Members of Fife Council’s Executive Committee considered a wide range of issues on Thursday 28 June.

After the meeting Fife Council Leader, Alex Rowley said: “It’s only six weeks since the new Council was formed but today’s agenda shows we’re getting down to business.

“We’re working with officers to understand how we can give local councillors and local people more power over the services they use.

“We’re also reviewing key policy areas and developing action plans to address issues that Fife residents have already told us are priorities for them, like school and college provision, wind turbine development, equality for all and support for local organisations – particularly sports clubs in the first instance.”

Committee business, 28 June 2012 – councillors on the Executive:

• agreed to bid for government funding to build a new high school in Levenmouth– read more.
• considered the impact of college regionalisation on further education and learning in Fife. Members agreed the Fife Partnership has a key role to play in making sure learning opportunities are maintained for communities across Fife and linked to local economic development.
• agreed to continue reviewing the area committees’ role with the aim of increasingly decentralising services, decision making and budgets. Progress will be reported to the Executive Committee in November. A discussion paper on cleaner, safer streets will be presented to all area committees.
• approved a community consultation to help develop the Fife sports strategy and plans to develop information about local sports clubs online. Read more about plans to support community sport.
• welcomed progress made by local agencies to improve child protection in Fifeand asked the Social Work & Health Policy Advisory Group to consider how performance can be further improved.
• agreed to re-establish the cross-party Engaging with Equalities Groups Working group and asked the Finance & corporate Services Policy Advisory Group to conduct a review of the council’s equality and diversity scheme.
• agreed to write-off £0.642m in housing rent arrears (less than 2% of 2011/12 rents). The council will continue to pursue debts that are owed. Committee members noted that support provided to tenants that has helped reduce rent arrears, despite the difficult financial climate.
• asked policy advisory groups to work with council services to mitigate the local impact of the welfare reform agenda. Read more about the council’s position on welfare reform.
• discussed the final position of the council’s revenue budget for 2011/12 and an update on the capital investment plan. Read more about the sound financial management praised by councillors.
• endorsed the proposed approach to reviewing onshore wind planning guidance, including area committee and public consultation, with details to be agreed by the Planning Committee after the summer. Members agreed the Council Leader should write to the Scottish Government requesting a temporary moratorium on planning applications for land based wind turbines while the guidance is updated, to protect the council from legal challenge from developers. They also agreed to respond positively to the Scottish Government’s consultation about increasing planning fees for onshore wind applications.
• appointed elected members to a number of partner organisations.
• approved the Planning Committee’s response to the Government’s consultation on planning fees.