Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Time Square, Market Street, Bracknell, RG12 1JD. View directions

Contact: Kirsty Hunt  01344 353108

Items
No. Item

17.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 275 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 11 July 2018.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Council meeting held on 11 July 2018 be approved and signed by the Mayor as a correct record.

18.

Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

 

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary 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 Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

 

Any Member with an affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

19.

Chief Constable's Presentation pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Thames Valley Police Chief Constable, Francis Habgood will be attending the meeting with Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, Matt Barber to deliver a presentation on the work of Thames Valley Police over the last year.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, Matt Barber gave a presentation on the Police and Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) responsibilities and explained that in addition the PCC had a role in setting the local precept. It was expected that there would be a 7% increase on the current low base which was expected to equate to £1 per month for a Band D property. He explained that the Thames Valley policing area had a challenging mix of urban area and diverse sparsely populated rural area.

 

He highlighted the following activities:

       the PCC’s office had created the Victims First Hub which provided a single point of contact for victims, witnesses and family members of victims to access emotional support. Victims First Hub was successful and looking to further improve the referrals for scheme.

       grant funding of £94k was awarded to eight organisations to deliver cyber-crime prevention activities, in particular to young people and the elderly

       the Force has undertaken a range of multi- agency problem solving initiatives to both disrupt and prevent organised crime across the Thames Valley, including exploitation and county lines

       HMICFRS PEEL ‘Effectiveness’ inspection had graded Thames Valley Police as “Good” for the way it deals with crime

       £2.7m funding from government of which £136K is for Bracknell Forest area.

       recorded crime has increased but was still lower than elsewhere and less than ten years ago

       there was a staggered correlation between spending decreasing and crime increasing

       8.8% rise in burglary (6% rise nationally) and work was being done locally to reduce

       the force were working hard to increase use of stop and search powers and the trend was increasing.

 

In particular he looked at the highlights in activity during the first quarter:

       Victims Contract to follow up on crime but it had been difficult to get people to sign up to this but a fantastic scheme as it set their expectations and take up was up to 78% in April

       A new post has been funded to focus on coordinating taxi and licensing premises which prevents people moving around the policing area

       Work was ongoing with partners on rehabilitation work

       a multi-agency database was being developed which would enable better information sharing, risk assessment and data analysis

       101 calls continued to be an issue as they could be responded to slowly but work was ongoing to improve alternative online recording to channel shift residents from call centre but not replace either 101 or 999.

 

Chief Constable, Francis Habgood, gave a presentation on significant policing issues across the borough.  In particular he highlighted that:

  • the force had seen an increased demand on services due to mental health issues.
  • there had been some significant public events which had placed additional demands on the service as they carefully balanced potential threat with engagement with public.
  • they had been struggling with resourcing  as other forces were recruiting Thames Valley’s trained staff.
  • PCSOs were being recruited as police officers  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

Mayor's Announcements pdf icon PDF 299 KB

Minutes:

National Energy Awards

 

CouncillorsMrs Hayes MBE, Executive Member for Environment and Councillor D Birch, Executive Member for Adult Social Care, Health and Housing joined together to congratulate Hazel Hill, Sustainable Energy Officer. Hazel had been nominated by Warfield Park for vulnerable customer support campaigner for the National Energy Awards in recognition of the work to install mains gas onto the site. The project was due to finish in February 2019 and was estimated to give an average saving on fuel costs of £400 per household per year, and in addition some residents may qualify for Warm Homes Discount giving them another £140 per year.

 

Glass recycling trucks

 

Cllr Mrs Hayes, Executive Member for Environment was pleased to report the successful launch of two new glass recycling vehicles which would be used to collect bottles and jars from bottle banks located throughout Reading, Berkshire, Bracknell Forest, and Wokingham Borough. The Council’s recycling partnership RE3 had run a competition to name the trucks and they were now known as Jar Jar Clinks and Kate Binslet.

 

Mayoral Update

 

The Mayor encouraged Members to keep up to date with his activities through the Mayoral Facebook and Twitter pages. He highlighted the celebrations which had occurred to mark the one year anniversary of the opening of the Lexicon.

 

The Mayor advised Members that his Civic Service had been arranged for Sunday 21 October at the Holy Trinity Church with refreshments afterwards at the Green's Steakhouse.

 

He announced to Members that his first Charity event was being arranged for Sunday 28 October and was a Curry buffet and entertainment at Koi-I-Nor, a local restaurant at £18 per person.

21.

Executive Report pdf icon PDF 264 KB

To receive the Leader’s report on the work of the Executive since the Council meeting held on 11 July 2018.

 

Council is asked to resolve recommendations in respect of:

  • Revenue Expenditure Outturn 2017/18
  • Polling District and Polling Place Review 2018

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Bettison OBE, presented his report on the work of the Executive since that reported at the Council meeting on 11 July 2018. The Executive had met once on 17 July 2018. 

 

The Leader highlighted the following matters that had been considered:

 

·         The Capital Programme 2017/18 had seen outturn expenditure of £103.8m with £36.1m carry forward. The Revenue Budget 2017/18 had Outturn expenditure at £  87.8m with an “underspend” of £0.54m. This was the 20th successive year of spending within budget.

 

·         The disposal of Easthampstead Park Conference Centre as a going concern had been confirmed.

 

·         Service Plans for 2018/19 were agreed which substantially completes the delivery of 4 year Council Plan which was agreed in 2015. The Corporate Performance Overview Report (Q4 2018) reported that 88.1% key actions were complete or on schedule and 84% of performance targets had been met or were within 10%.

 

·         Downshire Homes Ltd (DHL) delivered its first progress report to the Executive and its activities were reducing Council costs by £0.56m. DHL had more flexibility in its letting policy which gave more scope for cost avoidance.

 

·         The review of polling districts and polling places had been considered and there were very limited changes proposed. These were only where polling stations were no longer available or problematic, or housing developments required new solutions.

 

·         Biodiversity Action Plan 2018 – 2023 had been agreed.

 

·         Town Centre Youth Centre feasibility had been commissioned for Braccan Walk.

 

·         Additional consultation on Cain Road sites for the Local Plan had been agreed for September. 

 

The report contained recommendations that the Council was asked to resolve in respect of the following matters:

·         Revenue Expenditure Outturn 2017/18

·         Polling Districts and Polling Places Review

 

In relation to the update on Easthampstead Park Conference Centre Councillor Mrs Temperton asked whether the new contract with Bidder C offered the same conditions as before e.g. requirement to refurbish, restrictions to prevent the site being sold on as well as use of the grounds for local people. Councillor Bettison replied that he considered that the new contract was even more favourable and would be a great thing for residents in the area as they will be able to enjoy the facilities in a way that they have not been able to before. Councillor Heydon, Executive member for Transformation and Finance added that the site would be open to the public in the future.

 

On the proposition of Councillor Heydon, Executive Member for Transformation and Finance, seconded by Councillor Allen it was

 

RESOLVED that:

 

i)              the virements relating to the 2017/18 budget over £0.100m be approved as detailed in Annexe E, within the attached Appendix A to the agenda report; and

 

ii)             the Treasury Management performance in 2017/18 be noted as set out in Annexe B, within the attached Appendix A to the agenda report.

 

Councillor Turrell, Executive Member for Transport and Planning advised the meeting that the Polling Districts and Polling Places Review recommendation in the report relating to arrangements in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

22.

Question Submitted Under Council Procedure Rule 10 pdf icon PDF 35 KB

By Councillor Mrs Temperton to Councillor Dr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning

 

I am delighted that at last there are real proposals to create a Town Centre Youth Facility. Eight years ago, over 400 young people responding to a consultation about Youth Provision in Bracknell Forest, requested such a facility and this has been reaffirmed by the July 2017 consultation.

 

The proposals include a café/social space, small meeting rooms and list the targeted work to be delivered from the building with our most vulnerable young people. This work is currently the focus of the Bracknell Forest Youth Service.

 

As no new money is to be provided for the revenue running costs but all will come from the Youth Service budget, what effect will this have on the essential services now provided in our schools and communities?

Minutes:

Councillor Mrs Temperton asked Councillor Dr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning the following published question:

 

I am delighted that at last there are real proposals to create a Town Centre Youth Facility. Eight years ago, over 400 young people responding to a consultation about Youth Provision in Bracknell Forest, requested such a facility and this has been reaffirmed by the July 2017 consultation.

 

The proposals include a café/social space, small meeting rooms and list the targeted work to be delivered from the building with our most vulnerable young people. This work is currently the focus of the Bracknell Forest Youth Service.

 

As no new money is to be provided for the revenue running costs but all will come from the Youth Service budget, what effect will this have on the essential services now provided in our schools and communities?

 

In response Councillor Dr Barnard stated that a detailed paper on the feasibility study had been circulated and was responding to the views of young people. There was no plan to reduce spend therefore the Council was using the assets that it had. He stated that until the study had been conducted and the options available had been assessed it would not be possible to calculate the revenue running costs. The intention was far from reducing provision but to enhance what was currently available. The Council had been contacted by potential partners to get involved in the new provision and therefore it was intended to provide an enhanced and refreshed provision.

 

He added that once the feasibility study had been conducted it would be made available to young people for their comments before it was possible to consider what should be provided. He asked that it be noted that the current trend was for lower take up for youth services in the parish areas in comparison to the town centre.

 

As her supplementary question Councillor Mrs Temperton asked whether vital youth services within schools would continue as the work to raise children’s aspirations and prevent harm was so valid.

 

Councillor Dr Barnard agreed and stated that maintaining youth provision in schools would continue as well as putting officers out into the community and training further people to support pupils in schools. He reiterated that the Council does not have a fit for purpose facility where sensitive work could be carried out but that potential parties were coming forward and he was very optimistic about what could be achieved. He concluded that meeting the emotional wellbeing and needs of the borough’s pupils was a priority and that recent exam success reflected the activities by school, teachers and pupils.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk