Agenda and 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.

To consider and approve the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 12 November 2024.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet on 10 December 2024 together with the accompanying decision records be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Leader.

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

RESOLVEDthat

i.       the draft climate change strategy be consulted on as per the timeline indicated within the report.

ii.     It is noted that the spending commitments within the Phase 1 Delivery Plan are included in the draft budget proposals elsewhere on the agenda.

To gain approval for a 4 week public consultation on the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area Supplementary Planning Document.

RESOLVED that:

i.       the content of the Draft Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area Supplementary Planning Document (SPA SPD) (Appendix 1) is approved.

ii.     the public consultation on the Draft SPA SPD (Appendix 1) is agreed beginning on Wednesday 15th January 2025 and ending on Wednesday 12th February 2025 as set out in Section 8 of this report and Appendix 2

iii.    authority be delegated to the Executive Director: Place in consultation with the Executive Member for Planning, Transport and Countryside to agree any necessary minor amendments to the Draft SPA SPD prior to public consultation.

RESOLVED that:

i.       the establishment of Council-owned land to act as BNG habitat banks, to enable the Council to sell biodiversity units to developers to meet the mandatory requirement for BNG is approved

ii.     the Executive Director: Place in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and Countryside is authorised to:

·       authorise completion of Conservation Covenants between the Council and an appropriate Responsible Body for the delivery of BNG habitat banks; and

·       secure the addition of BNG habitat banks to the national Biodiversity Gain Site Register;

RESOLVEDthat

i.       a Council funded capital programme of £8.388m for 2025/26 as set out in paragraph 6.20 and summarised in Annex A, including the new schemes listed in Annexes B – D be approved for consultation.

ii.     the inclusion of £5.998m of expenditure to be externally funded (including £0.380m of S106 funding) as outlined in paragraph 6.22  be approved for consultation.

iii.     the inclusion of an additional budget of £1m for Invest-to-Save schemes be approved for consultation.

RECOMMENDED that Council approves a supplementary capital approval of £2.2m in relation to the grant received in 2024/25 to support the redevelopment of the High Street Car Park.

RESOLVED that

i.       Approves the draft budget proposals for 2025/26 as the basis for consultation with the Overview & Scrutiny Commission and other interested parties and individual is approved.

ii.     the Treasury Management Strategy and associated documents at Annexe E for detailed review by the Governance and Audit Committee at its meeting in January is approved.

iii.    the 2025/26 Schools Budget be set in accordance with the arrangements set out in section 9 is approved.

iv.     Authority be delegated to the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Learning to agree the allocation of the sums available for schools and Early Years funding as set out in recommendation 3.3, having regard to the decisions and recommendations of the Schools Forum and to agree detailed budgets for services centrally managed by the Council, including those in the High Needs Block.

v.     the Council Tax Base be set at 50,488 (Band D equivalents) for 2025/26 as outlined in Annexe H be approved.

vi.    the virements relating to the 2024/25 budget as set out in Annexes F and G are approved.

 RECOMENDED that the virements relating to the 2024/25 budget as set out in Annexes F and G that are over £0.100m are approved by Council.

RESOLVED that the revised multi agency children and adult safeguarding arrangements are approved, as outlined in appendix A (Bracknell Forest Safeguarding Board Multiagency Arrangements).

RESOLVED that

i.       a Microsoft Azure hosting service be procured to ensure continued server hosting in our current Microsoft Azure cloud environment. Supported and managed by in house ICT teams.

ii.     the procurement is undertaken using the Crown Commercial Services G-Cloud 14 (RM1557.14) framework, via requirements search, to direct award in line with the framework terms.

RESOLVED that

i.       the sale of the land at South Road identified in Appendix A is approved.

ii.     Authority be delegated to the Assistant Director Property in consultation with the Executive Director Resources and s.151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer to legally complete the transfer and the sale of the land on the terms provisionally agreed in restricted Appendix B.