Agenda and minutes

The meeting of the Council will be called to order to receive Her Worship The Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

The meeting of the Council was called to order to receive Her Worship The Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

An apology for absence was received from Councillors J W Boyce, F S Broadley, Mrs L M Broadley, D M Carter, C D Kozlowski and Mrs S B Morris.

Members are reminded that any declaration of interest should be made having regard to the Members’ Code of Conduct. In particular, Members must make clear the nature of the interest and whether it is 'pecuniary' or ‘non-pecuniary'.

None.

Report of the Head of Law & Democracy / Monitoring Officer

The Council gave consideration to the report and appendix (as set out on pages 1 – 14 of the agenda reports pack) which asked it to consider the decision of Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (“the Ombudsman”) of a finding of maladministration and to determine what action to take in response to the Ombudsman’s recommendations.

The Council was advised that Ms X had first presented herself to Authority A in the early part of May 2018 but failed to attend an appointment with Authority A to discuss her housing needs. Around 25 May 2018, it was said that Ms X had presented herself again to Authority A’s out-of-hours homeless service claiming to have fled her accommodation due to domestic violence. It was said that Authority A had accepted that Ms X was unintentionally homeless and in priority need and therefore provided accommodation to her over the bank holiday weekend.

On 29 May 2018 at 1:21 pm, Authority A was said to have contacted this Council by e-mail with signed consent requesting information and had advised the Housing Options Officer at this Council that Authority A was providing temporary accommodation to Ms X. Further telephone contact was reported to have taken place between the Housing Options Officer and Authority A during which time it had become clear to the Housing Options Officer that Authority A had accepted the interim housing duty and was to provide accommodation to Ms X accordingly.

It was reported that at some time between 1:21 pm and 4:33 pm on 29 May, Ms X had contacted this Council and, in doing so, sought to confirm whether this Council had received the referral from Authority A. It was said that Ms X was advised that as she was not “roofless” (i.e. without accommodation, as she had accommodation that evening provided by Authority A) she would be offered a pre-arranged appointment to discuss her options as was/is normal practice. In any event, at the time that Ms X contacted the Council, the Housing Options Officer was said to have been already dealing with a couple who were homeless and without accommodation.

At 4:33 pm on 29 May, Authority A was said to have purported to refer Ms X to this Council by way of a letter which specifically referenced the referral provisions within the Housing Act 1996. Applying the law correctly, Members were advised that once Authority A had referred Ms X to this Council, Authority A had a continuing duty to provide interim accommodation to Ms X until such time as a decision was made by this Council as to whether the conditions for the referral were met.

Members were further advised that had the conditions for the referral been met, then this Council would have issued a notice accepting the referral, the effect of which would have been that from that point, the application originally made to Authority A by Ms X would have then been treated as if it had been made to this Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.