Agenda and minutes

Venue: Online only

Contact: Kirsty Hunt  01344 353108

Link: This meeting will be held online

Media

Items
No. Item

11.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 141 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Annual Council meeting held on 20 May 2020.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Annual Council meeting held on 20 May 2020 be approved and signed by the Mayor as a correct record.

 

12.

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.

 

13.

Mayor's Announcements

Minutes:

Mayor’s Charity

 

The Mayor advised the meeting that she was delighted to be working with two organisations who were supporting the Armed Forces and their families through their active service and beyond. SSAFA – Soldiers Sailors and Airmen Families Association and the British Forces Foundation. She added that presentations on the work of the charities and examples of how they were helping local residents would be provided at a future Council meeting.

 

Open for Business Initiative

 

The Mayor reported that the borough was actively supporting and promoting the retail sector in its “Open for Business’ initiative and the civic team was visiting shops across the Borough to say ‘thank you’, and recognise all the efforts of retailers during challenging times. The Council was encouraging residents to think local, shop local and support local.

 

Virtual engagements

 

The Mayor had attended the Home Start AGM virtually and hoped that this would be the first of many similar engagements. In this uncertain period she would be organising a programme of ‘Virtually anything is possible’ events to appeal to a wide audience and help raise funds for her selected charities.      

 

Councillor Turrell, Executive Member for Planning and Transport

 

Councillor Turrell reported that the Downshire Way dualling scheme had been completed, within budget and on time. He thanked the Highways officers and the contractors Ringway for their work. He explained that there were additional benefits to the scheme such as improving the landscape alongside the road, using a quieter surface and installation of noise attenuation fencing on some sections.

 

Councillor Birch, Executive Member for Adult Services, Health and Housing

 

Councillor Birch asked the meeting to recognise and thank the actions of Bracknell Forest residents who had kept infection rates down by acting responsibly which in tun kept them and their families safe.

 

Councillor Dr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning

 

Councillor Dr Barnard asked the meeting to join him in recognising and recording the work of staff in schools and those working within children’s social care. Schools invited children of keyworkers and vulnerable children into schools and showed a commitment, dedication to education and hard work through safeguarding for those children, virtual support to students and providing support to families. Schools are now looking to September and welcoming the children back. He reported how colleagues in Children’s social care had provided support to the most vulnerable families, adapting how they worked to keep people safe and making sure that throughout the voice of children were not forgotten. 

 

Councillor Brunel-Walker, Executive Member for Economic Development and Regeneration

 

Councillor Brunel-Walker passed on his thanks to retailers, those in the hospitality sector, pubs, hairdressers and other premises that had opened in last few weeks. He recognised the hard work involved to make premises covid secure and respond to changing guidance. He thanked the team that worked to co-ordinate with the Lexicon. He reiterated the message to Act Local, Think Local and Shop Local.

14.

Executive Report pdf icon PDF 512 KB

To receive the Leader’s report on the work of the Executive since the Council meeting held on 28 February 2020.

 

Council is asked to resolve a recommendation in respect of:

·         Community Safety Partnership (CSP) Plan 2020-23

 

The Executive will be meeting on 14 July 2020, if any matters arise at that meeting which require a decision by Council, a supplementary report will be circulated.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Bettison, presented his report on the work of the Executive since that reported at the Council meeting on 26 February 2020. The Executive had met five times on 10 March 2020, 28 April 2020, 15 June 2020, 30 June 2020 and 14 July 2020.

 

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

       Community Safety Plan 2020-23: This was a Partnership plan drawing together Bracknell Forest Council Police and Crime Commissioner and Thames Valley Police priorities and issues. The consultation had received 497 responses with 93% of respondents agreeing with priorities

       Central and East Berks Joint Minerals and Waste Plan: This had been prepared with Wokingham, Reading and Windsor & Maidenhead to cover the Central Berkshire area and would run until 2036. There were no new sites within Bracknell Forest. Six week statutory consultation period would run from 3 September to 15 October

       Revenue Outturn 2019/20: The planned spend was £74.969m and the actual spend was £74. 323 so this was the 22nd year of spending within budget

       Selection of Joint Venture Partner: The Preferred bidder had been appointed and was an important step in facilitating the development of major town centre sites including: Market Street, Coopers Hill and Jubilee Gardens

 

The Leader highlighted the following matters that had been considered:

 

Other Major Decisions [Non Covid]

·       Highways' and Transport capital programme agreed

·       Service Plans 2020/21 agreed

·       Emergency Duty Service Contract agreed which was covered essential pan Berkshire out of hours services and had been hosted by Bracknell Forest Council since 1998

·       Relocation of EDS/Forestcare to Waterside Park

 

Other Major Decisions [Covid related]

·       Support for Everyone Active as part of overall strategy to ensure there was capacity to re-open services

·       Outbreak Management Plan had been signed off by Department for Public Health and CEO and endorsed by Executive. This formed part of East Berkshire Health Protection Board arrangements. The new Local Outbreak Engagement Board would be chaired by Councillor Brunel-Walker.

·       Residents Covid-19 Impact Survey was agreed as a telephone survey 

·       Greening Waste Collection implementation of weekly food and three weekly general waste collection delayed until 1 March 2021 and Autumn 2021 for Houses of multiple occupation and flats. This would allow for further post covid-19 engagement with residents.

 

Major National Issues and the Bracknell Forest Response

·       Personal Protection Equipment: to respond to major national shortage in first few weeks a local team was established to manage supplies with more than 30 providers assisted so far

·       Shielding: Of the 4,137 total number of residents advised to shield      2,528 had contacted the national helpline.

·       Support to Businesses: Three different national grant schemes were being administered locally and more than £10m had been paid out in approximately 800 grants

·       First 2: Common criteria: £25k or £10k

·       Businesses which as at 11 March 2020 were paying NNDR

·       Retail, hospitality and leisure grant

·       Discretionary  Grants

·        focussing on smaller businesses not paying NNDR

·       Test and trace – links to Outbreak  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

15.

Use of Emergency Decision-making Powers pdf icon PDF 208 KB

To advise the Council of the Chief Executive’s use of emergency decision making powers.

Minutes:

The Council noted the report advising them of the Chief Executive’s use of emergency decision making powers.

 

16.

Standards Annual Report pdf icon PDF 527 KB

To advise the Council of activity within its Standards framework from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.

Minutes:

The Council noted the Annual Report which advised them of activity within its Standards framework from 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.

 

17.

Question Submitted Under Council Procedure Rule 10

Councillor Temperton to Councillor Brunel-Walker, Executive Member for Economic Development and Regeneration

 

The government has initiated the ‘Kickstart’ Scheme to create 6-month work placements for 16-24 year olds who are on Universal Credit and may be at risk of long term unemployment, a scheme to fund high quality traineeships for 16-25 year olds and new apprenticeship schemes. Obviously these need to be in place, as soon as possible. What is the Council doing to encourage all our businesses and partners to participate in these schemes?

Minutes:

Councillor Mrs Temperton asked Councillor Brunel-Walker, Executive Member for Economic Development and Regeneration the following published question:

 

The government has initiated the ‘Kickstart’ Scheme to create 6-month work placements for 16-24 year olds who are on Universal Credit and may be at risk of long term unemployment, a scheme to fund high quality traineeships for 16-25 year olds and new apprenticeship schemes. Obviously these need to be in place, as soon as possible. What is the Council doing to encourage all our businesses and partners to participate in these schemes?

 

In response Councillor Brunel-Walker replied that the new scheme would state-funded jobs created for 16-to-24-year-olds who were currently claiming Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment.  The Kickstart scheme would see Government funding cover 100 per cent of the minimum wage for 25 hours a week in the scheme, with employers also able to top up the wage and receive a contribution towards overhead costs.

 

He reported that applications for the scheme were expected to open during the following month, with more information to follow in due course. He explained that companies who took part in the scheme would have to prove that the jobs they are making available to applicants were new.

 

He reported that the Council was starting to have conversations with the Local Enterprise Partnership and the Economic Skills Development Partnership to begin considering how to promote the scheme and ensure that as many as possible benefit from the scheme. Councillor Brunel-Walker committed to updating members when more information was available.

 

In response to a supplementary question he stated although the final guidance from Central Government on the exact details was outstanding that he anticipated that the scheme would require companies to apply and he was uncertain whether local authorities would be able to participate as employers. Councillor Brunel-Walker concluded that monitoring the scheme was key and once the methods of receiving updates was confirmed he would update Members.

 

18.

Motion Submitted Under Council Procedure Rule 11

Motion 01/2020 moved by Councillor Temperton and seconded by Councillor Neil

 

We congratulate and thank all schools for enabling Bracknell Forest children to return to school in September, keeping all as safe as possible.

This is a very exciting time for some, but very stressful for others. For some parents, with  greatly reduced finances resulting from the Covid-19 lockdown, the need to buy new uniform is a huge problem. They too want the best for their child but have no available funds.

I therefore ask the Council to call upon the Executive to set up a School Uniform Grant to support those parents throughout Bracknell Forest, who have a proven need for such assistance.

Minutes:

Motion 01/2020 was moved and seconded by Councillors Temperton and Neil respectively as follows:

 

“We congratulate and thank all schools for enabling Bracknell Forest children to return to school in September, keeping all as safe as possible.

This is a very exciting time for some, but very stressful for others. For some parents, with greatly reduced finances resulting from the Covid-19 lockdown, the need to buy new uniform is a huge problem. They too want the best for their child but have no available funds.

I therefore ask the Council to call upon the Executive to set up a School Uniform Grant to support those parents throughout Bracknell Forest, who have a proven need for such assistance.

 

On being put to the vote the motion fell.

 

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk