The above decision was called in by Councillors Darling (S), Doggett, Carter, Stringer and Stocks on 30 November 2016.

The reasons for the call-in are attached together with the Record of Decision and the report which was considered at the Policy Development and Decision Group.

The Board considered the details of a call-in by five Members of the Council of the decision of the Mayor to request the Assistant Director – Community and Customer Services to commission a consultation exercise to assess opinion on the further actions the Council could take:

·         to introduce bylaws or Public Spaces Protection Orders to address the problem of rough sleeping on the seafront and in town centres; and

·         to provide support to, and safeguarding of, individuals with a genuine rough sleeping/street homelessness need.

In addressing the Board, the Call-in Promoter highlighted that he believed that the Mayor’s decision was contrary to the Council’s Policy Framework.  He made reference to the Corporate Plan which included the principle that the Council’s reducing resources should be used to best effect.

Members of the public who were both in favour of and against the Mayor’s decision addressed the Board.  In addition a statement on behalf of Torbay PATH was read out.

The Deputy Mayor and other members of the Executive were invited to respond to the points in the call-in and to the questions raised by members of the Board.

Members of the Board indicated that they were minded to agree that the decision was contrary to the Council’s Budget and Policy Framework and, at that point, the Monitoring Officer and Chief Financial Officer provided advice to the Board.

Resolved:  that, having listened to the advice of the Monitoring Officer and the Chief Financial Officer, the Board is of the view that the Mayor’s decision is contrary to the Policy Framework as it does not believe that it makes best effect of the Council’s reducing resources and therefore the matter is referred to the Council.

To discuss issues in connection with homeless people and begging.

The Policy Development and Decision Group (Joint Operations Team) made the following recommendation to the Mayor:

That the Assistant Director of Community and Customer Services be requested to commission a consultation exercise with the public, partners and the voluntary sector to assess opinion with regards to what further action the Council (and partners where appropriate) should take in response to the issues of:

·       introducing bylaws or Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs) to address the problem of rough sleeping on the seafront and town centres;

·       providing support to, and safeguarding, individuals with a genuine rough sleeping / street homelessness need; and

·       the use of motor homes as permanent accommodation in residential areas/public highways.

The Mayor considered the recommendation of the Policy Development and Decision Group (Joint Operations Team) set out above at the meeting and the record of decision, together with further information is attached to these Minutes.