Hart District Council

The committee deferred the 68 Albany Road outline application because members were not prepared to lose the historic Victorian house on the site. Although officers recommended approval based on housing need, biodiversity gains and the tilted balance, the committee considered the local character and neighbourhood plan policies more important at this stage.

Cabinet agreed an annual budget cap of £8,000 for purchasing high integrity carbon credits to cover residual operational emissions. This is a direct, quantified spend decision relevant to sustainability procurement.

The committee approved a new accounting policy allowing asset indexation between full valuations on a rolling five-year basis, reducing the need for annual external valuation work. This is intended to cut cost and effort on book valuations and was confirmed as acceptable by the external auditors.

The waste service proposed temporary bring banks for mixed plastics and cartons while waiting for Hampshire’s new materials recovery facility, currently expected in summer 2028. Officers said the proposal would expand recyclable materials collected at the kerbside/bring sites, help with future carbon reduction requirements, and use refurbished containers for cost reasons.

The council reported a material revenue underspend and proposed moving most of it into reserves, then using those reserves to fund several identified pressures. These included phase two waste vehicle replacement under the Ciro contract, topping up the landlord property reserve, extra local government reorganisation costs, and completion of climate change projects. The report also proposed carrying forward planning fee income so it matches agency costs in 2026/27.

Members approved the hybrid housing scheme at Zenith, Reading Road, Hook because officers judged it to be an improvement on the extant fallback consent, particularly in flood-risk terms. The committee accepted the completed unilateral undertaking and added conditions for boundary treatment, landscaping and working hours, despite the site being in Flood Zone 3 and the proposal departing from the development plan.

The committee scrutinised Q1 budget monitoring, proposed use of earmarked reserves for community projects, a temporary mixed plastics and carton bank rollout, and the committee’s future work programme around local government reorganisation, the local plan consultation, homelessness action planning and Here for Hart. The main procurement-relevant issues were funding allocations for community schemes, waste collection and recycling infrastructure ahead of the Hampshire MRF opening in 2028, contract and service design choices for bring banks, and upcoming updates on major strategic initiatives.

The meeting was dominated by two procurement-relevant themes: the ongoing local plan programme, including external consultants, evidence studies and the October consultation on sites; and a road-safety motion on speed indicator devices, which evolved into a funding and ownership discussion involving Hart, Hampshire County Council and parish councils. There were also smaller spending decisions on EV charging, carbon credits, a resident survey, and the Armed Forces Covenant recognition work.