Cabinet - Thursday 5 December 2024, 6:00pm - Vote_events Tab - Cotswold District Council Webcasting

Cabinet
Thursday, 5th December 2024 at 6:00pm 

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  1. Councillor Joe Harris
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  1. 03. Minutes of 7 November: Approve
    Status: In progress
  2. 03. Minutes of 7 November: Approve
    Status: Ended
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  1. Councillor Paul Hodgkinson
  2. Councillor Joe Harris
  3. Councillor Mike McKeown
  4. Councillor Joe Harris
  5. Councillor Mike Evemy
  6. Councillor Joe Harris
  7. 08. LIFT: Approve recs 1-2
    Status: In progress
  8. 08. LIFT: Approve recs 1-2
    Status: Ended
  9. CEO Rob Weaver
  10. Councillor Joe Harris
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  1. Councillor Paul Hodgkinson
  2. Councillor Joe Harris
  3. Councillor Mike Evemy
  4. Councillor Joe Harris
  5. Councillor Tristan Wilkinson
  6. Councillor Joe Harris
  7. CEO Rob Weaver
  8. Councillor Joe Harris
  9. Councillor Mike Evemy
  10. Councillor Joe Harris
  11. Officer
  12. Councillor Joe Harris
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  1. Councillor Mike Evemy
  2. Councillor Joe Harris
  3. 10. Q2 Finance: Approve recs 1-8
    Status: In progress
  4. 10. Q2 Finance: Approve recs 1-8
    Status: Ended
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  1. 12. Exclude press and public: Approve
    Status: In progress
  2. 12. Exclude press and public: Approve
    Status: Ended
  3. Webcast Finished

Councillor Joe Harris - 0:00:03
Hello everybody, welcome to December's cabinet, last of the calendar year.
So I have to start by saying I hope you all have a very happy Christmas.
We're all getting ready, great to see the office is starting to get bits of tinsel and
our staff are starting their Christmas decorations so yeah, look forward to seeing those.
Right then, we move to our agenda.

1 Apologies

The first item of business is apologies.
We have two apologies from Councillor Claire Plumer.
I think it's her birthday and she's been whisked off somewhere by her partner, so that's nice.
We wish her the best and happy birthday.
The other is from Councillor Juliet Layton who I think is away visiting family.
So we note those apologies.
Declarations of interest.
Do we have any declarations of interest?

2 Declarations of Interest

Nope.
Okay then.

3 Minutes

We then move to the minutes of the previous meeting in November.
Anybody have any comments on those?
No?
Okay then, in that case we'll go to the vote.
I'll propose those.
Okay, so it might care for me to second.
Yeah, second.
It's an electronic vote.
Okay, that is approved with one abstention.
Okay, the next item of business is leaders announcements.

4 Leader's Announcements

I want to start by saying a big welcome to Councillor Tristan Wilkinson, our newest member
of the cabinet with the economy and environment portfolio.
Tristan, you're very welcome.
I'm really looking forward to you joining our team, working with us, and I know you've
already hit the ground running because you've got waste and recycling within your portfolio,
which is very busy.
You know, I've had this cabinet reshuffle.
We've got some good coverage on it, but I think,
you know, I just want to reflect at this, our
cabinet meeting, this opportunity to reaffirm our
priorities more than anything.
This reshuffle has been done with that in mind to
really hone down on focus.
It's been the honor of my life being the leader of
this council.
You know, I've grown up here.
It's shaped who I am, and it remains, you know, such
a, you know, it's a source of immense pride.
And I'm backed by a fantastic team, and I've had a brilliant
cabinet team over the last five years, a few different faces,
but I've had a brilliant, brilliant team.
And, you know, we've got a fantastic district.
And even if I wasn't from the district and I didn't grow up
here, I'd be so proud to lead this wonderful area.
The Cotswolds is a brand in itself.
It is a wonderful place to live.
People pay millions, don't they, to come and live here.
They travel from all corners of the world.
And I think we've got an extra special task to, you know,
ensure that we deliver for our residents,
but we also protect this beautiful area that people
love to come and visit.
So this new team are going to support me in the delivery
of overseeing our priorities.
And, you know, we've got five clear missions,
and these are outlined in our corporate plan.
Providing council services to a good level.
We know we've got issues with the bins,
so we want to rectify those.
We want to make sure that people,
when they put a planning application in.
It's dealt with quickly.
We want to ensure that our leisure services are the best
that they can be with our contractor.
And I think on the whole we do a pretty good job.
Of course there are issues sometimes, but the main thing
is that we deal with them quickly, we act, and we learn.
And I know that we continue to do that.
Another key priority is supporting our communities,
you know, whether that's financial support through our
council tax support scheme, whether it's the lift scheme
that we're going to consider tonight, or whether it's the
over 1 million pounds of funding raised through our
Crowdfund Cotswold Scheme.
Supporting our communities is absolutely crucial.
We'll continue to do that.
Along with our local economy, supporting our
local economy, Tristan, you've got big shoes to
fill from Councillor Tony Dale, who's done so much
around that.
Our Green Economic Growth Strategy has helped create
500 jobs.
It's a real success story.
We want to continue that.
We want to make the Cotswolds a brilliant place
to come and set up a business, to come and work,
and we want to make sure that those jobs are
sustainable and don't add to some of the social problems
that people face.
That's really, really important.
We want to continue to deliver genuinely
affordable housing.
In the five years of this administration,
we've delivered hundreds of affordable houses working
with our partners.
We need to look now to that longer -term plan.
How are we going to deliver even more homes in this
district that are genuinely affordable and that people
in particular who have grown up here and families can
afford to live in?
That is the challenge.
And then our final mission, our final priority is making
sure that everything we do takes account of the
climate emergency, whether that's delivering homes,
whether that's attracting jobs, whether that's
making sure that solar panels are on the roof of
our leisure center, which we've done very
successfully.
You know, these are our priorities.
We have five clear priorities, and this cabinet
is absolutely designed to help make those a reality
and further continue the good work.
These are our missions.
This is our purpose.
And this is a restructured cabinet to deliver these
priorities.
So let's get to work, and let's press on with our
So our next item of business is public questions.
Caleb?

5 Public Questions

I receive none and there is no in the gallery.
Brilliant.
We have no public questions.

6 Member Questions

We have no member questions under item 6.

7 Issue(s) Arising from Overview and Scrutiny and/or Audit and Governance

And we don't have any issues arising from ONS or audit and governance.
Before we go to this next meeting, I was wondering,
Caleb, would you mind grabbing a glass of water?
I'm going to do a bit of talking.
That would be marvelous.
Thank you very much.
I've got officers fighting a bit.
This doesn't happen often.
It doesn't happen often.
Thank you very much, Claire.

8 Low Income Families Tracker (LIFT)

Right, so our next item is the low -income families tracker.
The purpose is to brief members and provide an update.
Claire Bloomer would be giving this but I'm in her absence I'm going to
present and Councillor Paul Hodgkinson is going to second. Supporting our
communities is a key part of the Liberal Democrat mission for our district as set
out in our council plan. Our council is our plan. As a council we are
fundamentally committed to protecting those who need it most. Those who are
struggling with financial hardship especially in times of crisis like it
feels like we've lived through over the past few years.
Let's be clear, the financial situation many residents,
families, and older people find themselves in is really tough.
And as a council, we say this evening that we hear you
and we're acting to try and make things easier for you.
This evening, on behalf of Councillor Bloomer,
I introduce a vital initiative for our district,
the Low Income Family Tracker, or LIFT.
Thank you, Claire.
A project designed to better understand and support the most vulnerable people in our
communities.
LIFT is an initiative that will help us on the journey to ending poverty in our district.
The initiative reflects our core values, social justice, fairness, and supporting the most
vulnerable people in our society.
By using data more effectively, we can target support in ways that directly help families
at risk of falling through the cracks.
Whether it's identifying people who are not claiming
the benefits they are entitled to, or finding
hidden pockets of poverty, the LIFT system will give
us the tools to make a real difference in the lives
of those who need the help the most.
So how does LIFT work?
It's a platform developed by a company called
Policy and Practice, which aggregates data from
various sources, including cancer tax support,
universal credit claims, housing benefits, and other
publicly available data sets.
This data is then analyzed and segmented to create
a comprehensive picture of the financial situation
of households across our district.
The system can identify who is at risk of financial
hardship, track changes in their circumstances,
and highlight areas where support is lacking.
For example, the LIF scheme allows us to pinpoint
families who may be entitled to benefits like
pension credits, attendance allowance,
or free school meals but are not claiming them.
It can also track households that could
benefit from additional support, such as healthy
start or targeted campaigns to encourage benefit take -up.
By segmenting the data by specific household types
and locations, we can ensure that our support is
targeted at those who need it most, whether that's
families with young children, elderly residents,
or the working poor.
This is more crucial than ever as we face an ongoing
cost -of -living crisis, which has been exacerbated
by government policies.
The previous conservative government's decision to
introduced the two -child limit for benefits has only
deepened child poverty across the country.
And the current government's decision to
retain this is shameful.
This policy, which prevents families from
claiming support for more than two children, not
only penalizes children for circumstances beyond
their control, but also compounds the financial
hardship for the most vulnerable.
And at the same time, the present labor government's
decision to cut the winter fuel allowance, a critical
support for older people struggling with heating
costs during the colder months has left many in our community facing even greater financial
uncertainty.
These policies are a clear reflection of governments that fail to protect those most in need, instead
of providing support when families need it the most.
This is where we, as a Liberal Democrat -led Council, can step in and we can make a tangible
difference.
We are dedicated to ensuring that no one is left behind.
The LIFT project will help us identify those who need
the support the most, whether it's through maximizing
benefits uptake, offering help with food costs,
or providing access to essential services
like free school meals.
It's about tackling poverty head on and making sure
that the support we offer is reaching those who need it most.
The LIFT system will not only help us understand the
needs of our most vulnerable residents,
but it will allow us to tailor our efforts to provide timely
and targeted assistance.
From increasing the take -up of pension credits to ensuring
families with children are accessing free school meals,
the data will empower us to provide the right kind of help
to the right people at the right time.
The system also enables us to track and follow up with
households over time, identifying any changes in
their circumstances and adapting our support as needed.
We will also be able to partner more effectively with local
voluntary organizations and community groups to strengthen
the support network in our district.
By working together, we can ensure that the most
vulnerable members of our community are getting the
help they need when they need it.
This initiative is a perfect example of our commitment
as a council not only to speak up for those in need,
but to take meaningful action to address the real
challenges families are facing in the Cotswolds.
By embracing new technology, we are staying
true to our values of social responsibility,
fairness, and compassion.
Together we are making a real difference and we are showing that the Cotswold
District is a place where no one is left behind.
Cabinet I commend this to you and over now to Paul who will second this.
Councillor Paul Hodgkinson - 0:11:26
Thank you very much yeah and I'm sort of speaking on behalf of Claire Bloomer
obviously Councillor Bloomer feels very passionately about this subject I know
she does and she's very sorry she can't be with us today to personally deliver
this speech which she's asked me to read on her behalf so I will do it in my own
style not necessarily in the style of Claire Vloomer but to use her words the
low -income family tracker or lift is a transformative tool designed to support
residents facing financial challenges especially during the ongoing cost of
living crisis now Cotswold district is proud to be among the first councils in
the country to adopt this innovative approach which Joe has mentioned by
By analysing anonymised data, LIFT does help us identify households at risk of financial hardship
and it enables early targeted intervention before problems escalate.
Now this proactive approach is particularly important as the cost of living continues to affect our communities.
The investment in LIFT does come at a cost to the district, but it's comparable to what we currently spend
on emergency accommodation for residents facing housing crises.
By using Lyft, what we aim to do is reduce the need for such
emergency measures and giving people a better chance to
stabilize their finances and their lives.
Another major benefit is that Lyft highlights specific areas
down to individual council wards where financial pressures
are most acute.
That means we can allocate resources more effectively,
focusing support where it's most needed.
And in the long run, this data -driven approach will save
money by preventing issues such as homelessness and reducing the strain on other Council services.
I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of Claire to thank the staff who have been
working diligently on this over the past few months as well as everyone else involved in
bringing LIFT to fruition. We recognise that this may stretch officers' workloads in the
short term but their dedication and hard work are ensuring we do implement a system that
have lasting benefits for our residents. For those we serve, Lyft offers life -changing
support whether it's connecting residents to benefits they're entitled to, offering
debt advice, linking them to employment services, this tool does empower individuals and families
to navigate the challenges of rising costs, maintain their homes and improve their quality
of life. Finally, and ultimately, Lyft is about smarter
spending and better outcomes.
Being among the first councils to implement this
does demonstrate the Cotswolds' commitment to
leading the way in innovative solutions for
our community.
By investing now, we save in the long term and we
strengthen the fabric of our communities.
So on that basis, I have great pleasure in seconding
this on behalf of Claire.
Thank you, Paul.
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:14:18
I think we're in danger of all violently agreeing on
this, so I'll just say, are there any questions or
Councillor Mike McKeown - 0:14:30
comments? I naturally support it I just wanted to add one thing that that in
addition helps residents that we do which is sort of related given that
clearly residents often struggle with their their energy costs their their
bills for heating their homes particularly those in most needs and we
have the warm and well program that we support that helps those residents who
often the same ones that can qualify for support under lift and they can get potentially tens of
thousands of pounds to improve their home energy efficiency which also has a side effect of
my area of helping cut carbon emissions greatly so I think that they're very complementary so
I'm delighted to see this coming on board and I'm sure our excellent new home energy efficiency
officer Justine will be able to work with the lift team to make sure residents benefit from that as
well.
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:15:21
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:15:25
Chair just wanted obviously to support this work.
I know it's been a lot of work done by officers together with
Claire over the last many months I think to get to us here.
But it's great that we're going to proceed with this project.
Also to note obviously I'm pleased that they worked very
hard and they found someone else to pay for it.
At least in the short term. So, you know, thank you and that's obviously referred to in the financial implications
That the first year's licenses will be met by essentially the NHS
Obviously the benefit of people having
the
Benefits now they're entitled to is that hopefully their lives will be healthier as a result. They'll be able to
Eat healthier and leave healthier lives and therefore that obviously the benefit to them
but also collectively to everyone in terms of their less,
hopefully less need for support through the NHS.
So yeah, I'm absolutely very happy to support this.
Thank you, Mike.
Okay then.
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:16:31
So we've got a proposition and a second.
So just a reminder of the recommendations.
We're noting the report and we're noting the external
funding for the project,
but approved to underwrite the cost of the lift licenses
and any associated costs estimated at £33 ,000. If we can go to the vote then, please. Lovely.
That is unanimous. Thank you, colleagues. Then we move on now to our next item, which
is the Service Performance Report 2425, Quarter 2. The Chief Executive is going to talk us
through this.
Rob.
Thanks very much indeed, Joe.
CEO Rob Weaver - 0:17:13
So, yeah, this is the time at which I give you the quarterly reports.
This is the quarterly two reports.
And, again, for reference, this report is based very much around those five key priorities
that Joe outlined at the beginning in terms of delivering good services, responding to
climate emergency, delivering housing, supporting communities, and supporting the economy.
So everything contained within this report reflects our performance around those key
areas and everything contained within the project delivery report contains our performance
against some of those key delivery areas set out in the Council's projects.
So as usual what I'll do is run through some highlights and some areas that might require
a bit of improvement and then take any questions that you may have.
I'm joined ably by Stuart Rawlinson who heads up the team gathering this data and intelligence
so I'm sure can help me out if there's any technical questions.
So some highlights on the progress of actions taken during the quarter on our Cotswolds
R Plan.
The Council have entered into a contract with Connected Curb for delivery of EVCPs, electric
vehicle charging points, in four of the Council owned car parks in Tethbury, Sirencester,
Stow -on -the -Wald and Morton in Marsh and thanks to Claire Locke and the team for making that
a reality.
I know there's a lot of work that's gone into that.
The Cotswold Home Solar Scheme continues to be actively promoted, resulting in 17 homes
already installing solar panels, 20 additional deposits placed and anticipated savings of
nearly 450 ,000 for residents across the district, which is fantastic.
The Spring Round for Cotswold Crowdfund, or Crowdfund Cotswold, sorry, was successful
with five out of the six supported projects exceeding their funding targets, and in July
the Crowdfund Cotswold programme enabling an autumn round that closed on the 16th of
October and that we signed off on earlier this week.
Unsung Heroes awards scheme was launched in July and again thank you very much for officers
and members for their ideas and making that happen and the inaugural awards were presented
to the winners at full council in September.
Some highlights on service performance that are better than Target.
Customer satisfaction via telephone and face -to -face remains very high with the
council. Percentage of planning applications determined within the
agreed timescales remains above target for all application types. 95 % for majors,
that's the bigger applications of anything over 10 or so houses. 87 % for
minors, which is pretty much everything else, and 85 % for other types of
application that include a whole raft of different types of weird and wonderful
things that people can apply for planning permission for, but again very good that those
targets are being exceeded.
Percentage of FOI or Freedom of Information requests answered within 20 days was above
target for the first time in three years, 95 % of those requests were answered on time.
Again testament to the officers for delivering that.
Percentage of land charges returned within our limit or our target of 10 days remains
above the target for the fifth consecutive quarter at 96%. And the number of gym memberships
and visits to the leisure centres are above target, with memberships already exceeding
the end of the year target by 6%. So, long may that continue.
Some of those service areas that are not hitting targets, so non -domestic rates continues to
be underperforming against the target, it's 4 % down against the last quarter and significantly
lower compared to the previous year. However, the quarter T figure from last year was an
anomaly as it included a substantial payment for previous year's debts which was credited
to the 23 -24 collections. So the service notes that more businesses are opting to spread
payments over 12 months to align with their accounting practices and the current collection
rate remains approximately 4 % below pre -pandemic levels. So the headline of that is still work
to be done within that area and it's an area that I'll continue to monitor along with the
key offices and report back.
Processing times for council tax support and housing benefit remain above target and have
improved.
They're now approximately four days lower than the same period last year.
And in September, some system errors with the Civica automation system caused an increased
manual workload, which led to an inevitable backlog.
So the services collaborated with partners to resolve this issue, and the system is now
functioning as it was previously.
So I'd like to think that we're slightly behind that curve and quarter three performance will be back where we need it to be.
And missed bins per 100 ,000 collections disruption as we reported at the last cabinet meeting associated with a change to bin rounds was expected and resolved by daily meetings between the waste collection team and contracts team.
Unusually high levels of sickness for the July and August period had an impact and the waste collection team also had a higher than expected number of missed bins.
Misses are now mainly back on track within tolerance with sporadic issues due to weather and crews, but again I know that's something that's very near and dear to all members' hearts and it's important to officers as well.
So we'll continue to work with Yubico and make sure that we continue to report on that position.
And hopefully we're now coming out of that round change and we should see things settle back down to normal.
So that's a highlight and some of the lowlights.
Happy leader to take any questions or pass those on to Stuart if he can assist me with those.
Thank you.
Great. Thank you, Rob.
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:22:45
Colleagues, do we have any comments or questions?
I have to take those. Paul.

9 Service Performance Report 2024-25 Quarter Two

Yeah, comment.
Councillor Paul Hodgkinson - 0:22:50
I just wanted to highlight, you know, as you did, Rob,
the increase in gym memberships and the increase in visits
to the leisure centres, both of which are above target.
I think it's important to mention a couple of things here.
First of all, obviously the contract for the provider
changed, you know, 15, 16 months ago to Freedom Leisure.
We always thought that that changeover would result
potentially in some of the targets not being hit,
but actually this is being exceeded.
Secondly, obviously, we've had a lot of maintenance work done in the leisure centres as a result
of all the capital funding that we've spent, all of which is, you know, given some really
good results in terms of change of fabric, changing rooms, et cetera.
But we thought that in itself would have an impact.
And thirdly, of course, the cost of living crisis.
So given those three things, I'm really delighted, actually, that we've exceeded target on these
things.
And as you said, a long may it continue.
Great.
Thank you, Paul.
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:23:50
Thank you, Joe.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:23:52
Yeah, I just wanted to pick up a couple of points.
Obviously, lots of very good stuff in there.
Just on a couple of points on 3 .2 about the non -domestic rates.
This is something that I regularly, in my regular catch -ups
with John Deering, we talk about every time.
Yeah, I think noting what the Chief Executive said there,
I think we also know now that the pressure
that businesses are having to plan
for the national insurance increase coming next year,
well, I think it will only see more businesses
take a look at their business rates.
And they're currently spreading it over 10 months.
I expect more of them to go to 12 months.
So really, obviously, what matters is,
Do we get the money in by the end of the year?
Not exactly when we get it providing we get it all in.
So obviously we'll keep a focus on that.
And I think it would probably be slightly remiss of me having handed over the baton on waste and recycling to Councillor Wilkins
and not to say something about the QT performance for which he was not responsible as the cabinet member, and where I was.
So I will say something about that.
And, you know, obviously the figures are not where we want them to be.
And, you know, I've said that and I was at the overview and scrutiny committee answering questions together with public
Haradupa Co -officers on the waste service at the start of November.
And, you know, obviously Tristan's obviously now looking after that service on behalf of the cabinet.
But definitely we were seeing improvements through October,
and what I was absolutely focused on was, you know,
obviously we know the Q2 figure is not going to be very good
because it's going up to the end of September.
But, you know, obviously I'm very hopeful that based
on what I was seeing when I had the portfolio up until, you know,
two or three weeks ago,
the performance was significantly improving.
The number of people complaining
about it was significantly reducing.
and the figures when we look at this again in the Q3, I'm hoping, I think it
would be optimistic to suggest that we might be within target in Q3 but I think
we'll be a lot closer to that 80 per 100 ,000 collections target than we are
now and obviously I'm sure Tristan will be asking those questions of the
officers and keeping the pressure you know on to get us back to the standard
of service that we had prior to the service change,
it is also worth noting, as we will see in the next report,
you know, that service change has, you know,
and will deliver the saving that we expected of it.
So now is the question about, you know, can we get it back
to the standard of service that we want?
Thank you, Mike.
Tristan?
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:26:42
Thanks, Joe, and thanks for that, Mike.
Councillor Tristan Wilkinson - 0:26:44
I think the one thing I'm really keen to explore on BIMs is
that the overall generic numbers tell one story,
but within that there are other stories of repeated misbins
and focus areas where there's frequent flyer type events.
So I'm really keen, because those events disproportionately
affect the reputation of the whole service
and also kind of represent highly motivated people who, you know,
spent a lot of time engaging with this administration.
So I'm really keen to see how we can maybe get to the next level of performance
to identify specific repeat activities so that we can help UbiCo focus their efforts
where there's the most impact.
So I think just a little bit of feedback on my kind of first couple of weeks.
I think that there's an opportunity for us to use the data to become a little bit more granular
And help you become kind of get to the next level of service delivery
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:27:55
CEO Rob Weaver - 0:28:01
Right, I think that's a really good point
And what I'll do is I'll pick up offline with Stewart and see if there's a way that certainly for the next couple of quarterly
reports, there's a way of providing some further
analysis that does exactly that.
How do we make sure that some of those hotspots are
not affecting the whole picture?
And I also think it'd be quite handy for members to
see where those repeats are and what we're doing to
mitigate that.
I absolutely agree that we've got a great crew in
Yubico, Claire and the Yubico crew were involved
in removing a tree that had fallen down from one of
our car parks last week in Sire and Sister.
The whole thing was done and dusted and chopped up
by the side of the road within a couple of hours.
So they're a great crew, they're very responsive,
and I think you're absolutely right.
The ability to nail down where some of those localized issues
may be influencing the whole picture would be really helpful.
So I suggest we'll pick that up and do that.
Rob, Mike.
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:28:57
Yeah, so I just wanted to come back slightly.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:28:58
So, and Stuart's in the room,
so he might be able to add to what I'm going to say,
but I definitely know that his team
developed a dashboard for repeat misses,
and we were looking at that,
and, you know, there are processes
that have been put in place by the publicer team who deal with the people ringing in or
contacting, and the UBCO team to make extra efforts to collect the people who have the
repeat misses. But your point is absolutely valid. Where people have repeat instances
of failure from the service, obviously it disproportionately affects their view of the
service. If your bin isn't collected once and then we pick it up the next day, it's not a
significant impact, but clearly when,
and I think some of the issues were clearly around
finding the places and where people put their bins out,
whether they put them out the front
or the back of the property and all of that sort of stuff.
And I don't know if Stuart's got anything to add to that.
He doesn't have to, if he doesn't want to,
but I know his team were very much helping,
assisting in that to get that intelligence,
which I'm sure they will be willing to share with you,
Tristan, because they're willing to share it with me,
to have to sort of, to give the reassurance
that they were focused on making sure that we stop those repeat misses and
stop and get on top of them and the crews know where they are and so they
can get so they can obviously make sure that we're doing this delivering the
service that they're expecting. Last point on this Stuart, do you want to comment?
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:30:28
Officer - 0:30:30
Thank you yeah absolutely we have that information I've got it in front of me
now more than happy to share that at the next cycle.
Brilliant.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, an important issue.
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:30:42
In fact, we've had an email today, haven't we, from a man who's exasperated, because
I think every other collection is missed.
So, you know, yes, they are very, very rare, but we've got to get it right, because everybody
pays for the service, don't they?
So, brilliant.
Okay.
Anything else on the report more generally?
No?
Okay, then.
So, we have got, we're just noting that, so we can move on.
The next one then is the financial performance report,

10 Financial Performance Report 2024-25 Quarter Two

2425.
Mike, are you taking this?
Yeah.
Sure.
Thank you.
Councillor Mike Evemy - 0:31:20
The conference is quite a long report, so I don't have to talk
for a long time.
Yeah, I thought that would be what you'd say, Joe.
So, but it is important that we give it an amount of time,
So this is our halfway through the year report on where we're doing with this year's budget.
The good news is that we're forecasting a net surplus of a quarter of a million pounds.
The not so good news is that we were hoping to generate a surplus of just over a half a million pounds for the year.
So there's a 266 ,000 adverse to where we were hoping to be.
This report in front of us also doesn't include allocations and forecasts for planning services.
Obviously planning was being overseen and managed by Publica up until the end of October.
So it came at a point where essentially our officers weren't able to give you give us a clear view about the costs of planning.
So that will come next month in January.
So we will be able to be able to see that.
One thing we've had since we met last I think was the settlement of the Liberal
Government Pay Award and that's good news for us in that it looks like it
will cost us four hundred thousand pounds less than we thought it would. So
that gain essentially on the budget what we're suggesting is we put that into the
financial resilience reserve which is our funds to essentially manage the
reduction in government grants that we're expecting going forward and help
us to manage our way through that. There's information in here about the
stage one of the public a review and we estimate that there will be a four
hundred and forty six thousand pound enduring impact in the full year for
bringing those services back in house and that's largely down to providing
local government pension scheme to those employees coming back. I touched on in
the last meeting when we were considering the last report but I think it's
important that we remind ourselves that changing the service in the waste and
recycling, rezoning the rounds is an enduring saving of 375 ,000 pounds this
year, sorry and a half a million pounds in future so it's a big lump of a big
saving for us as a council to make.
Treasury management, clearly interest rates have stayed
higher for longer than we had forecast when the budget
was put together earlier in the year.
So that's a good news message for us.
So that's another 367 ,000 in treasury management income
that we weren't anticipating we were going to get.
We have had some income shortfalls across some of
our budgets, building control, public conveniences,
land charges.
So, you know, there are some adversities,
and they're detailed in the report.
Yeah, clearly, you know, whilst we're in,
you know, not a bad position,
we're looking to forecast quarter of a million
for the year.
What we obviously need to do is to sort of keep
the focus on the financial position,
particularly at this time of change that we're going
through, and that's the recommendations two to
seven in front of you specifically around managing the vacancies obviously
that we've got potentially coming forward how we use our consultants in
terms of how we're managing that side of things keeping looking at the longer
term position in terms of savings and transformations sorry savings and
transformation I should say. So we will have fees and charges coming to us in
February or early in the new year I should say so we also be having a look
at those in light of the shortfalls on some of them this year and then obviously
we've got to keep a close eye on the the costs of the public transition phase two.
In the report as well, you've got updates
on the capital program.
We've mentioned the leisure center decarbonisation,
so formally what the last recommendation, number eight,
is to approve the revised capital program
to add 208 ,000 in, in relation to the leisure center
decarbonisation work,
noting that the money for that has been funded
through the swimming pool support fund.
So, well done in terms of getting that money,
and we've put it to good use.
And the capital out -turn forecast shows
that we are underspent.
Some of the projects, as ever, with capital
don't quite come in as quickly as we would have hoped.
And then it's just probably the last thing before I stop, Joe,
is just to sort of, obviously,
say we had the policy statement from the government
on the 28th of November with local government finance.
And essentially what that was saying was that the government
was saying we could get a 3 .2 % increase,
real terms increase in our core spending power for councils
that is, with 600 million of that for social care,
so obviously that won't come to us,
and another 700 million targeted funding.
It's quite unlikely to come to us as well.
So we probably won't get any of that 1 .3 billion.
The referendum principles for a council tax, so we'll be thinking about that as
we consider the budget papers in February, but that essentially is going
to see the same as it was last year, 2 .99 % or £5 for a Band D. One of the
things that we have now got some clarity on which is not in our favour is on the
employer national insurance contributions. Essentially the
governments that they compensate local authorities,
but they're going to do that for direct employee costs.
So it looks like for staff that remain in public or in
Yubico, we won't be getting compensation for the
increase of the national insurance that we'll have
to pay, or those employers, I should say, will have to pay.
But obviously, as they're tech or companies owned by
us, they'll come back and we'll have to pay it.
So, you know, we'll have to factor that into our
budget considerations.
one that, just like many other businesses across the country.
One positive is that the extended producer
responsibility scheme is due to be funded without taking
away elsewhere, to the tune of a million and a half pounds.
But we will lose the rural service delivery grant of
820 ,000, so swings and roundabouts a little bit there.
And so, just to finish off then,
the local government finance settlement is due
almost on the last sitting day before Christmas,
I think, the 19th of December.
And we also, obviously, await the white paper
on devolution.
And I think that's due on the same week,
earlier on the same week, which obviously may have
an impact in terms of our finances.
But added a little bit on to finance performance,
I thought it was useful for members to be aware of those things.
Back to you, Joe.
Thank you, Mike. Very comprehensive.
Councillor Joe Harris - 0:39:04
Colleagues, any comments or questions on that?
No? Okay.
I think the only thing I'd add is, yeah, we hear a lot, don't we,
about the last government and the current government
talking about the day's austerity being over.
It doesn't feel like it, does it?
And I think from what you've just presented on that update,
Certainly not in local government, it's really not.
It is a bit of a hand -to -mouth existence and again I reiterate that point of you can't
keep giving councils one -year settlements.
I know it's a new government, I know it's new in, but we've had one -year settlements
now for the best part of a decade, which has quite honestly ruined local council finances
and particularly their ability to plan for the future.
So we welcome the announcement that the government are going to give us a multi -year funding
settlement alongside a fairer funding review, but that fairer funding review must be fair.
There's nothing fair about giving more cash to perhaps more urban areas and then just
leaving rural councils out on a limb, because that does tend to happen when you see these
fairer funding reviews.
Yes, we are perceived as a wealthy area,
but as we've heard tonight, we have pockets of deprivation.
We have communities as well that we need to support.
So I think more money going from shyer areas like ours
into big metropolitan cities, you know,
for me that's not the solution.
When we talk about levelling up, we need to level up everywhere,
not just parts of the country, although I do know
that the current government have ditched levelling up.
I don't know what it's called now.
Devolution, is it masked in that?
Who knows?
So yeah, it's a, it's still a time of great uncertainty for local councils and it probably will continue to be.
We've got two big events, we've got that statement, you know, our, you know, that will contain our funding.
We've also got the English devolution bill and whatever is announced in there, I'm sure, have a very material effect on this council's finances one way or another.
So we, we, we wait with bated breath on that one.
So we do have a number of recommendations.
I'm not going to read them all out.
We could be here for a while.
But they are in the cabinet papers.
So if you're watching at home, get onto the website and have a look at those.
So eight recommendations.
Mike proposing.
I'll second and we'll go to the vote, please.
Okay.
That is unanimous.
Our next item of business is schedules of decisions taken by myself or individual cabinet
members.
There is only one that has been made by Councillor Layton pertaining to dog fouling, so do take
a look at that.

11 Schedule of Decisions taken by the Leader of the Council and/or Individual Cabinet Members

And then that's the only one we've got.
Before I move to item 12, it is Kato Parris' last meeting.
He's been poached by another authority, by Stockport.
But no, we offer you a huge congratulations, Caleb.
You've been a brilliant servant to us as the cabinet.
You've even got Caleb named after you, which is, you know,
it's the word we shout, isn't it, when we go to the vote.
So don't worry, we'll be continuing that tradition,
no matter who replaces you.
But no, we really appreciate it, and we wish you all the best
on your move up north.
Brilliant.
Okay then, our next item is to exclude the press and public.
We need to do this because we are dealing with an item
that is commercially sensitive.

12 Matters exempt from publication

And this is in accordance with the provisions of paragraph four
of the local authorities executive arrangements access
to information England regulations 2012 on the grounds
that press and public's presence could involve the likely
disclosure of exempt information as described
in specific paragraph as schedule 12A
of the Local Government Act 1972.
So there you go.
That embraces approach.
If we can have a vote then to, if we can have a vote,
I'll need a seconder to exclude the public and press.
Proposed by me, seconded by Councillor Efremi.
Thank you, that is unanimous.
Thank you to everybody watching at home.
Have a very merry Christmas and looking forward
to seeing you in the new year.

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