Corporate Policy and Resources Committee

 

 

 

Decisions taken at the meeting held on Monday, 19 January 2026.

 

 

Meeting Time:

7.00 pm

 

Meeting Venue:

Council Chamber, Council Offices, Knowle Green, Staines-upon-Thames TW18 1XB

 

 

 

 

PRESENT:    

 

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1.            Apologies and Substitutes

 

Apologies were received from Councillors Attewell and Turner.

 

Councillor Howkins was present as Councillor Attewell’s substitute and Councillor Dunn was present as substitute for Councillor Turner.

 

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2.            Minutes

 

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 November 2025 were agreed as a correct record.

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3.            Disclosures of Interest

 

Councillor Mooney and Sexton declared that they were also Surrey County Councillors.

 

Councillor Nichols declared that he was a Director on the Knowle Green Estates Board.

 

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4.            Questions from members of the Public

 

There were no questions.

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5.            Tennis Court and Football Pitch Improvement Works

 

The Committee resolved to:

 

1.    Agree to the tennis court and football pitch improvement works within the Council’s parks and open spaces,

 

2.    Authorise the Group Head Community Wellbeing, in consultation with the Chair of Corporate Policy and Resources Committee to select the chosen suppliers and award the contracts not exceeding the community infrastructure levy funding set out in this report,

 

3.    Authorise the Group Head Corporate Governance to enter contracts with the chosen supplier; and

 

4.    Recommend to Council a supplementary capital estimate of £260,000 for the gross cost of the capital works.

 

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6.            Social Value Strategy

 

The Committee resolved to:

 

1.    Agree the Social Value Strategy for the regeneration site disposals and recommend to Council for approval; and

 

2.    Note that by adopting the Strategy the relevant housing and regeneration sites will be marketed to include a requirement for third parties to provide social value provision within their offers, which may reduce the highest financial value being achieved.

 

3.     

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7.            Debt Write-Offs

 

The Committee resolved to approve the Sundry Debt write-offs set out amounting to £10,913.44 in total which relates to irrecoverable debts relating to:

 

a.    Hire costs for Staines Community Centre (£3,763.44) and

b.    A homelessness prevention loan (£7,150)

 

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8.            Governance Assurance Risk Management) Framework and Policy

 

The Committee resolved to:

 

a.    Approve the new Governance Assurance Policy and Framework (as outlined in Appendix a), which focuses on the Council’s governance and control arrangements to ensure effective management of risks; and

 

b.    Authorise the Deputy Chief Executive, in conjunction with the Chair of the Audit Committee to make any adjustments to the Policy and Framework to ensure that it is updated to reflect any future changes in the Council’s governance arrangements.

 

c.     

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9.            Determination of Council tax base for Council tax setting

 

The Committee resolved to recommend to Council that:

 

a.    The existing Council Tax Reduction Scheme is retained for 2026/27,

 

b.    In accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Tax Base) (England) Regulations 2012 the Council Tax Base for 2026/27 calculated as Band D equivalents, is determined at 41,276.13, an increase of 1.62%; and

 

c.    The estimated Council Tax surplus for 2025/26 is £6.478m, of which £0.614m relates to Spelthorne Borough Council (£5.515m of the surplus is a one-off and is due to an adjustment to the 2024/25 bad debt provision).

 

 

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10.          Forward Plan

 

The Committee noted the contents of the Forward Plan.

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11.          Urgent Actions

 

There were none.

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NOTES:-

 

(1)          Members are reminded that the “call-in” procedure as set out in Part 4b of the Constitution, shall not apply to the following matters:

 

(a)         Urgent decisions as defined in Paragraph 9. of the Call-in Scrutiny Procedure Rules;

(b)         Decisions to award a contract following a lawful procurement process;

(c)          Those decisions:

                                i.          reserved to full Council

                               ii.          on regulatory matters

                              iii.          on member conduct issues.

 

(2)          Those matters to which Note (1) applies, if any, are identified with an asterisk [*] in the above Minutes.

 

(3)          Within three working days of the date on which this decision is published, not less than three members from two or more political groups by submission of the standard call-in pro-forma, may ask for that decision to be referred to a meeting of the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee for review (call-in). The completed pro-forma must be received by the Proper Officer by 5pm three working days after publication of the decision.

 

(4)          The members exercising the right of call-in must not be members of the Committee which considered the matter.

 

(5)          When calling in a decision for review the members doing so must demonstrate the following exceptional circumstances:

 

a.    Evidence which suggests that the decision maker, did not take the decision in accordance with the principles set out in Article 11 (Decision Making); or

 

b.    Evidence that the decision fails to support one or more of the Council’s Corporate Plan priorities to the detriment of the majority of the Borough’s residents; or

 

c.    Evidence that explicit Council Policy or legal requirements were disregarded.

 

(6)          Once the request for ‘call-in’ has been deemed valid by the Monitoring Officer the matter will be suspended until the call-in procedure has been exhausted.

 

(7)          The Chief Executive, in consultation with the relevant officer, will determine if the interests of the Council or Borough would be prejudiced by a delay in implementing a decision such that the call-in cannot wait until the next ordinary meeting of the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee.

 

(8)          Where the call-in cannot wait until the next ordinary meeting, the Monitoring Officer will arrange an extraordinary meeting of the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee to review the decision subject to call-in at the earliest possible opportunity.

 

(9)          In exceptional cases, where there is clear evidence that a delay to the implementation of a decision would lead to a specific and significant financial or reputational harm to the Council, a call-in request may be refused by the Chief Executive following consultation with the Chair and Vice-Chair of Corporate Policy and Resources Committee.

 

(10)       In reviewing a matter referred to it under the call-in scrutiny procedure rules, the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee shall follow the procedure for dealing with call-in scrutiny at its meetings as set out in Part 4b of the Constitution.

 

(11)       The deadline of three working days for "call in" in relation to the above decisions by the Committee is the close of business on Friday 23 January 2026.