundation Stage place according to the agreed formula and eligibility criteria.

All three private early years providers had expressed concerns that as the childcare offer extended, they would not be able to offer the full funded hours to their existing families due to capacity constraints.

The local early years projections did not indicate an unmet demand for three and four year olds in Kingsway with Lincoln Gardens however, the expansion of the offer would create additional pressure on settings that were already full and was likely to impact on the universal offer for three and four year olds who were not in a setting prior to becoming eligible for the offer. The places at Priory Lane Community School would mitigate against this risk.

Under the DfE statutory guidance for making significant changes (‘prescribed alterations’) to maintained schools, the council was the decision maker for community schools.  Changing the age range of a school to add a nursery was deemed a significant change.  The DfE guidance was followed to publish a statutory notice with a period of four weeks for representation (formal consultation).  Six responses were received.

Resolved – That the proposal to extend the age range at Priory Lane Community School to include provision for 15FTE nursery pupils be approved.

2        NATIONAL NON-DOMESTIC RATE DISCRETIONARY RELIEF APPLICATIONS – The Director: Governance and Communities submitted a report seeking a decision on the level of National Non-Domestic Rate (NNDR) discretionary relief to be awarded to eligible ratepayers in North Lincolnshire.

The arrangements for the collection of NNDR were set nationally through legislation.  The legislation made provision for councils to grant relief to a range of non-domestic properties in a range of defined circumstances.  This included, for example, small business relief, charitable relief and empty property relief.  Some relief was mandated and must be granted; other relief was discretionary.  The council also had a Hardship Relief scheme for cases of exceptional hardship.

The application of these provisions for granting NNDR relief helped enable the council to deliver its council plan, specifically the priorities of enabling economic growth and renewal enabling resilient and flourishing communities.

Under the current regime of part localisation of NNDR, the council funded a proportion of both mandatory and discretionary reliefs it gave.

The report considered one new application for relief and set out the proposed level based on an evaluation against set criteria.

Resolved –That the level of rate relief to each applicant, as set out in the appendix to the report, be awarded.