Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 20 January 2016.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Council meeting held on 20 January 2016 be approved and signed by the Mayor as a correct record.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Councillor D Birch and Heydon declared, for transparency, in respect of Item 6 (Financial Plans and Revenue Budgets 2016-17) that they were Directors of Downshire Homes Board.

The Chief Executive, Timothy Wheadon declared, for transparency, in respect of Item 6 (Financial Plans and Revenue Budgets 2016-17) that he was the Chairman of Downshire Homes Board.

The Borough Solicitor, Sanjay Prashar declared, for transparency, in respect of Item 6 (Financial Plans and Revenue Budgets 2016-17) that he was the Director of Downshire Homes Board.

Donation to the Mayor’s Charity

Rosemary Gurney, Chairman of itSMF UK, attended the meeting to present the Mayor with a donation to the Mayor’s charity, Make a Wish UK. At a recent event for itSMF, a charity raffle had been held and Ms Gurney was pleased to present £2,500 to the Mayor’s charity.

Executive Member for Adult Social Services, Health and Housing

Councillor D Birch reported the Intermediate Care Service at The Bridgewell Centre had been inspected by the CQC on the 6 and 7 January 2016. Councillor Birch was pleased to report that the centre had received a green rating in all areas. The Director of Adult Social Care, Health and Housing was encouraged to feed back thanks and congratulations to staff and colleagues.

Executive Member for Culture, Corporate Services and Public Protection

Councillor McCracken reported that Great Hollands Library had held a smoking cessation group through 2015, and that 55 attendees had stopped smoking thanks to this initiative.

Councillor McCracken congratulated Sarah Kingston, Revenue Services Manager on achieving the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation Honours qualification. This made the Revenue Services Manager one of the most qualified Revenue Services professionals in the country.

Councillor McCracken was pleased to report that the council website had recently been awarded 4 stars in the SOCITM review. In addition, it was noted that there were 10,000 accounts open on the Customer Relationship Management system.

Councillor McCracken reported on the recent Workplace Challenge, in which Bracknell Forest had come first with 1.9m points recorded and 212 participants. Bracknell Forest Council also had three individuals ranked in the top 100 point scorers.

Executive Member for Economic Development and Regeneration

Councillor Brunel-Walker was glad to report on the progress of the town centre redevelopment, including the ongoing works on the new park at Station Green. It was reported that on 25 February 2016, there would be a topping out ceremony of the new Marks and Spencer building to recognise the first roof to be put on a Lexicon building.

To receive the Leader’s report on the work of the Executive since the Council meeting held on 20 January 2016.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Bettison, presented his report on the work of the Executive since that reported at the Council meeting on 20 January 2016. The Executive had met three times on 26 January 2016, 9 February 2016 and 23 February 2016.

The Leader highlighted the following matters that had been considered:

·         The outcome of the Heathlands consultation on reprovision and closure was considered and changes to service model were agreed. Heathlands was a 1970s building with inferior standards, high vacancy rates and reducing attendance at the day centre. A team of experienced officers were working with residents and families to find alternative provision using the successful ‘Ladybank model’.

·         The School Places Plan had been agreed. By 2020, pupil numbers were expected to rise by 18% for Primary and 26% for Secondary. The Plan was based upon current house building programmes and had been proven historically to be accurate within 1%.

·         Review of School Admission Arrangements had been needed due to the housing development plans and Charters School’s decision to remove the feeder schools criteria. The Primary school feeder criteria has now been removed from the admission arrangements across the rest of the Borough. The arrangements introduced more shared designated areas to accommodate phasing of housing growth. Protection had been given to siblings for six years.

·         Great Hollands Primary School expansion had been agreed.

·         The Community Safety Partnership Strategic Assessment was agreed with priorities largely unchanged from 2015.

·         The Council had acquired the Magistrates Court plus in-borough commercial property as part of its emerging Property Investment Strategy.

·         The Agency Workers Framework contract had been agreed.

To formally confirm the appointment of the Council’s Monitoring Officer.

The Council was asked to formally appoint the Council’s Monitoring Officer to ensure compliance with the requirements of Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 (as amended).

On the proposition of Councillor McCracken, Executive Member for Culture, Corporate Services and Public Protection, seconded by Councillor Allen it was

RESOLVED that  the Borough Solicitor, Sanjay Prashar, be formally designated as Monitoring Officer and that such designation be retrospectively implemented from 29 June 2015 to coincide with his appointment.

To resolve recommendations in respect of:

·         Capital Programme 2016/17-2018/19

·         Revenue Budget 2016/17 (including Fees and Charges)

·         Council Tax 2016/17

The supporting information has been circulated separately.

The Council considered the report by the Borough Treasurer which set out the financial plans and revenue budgets for the financial year 2016/17 and supporting information which presented the Council’s spending plans for 2016/17 and detailed budgets for the General Fund and Capital Programme. It was noted that a replacement to page 25 of the agenda papers had been circulated as it contained updated information which was not available at the time of the agenda publication.

Councillor Heydon gave a comprehensive presentation placing a particular focus on:

·         Council’s initial budget plans were published for consultation on 15 December.  The Council had set its financial plans and published its budget based on advice that Revenue Support Grant would be reduced by 40% over the Spending Review period.

·         The provisional financial settlement was announced two days later and the actual grant cut was 80% which was £4.3m more than expected and was based on previously unannounced changes to the distribution of resources amongst authorities. The new approach, known as ‘resource equalisation’ is based on the presumption that where possible income should be raised locally.

·         Following a delegation of Berkshire Leaders, headed by Bracknell Forest Council’s Leader, meeting with the Minister for Local Government a new transitional grant was announced to assist those authorities that had been affected most severely by the cuts and the Council will receive additional funding of £0.9m in both 2016/17 and 2017/18.  This was acknowledged as a short term solution but provided additional time to plan and implement a whole range of economies and savings that will place the Council’s finances on sound foundations for the future.

·         He thanked the Chief Executive and his senior team for the hard work that they have put into the process.

·         Following five years of Council Tax freezes the key feature was the proposed Council Tax increase of 3.99%.  Just under half of this would be used to support the continued delivery of vital front line services, with the remaining 2% being spent entirely on adult social care functions.

·         To the average Band D Council Tax payer this would be an increase of just over £40 for the year, less than £1 per week, and as such still represented good value for our residents.

·         The net spending next year, before the use of reserves and balances would be £70.3m, but overall gross expenditure would exceed £100m. This would include:

·         In addition to this the Council is passporting from the government to our schools over £83m.  Schools are under additional cost pressures but schools will receive the same amount of funding in cash terms as last year.  Some schools will see an increase in their budgets, if for example, their pupil numbers have increased. 

·         The budget for schools is challenging and action will need to be taken to manage costs to ensure  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

By Councillor Mrs Temperton to Councillor Birch, Executive Member for Adult Services, Health and Housing:

It has been said that the decision to close Heathlands marks the end of Bracknell  Forest Council being a Provider of Care; all care now being commissioned out. But what about the Intermediate Care service?

What has happened to the land swap plans between Bracknell Forest Homes and Bracknell Forest Council involving Dennis Pilcher House and Bridgewell? Residents were moved out of Dennis Pilcher House on the basis that there would be a new Intermediate Care Service provided there and much needed affordable homes built at Bridgewell.

When will the Intermediate Care Service be moving or is this too to be commissioned out?

(i) Councillor Mrs Temperton asked Councillor D Birch, Executive Member for Adult Services, Health and Housing the following published question:

It has been said that the decision to close Heathlands marks the end of Bracknell Forest Council being a Provider of Care; all care now being commissioned out. But what about the Intermediate Care service?

What has happened to the land swap plans between Bracknell Forest Homes and Bracknell Forest Council involving Dennis Pilcher House and Bridgewell? Residents were moved out of Dennis Pilcher House on the basis that there would be a new Intermediate Care Service provided there and much needed affordable homes built at Bridgewell.

When will the Intermediate Care Service be moving or is this too to be commissioned out?

In response Councillor Birch stated that the closure of Heathlands marked the end of Bracknell Forest Council being a provider of long term residential care but Community Intermediate Care would continue to be provided on a short term basis which was normally for up to 6 weeks. Provision of care would not be moving from Bridgewell unless it no longer provided good value for money and would therefore be commissioned elsewhere.

He reported that since the original asset swap was agreed with Bracknell Forest Homes, opportunities for offering intermediate care in people’s own homes have changed and this was no longer taking place. He added that the demand for the residential bed-based service continued to reduce so therefore the model needed to support a more flexible commissioning approach. This would be a more cost-effective and suitable option.

He stated that the consultation with residents of Dennis Pilcher House was carried out at a point in time, and clearly whilst residential Intermediate Care was seen as the way forward. This was undertaken by Bracknell Forest Homes and not the Council. Many residents were developing increasing needs for personal care, and a significant part of the consultation was exploring alternatives for their future care, support and wellbeing. The residents were not moved out of Dennis Pilcher House on the basis that there would be new service developed there.

He reported that 10 of the residents chose to move to the new Extra Care development at Clement House, and have settled well into extremely high quality homes for life, where changing needs can be supported on the premises.

He concluded that the futures of the Bridgewell and Dennis Pilcher sites will be the subject of further discussions, but for the time being, Bridgewell will continue to offer its Intermediate Care services as at present.