Agenda and draft minutes

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.

Cllr Bidwell declared an affected interest in item 14: Discretionary Rates Relief Policy for Charitable Organisations as he was the chair of Age Concern

Cllr Gillbe declared an affected interest in item 14: Discretionary Rates Relief Policy for Charitable Organisations as he had previously worked for a local charity for 6 years.

Councillors Bidwell and Purnell declared Affected Interests in Item 15: Demolition of High Street Car Park and Support and Relocation Strategy for Market Street Tenants as they were the Council’s representatives on the Joint Venture Board and would withdraw from the meeting for the consideration of this item.

To consider and approve the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 11 February 2025.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet on 11 February 2025 together with the accompanying decision records be confirmed as a correct record.

There were no urgent items of business.

The Cabinet considered the following items.  The decisions are recorded in the decision sheets attached to these minutes and summarised below:

To present the Education and Skills Overview and Scrutiny Panel’s report on its review into transition from education to employment, and to seek approval of their recommendations.

Subject to an amendment to include representatives from Bracknell and Wokingham College in the invitation to develop a forum it was

RESOLVED that Cabinet agree the Education, Skills and Growth Overview and Scrutiny Panel’s recommendations, as set out in the panel report (attached as Appendix A) and paragraph 6.5 of the report, taking into account the comments of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet approve the Local Development Scheme 2025 – 2028  which will be adopted on the 18th March 2025 and come into effect on 26th March 2025.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

i.               approve the adoption of the Housing Supplementary Planning Document (Appendix A).

ii.              delegate authority to the Executive Director: Place in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Countryside to approve any necessary minor amendments to the Housing Supplementary Planning Document prior to publication.

iii.            following adoption of the Housing SPD, approve that Section 5.8 (related to affordable housing) of the BFC Planning Obligations Supplementary Planning Document (2015) is superseded by the Housing Supplementary Planning Document.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

      I.         note the feedback from the public consultation set out in Appendix 3.

     II.         subject to Councils approval of the Climate Change Strategy 2025 – 2030, approve the Climate Change Strategy Phase 1 Delivery Plan.

   III.         delegate authority to the Executive Director: Communities in consultation with the Cabinet Member to make any minor amendments to the Strategy or Delivery Plan.

RECOMMENDED to Council the approval of the Climate Change Strategy 2025 – 2030

RESOLVED that

      I.         the draft Corporate Parenting Strategy 2025-28 and action plan for public consultation is approved.

     II.         Cabinet to receive a revised Corporate Parenting Strategy and action plan in June 2025 once the public consultation has been completed.

RESOLVED that

i.                Cabinet approve a public consultation on the council’s draft equalities objectives for 2025-29 for a six week period starting on 24 March 2025.

ii.              Following the consultation the finalised objectives will be presented to Cabinet for approval in July 2025.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

      I.         endorses the new service plan content for 2025-26, noting the actions committed to by each directorate to support the delivery of the Council Plan.

     II.         agrees to publish the plans on the Council website in April and monitor their delivery through the review of the Council Plan Overview Report.

RESOLVED that having reviewed the recommendations made by Overview and Scrutiny in Annex B, the performance of the council over the period from October to December 2024, highlighted in the Overview Report in Annex A is noted.

RESOLVED that Cabinet notes:

i.      the progress made in improving SEND services following the sixth review meeting with the Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England.

ii.     the progress made on delivering the Safety Valve intervention programme up until submission of the third monitoring report to the DfE in November 2024.

iii.    progress made on special educational needs services.

RESOLVED that Cabinet        

      I.         approve the proposed discretionary rates relief policy set out as Appendix A to this report, to take effect from 1 April 2025 for new applications and from 1 April 2026 for existing recipients of discretionary business rates relief from Bracknell Forest Council, with the maximum level of discretionary rates relief offered for any individual premise changed from £1,250 to £1,500;

     II.         authorise the Assistant Director: Communities and Policy in consultation with the Cabinet Members for Finance and Corporate Improvement and the Environment, Community and Housing to undertake further engagement with Involve, South Hill Park Trust and the Citizens Advice Bureau, being current recipients of core grants from Bracknell Forest Council, on separate arrangements to ensure their important activities in support of the Council Plan are protected.

To seek approval to award the demolition contract and provide an update on the support being given to tenants required to vacate the High Street Car Park in Bracknell.

RESOLVED that Cabinet

      I.         approves the award of a demolition contract for the High Street car park building to the Bracknell Forest Cambium Partnership, which is permitted in the existing legal agreements between the Council and the joint venture with no further procurement needed;

     II.         authorises the Executive Director: Place in consultation with the Borough Solicitor, Assistant Director: Property Services and Executive Director: Resources to agree the necessary contractual arrangements for the demolition;

   III.         endorses the continuing support that officers are able to offer the Acoustic Couch (and other tenants) to relocate from their existing premises on the ground floor of the car park building, while recognising that the occupiers will need to vacate their current location when the break notices are served to end the leases in December 2025.

RESOLVED that Cabinet

      I.         approves the Strategic Procurement Plan (Exempt Appendix A) to tender the services for a single organisation to carry out the routine servicing and maintenance of all planned preventative, responsive maintenance and servicing of the electrical systems across the portfolio of buildings in Bracknell.

     II.         approves a contractual term of ten years with an initial period of 3 years and a further 7 years of optional extensions (2+2+2+1).  The contract is based on a total contract term of 10 years with the first three years to be at a fixed cost to enable stability for the council. Subsequent years cost increases to be based on an average annual CPI index, agreed by both parties (as per contract renewal date). 

   III.         delegates authority to the Executive Director: Place in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration to accept the evaluated and preferred provider’s tendered price and award the contract, to the provider to meet the requirements of this proposed contract.