Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Kirsty Hunt  01344 353108

Items
No. Item

46.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 310 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 15 January 2020.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the Council meeting held on 15 January 2020 be approved and signed by the Mayor as a correct record.

 

47.

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.

 

48.

Question submitted under Council Procedure Rule 9

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9 (Public Participation), a question has been submitted by Mr T Neil, resident of Harmans Water as set out below:

 

The Council's published 'Financial Plans and Supporting Information 2019/20' shows, in Annex A, in the table entitled 'Commitment Budget - Transformation Savings 2019/20 to 2021/22', a total reduction of £3,600,000 marked 'AdultsTransformation', also a total reduction of £1,914,000 marked 'ChildrensTransformation' through budget years 2018/19 to 2021/2022. May I take the Council's written and itemised breakdown of these figures, showing specifically from which Council departments and external services you have chosen to withdraw support, and how much from each please?

 

For reference the document can be found here and the chart is on page 24.

Minutes:

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 9 (Public Participation), Mr T Neill, resident of Harmans Water asked the Executive the following published question:

 

The Council's published 'Financial Plans and Supporting Information 2019/20' shows, in Annex A, in the table entitled 'Commitment Budget - Transformation Savings 2019/20 to 2021/22', a total reduction of £3,600,000 marked 'AdultsTransformation', also a total reduction of £1,914,000 marked 'ChildrensTransformation' through budget years 2018/19 to 2021/2022. May I take the Council's written and itemised breakdown of these figures, showing specifically from which Council departments and external services you have chosen to withdraw support, and how much from each please?

 

In response Councillor Heydon, Executive Member for Transformation and Finance explained that it was a complex answer, the Council was committed to providing the support needed to help the most vulnerable children and adults in Bracknell Forest but recognised that the way in which they are supported needed to change. He explained that the Council did this by putting in place social care services that were appropriate to individuals’ needs. The Council provided and commissioned those services from a wide variety of organisations, occasionally using block contracts for things like domiciliary care, more often using individual contracts related to a specific person’s needs. 

 

Councillor Heydon stated that Transformation savings did not necessarily mean cutting services but instead about doing things differently with an emphasis on quality not quantity. The specific areas of change were identified and the likely potential financial impact of each of these was estimated. However, he explained that it was recognised that few parts of these complex systems work in isolation, that one change could potentially impact on another and the timing of the financial impact of any change was very difficult to predict.  He stated that the Council deliberately did not include in the published budget plans a detailed breakdown of the individual changes.

 

He explained that the “financial plans and budgets supporting information” document for the 2020/21 financial year included no assumed Transformation savings from either programme beyond 2019/20 and the previous year’s target had therefore been reduced by £1.2m. The Council was working on future areas of focus, but these had not yet been firmed up or accurately quantified.

 

He concluded that whatever savings were achieved through Transformation would potentially be counteracted by the increasing level of demand for social care services and that in 2020/21 the Council would be spending £6m more on social care services than in 2018/19, when the Transformation programme started. 

 

In response to Mr T Neill’s supplementary questions Councillor Heydon responded that there were multiple interlocking projects within the programme and it would be counterproductive to produce this. Councillor Birch, Executive Member for Adult Social Care, Health and Housing replied that a strength-based approach was used to identify the positive impacts that could be made. He added that no one that was assessed as having a level of care received anything less than what they are entitled to. Instead the projects found new and better, joined up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

49.

Mayor's Announcements

Minutes:

Bracknell Forest Staff Awards

 

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Bettison OBE reported that the Council relied on its staff more than ever and their hard work had been recognised at a recent award ceremony. Members of staff were nominated for showing particular effort which reflected the ethos of the Council e.g. open minded or respectful. The awards also recognised the collective efforts made by teams. He encouraged Members to thank these teams and individuals when working with them.

 

Coronavirus update

 

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

updated the meeting on the support being provided to schools within the borough and that there had been no school closures. A Steering Group was being formed to co-ordinate the Council’s response and schools would have a single point of contact. Regular communications between public health, Public Health England and schools’ teams had been established to disseminate updates. Advice was also available on the front page of the Council’s website.

 

Family Safeguarding Birthday

 

Councillor Dr Barnard, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Learning was proud to report that the achievements of the Bracknell Forest family safeguarding team had been recognised by the Minister for Children and Families, and the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, for its success in supporting local families using the family safeguarding model. The project had celebrated two years supporting vulnerable children and families. The Council had seen a 25 % reduction in child protection cases, meaning more children were able to remain safely at home with a reduced level of intervention from the Council. It had also resulted in a 33 % reduction in social workers ‘caseloads’. The project was a finalist at the upcoming IESE Transformation Awards in the category of Transformation in Health and Social Care.

 

Promoting Local Democracy

 

The Mayor was pleased to report that one of the pleasures of the civic role was to work with the borough’s young people to promote how local democracy works and the role of Mayor. The Members present joined her in thanking Councillor Temperton for her support at recent events to deal with their questions and curiosity.

 

The Mayor also thanked Councillor Turrell for his participation in supporting a sixth form student to attend the Council Chamber to again understand how democracy works at a local level.

 

Travel initiatives

 

Councillor Turrell had been pleased to hear a number of sustainable travel announcements from government. He reported that the Council used additional funding for subsidised services to protect the bus routes at times when patronage was currently relatively low. He added that officers were looking into the detail of welcome announcements on support for walking and cycling.

 

50.

Executive Report pdf icon PDF 286 KB

To receive the Leader’s report on the work of the Executive since the Council meeting held on 15 January 2020.

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 15 January 2020.  The Executive had met twice on 28 January and 11 February 2020.

 

The Leader highlighted the following matters that had been considered:

 

  • Revenue Budget and Capital Programme proposals were being considered as a separate item on the agenda
  • Greening waste collection changes would be introduced for households from October as part of the Council’s response to climate change. Waste collection frequencies would also change to weekly food collection, two-weekly recycling/garden waste and three-weekly for refuse. Help and advice would be available on a case by case basis for large families, nappies and medical waste. The highlighted benefits included prevention of 4,000 tonnes of waste to landfill, anticipated increase in recycling rates from 39% to > 50% and saving for Council Tax payers of £219k over 7 years. This scheme would be phased in from April 2021 for flats supported by an Overview and Scrutiny review.
  • £10.95m was included in capital programme for Heathlands Redevelopment of 64-bed EMI Dementia care home. A 50:50 shared ownership company would be created with Frimley Health Foundation Trust to operate the home. Initial arrangements for using ground floor had been agreed and Stepnell Ltd were appointed to undertake construction.
  • School Places Plan and Capacity Strategy to 2024 had been agreed.
  • Draft consultation document for Joint Central/East Berkshire Minerals and Waste Local Plan had been agreed.
  • Agreement was reached on the procurement approach for Microsoft licencing.

 

In response to a question regarding whether methane capture was currently happening the Leader of the Council, Councillor Bettison OBE replied that residential waste was currently sent to Lakeside where it was incinerated. He reassured Members that the flue was subject to many different processes and cleaning to protect the atmosphere. Councillor Mrs Hayes MBE, Executive Member for Environment added that methane from the London Road site was used to heat a school’s swimming pool. She encouraged members to participate in the cross-party steering group developing proposals for food waste. Councillor Bettison OBE concluded that in the future food would be treated by anaerobic digestion with methane used to produce electricity and then residual material being composted.

 

A question was raised regarding how the logistics of the new waste collection would be programmed with the potential for congested scheduling impacting the number of bins and residential collections. Councillor Mrs Hayes MBE responded that work was ongoing with officers to review the collection programme and reported that there would not be problems with lorries in residential areas.

51.

Financial Plans and Revenue Budgets 2020/2021 pdf icon PDF 271 KB

To resolve recommendations in respect of:

  • Capital Programme 2020/21 – 2022/23
  • Revenue Budget 2020/21
  • Council Tax 2020/21

 

The supporting information has been circulated as a separate document and is available with this agenda on the Council website.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Council considered the report by the Borough Treasurer which set out the financial plans and revenue budgets for the financial year 2020/21 and the supporting information which presented the Council’s spending plans for 2020/21 and detailed budgets for the General Fund and Capital Programme.

 

Councillor Heydon gave a comprehensive budget speech placing particular focus on the following matters:

                  He observed that Climate Change had become a global and local topic and although the Council had decided not to declare an emergency it had agreed to identify a range of actions that would meet the target of eradicating the Council’s contribution to climate change by 2050. He stated that significant actions had already been taken such as replacing old street lighting, introducing new food waste collection arrangements and further detailed proposals would be brought forward in the months ahead.

                  He reported that the Council had faced its most challenging 12 months since the Council became a unitary authority in 1998. 

                  He stated that authorities in all parts of the country were facing significant and complex pressures in social care services, both children’s and adults.  The Council’s focus had been on investing in the right services to reach the vulnerable at the right time. In the past year the Council had seen the costs of providing social care services to vulnerable children and adults increase to £6m above the budgeted levels due the rising number of people requiring support and the high costs of providing complex care services to meet individual needs. 

                  He stated that the Council was facing £8m of pressures. There was £7m pressure for social care services alone which was significantly higher than the additional grant funding for Social Care announced in the September Spending Review. £1m of pressures were from other service areas.

                  He explained the Council had pared back capital spending proposals with only the highest priority schemes being included such as vehicles to deliver the new food waste service, improvements to Sandy Lane and Harmans Water schools as well as maintenance works across our property estate. The Council would continue to make full use of the external funding received for Highways schemes for example. 

                  He reflected that it was becoming increasingly difficult to identify savings that have little or no impact on service users. Savings of almost £5m had been sought to help balance the budget and the Council would work closely with the small number of service users potentially affected by the proposals, to ensure any impact on them was minimised.

                  The budget consultation had received 19 responses and though higher than previous years was still disappointing. Councillor Heydon thanked those that had, including colleagues in the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, and the Overview and Scrutiny Commission.

                  He explained that the local government finance settlement had included one further year of the New Homes Bonus grant which was an incentive for housing growth in 2020/21. As a consequence, the Council would receive an additional £1m  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

52.

Questions Submitted Under Council Procedure Rule 10

(i)         By Councillors Dr Barnard, Mrs Ingham and McLean to the Executive Member for Planning and Transport

 

Having campaigned consistently, over many years, for safer crossing points on Harvest Ride, we are delighted with the new Puffin crossing [connecting Quelm Park with Sopwith Road]. This will help keep our residents safe. However, given the speed of traffic on Harvest Ride, a further crossing is desperately needed to allow pedestrians to get from the southside of Harvest Ride to Whitegrove School and Westmorland Park safely. Can you confirm to us and our residents that money for this infrastructure project will be found from the capital budget, given the extra burden of new housing that has been place on Harvest Ride?

 

(ii)        By Councillor Temperton to the Leader of the Council

 

In July 2019, seven months ago, the Council unanimously agree to meet the government’s target of eradicating its net contribution to climate change by 2050. On 6 February 2020, a Freedom of Information request asked if the Council had calculated the carbon footprint across the Bracknell Forest area. The response was ‘No’. Is this calculation being done now?

Minutes:

Councillors Dr Barnard, Mrs Ingham and McLean asked Councillor Turrell, Executive Member for Planning and Transport the following published question:

 

Having campaigned consistently, over many years, for safer crossing points on Harvest Ride, we are delighted with the new Puffin crossing [connecting Quelm Park with Sopwith Road]. This will help keep our residents safe. However, given the speed of traffic on Harvest Ride, a further crossing is desperately needed to allow pedestrians to get from the southside of Harvest Ride to Whitegrove School and Westmorland Park safely. Can you confirm to us and our residents that money for this infrastructure project will be found from the capital budget, given the extra burden of new housing that has been place on Harvest Ride?

 

Councillor Turrell replied that across Bracknell Forest significant improvements had been achieved in road safety. He stated that reductions in numbers of deaths and injury accidents had been sustained over a number of years. This had been achieved by putting in many road safety measures, including traffic lights, crossings and improvements to paths and cycleways. He added that highways were regularly inspected and safety provision was reviewed in the light of evidence coming from recorded incidents. He explained that provision of appropriate highway infrastructure was sought at the planning stage.

 

Councillor Turrell was pleased that the recently installed crossing was welcomed and was making a difference to residents. He noted the views of the community and local Members that pedestrians wished to cross Harvest Ride in the location referred to in the question. He advised the meeting that officers had already been considering the future opportunity to provide a traffic light crossing in this location but that improvements of this type needed to be designed, planned and budgeted for. The draft 2021/22 transport capital programme would be developed and he hoped that this scheme would be part of the proposed programme, subject to no unforeseen budget pressures or emerging issues which take greater priority. He concluded that he was pleased to confirm that currently this location had a good safety record.

 

In response to Councillor Ingham’s supplementary questions he confirmed that he would be happy to meet with residents to hear their concerns and he advised that care should be taken in crossing the road in that location before an additional crossing was installed.

 

 

Councillor Temperton asked the Leader of the Council the following published question:

 

In July 2019, seven months ago, the Council unanimously agree to meet the government’s target of eradicating its net contribution to climate change by 2050. On 6 February 2020, a Freedom of Information request asked if the Council had calculated the carbon footprint across the Bracknell Forest area. The response was ‘No’. Is this calculation being done now?

 

Councillor Bettison OBE replied that officers were working with the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) to establish a set of baseline figures for the council’s own current carbon footprint. It is anticipated that this work would be completed during March 2020. APSE’s methodology  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk