Cabinet 10 January 2024, 10.15am | BCP Council

A meeting of the BCP Council Cabinet. Agenda, reports and other documents are available from:
https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=285&MId=5365

Good morning everybody and welcome to the uh January cabinet BCP Council most of us have only been 10 hours since we last saw each other as we didn’t finish Council until midnight and I want to thank all of the officers for being here bright and Breezy having also sat

Through until midnight so uh it’s a busy old week having done scrutiny on Monday and audit tomorrow don’t know who scheduled that one so we have a very busy agenda today um we are scheduled to be here until about 12:45 but I am slightly concerned we’ll get

Through it all we’ll just have to give it a go so agenda item one uh apologies for absence uh I’m aware that counselor David Brown will be arriving late because he’s attending in the public drop in at the um mown plus dat Center this morning so he’s probably expected

For about 11 o’clock but he will be here I think everybody else is here one two three four five six seven eight yes we’re all here so that’s good agenda item two Declarations of oh I hav’t done housekeeping Sarah’s Poise look at I shall pause and we will pass Sarah for

The housekeeping thank you leader um please note that this meeting of the cabinet is being recorded by the council for live broadcast and will be published on the council website for a minimum of 6 months please could everyone present follow these ground rules only speak when invited to by the leader if

Accessing via teams always turn on your video function when invited to speak and state your name please use your microphones when speaking and mute or turn off your microphone when you’re not talking if you are accessing via teams and would like to speak on an item please indicate by utilizing the raise

Your hand feature in the bar at the top of the team’s window for those in the room if the fire alarm sounds again please exit the building by way of the nearest available signed fire exit route and make your way to the assembly point along Bradley Road under the flyover or

In the surface car park at the front of the building finally please ensure background noise is kept to a minimum and mobile phones and other devices are turned off or switched to silent for the duration of the meeting thank you thank you Sarah so uh back to the

Agenda agenda item two is Declarations of interest does anyone have any uh declar declarations they need to refer to if they come up with any during the meeting if you could just make us aware agenda item three confirmation of minutes so we need to confirm and sign

Them as a true record um do we have somebody to move that they are a true record happy to propose them thank you and second councelor Cox thank you very much gender item four public issues so we have three public questions and I believe we have a statement which has

Just been handed to democratic Services as it um seem to arrive right on on the deadline but it’s fine we’re going to accept that so if I can ask the first questioner Mr Schroeder would you like to come up first to the table turn on your microphone ask a question and uh

We’ll give you your response good morning everyone and thank you for allowing us to bring our qu a question um my name is Peter schroer and for your information I am currently the chairman of the branken park and counter Cliffs residents Association which is somewhat relevant to the question my

Question is this in what way does the council think that reducing available parking by the plan selloff will improve either the quality of life or the economic well-being of the residents of pool thank you Mr schroer could you turn your microphone off but do stay there to

Hear your response uh thank you for your question which relates to the loss of parking and the associated impact on quality of life this car park has been underused for many years and even the peak summer months people avoid using this car park and instead choose to park

On residential roads or in illegal and dangerous places the previous burough of Paul established that it was not good value for money to retain this car park and agreed it it its sale uh and not good value for the taxpayers of Paul and now BCP and that it would be better

Served in relocating sorry reallocating part of this site and creating new homes here instead the sale of part of the site will also allow ow the remaining car park to be modernized so that the spaces are suitable for those who need it and the assessment shows that the

Overall change in the number of spaces will be adequate to meet the needs we are separately looking at the issues faced by residents on local roads like Lakeside road who are negatively impacted by thoughtless drivers blocking their access behaving in an unruly Mana late at night and we believe that

Supporting their calls for on street parking measures will improve their quality of life the economic value of new homes paying council tax and spending money in the local economy will more than outweigh the relatively low income from the car parking as is demonstrated in the report which you’ll hear about later furthermore the

Building of new homes will generate developer contributions that will support Community infrastructure and affordable housing for The Wider area thank you you’re welcome and the next question we have is from Roy pointer which is on the same item so Mr point if you’d like to go ahead morning leader

Morning members um my question relates obviously to item 11 on your agenda the sale of the south portion of Beach Road car park identifies the need for a business case for the upgrade retention of the remainder this business case could fail if considered in isolation can the council assure residents that the

Potential for the whole site be considered and apprais as one project linking the case for the part sale with the upgrade of the remainer thereby avoiding the latter being unviable due to the sale of the former thank you thank you for your question the business case for delivery of improvements in the

Rear car park is being expedited funding will be met through P wlb public works loan board borrowings and access Arrangements will be resolved prior to the completion of any sale there is therefore no need to link the two projects Expediting a sale will ensure an early Capital receipt for the council

Which in turn will help our efforts to fund the council’s transformation program and yeah um and uh improvements to the parking area including better signage to ensure drivers can locate it therefore ensuring that the new car park has better usage and finally we have Mr sprackling good morning my name is John sprackling

A member of the bankson park cist residents Association the report at paragraph 11 identifies the potential need for more on Street metered parking in order to support parking needs due to the reduced size of the car park the high cost of meter installation is unlikely to be recouped by charges

Since drivers simply Park in other roads leading to both local opposition and low meter usage is the council aware that there was significant opposition to extend onroad parking at a public meeting in 2016 which was attended by the current director of infrastructure in his former role as head of

Transportation and the opposition is unlikely to change should more onroad parking be contemplated as any part of this project thank you Mr spratling would you mind turning off your microphone sorry thank you the business case for the rear car park will address the need if any for additional on Street paining display in

Nearby roads and the latter would of course require further public consultation with all feedback given full consideration I have been lobbied very heavily actually over at least a year by local residents who are welcoming on street parking meters and have been campaigning themselves to have restrictions in their roads we would not

Rely on information gathered eight years ago to test the feelings of those most directly affected and negatively impacted by thoughtless parking elsewhere evidence suggests that the cost of installing metered or other restricted parking such as resident zones would be recouped within about two years I think we then have a statement

Um which is from Miss Moss now we don’t respond to statement so but it may be that during the discussion you might find your uh your comments are referred to but there’s no no commitment and I should also add we didn’t have sight of this until a moment

Ago so none of us will have been able to um to reflect on it in advance good morning I’m Vicky Moss from the brankston park and camp for cff’s residents Association no more developments are needed in this area there are blocks of apartments in the area close to the

Beach with over 25% second homes and used for only four weeks of the Year these developments are underutilized bh13 has the largest proportion of second homes in BCP with 133% of dwellings used as second homes and empty much of the year since the arrival of rock waterer

At branken beach there’s been an in Flux Of visitors and the car parking is frequently inadequate I see cars regularly turning away because Beach Road car park is shut this is currently losing the revenue Council there’s also frequent flooding within 100 meters of this site at the

Entrance to Beach Road car park and drainage is a major issue along the BR length of Brank some Chine please Preserve Beach Road car park for public use as a car park and don’t more people have the right to have a day at the beach thank you thank you m

Moss so as you say that is um item uh 11 on the agenda so it may be sometime before we get to there but uh we will be dealing with those issues later on so that brings us to agenda item five which is recommendations from the overiew and scrutiny committees I

Can see that we have councelor Steve Bartlett chair of the overview and scrutiny board online um just trying to recall whether we had specific recommendations from Monday I think we had um we didn’t did we um but do you have anything that you want to raise

That for items that are not on the cabinet agenda uh that have come up through the OV and scrutiny committee at this point no no leader thank you thank you we’ll come back to you as is traditional um when uh when we go through things and just for those

Members of the public um the process that we follow is that we introduce an item we then go to the chair of scrutiny if he has anything to add Ward counselors if they are um on online with us or in the room other members of council for their comments before we

Move to a debate among the cabinet um so that we can make sure we fully take into account the views of people who are not in cabinet when we make a decision so just for clarity about the order of things that takes us on to the main

Items of business so uh the first item is item six which is the council tax tax base for 2425 which I believe is going to be introduced by councelor Mike Cox do you have a second of Mike oh we did but he’s not here somebody like to Second this one

Thank you councelor Martin over to you councelor Cox thank you very much leader um this is a a very technical paper um uh and um despite the fact that not many people give it too much attention there’s an awful lot of work goes into preparing this uh by the finance team um it

Basically uh comes to um brings together a calculation of the uh Council taxpayers uh of BCP um and is set out in the uh in the paper um the only thing I would say about it is that there does seem to be an awful lot of um households where that which is

Applying a discount uh and that uh we will be looking uh specifically at this uh to make sure that um those that are applying for a discount are entitled to a discount um and um and that’s all I would like to say about it I recommend that we approve the report of the

Calculation of the council tax base for 2425 thank you um so do we have any counselors not on cabinet uh I can see we have councelor canavan uh bosam councelor and councelor bartler who’s the chair of obw scrutiny border online we don’t have any counselors in in the

Room can’t see either of them indicating to speak anyone on cabinet wish to speak on it if not I’ll I have a couple of questions sorry so yes I um section1 officer you might you might want to get ready um so uh whilst other people are thinking i’

I’ve got two questions oh a statement first of all a question the first is just for clarity um in paragraph um paragraph six just to confirm that we did ratify last night the agreement that uh we will be charging um 200% council tax on um second homes and changing the

Rules around what constitutes an empty home so that they get the um discount for a shorter period of time and just for clarity for those who don’t um who don’t know how the system works is we have to give 12 month notice under the leveling up uh act uh of that so

Therefore that won’t take effect for the tax year that starts in April 24 it will start in April 25 um and those assumptions have been U baked into the future budget so we’re very very aware of the problem of second homes ac across the area and many councils are now

Taking advantage of the right to to charge increased council tax uh in recognition of that the question that I have um what was my question oh gosh I can’t remember what my question was terrible isn’t it well while you’re thinking of the question it was a question for

Adam I would like to as you’ve made a statement about the second HS I’ll make a statement about the second HS in as far as I don’t necessarily agree with this uh because I think there will be unintended consequences um I I I I listen to to the the um the lady that

Made the statement uh and the the problems with second homes uh I think there’s also advantages with second homes as supp there less people around um uh but there will be unintended consequences of this which I don’t understand what they will be and none of us understand what they will be but

There will be and therefore I’m reluctant with this measure but it’s it’s a measure which will increase the income uh for BCP and therefore I am supporting it thank you I’ve remembered what my com my question was Adam and then I’m going to come on to councel Hadley councelor

Martin my question was around risk um so uh I am aware of a a situation at the moment where a significant number of of Council taxpayers in an area are challenging the that that they should been paying council tax um and I don’t want to get into the details of a

Specific case but do we have uh how do we factor in uh the the risk of people who challenge their council tax Band because it does happen you do hear about it fairly regularly uh and I’m wondering whether on balance We There were as many go one way as the

Other way or whether there is actually any set aside Reserve that takes account of the risk of us suddenly having to you pay back a whole load of counsil tax that’s been over paid by residents because they’ve been in the wrong council tax Band so leader thank you for the

Question two elements that are in the sense that within the overall tax based calculation um there is reference to the rate of collection the actual amount that we collect um as a percentage of the overal amount we build now within that amount it takes account of historic information Trend analysis because as

You say the challenge that you are aware of is probably not a new one probably one we faced in previous years so one assumes it will be taken account of in that overall collection not being 100% but being slightly less than 100% because we assume not all of it will be

Collected with regards to the risk for the budget however that’s slightly different in the sense that once we agree an amount um that will be collected you and supporting the budget by way of council tax that’s hardcoding in that’s the amount we Shue and that if you like then

Feeds into the collection fund account because in there you’ve got the amount being drawn down to support the budget which is fixed in that account you’ve got the amount we’re actually being collected and then any difference in that by way of a surplus or deposit is then taken account of in the following

Year budget process so that’s why every year around about this time you find that with regard the budget process we either introduct a problem by a deficit on the collection fund or Surplus on the collection fund based on how well we’ve been doing at collecting the amount that

We you know assume as part of the budget process so that’s how the mechanism Works hopefully that helps that does help thank you and and looking at the numbers it’s over a third of properties that are getting us what a 25% discount which effec a single person discount

That that does feel very unlikely that a third of the homes are occupied by a single person despite our aging population so I’d be really interested to know what we’re doing to to um in a bit more detail about how we challenge that that does feel quite out of

Kilter just just to be clear when it comes to the budget process for 2425 you know we are making assumptions that um you know that the amount of discounts that we will reduce because of a level of investment we’re putting into an income maximization team to try and actually Ensure

That nobody is claiming that 25% discount erroneously if I can put it that way so there’ll be a lot of time and effort going into processes to make sure that as robust as possible as we can get it going forward thank you councelor Hadley thank you um um I was just going

To um respond actually to to council Cox’s point about um second homes and and empty homes and and I think um aside from the the income that the council might get from it I I do welcome this um as Miss Moss um referenced um in her area of of the town 133% of

Dwellings are second homes and and that means they they’re often standing empty so it’s the same as an empty home and uh we have a housing crisis and we have people who can’t afford places to to live um and and um and also th those empty houses whether they’re um Holiday

Homes that are not being used um or or just vacant are not you know there aren’t people contributing to the to to the area so it creates of of of places which are are are are um are not actively part of our community so I think you know it does it does hopefully

Give people an opportunity to reflect on whether they really need to keep empty property or or or or whether that that um that it’s good use of of the the space that we have so I welcome it thank you thank you Council Hadley Council Martin uh just yeah thank you leader

Just to Echo um the points just made by councelor Hadley um I have every sympathy with um m mosson and the the residence and branom uh I don’t know what the figure in in my own ward of high cliff is in terms of how many second homes but there

Are an awful lot it may be nearly 133% all the all the new properties that particularly the blocks the apartment blocks that are being built they are all quite obviously uh overwhelmingly for second homes uh so I think that’s a massive problem there so uh yeah sympathize with that

I’d just like to ask and forgive me if this fig is in the report I couldn’t see it but can we is there a how much in income are we expecting to generate from the second homes of this 200% and also how many properties do we assess there

To be in the BCP area that will uh come into this category if you can help me with that mik M microphone please Council Cox sorry H I think if you look at the um the schedule on page 26 it does that show you the uh the premium um that that

Will be charged I think can’t immediately see it now but I think but I understood it was it was in the regional five six million yeah we in that’s five or six million per year per year going forward which could make quite a substantial that’s the equivalent of about two and a half%

Council tax on everybody that is the assumption um I believe there will be unintended consequences which might may well reduce that but we’ll see however what I would say is that I think uh on the basis that this is being brought in for to alleviate homelessness that money should be allocated directly

To homelessness that’s my personal opinion but we can’t afford it so thank you councelor Cox I know I’m sure councelor Wilson will talk about the great work that is being done to invest huge amounts of money in homelessness um across lots and lots of projects does anybody else want to uh

Speak on this one or are we happy to move on and note this is a note isn’t it um approve it and yeah go forward based upon the tax base of there being 46,4 properties that are paying council tax in BCP it’s a recommendation to council thank you so this this will this

Recommendation to council which then forms part of the February budget setting obviously we need this in order to be able to know what numbers are there for the budget it will do exactly thank you okay all those in favor that’s unanimous thank you very much that takes us on to the next agenda

Item uh which is the corporate performance report for Quarter Two uh which I will be um proposing do I have a seconder yeah happy to Second thank you councilor El so um this paper went to scrutiny on Monday and it is it is looking at the performance of the

Council against the indicators that had been set under the previous corporate strategy uh in 2019 and the revised delivery plans that were set in February 2022 so from in one respect uh it’s it’s fairly out of date it’s a backward-looking report but it does give us the opportunity to look at

Where there are issues in certain departments um where there are problems um there are exception reports and I think um just pay credit to to the officers who’ve actually work really hard on improving those exception reports so that we’ve got a deep really clear route at you know to to improve um

Showing what what’s going to be different um just so you’re aware if you if you weren’t actually at the meeting on Monday the new corporate strategy which was adopted last night will have new delivery plans which will be coming to Cabinet in April so that when we start

The new Financial year we’ll have a new set of delivery plans and targets and one of the things which scrutiny were were quite clear on on Monday and and I absolutely agree with them was the need for these targets to be smart targets um there it’s it’s very easy to say you

Know are we on track for um you know for our um improved recycling rates but unless we have a Target we don’t know whether that’s really been achieved so um I know that Isa and the team in in policy will be making sure that they have much more effective targets the

Other thing to to note uh is that we o provide an update on the response to the best value notice which was given to the council in the summer following the um issues um under the previous administration we expect the best value notice to remain in place for about a

Year and I’m really really pleased uh if you look at the response to that quite a lot of the matters in that are complete um most of them are making good progress and the only ones that are Amber on there are are typically ones around uh uh the governance of companies which

We’re coming on to later and also ones that um are under the remit of the monitoring officer and of course Jamie Barry the monitoring officer was only formally um approved last night so I think we need to give her a little bit of time to actually get that work done

Um but having started just before Christmas it’s it’s um that’s going to take a few months to feed through so I commend this policy and happy to take any questions so councelor bartler can I invite you first to tell us if there’s specifics I know one of the members was

Very concerned about the the lack of a carbon measurement under the um under the the plan uh and I’ve already raised that that obviously we have the the climate plan coming in March but we’re also looking at how we can have that as a measure on here um but apart from that

I’m trying to recall any specifics no I think I think the main issue was the one regarding smart targets um leader the the other thing I would say is that um it just generally I think there was that that uh the committee was very pleased about the progress made regarding the best value

Notice um one and of course we understand there’s a new corporate plan coming which will follow the the new strategy that uh has been published but as a from a personal perspective it would be nice to to make sure that we don’t lose sight to some of the existing

Uh items on the current uh plan because there are some very very meaty issues in there and and I hope we won’t lose sight of them when the new plan emerges uh in due course um I think that’s all I need to say thank leer thank you Council bartler I would

Stress again that some of the measures that we’re measured on are are externally measured some are so they they will have to continue some are measures that we’ve chosen to report on um and as I said on Monday night if there are measures that uh individual counselors feel that we

Should be uh making sure we don’t lose them uh rather than wait until it inevitably comes to scrutiny uh it would be great to hear in the meantime so we can make sure we get ahead of the game so I encourage you just drop me an email

Or Isa and we we can make sure that um if that’s at least considered and if it isn’t going to be retained actually we understand why it’s not going to be retained um because I agree with you we shouldn’t be throwing the baby out with the bath water there are lots of things

In the new corporate strategy that are followed across from both the original strategy and also some amendments that were made under the previous administration so it’s absolutely not a you know a fresh start it is a it’s a an evolution not a revolution I think um okay there’s nobody else uh

Showing on screen uh so cabinet any comments on the corporate performance report councilor Wilson thanks L yeah I just wanted to comment um on page 40 of the report and the issues around um those who are um rough sleeping but also the percentage of eligible households with children or

Homelessness was prevented within 56 days um these are areas where we’re strug we have been struggling um so when this report was formulated hopefully um when the next iteration of this comes out we’ll have seen um some better results um with the opening of um temporary accommodation at um Herber

Avenue but also um some of the Acquisitions we’re doing um but I think it kind of leads back to the last item on the tax for second homes and trying to get empty properties back into use you know these are places where families could be living you know children um

Will be able to do their homework uh parents can can cook a meal so um you know those those figures are really really um difficult to to live with um so hopefully we’ll see an increase in them uh in the future um going on to the

The the the rough sleeping of the latest Street Count um I actually think that Target is a very difficult Target to achieve in the current climate um so I think even if we made significant progress on it um it would still probably find itself being red or Amber

Um because it is just where we find ourselves at the minute um so so I think um yeah that’s what I have to really say say on the issue but there’s a lot of uh work going on um and we’re doing well to be honest to sust not seeing an overall

Increase in the number of people rly this has kind of been a pretty consistent Trend this number um so yeah thank you thank you um I suppose I got a question sorry Isa can I ask a question about why why it takes why we’re reviewing the quarter two when we’re just starting

Quarter 4 because it’s I I find it frustrating and I’m sure others do when they read the reports that we’re almost not really allowed to talk about the stuff that has been done in the last three or four months we’re only allowed to really talk about the stuff that was

Done in the previous three or four months which means we can’t celebrate the great things like the opening of the Herber Avenue um and and I just wonder whether there’s whether it’s it’s the nature of the way we Target and there’s not enough of a dashboard uh or whether

It’s whether we’re just never going to get any closer I think it’s a bit both we are um working on a dashboard which is more um intuitive and something that can be updated by servic themselves rather than having to send something around in quite a long process so our ambition is

Absolutely to have something that is both quicker but also that you could Dig Down Deeper into the um data behind the report as well so that’s our ambition for the next corporate um strategy and the performance reporting around it so bear with us and watch the space that things

About to say thank you Isa anybody else want to make any comments so I know there are quite a few of the exceptions related to Children’s but that’s separately scrutinized at Children’s and and had a a very robust scrutiny last week so um there’s any reason to go into

That again so oh Council Cox I was just going to add uh on that is I think I reported last night that I did go to a conference yesterday uh on finance with the LGA um where the um senior civil servant uh was was reporting on what we

Can do about DSG Grant and what the likely long-term consequences will be and um it I I did put it to him directly you know what was going to happen if we didn’t get the waiver uh because that is fundamental to u to whether we get a

Section 114 notice or not and and that was clearly um very U taking a lot of people’s attention in the room and um he was very clear that in his opinion and this was his opinion because he’s only a civil servant not a politician um that

There would there would have to be the waiver unless there was a solution unless the government came up with a solution and that was his his clear uh advice which I thought was was quite interesting um that he was being that blunt about it that he could not foresee

Any Prospect of it not being wer um without uh some sort of solution from the government thank you councelor Cox okay well if there’s no other comments on that and say this has had quite a robust scrutiny so um I think we can um take it

That uh all those in favor of the recommendation ation in the report it’s unanimous thank you very much moves on to the next item which is the teny strategy for register providers of social housing 2024 to 2029 this one being introduced by councelor Wilson do we have a

Seconder happy to second that thank you councelor Al so I’ll pass over to councelor Wilson cheers thank you leader um the localism ACT requires councils to prepare and publish a tency strategy for social housing providing as part of its strategic role for the area um that sets out the matters which

Uh providers should have regard to when formulating policies relating to the type of Tendencies they will grant um we as a registered provider of social housing uh must also have regard to our own strategy um it supports the harmonization approach um to the use of flexible fixed term Tendencies within

The council’s own housing stock all tency strategies held with by previous Legacy authorities supported the discretionary use of flexible fixed term Tendencies the use of these Tendencies um have been relatively low and most providers have moved away from using them the reasons for this uh are that

They do not achieve their aims they create uncertainty for tendency add complexity uh increase resource requirements to ourselves and social providers um and a required uh a require them to manage them effectively uh as they can act as a barrier to supporting tenants uh to man Tendencies the revised tendency strategy

Um supports the lifetime uh the use of Lifetime Tendencies rather than fixter tencies to provide Assurance to tenants uh and kind of contribute to creating a sustainable Community um it will continue to allow the discretionary use of fixed term tendencies in appropriate circumstances um but generally we’re supporting the

Lifetime use of Tendencies um so I’m happy to bring this uh strategy forward thank you thank you Council Wilson do we have any members not on cabinet wishing to speak on this councilor canavan I thought you might like to speak on this one please do go

Ahead um thank you L thank you for the opportunity um to speak and thank you to council Wilson and the team uh for putting this strategy together uh I just wanted to check that my understanding is correct the scope of this paper covers registered social housing providers as I

Understand it which which the paper makes clear includes the local Authority itself so I am just wondering whether there is another piece of work here that we could do to extend this tency strategy to the private sector um there there does seem to me to be a big gap between the protection of

Tenants in uh who are in registered social housing provider accommodation and those in the private sector so I I am Keen to explore whether it’s possible to extend this uh policy to the private sector especially in order to be able to tackle the issues that we have constantly around section 21 and um

People being uh people being made homeless so any any work that we could do uh to do that would be most appreciated so thank you thank you councelor canavan I’m G to ask councelor Wilson to come back directly on that before I come to Cabinet discussion um thank you uh councelor

Canan um yeah I think uh you raised really good point um around um around the need to tackle some of the issu isues within the private rented sector unfortunately uh this document uh wouldn’t be able to expand to the private rented sector but we are going to be doing a piece of work

To encourage um those in the private rental sector um to deal with these tendency issues um so that’s going to be coming forward in the spring in our housing strategy revision um and and yeah so it’s it’s a piece of work that that we’re looking towards but unfortunately this is something that we

Require as part of localism act and and is just specifically for social housing providers so I hope that’s helpful but be reassured we are looking into the issues within private rental sector separately and we will be bringing something forward in due course can I just get clarity I mean the

Vast majority of people in private tencies sign an assured shorthold tency and when they’ve signed an assured shold tency which is the norm um then they’ve signed their assured short hoold tendency our role presumably is in making sure that their private sector enforcement team that we have which do

Some great work in making sure that the quality um of the property is people have the their rights they’re able to exercise their rights to ensure their properties are of decent quality and their land will treat them fairly but presumably once somebody’s signed an assured shold tenancy which is

Normal we we we can’t suddenly say to a landlord you have to do a lifetime tency that would be quite odd wouldn’t it yeah so um we wouldn’t um be encouraging it from that perspective but what we can do is we can have a strategy for uh working with private landlords in

Order to encourage them to um maintain and have good Str tency management um so I think we can as well just outside of any strategy work on relationships with private landlords better in order order to make sure that they’re for example when when an eviction happens they’re

Probably informing us um in good time that they’re planning on doing that so that allows us to relieve the homelessness Duty etc etc so I think there’s loads of stuff that we can be doing around that um and that’s the piece of work that we’re going to be

Working on in the future but as you say yeah we can’t we can’t prescribe um private landlords to use U lifetime tencies and we can’t um um prescribe um register iders in the area to to use lifetime Tendencies this is a strategy this is guidance um that they have to

Take note of and adher to and they would be uh using it generally um but equally they can go their own way so I’m just trying to see who else was on Council in 2011 I don’t know whether Jeff was on a council back then

In another part of the country but I do remember this legislation Chang ing in 2011 and us a lot of us being very very nervous about what it would do to communities when people who were in Council housing would no longer have the security that they would stay in their

Community and would it would it unravel you know the social fabric um so I do it’s really interesting that we got from the fear of not doing Lifetime tencies and having these to allow the three ther and to enable the down sizing of people and now it’s sort of almost been um you

Know ruled as not really working my only fear on that is is when I read the paper there was a suggestion that there was an element of the um of that act and it may be that Sheamus was just gone I think but I was going to ask Sheamus if he

Knew the answer um I was just wondering whether you know that there was a a part of the the act that hadn’t been enforced um and was there any risk to us that if they I’m I’m going to be slightly political I always like to warn people I

Think if there’s a change of government there’s absolutely no risk that a labor government would enforce things that don’t Advantage people who are in social housing but if there’s a new conservative government is there a risk that they might say actually we want to pursue this and therefore if we’ve moved

Away does that present then a risk to us that we aren’t complying with what the government wants um in in terms of um using fixed term okay um yeah um I I don’t think so to be honest um because I think nationally and generally local authorities are moving

Away from this um and social housing providers in general um so I don’t think there is that appetite I mean um I think early on um when these were introduced it was pretty clear that they weren’t having the effect that the government um wanted them to have when they brought

Them in so I don’t think it’s it’s high on the government’s um agenda to be honest to to maintain uh or kind of prescribe that local authorities use these type of Tendencies okay anybody else c yeah I guess you know the part it is why why were they introduced in the first

Place and I think it was about trying to look at under occupancy and and again you know we have a real problem in terms of families particularly in bed and breakfast and not having seit accommodation so there is kind of something about how we can incentivize people to to right size their property

Staying in the community that they’re in um and to help them and that is covered in the paper but it talks in terms of you know there there are other methods but I wonder if you just how how do we support people to think about you know

Are we still in the right am I still in the right sort of property for myself and can I make space for somebody else to to make better use of it yeah I think that’s another really good point um I think that it’s an area

Where we need to do better at to be honest um I think we do have incentives um to get people to move but we don’t advertise them tremendously well but also it’s about um trying to because I think the biggest barrier between you know kind of Mrs miggins who’s in an

Oversized house wanting to downsize is wanting to be close to the area in the community that she knows so it’s trying to link up um those properties in those areas better and again I think this is something that we want to see more of as the the new kind of revised housing

Strategy comes forward um but yeah I think uh we do have incentives we do have a program and we do get um moves happening occasionally but probably not as often as as we could um I I know one of my um next door neighbors was was wanting to

To downsize and there wasn’t anything around her um so that’s you know trying to match that up at the time they want to kind of move on is is kind be quite difficult but yeah I think it’s definitely an area that we want to see improvements on thank you Council Hadley and Council

Wilson anybody else want to speak no in which case um if we can approve this as our new oh I’m sorry sorry I just want to uh make one last point that I kind of forgot to mention in my opening um but just the

The the cost um that this has to the HRA um the the amount we’re going to save by moving towards the light Ines as well because the process of the fixed turn flexible um is is around probably about 20 or 30,000 which is going to be used

Uh to improve customer service and kind of some of our regulatory stuff that’s coming in April um so that’s going to see an improvement for for residents within the H so yeah just wanted to kind of get that get that positive news in as well thanks Council Wilson so this is a

Cabinet decision this doesn’t need to go to full Council so the recommendation is to approve the revised BCP Council tenants strategy so all those in favor of doing so excellent that is approved that takes us on to the next agenda item which is agenda item nine the

Active travel fund four this is going to be presented by councelor Hadley do we have a second there yes I’m quite happy to second that thank you councelor Burton so over to you councel Hadley thank you T um yes so so much earlier in the year we were um

Um um fortunate to get a grant from U um from government under the ATF um um for scheme um to to look at a number of of routes um and as part of our local walking and cycling infrastructure plan uh um there’s a strong identification of trying to extend roots that already

Exist um and and to make Mak to make Roots make more sense by by by linking them up so the the emphasis was on on extending uh links that that that were planned this paper is really just to to seek delegation to to get on with it um

And it’s been delayed and there were some questions about you know we we had this money um in this financial year we need to crack on with it um so so what we’ being asked to doday is is really just to to confirm uh um the um or

Recommend Council um to delegate the U um implementation um paragraph 8 talks about this specific schemes um and it’s it’s around um parts of the W down road we’ve already done several several elements of the W down road but extend in extending that uh um and the tury

Park link um uh making some of our school streets measures permanent in our first school street so there there’s some some hard infrastructure work to um put in better Gates that that that will work for the longer term on those School streets we want to make permanent and obviously there’s some more temporary

Ones behind that that we’d like to expand the school streets program um the beta beta foot path so on White Cliff uh um the the the foot path has been separated to provide a walking route cycling route um that’s been been successful I think generally and and the

Intention is to roll that right right the way around through beta um including there’s a separate piece of work about the the Gully at the entrance to um the uh the Lagoon in p park um and and it will link up with with the work that’s

Going on there um and the fourth one is the Bournemouth Garden so it’s it’s it’s beyond the work that came under the um um transforming travel uh um link which improved the bottom half of of that path is extending that up uh um through through to towards qu Bond um there’s

Then also work on on um Planning Development um of the uh the fourth part of Wallis down road which is the Boundary Road to University roundabout so it’s how to get past the university um and also um the crossroads both of which are quite difficult schemes particularly the crossroad scheme of Wan

Because there an awful lot of um businesses and shops there that need to be taken account of so so so for those two it’s about designing those Consulting on them or you know looking at the scheme with hope that there’ll be Future vs of funding that we can bid for

To actually Implement them um so that that’s the schemes and and the the request is to recommend delegation thank you thank you for that uh counselors canaban or Bartlett either of you wishing to speak on this one nope anybody in cabinet wishing to speak on this one councelor

Uh thank you leader um I was just gonna say is the lead for road safety on um cabinet as well that uh I’m really really glad that we’re able to move forward with this fund I think the the work that’s been done so far um I’ve been very lucky in

My world to have some improvements I know that other councilors have as well um and yeah just um hoping that we’ll uh uh be able to improve Ro safety through this as well thank you CA Ben yeah I would just like to add I’m very pleased that the idea of

Linking up what we already have the frustration always is with people who use uh Ed transport corridors is when they um appear and then disappear um and then you left the strandard before you join the next section uh so so the leaking I think is really good

Use and it would be really good to move on with this quickly um so anything that we can do to speed up this I’m in favor of and Council Hadley I’m aware that the the the the grant that’s been given uh has to be committed uh during this

Financial year which it will be this will come to full Council in uh February is there a requirement under the grant of when the works have to be commenced or completed um I know we’ll work as quickly as possible but I just want to make sure there’s no risk in terms of

Capacity in losing the money having accepted it well yes I I have that same same hope leader I part of of applying for these grants was looking at schemes that were I think the term they use is shovel ready that we had already planned some of the detail on them and the four

Schemes that are intended to be implemented have been planned in detail um and so so yes I think the workers you know the preparation work is already already underway but it is about ensuring that we can move forward at PACE councelor Hadley councelor Martin correct first name wrong second name

Slightly off point although it’s on it’s about Road saap it’s just a little anecdote from earlier this week um coming to Cabinet next month uh is uh a um recommendation to reduce the speed limits in highli two speed limits which are for and going down to 30 um the

Reason I mentioned it in is in the context of Ro safety so I put something on uh Facebook earlier in the week uh yeah school boy error uh I put um something on Facebook saying this is great news blah blah blah blah and I got an absolute battering um from people

From clearly drivers many many of them don’t actually live in the world uh about which what stupid idea it should the whole place should be 40 m hour 50 m hour EX Etc so I just mention that because there’s clearly a lot of work to be done by

Educating people about speed uh and road safety so this might be an opportunity to uh do some coms around that but I must admit I was absolutely stagered by the reaction to what I thought was a really piece of good news about Road Safety I’ll just add to that anote

About two years ago we finally managed to get um lower BL Road in Broadstone move from a 40 to a 30 it had previously been the same speed as the bypass and Gravel Hill the two main roads on either side and so satnavs were automatically routing um vehicles that way because it

Was 40 it was most direct uh it had taken us 10 years to get that speed reduction um we still don’t have the zebra Crossing on it that that I’m I’m not going to give up on um but we had an absolute fight on our hands but the vast

Vast majority of people now that it’s in can’t imagine that it would have ever been a 40 mph Road it’s got over a hundred houses on it it’s got cycle Lane on it you know it’s got bus stops on it it’s crazy that it was ever 40 and

Actually the saavs typically will take you on the bass because the satav will will look to where the speed limit is so hold your nerve hold your nerve it’s it’s the right thing to do um if it’s gone through a period of consultation and it’s gone through a democratic

Process you know it’s not like you’ve just come in and done it it’s gone through a process usually there are many many more people who will petition in favor on it on it but they’re not going to put the heads above the paret on social media because it’s going to get

Blown off as as we know you know you have a very brave person to uh to face the uh the internet trolls could I could could I just add that um know I’ve just forgotten what I was going to no what did order it was um you just mentioned

It took 10 years to get the speed reduction in one EUR phone so thanks to our brilliant traffic team uh it’s only taken nine months from uh from request to getting it to cabinet thank you Council Burton yeah I R going off on a tangent on this about a road safety in traffic

Speeds um I’ve seen very similar comments um about speeds um what one this Noma which a lot of people promote is that modern cars are much uh are safer designed now to be able to stop quicker uh the highway code was was written cars didn’t have such good

Brakes um that that is to a certain extent true but one thing that hasn’t been upgraded in that time is uh driver’s ability the total stopping distance of course 30 m hour majority of it is driver thinking time um you most accidents happen a driver will hit The

Pedestrian still at 30 m hour before they actually apply the breakes um and therefore that best needs to be getting out very clearly um it’s not the the car’s fault it’s actually the driver’s issue uh they not reacting quick enough and and still hitting pedestrians P 30 m

Hour thank you and we do have a paper coming I think in April on 20 mile and hour program which uh councelor Earl referenced last night so road safety and uh you know making sure that everybody has the right to go out and walk in their street is something that we are

Going to be dealing with quite a lot in the coming uh months and I am aware that one of our our uh members of the public has been talking at length for many many years in the area around camper Cliffs about ridiculous levels of speeding so you know for everybody who’s ansty about

It there are more people who are genuinely worried for their safety and the safety of their families their dogs and whatever so um councelor Hadley and welcome to councelor Brown who’s now joined us thank you D yes I think it’s interesting isn’t it because parts of

The reason we have to invest in in in in U um measures for active travel for encouraging people supporting people walking cycling you mentioned as as e Crossing to help people crossing crossing the road is because of driver behavior and it’s getting worse and certainly since since Co it seems there

Are people who are less tolerant U um cars are are are bigger they they they they have all sorts of safety features for the occupants but they don’t actually have an awful lot of safe to features to people outside of the cars and that’s part of the reason why we

Have to invest in active travel um is to support um support everyone and support our communities and and as you said particularly U um on some of our uh across the whole area actually um and I think you know the roads you refer to will come come back to us next month but

It’s not not long sections of Road and and part of the Again part of the excuse that people will go is I didn’t realize the road the speed had changed here we need consistency we need it to be clear we need to support people at traveling by all means thank you thank you

Councelor Hadley so there’s no other comments um we uh this is one that we have to recommend to council is on the agenda for February so that we meet that deadline line so all those in favor of so recommending thank you and I’m assuming councelor Brown is um abstaining because

He wasn’t here for the discussion thank you so that brings us on to agenda item 10 which is another one from councelor Hadley uh proposed shared flood and Coastal erosion Risk Management Service with East Devon District Council councelor Hadley do you have a second I’m also quite happy to

Second that one thank you councelor Burton over to you Hadley thank you L um this is um good news uh tripy if I can call it that um I I listened to the east or East Devon uh um cabinet meeting uh where they were uh looking to uh um to

To to agree to to this and they were very welcoming of bcb’s input um because effectively the cost for them is less than employing um one individual one expert and it gives them access to our team um from our perspective it it gives our our our um we have have we have a

Team that that are already working across the Southwest with lots of different authorities um and and we get tend to be called in by those authorities when they’ve got a problem to solve or a project they want to to do what this allows us to do with East St

Is to help them to manage their Capital program more proactively um and a lot of this is is about accessing grants in the environment agency um we have been very successful in our our own area in accessing monies from the envirment agency for flood protection particularly where households or Perman residences

Are at risk um and and by entering um an agreement with East de Council it allows us to help them to manage that process um if there’s additional costs in within this then they would be met from the capital schemes that are um are um are consequent um and as a district council

They don’t have the capacity that the the expertise within house um they made reference in in their discussion to U um Coastal Partners which is the East U um East Solen area um which was a shared service that actually our head of service originally set up um and that’s

Very successful for areas like Portsmouth and havant and and the whole of the east solum in working as one it means you can retain more better experts that are well regarded nationally um that that know that no the system with the environment agency and other

Agencies in terms of what we can do how we need to work with the Mariton uh management organization um so it’s a complicated area it’s a good news story for us it’s a good news story for East D East Devon and it’s also good for the environment agency because they like

To have experts to deal with they recognize there are limited number of these people who have the expertise to be able to help us to support not just the coastal flooding but also Inland flooding which is as we know through through climate change and through recent events is getting more difficult

And it’s not just about Block gullies it’s about the the intensity of rain for the time time time scale of that and the impact of the rivers Rising more more quickly than we’ve seen in in the history um so that’s that’s the recommendation is is to um is to agree

To enter the shared service agreement with east7 thank you councelor Hadley any non-cabinet members wanting to speak on this one no I just want to clarification Council hudley obviously you know we have a fantastic team the team led by Matt really are exceptional at what they do um obviously we still have flooding

Just for clarity this is a strategic organization this isn’t about you know the the rotors for when the gullies get cleaned or the leaves get swept because clearly you know they experts in doing this but we’ve still all of us will get people sort of quite rightly saying you

Know when are you going to clean the leaves off my road that’s not what FS does is it it’s a total that street scene as opposed to this is strategic infrastructure about getting millions of pounds for Coastal defenses and things absolutely it is but there are areas like for instance kinson that have

Suffered some sever flooding and our flooding Coastal erosion risk management team uh will support planning um so they work with the planning officer as as experts to be pulled in to look at as you say there’s more strategic issues about how do we resolve this how do we

Work with westex water with with the environment agency with others to to resolve long-standing problems um and provide advice to to different parts of of of our Council and and but absolutely the the Gully cleaning and the and the U um and and managing the leaves is for

The environment team which is also under my portfolio um and um and that is an ongoing struggle um obviously in in the current financial situation thank you anybody wish to speak on this one if not this is a decision for us to agree to enter the shared service

Agreement um so if anyone nobody wants to speak on this one in that case we’ll just go straight to the vote all those in favor that is unanimous that brings us on to agenda item 11 which is the South part of Beach Road car park um this one

I am introducing do I have a second uh thank you counselor Earl yeah happy to second okay so in uh in introducing this paper um it’s just really a reminder uh and for those of us who came from the burough of Paul uh this is the third or

Possibly the fourth time um that this paper in various iterations has has come to council um obviously it was declared um under utilized um and it was declared Surplus most recently in March um we’ve heard concerns from local people about whether it is or it isn’t underutilized uh but the paper demonstrates

Uh that in High season and in low season or lower season because it is closed in the winter um that this car park is not is not well used um future places obviously were asked to look look at this to actually assess the way forward

With it uh and we we have made the decision previously to to crack on and sell this um sell this for housing it was allocated um quite a long time ago back in 2015 uh it was established that the capacity meant that there it was reasonable to release the southern

Section uh and then in the poor local plan it was ocated it was allocated as suitable for 60 homes so this is almost a decade old and I think um we really just need to get on with this now because uh it is I don’t know how many people

Have used this car park I’ve certainly attempted to use it quite a lot it does suffer uh from unauthorized encampments and that’s mainly because it is very overgrown uh most of the car parking is um is not well laid out uh there’s tree rout

Um in in the ground and so it’s it’s not actually very pleasant place to park um that certainly the higher end which is the end that’s being proposed to to sell um you have to climb quite a steep hill back from the beach with your buckets and your Spades and everything else

Whereas the lower part which is being retained um you can uh access on a More Level basis so it has the potential to be improved as a car park and actually be made better with much more disabled parking totally agree with residents that the size of the branom chine carpo isn’t

Adequate for branken Chine um but I don’t think the answer is retaining both elements of this um car park uh it will enable there to be um homes there which will generate um economic activity uh we know that there are concerns from the Ward councilors have have raised their concerns over years

And we do have a statement uh from one of the ward counselors who’s unable she was hoping to be online but is not so our officers are going to read that statement um the pro the suggestion is we we could leave it we could leave it

Just as it is um that wouldn’t allow us any income to be able to put into the transformation and we would really wouldn’t be able to justify borrowing money um to improve a car park which the evidence suggests that there is not um the use of so uh that isn’t really an

Option if we were to retain the car Park and sell it with planning consent which is sort of what future places we’re trying to to move forward on um we’d be in a situation where it could take years um for us to generate any income and as

We’ve seen with other sites um then the council retains all of the problems associated with that uh and very little of the benefit so the um the third option would be for us to develop it directly uh again if is this the site that we would

Want to develop bearing in mind we want to move forward on private rental and um affordable homes so that takes us to the recommended option which is to invite offers to sell it directly um to put in an overage Clause that would ensure that actually if somebody was

Making a lot more money than expected from it that the council gets the benefit of that that’s fairly standard practice uh and to do it on a a long potentially so that we we retain the ownership of of the land um the next steps would be um to to really put it

Out to Market and and my recommendation and and having sat on PO councel alongside um councelor Brown and councel Hadley um you know for for years while all of this was coming through I think it’s about time that we move forward I take on board the issues raised by the

Residents but I think that um with the retention of the other part of the car park and the commitment to uh to develop that with as a more meaningful space I really think that this is um this will allow us to to Really generate some um a

Decent sale uh and move forward so uh Council Haynes has managed to join us in perfect timing um so I’m going to first of all Council Hayes I’m going to just check that councilor Bartlett doesn’t have anything from overview and scrutiny um his personal comments on it I’ll come

Back to separately but from the point of view of obw and scrutiny I don’t think they’ve looked at this recently we may have looked at it years ago when I was on with you uh he’s not indicating so I’m going to pass to councelor Haynes to

Make her statement and then come back to other counselors um thank you ala um can you actually hear me we can hear you loud and clear you can okay right um I actually missed the start of this item coming to um being presented so if I repeat myself because some of

The points I am about to raise have actually been covered then I apologize in advance so it will come as no surprise that I have councelor Hayes before you um before you go ahead I just clar clarify on this item there is a confidential appendix I appendix 4 so if

You were wishing to speak about the confidential appendix we’d have to go into private session so if you want to try and avoid that that would be useful if you want to speak about that later I’m happy to Grant you dispensation to come back in to talk about the appendix

Should we need to go there that allows you to us to keep as much above the line as possible okay than thank you um there is no reference to the confidential so we we’re fine uh for the time being thank you so C can I proceed please

Please go ahead okay so it will come as no surprise that I have serious reservations on the sale of this car park many residents that live within this local area have experien have expressed the frustration of inconsiderate parking on busy days and the loss of this car par is perceived as

Adding or making this problem even worse so paragraph 15 in the report before you sets up the main concerns that Ward counselors have already expressed and these concerns still hold and still remain the arrival of the new owners for the restaurant in Bram Chine now known as Rockwater has actually seen increased

Demand for car parking for their customers so as part of the mitigation conditions on parking for this application being approved the use of Beach Road car park was cited as an overspill car park now this is actually at odds with this proposal because if you’re now planning to dispose of it the

Southern side it means at some stage the whole car par will actually be possibly closed and therefore they won’t even be the Avail availability to actually use the non the part that’s not actually being sold the report goes on to say that this is considered as a sustainable

Location now while there’s a local Center within walking distance that provides some facilities um should people wish to actually go further uh the report actually said that there are bus services yes there are bus services there two bus services Bus 50 which goes between Bournemouth and swanage and

Operates between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. and bus 60 which goes between Rockley Park and sandbanks and operates between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. so and they’re both hourly services so whilst there are two bus services on the on the face of it it seems that yes you know it’s got good

Transport links but actually they don’t run um some don’t run early enough and some don’t run late enough so therefore if someone needs to go to work and needs to use bus 60 and they start work at 9:00 that’s not actually going to be possible or if someone wishes to go out

Um and wants to stay Beyond 8:00 P.M again taking the bus is not an option um so I would say that actually despite the two bus services transport wise is not in a sustainable location um and and so therefore I would actually say that the uh assessment within the decision impact assessment P

That which is attached to this report pack it’s saying that transport and accessibility rating of green I do not agree with it because I don’t think actually is adequate enough to be classified as a green over recent years this numbers to beaches has actually increased and we

Know that for a fact uh postco and there is an increasing need for car par provision now Beach Road car park can facilitate with this provision and when I’ve met with representatives from future places I was assured that any loss of car parking spaces will be made

Good as part of the Improvement to the remaining section of this car park and now suddenly I’m I’m actually really rather alarmed to read that as part of the proposal to introduce parking charges on nearby streets to make good any potential loss from car parking income uh proposals to implement parking

Charges will I can I can say right now receive significant opposition from nearby streets because I’ve actually spoken to a lot of residents that live in nearby streets and this is not something they wish to have so therefore whether that will actually go ahead or not pending consultation and I do hope

There’ll be consultation if this is the direction of travel um you will receive considerable opposition for that so I would actually urge cabinet to actually reconsider whether this proposal is still justifiable given changes in demand for car parking as well as the lack of transparency in wanting to

Implement on street car parking charges on nearby streets to mitigate any potential loss of income you know I I accept that at the time uh was it in 2015 this probably was Surplus a requirement but things have moved on the uh visitor demand has actually changed and I think that to actually now

Consider disposing of this is probably no longer appropriate so I would ask cabinet to please reconsider this decision thank you leader thank you councelor Haynes do I have anybody uh other than cabinet members wishing to speak on this no in which case I’m going to come directly back to a couple of those

Points before I uh introduce cabinet members I’ve got councel Hadley showing already um just for clarity um this was just declared Surplus um obviously the conversation started in 2015 uh but in 2023 in March uh as detailed in the report this was declared Surplus um under um the

Administration uh previous to our so I’m sure you raised your concerns with the previous uh two leaders of the council and um it was declared Surplus at that point so this is very up toate information acknowledging Rockwater wasn’t open then um but you know ultimately um fundamentally the use of

Branom as an area of for for for as a seaside resort um you know isn’t markedly different from from earlier in this year um the um the comments about whether it’s aain sustainable location and obviously anything built on here would be subject to a planning application and the applicant would be required to

Justify uh their travel plans and their sustainable uh offer um and I would urge you if you have problem with the bus um not running the hours or days that you would like them to that you engage with the bus company I’ve always found them to be incredibly uh helpful uh and we’ll

Always look at ways we can extend bus services if they are viable and I know that there is a a major planning application obviously of a very different scale in another part of of uh the former burough of Po where there’s a new bus service coming directly to

Support this so and finally just on relation to the objections from residents I cannot tell you how much uh uh how many emails phone calls and messages I’ve had from residents uh who are very close to bransom Chine who are frustrated that their desperation for parking restrictions in their area have

Been ignored and and and they are not being heard and they they are putting together petitions and all sorts to say give us parking restrictions on our road um they are very happy to have parking meters and I think they’d be happy to go and help install them themselves so

Whilst there will be some people who don’t like them there are plenty of people who do want them uh and that’s why a public consultation on something like that needs to come forward uh and the outcome of that will be seen in due course but there isn’t a significant

Number of um car parking losses Because the actual number of car park spaces that are being used on a regular basis is not is is not many more than the than the future number of car parking spaces so I I think the paper’s pretty robust and I think having had future places

Assess it uh and it come to us I think three times I think we need to on balance um move forward with it but I’m happy to listen to All of the cabinet who of course will make the ultimate decision councelor Hadley thank you leer um yes

You mentioned that this this first came up in pool Council and of course um um I was there but in opposition as as you were um and I believe councel haes was part of the administration at the time so so she was part of the decision making uh that that suggested it was

Surplus um one of the problems with this this car park is that it has been uh neglected for a very long time because it has been under threat expectation that part of it was going to be disposed and that’s part of the reason that about half of the car parking spaces are

Actually unusable um as you mentioned tree routs and and uneven surface U um so so U um part of the for me I think this interesting one of the questions was about linking the two elements together and I think that is just around how Finance needs to be used in in the

Council in terms of what we can do but I think there is a commitment that in disposing of the the South part of the car park that the north part of the car park will be done um but that they won’t directly be linked in the way that um

The the petitioner uh was requesting um I think sign signage could be improved um the surfacing definitely needs to be improved um the the point about um metered car parking Western Road adjacent to this car park already has meted car parking on it um so I was

Slightly surprised to see that in the report because there is already muted car park in the area and I can remember Council Ron Parker who’s in Cliff Drive not that far from here um U um wanting restrictions on his road because of people parking for extended periods on

On the public highway on on the clifftop and it’s problem we’ve got all the way along the coastal strip uh where people are taking advantage of of uh um uh parking parking for free and areas where and and and upsetting resents so I think the constraint spit is is something that

We do need to test um again that’s probably a separate issue um there’s something about the shading of the trees and I think you know this whole area is has a lot of trees which is great U um very mature trees um and that includes the South area so I’d be really Keen

That that the development um doesn’t lose that tree cover and that that that that canopy and that’s really important and again as you suggested that will be part partly for planning but also for the north car park that that’s really helpful if you’re if you’re down on the

Beach in the summertime you come back to a very hot car that’s not great um but the shading and again the the tree cover and that and that that natural uh um uh uh surrounding of of the car park is is important um to me thank you oh sorry

And the other thing is just in terms of rock water yes undoubtedly that has increased the use of the car Parks um I think we do need to look at whether this car park should be open all year round or whether it is just a um a summer use

Car park with respect to that difference because we have seen since covered an awful lot more more use um of the beach um and and Facilities along the beach including into the evenings um and potentially extending the season so I think that what needs to be part of our

Consideration is whether the North Park becomes a nor year amp I actually think that extending the northern one all year round is a really good idea and I actually I’d want to hear uh the reasoning why it’s not um because uh actually you know lots of us

Will go to the beach in the middle of winter particularly those of us that you know want to walk our dogs and things actually that Northern car park whilst it’s difficult to use because of the surfacing uh why not have access to that so I think um there obviously there’s

Always been risk around unauthorized encampments but again they are uh less common in the winter uh and with the uh the demise of the dors steam Fair we may have fewer of them this year anyway so um so I think you know um councelor Cox

Car parking is in your um your remit can I just ask you to note speaking to officers about the potential of why wouldn’t we have that car park open at the Northern end at least open in the winter I will indeed thank you anyone else wishing to comment on this one councelor

Brown thank you leader yeah I just comment obviously having been a PO counselor prior to BCP you know I’ve heard discuss lots of discussions on this and you know it’s over eight years of discussions And Delay about you know what could be done with this side what

What what should be done with it um and and as counc had said a neglect of the site you know and it’s just not doing anybody any service the fact that it’s just left to to to sort of rot a bit and you know becoming in a worse in a worse

State um and then obviously discussions and Future plac is a looked at it and a decision needs to be made you know we’ve waited eight years for something to to happen and I think it’s to our credit that actually we’ve got the paper before us which spells out very clearly about

What our options are and what the pros and cons of those those options are I’m happy to support the recommended option for as as the way forward the longer any sort of delay or dithering on on this just means doesn’t support the council’s finances it just neglects the site

There’s no Clarity for the residents in that area at least you know when a decision is made whether people like like it or not you know at least there’s Clarity for the residents in that area about what the future for that site is um and I think we really just need to

You know get on with this it will help our financial position you know I think people would criticize us if we just delayed and looked at different options and put it into the long grass again because that’s doing no good for the residents of that area who still won’t

Know what the future is it’s doing no good for the Council of PR our finances thank you Council Brown anybody else Council the cop I I just wanted to emphasize what council Brer said about finances um I think we need well I know we need that money um to help with our

Transformation and therefore I see no other option for than to sell this c as soon as possible thank you anybody else or shall we move to the vote on uh three recommendation ations to dispose of it um subject to we have to of a separate resolution to appropriate it for planning

Purposes uh we have delegate the authority to the corporate property officer uh in conjunction with several other people to select the preferred offer and uh finalize the terms and support the reprovision of the car park uh in Contra and really clearly there in consultation with the ward counselors so

In terms of the modernization and the Improvement of what’s left counil as Haynes and chaler will be involved in those conversations and that that commitment is is here uh and now so as there’s no further discussion um we have three uh matters and this is one that

Has to go to council as well so we need to take this in February so all those in favor of recommending this to council please show that’s unanimous thank you very much and thank you to the members of the public who have stayed to hear that discussion you’re very welcome to

Stay but if you want to go we won’t be at all offended um moving on to agenda item 12 traffic order proposal transforming City’s fund Derby’s Lane cycle Route 5 section 2 C 5.2 uh councelor Hadley this is yours do you have a second uh anybody councelor Cox thank you very

Much thank you ler um this is um a continuing section of the transforming travel uh um uh plans um and it’s particularly about linking the nfield industrial state to um pooltown Center um and extending the the wimbor road scheme that is is is under construction

Um at present um and and and it it provides U um improved uh enhancement for for crossing the the road by by the park um and for for The Crossings of Dorchester Road um and um and and up towards trior Bridge um it it’s it’s it’s a reasonbly small scheme it will

Help with with travel to school for for um some of the some of the children using using using this route walking cycling and Wheeling um and uh um it’s it’s a part of the as I say a part of the trans and travel program to to move

Forward thank you uh do we have any members not on cabinet wishing to speak on this one don’t have any Ward counselors who are at meeting nobody else is showing so brings it back to Cabinet anybody wishing to comment on this one this is the ceiling of the

Order so this has already been through the process um and this uh this is the sort of thing that presumably would um would go to the new tag uh if people did want to discuss it in any detail going forward um after May um so anybody wish to

Speak no I’ll then come back to council Hadley yes just on that point Le I I suspect that ceiling the ERS probably will come back to us as cabinet having had the debate so so this might be the step in the process that comes to us but

I haven’t got into the det tell you exactly how that will work in the new um um yeah yes so I think it does come back to us but the debate would have been had there anybody that felt the need to have a discussion about it we wouldn’t need

To hopefully go through a full discussion here but there is nobody wishing to discuss this one this beagle’s fairly fairly straightforward so all those in favor of approving sealing of the order excellent unanimous move on to agenda item 13 which is going to be introduced by Council Hannah and I’m pretty sure that

We are going to have some uh some involvement here from both councelor bartler and councelor canavan who were at scrutiny on Monday this is the council owned company shareholder governance review uh which Council Hannah um took to scrutiny on Monday um it’s going again to audit tomorrow so

It’s getting a jolly good um airing uh so I’m going to in ask councelor Hannah to introduce it uh then I’ll go to counselor Bartlett then to councelor canavan if he wishes to speak and then come to cabinet so councilor Hannah over to you oh and I’m happy to Second

It thank you leader uh could I say that I’m grateful to Mr Donald for having authored the report and for the work involved behind it uh he has uh looked at three reviews that have taken place uh one was an independent governance review uh following a letter from the

Government minister to the council uh that review included uh consideration of issues relating to Future places uh there was then also the internal audit team’s draft governance briefing note which is covered in appendix four of the report uh and there was a review by the interim chair and non-executive

Directors of future places uh who considered uh that area themselves uh based on those the detail of the issues identified uh is set out in the report and the proposed arrangements are summarized in the table in appendix 4 the key considerations are a clarification of the respective roles of

Counselors Council officers and the companies themselves uh and of the decision making process on the letter the decision-making process it’s proposed that it is for cabinet to determine what policy and budget by considering and approving the annual business plan uh for each company uh those will have been prepared

By Council officers working with the company and taking into consideration or should I say and cabinet will be taking into consideration the views and advice of scrutiny it is then for the company to determine how the plan will be delivered Council officers will serve as shareholder members of respective boards

And will advise the portfolio holder and cabinet as appropriate the intention uh that the report sets out is to review the governance of our companies applying this model those reviews to be completed by the end of March with action plans as appropriate coming to cabinet in

July as I mentioned on Monday evening at scrutiny I’m also proposing that the reviews include considering the overall business case for each company to ensure that each is still the best means of delivering our policy objectives uh I am extremely grateful to members of scrutiny for the discussion

That took place on Monday evening uh I know that counc barlet has several points uh that he is likely to put to us the RS from that discussion and I have had prior knowledge of uh what those points are uh following the discussion uh I have le with Mr odonnell and I

Further amended the recommendation to take account of the suggestions uh I’m hoping that the amended wording for the recommendation has been circulated to you as I speak uh but if I may take cabinet through the revised wording uh the original wording of the recommendation is As on the

Paper number one was to approve the shareholder governance model uh there’s set out to dep pendic one uh there’s a proposed amendment to that uh which is on the third box in the right which had been worded to suggest that cabinet has sorry that the company has no rule of

Scrutiny uh we’re confirming that uh scrutiny may actually scrutinize as it wishes so that’s being rewarded to say company may be requested to provide evidence to support scrutiny as required number two uh is unchanged number three three is unchanged there is an additional number four uh which is noting that the review

Of council companies will also consider in each case whether the original reason for establishing the company still applies and will appraise the future options for delivering the function provided by the company taking into account the cost benefits and this is where uh I’m grateful to scrutiny for

Suggesting these aspects so part of that will be taking into account the cost benefits the benefits to Residents the potential for accountability and transparency and the avoidance of potential conflict between the aims of the council and those of the council company so we’ll be working out uh exactly how well the company fulfills

The need and whether there are other options taken into account all of those uh and number five is just a clarification of the scope of the report and the reviews that are proposed by the report which is that it is limited to companies where the council is a

Shareholder the intention then is a second phase uh which will be the subject of a future report which will consider Council control and representation on the boards of other organizations such as Charities associations Community interest companies and societies so it is that amended wording which I am moving thank

You thank you councilor Hannah and I hope that demonstrates the significant benefit and added value of this going to scrutiny because these um these recommendations have been substantially improved um and uh yeah I thank everybody who was involved in that where they were members of the scrutiny committee or attended to offer their

Thoughts so I’m going to pass to councelor Bartlett because this was a big debate just to see whether you think that those amendments do properly reflect the some of the concerns raised whether there’s other issues that you think that the uh messages from the meeting that you’d like to uh to bring

To our attention yes thank you leader well it’s all after three meeting consecutive meetings all becoming a bit muddled I have to say it it’s difficult to remember back to Monday evening uh but I did have time this morning to have a very quick look at the revised paper

That was before you this morning um and and now that’s been amended again and I have to say and my my my thanks to the portfolio holder and and Ian for taking on board the comments made in the meeting and to see them now reflected in the amended uh recommendations and I’m

Delighted that that’s happened and that does actually obviate a number of the issues that I intended to raise this morning because I think you basically have covered covered the main issues um what I would say uh probably is that we we really welcome this report and we we

Understand that the uh the Assurance reviews that sort of generated the need for it um will provide Clarity across the board but one of the concerns that isn’t perhaps touched on is that most of the concerns have been generated from the experience with future places

Limited uh and yet it if it it feels like there a one siiz fits-all solution to to operations that the company uh that the council have had with several of its companies which have operating very successfully and Under full scrutiny uh for for many years ccape for

Example uh bbml um and those that which have been almost just part of the council’s routine operations and you know with full accountability given so there was a concern that um you know those experien of future places May unnecessarily have uh affected what is actually a fairly routine and and

Successful uh Arrangement but nevertheless um the the suggestion that the uh uh you know that each of these companies Futures will now be re re reviewed in detail e each of them individually to to to actually determine whether they needed um and what the business case for them

Is has got to be welcomed I think it does really need to be looked at so I think that’s great and I’m sure that the governance arrangements for each of those uh um companies will be looked at at the time to see if you know if they are currently adequate or they be

Disposed of or but I understand from this paper that these these measures are going to be implemented immediately it’ll be interesting to see what changes will occur immediately and I’m short overview and scrutiny we’ll be looking at that to see if we’re actually going to be doing what we say we’re now going

To do um uh just talking about over the overview and scrutiny I did make a bit of a meal about saying what the overview and scrutiny would do or it might do or might wish to do I just to bring one example of overview and scrutiny where

It probably fell down with regard to overview uh future places limited I recall an overview and scrutiny session where uh future places was in front of us and we questioned the number of projects that they’d actually taken on board because there was concerned they had been stretched far too far and this

Was around the commissioning issues and I do recall the company saying no it’s fine we’re bringing on all the extra Consultants blah blah blah blah had we talked to the commissioning side of it we might have got a very different picture because it was one of the themes

That came out of the um you know the the review that the commissioning issues were were you know were difficult for the council the resources weren’t there and consequently you know there was this sort of scope growth for future places which didn’t help at all um so you know

On if necessary will have to dive into other areas uh which the council where the council has a responsibility in the terms of the way it’s it’s managing it shareholder responsibilities for the companies that it owns um there were a number of issues specifically I was going to raise but

These have been accommodated within the report and the revisions that uh counc Hannah has just made so I don’t think there’s too much I need to say let’s have a quick look um yeah the the issue about um members being on on um on the boards of company owned uh Council own company

I think you know it was stated in in the meeting that it was broadly accepted that they shouldn’t be um I’m not sure who says they’re broadly not accepted or where that evidence is and it may be horses for coures we don’t know to actually start looking what the company

Does and how it’s embedded within the company’s of the council’s own structure as to what really representation you need I think so the one siiz fits all process is is perhaps you know it may not always be appropriate it may there may be occasions when you need to have

Um member directors on companies it really it really depends on on how it fits it operations fit in with with the council um so I wouldn’t I wouldn’t just assume that that will never happen I think that that does need to be considered very very carefully um so I think that’s it leader

And thanks again to portfol holder and and thanks for the uh the meeting on on Monday thank you councilor B Council canavan uh I know you had some issues on this one as well would you like to add anything I I think uh well thank you

First of all um I think Council Bartlett has has pretty much covered the points that I would want to raise and I would Echo his thanks to the portfolio holder and to Mr Odon for for making these changes because I think they go a long way to addressing the concerns which

Were raised that overview and scrutiny um I do have some issues on trur which I’m going to save until the next item on the agenda um but um no just just uh a thank you again and I do think these amended weddings which I only saw by the way about five minutes

Ago but it’s yeah you know quick quick reading they do seem to go a long way and I’m I’m very grateful for that so thank you thank you Council Canan I I think um I I yesterday was a very very busy day for all of us and a very long night and

I must have had 10 emails during the course of yesterday right up until midnight with um Mr odonnell and councilor Hannah revising amending revising mending um so the work that’s gone on and actually if you reflect back you know the reason that we moved the schedule of on boards uh under the

Previous previous previous administration to for there to be a reasonable Gap so that anything that came from on had time for us to properly go through the process was to enable that and actually only having 36 hours um has been difficult but I think they’ve done a sterling job but we only

Had it as as coun Hannah was speaking I I just want to make a couple of points if that’s okay having attended scrutiny as well on Monday and and spent a lot of time on this one I’ve been a board member of ccape group and I’ve also been part of the

Executive shareholder group of Truro uh during my time and and I think what’s really interesting is that the model that’s being proposed here sits much more closely to the model of Truro which feels right you know it sits slightly aside from the organization now there’s a conversation about whether Truro is

The right thing and that’s for another day and that’s why the review is happening but it’s it’s interesting that the executive shareholder model is is being run for Truro uh ccape on the other hand which um you suggested was doing perfectly fine I’ve always felt Seascape does not

Meet its potential and uh when I was on Seascape the first time around we did have an independent member uh who was from business and who did have the skills to be able to try and drive that business forward I’m assuming he retired or was no longer interested in continuing but there isn’t

Any B and I feel that when we have the board meetings um they they aren’t we aren’t the right people to drive that organization forward so I think that whilst whilst there may or may not be an argument for keeping Seascape and bbml we might need

Them in order to protect our our housing assets from right to buy or so can access funding I’m not convinced that myself counselor Earl Mr whittles are the right people to run a business like that it’s just it’s not my skill set so

Oh yeah we do all right but you I so I I just think that this is an opportunity for us to to to pause um I just in reference to scrutiny role I completely accept There’s an opportunity to quiz and question people involved with the companies but I do

Also still think that the that scrutiny should be uh pointing its its real um energy toward scrutinizing the portfolio holder and the corporate directors involved so that they can answer to scrutiny because they are the ones accountable but I think it’s absolutely right that other people can give

Evidence to help to understand if something’s going off Kil and the final point is around I agree with you there may be cases where it is right to Veer away from the best practice guidance but I would assume that in those cases there would be a paper that said on this

Occasion we are going down a different route and this is why and that would go through the Democratic process and be fully Justified so I think as long as it in my mind every rule is there to have an exception the point is whether that exception has been challenged and tested

And gone through the right process so I’d be comfortable with the fact that that may there may be times in the future where we did something different but it needs to have good justification so turning to Cabinet Council Cox you were first to show then Council

Hadley thanks leader um just to go back on your point uh about um having counselors as as directors um then I I agree that it we shouldn’t be uh directors I think uh we have there is a political risk for councilors to be on boards like this I have absolutely no

Doubt there are certain counselors that certainly think they can run companies on a commercial basis uh and obviously I’m not referring to the previous previous leader of the council um but they um uh the council needs to be protected from that kind of person because clearly they are not fit for

That that kind of role uh and so I would welcome the fact that we are not allowed to be in that case I’ve got two little queries in terms of the um the paper um one is is in respect of the people that are being included in appendix one and

Two the membership uh of those boards it includes the corporate director of resources which are didn’t think we were having anymore that is a very good well we we currently have I is an interim yes we have we haven’t um canceled his contract just yet but I I think that is

A fair comment we’ll ask officers to clarify um what what the intention is if that role is being deleted yeah and then the the other one was is really a little point but I kind of think it’s important in in the new U number four um in the recommendation where it says the

Potential for accountability and transparency I would prefer potential to be replaced by importance there should be no potential about accountability and in in transparency it should be import I personally it should be more about importance that’s a small change pretend thank you before I move on just for clarity um Jamie sorry just

Just Council just pointed out to me in terms of the fact that some of us are directors of those companies do we need to declare that interest because we’re changing the governance of those organizations much as we’d like to not be directors but sorry uh chair yes you do need to

Declare an interest but you don’t need to leave the room at at this point um so it is it is satisfactory to declare it for the purpose of the minutes but you absolutely do not need to leave the room so for clarity I’m a director of Seascape group Council I’m also a

Director of Seascape group councelor Wilson um I’m a director of um Seascape homes and properties um SE uh bbml and um yes so yeah all of them councilor Brown um yeah just for complete Clarity I’m a um nominated member of the tri executive shareholder group we haven’t

Met recently and the um suggested future chair of the executive shareholder group of Tri okay councilor Hadley yeah I think it probably applies just to paragraph five but I’m I’m a director of the PO bid um as an extern oranization as a representative of the of the council is

Anybody else the director of bid uh yes I’m director of Christ Church bids this doesn’t apply to the Le does it because you and I are directors of that and and this is where you can see the Ridiculousness of the fact that you know you’ve got these nominal

Directorships um which you know we’re all sitting on company’s house and actually our our role is as leading the council is anybody we’ve missed who um I don’t know who the other directors of bbml and skap South and skis properties are they may must be non

Uh cabinet members okay so have we got all of that recorded uh of course you can look up our director of registered interests um on the website for anyone who might be interested so uh councilor Hadley thank you councelor for raising that thank you thank you L yes um I think actually I

Welcome the additions um paragraph four in particular certainly in coming into the role um and looking at particularly some of the existing companies from Bournemouth I did scratch my head in terms of why why are we doing this why have we got the the the you know why is

It appropriate for the council to be running these companies so where where Council Cox refers to council shouldn’t be involved if there’s is a community interest I think there is a value sometimes in in councilors being involved in decision- making for companies that exist in order to further

The objecs of council but it is about being transparent and clear and understanding the rationale for why that is so and why it’s why it’s a value valuable and valid uh involvement I think the independent directors are importance in that process my one query was around paragraph five and it was

Particularly around other organizations um and the the wording of council control and representation so representation absolutely understand but Council control of Charities and Community interest companies and societies uh very often they want to be independent they are independent and and we are there because we’re invited to be

There to contribute and to represent but not to control so so it is follow on piece of work but I just query that would be use of control for other other bodies thank you thank you councelor Wilson yeah I just wanted to kind of say

Um I kind of agree with the idea that it it’s not necessarily a bad thing to have counselors whilst I I completely agree with your point leader around you know needing that expertise um on the board uh I think that’s really important I do think um these are companies that are

Effectively owned by the public repu uh you know you know as as the council um and you’re potentially lacking that Democratic deficit so I think it’s something to be conscious of um particularly in in in terms of Seascape um where it’s Seascape homes where it’s

Kind of committing to um you know it we we use that for kind of homelessness and things like that it’s it’s not particularly for me I don’t see it as necessarily the worst thing in the world to have that oversight from counselors um just on the kind of more technical

Thing um if this uh if and when this um paper is approved obviously it’s all coming in with immediate effect so um we have to resign our directorships um today or um can we just get some and what does that mean for the companies can I ask the moning officer just to

Clarify the process um thank you chair um there is no need to um immediately submit resignation or anything that will be a stage Pro process the um my anticipation of working with I um and colleagues is that this is very much um working with you so that you’re fully

Informed as directors and we fully um work with the companies in question so that it’s a staged Handover so it won’t be a shock to anyone um it won’t damage the reputation or the business that they’re trying to achieve and deliver so we we don’t want any any sort of um

Decrease in service offer that they they um are responsible for so it will be very staged we will work with you and as Democratic Services as well we will also support in terms of the appropriate Corrections or amendments that are needed to Declarations of interest and register of

Interest thank you I’ve just suddenly thought of one who who’s who’s the director of the BDC is it one of us okay did you want to declare that one can I formally declare my interest as a trustee director of BH line I think that Janie makes a good

Point in that actually those businesses need to carry on trading and if the directors were to resign today uh we’d have a problem in that we wouldn’t actually be able to meet our budgetary requirements to um deliver the things like the disabled facilities grants and delivering homes for for people um who

Are rough sleeping otherwise so um so it’s good that she’s clarified that but also good that we haven’t got to do a mass resignation that would be fun councelor Martin and then I’m coming to councelor Cox and then councelor Brown yeah thank you leader um it seems to me that the this

Whole issue of um Council own companies is quite quite a really thorny one in terms of public perception and I I reflect back on uh in my previous incarnation in his mag’s press trying to find trying to do features and stories and find information about the Bournemouth development company company

Which obviously most of our our officers were not around when that was set up um and we found that incredibly frustrating um so I think there is an issue about about how P the public sees that the transparency or otherwise of these organizations and I think we we we can

All reflect on the experience of of BC of BCP future places and the Damage that done to the reputation of the council and Trust in the council um and Trust in processes so I I really welcome this report I think it’s a brilliant piece of work by Mr Adon and councelor Hannah um

I think it will restore go go go along way to restoring some of that trust uh and and reputation uh that that um damage that was caused I I have to say you know one might think that uh there’s a very limited extent to which the public take an interest in uh things

Like counsel own companies but I I have to say and I think I may have made this point before but having having fought two elections in six months I was absolutely staggered by the number of people who had an opinion on BHP on um B BCP future places uh and were very angry

About it and very concerned about it so I think it is an issue that the public are interested in I think this this this goes very much back to the formation of the three towns Alliance and the the pledge to be open and transparent and uh

To to to uh to bolster the script process which clearly has played a part in this thank you thank you Council Martin so I think we’re going to get everybody here so we’ve got councelor Cox Brown Burton Earl and then I think everyone’s had a speak and then we’ll come back to

Council Hannah to tie up any loose so go for it yeah I I I just wanted to emphasize again the the fact that we say in that paragraph four we’re taking into account and in my opinion it’s the importance of accountability and transparency and that’s what uh when

We’re when we’re representing uh the council we should be there representing them as shareholders of these companies not as as directors there was there was a a point I think last night actually in the council meeting when we tried to appoint or we did appoint a director of uh

Future places and there was some question mark as to whether we needed a director and we do you know those companies do need a director it needs Direction and uh but we should we as the shareholders shouldn’t be doing that direction um because I think we it’s it’s risky for the council politically

And commercially and therefore we should be there representing the Council of shareholders and the Truro model and I was once on on the that shareholder group is a good model to follow on that basis thank you councelor Cox councelor Brown um yes thanks leader um I’m really welcome this report actually and in

Light of the experience we’ve had with BCP future places and as has just been mentioned the need to restore trust um and it was mentioned by csor Martin that people don’t really have a great interest in um these companies and and the way they operate until something

Goes wrong and it has a big cost to the public purse and to what we can do as a council for our residents so that’s when people suddenly become interested in in how these operate and it’s and it’s our responsibility to make sure that we are satisfied with the governments to avoid

That and avoid so I think the best outcome would be that really people just aren’t interested in what goes on because it just ticks along and it delivers what the these companies deliver what we need them to deliver for the residents of BCP um my only comment is

On the Govern governance self assessment I think appendix 4 is in there um which primarily looks at the the companies that are listed there about future places um for BDC bbml and and Seascape um obviously the overall report also references Tri curo um and and as reference has been made to the executive

Shareholder group of Truro um just a little just a little reference on item three which talks about review being carried out to ensure that they comply with the with the good governance by the end of March and actions reported to Cabinet in July just in in reference to trur obviously there’s another agenda

Item coming next about CH proposed change to the shareholding in that company um and with that going on and other other changes at the moment I don’t have any I’m sure there isn’t an issue in terms of reviewing the sort of satisfactory governance of tro but I I

Anticipate that changes will be being made over these coming next few months um as a result of the next agenda item we’re looking at so just to note that against the backdrop of um the reports and subsequent action plans coming forward and I’m sure officers will be

Able to look at that and and prepare a response but it’s it’s good to have this shareholder governance review at the time actually with potentially looking at changes in the shareholding of TR thank you CER Ben yes I mean just coming back to the idea of directorships um I I do agree

Future places has caused quite a lot of comments all over the place um I I totally agree with councelor Cox that keeping councilors off directorships I think um is the best idea although I’m still wondering if there needs to be a possibility for a case when I can’t think of an exact

Example now I don’t like the idea of banning something and saying it can’t happen if there is a good reason but one thing coming from this meeting um a lot of public assume that when you see the term director they assume it’s a paid role U we’ve we’ve just heard of all

These councilors today um who who are directors of of companies and there are some members of public will say in that case there a lot of money being paid to counselors for this directorship um now now now I know this is not the case um but I’ve I’ve read on social media that

That that is a that is what all people are saying so so I I thought I’d bring it up in this meeting just in case anybody was listening and was assuming that we’ve just declared a lot of people with a lot of income because that isn’t

The case um and and that’s not the reason that that Direct isn’t a paid role for councilors I’m really glad you clarified that uh right councelor Earl and then we’ll go fin that was it then wasn’t it that’s everybody okay yeah I’m also really glad that you clarified that

Richard it’s it’s very I spend a lot of time explaining to people what a directorship is um but I I did watch the overview and scrutiny um meeting and it was very interesting in terms of the debate I think that uh from my point of

View and and um what I would reflect on is that just over a year ago we actually or the some uh the liberal Democrats and and some of our partners brought forward a motion um to council which was on cleaning up governance in BCP and we had

Four asks in that you know on uh consultancy um fees governance review and that kind of thing but one of the main ones was to look at the directorships and whether it’s appropriate for cabinet members to also be directors because of that conflict of interest so here we are a year down the

Line and I think a lot of learning from that was from future places and and some of our other companies and this is really a chance to start a fresh of how cabinet relate to those outside C companies um and doesn’t cause those uh questionable um those questions really

In in why we are actually directed in the first place thank you thank you councilor El I’m going to go back to council Hannah for any summing up um and uh and and then to the vote thank you leader it’s uh also response to some of the points that have

Been made uh going back to councelor bartlet’s comments about uh commissioning uh and his concerns about the fact that that may not have been done as well as it might have in the past uh just to confirm that uh commissioning will be through cabinet it will be through an annual business plan

Uh and there will be the opportunity for scrutiny to scrutinize those uh prior to the cabinet meetings and to comment on them so I hope that that will be reassuring uh his comments about members on boards there’s been uh further discussion amongst cabinet about that uh

But just to add to that discussion that there are potential issues in terms of potential conflict of interest uh between the council’s aims and objectives and the company’s aims and objectives uh so there are issu isues there and there’s an issue in relation to confidentiality uh and what can be

Shared uh in One Way by whom to whom uh that doesn’t mean that there is a line totally through members on boards and there have been comments there might be cases where that would be appropriate and that will emerge as part of the review that is proposed and the report

That will come to Cabinet in July uh a comment about the role of the director of resources uh it is coincidental that uh I have emailed the chief executive last night uh just raising uh that issue on a slightly wider basis uh so it remains to be seen

Exactly how that is resolved I look forward to advice on that uh councelor Cox’s comments about uh paragraph 4 uh and the word potential as distinct from the word word importance uh just clarify that uh this is suggesting that the cost benefits the benefits to Residents accountability and transparency and

Avoidance of potential conflict are all important what the uh proposal is saying is that uh we will be looking at the original reason for the company we’ll also be looking at alternative options for delivering the function per currently performed by the company and those two needs to be

Compared and contrasted taking into uh account all of those areas so the word potential is there to say through the company there may be this type of potential for accountability and transparency if there’s an alternative option for delivering the service what potential does it have for accountability and

Transparency so it is looking at the potential in each case that is important accountability and transparency are important uh and will be taken into account I suspect just as fully as councelor Cox would want I that’s reassuring to you uh the wording Council control in paragraph 5 is not

Suggesting uh and was not intended to suggest so apologies if there’s any misunderstanding there that the council should be controlling each of those organizations uh it was raising the question uh to be considered uh at that time as to what the council is controlling uh what in terms of the

Council’s needs objectives and claims what control does it have uh so uh no there’s no attempt to take over those areas uh in terms of immediate resignations from boards by directors Miss Barry has already uh indicated her response to that and her reassurance but uh it was always my understanding that

This uh decision today is deciding to hold the review and it won’t be until review has taken place and uh recommendations have come to cabinet that there will be any change in current arrangements so for that reason as well there is no need for anyone to resign and let’s hope that the

Companies continue to work as effectively as I have been doing uh and the last comment is just to thank councelor BR for his comments about truck curo and what the situation is there thank you for that so with all of that uh I continue to move thank you

Thank you Council Hannah so we have a recommendation on the table which is in three parts uh the proposal is that the review of all the council companies will be completed by the end of the the next financial year 31st of March 2024 uh with the subsequent action plans

Reported um in July 2024 so there is a timeline um and uh uh with that uh let’s go to the vote all those in favor unanimous thank you very much uh right we only have one substantive left so I’m hoping we can go on through so

That we don’t go over time um if we can all hang on for a coffee um item 14 Truro local Authority Trading Company transfer of shares um this one is being proposed by Council Brown do we have a seconder on this one uh councelor Martin thank you very much so councel

Thank you leader yeah in some ways this is um a fairly straightforward report for for cabinet members um but an important one none nonetheless um as the report explains tro are our local Authority trading company providing adult and social care services across Bournemouth Christ Church po um both BCP Council and Dorset Council

Owned shares in the company um members longer serving members will recall that the company was set up I believe in 2015 as a joint venture company between the then Dorset County Council Bas Bar Council and the bur of Co um and obviously there’s been changes since BCP

So it’s BCP Council and dorsy Council own shares in the company bit Council withdrew their services in October 2022 and are willing to transfer their share in the company now Truro as members will be aware um deliver um care services s Care Homes and actually the reason I was

Delayed arriving at this meeting was that I was visiting a Truro day Center one of our day centers in mown this morning um so they operate a lot of our day centers and Care provision for us and and a commission to do that um doet have now set up their own um local

Authority trading company within the Dorset Council area called care Dorset and so no longer using the services of Truro and and as I said willing to transfer their share in the company and so the report set out the process and and seeks our cabinet approval for that share transfer that will leave BCP

Council as the single shareholder um the transfer um or allocation of Truro shares I think it’s important to not is a reserved matter under the shareholder agreement and therefore requires cabinet approval and the result of this decision would be for BCB Council to be the single shareholder of

Truro the recommendation before us us is that cabinet approve the transfer of dorsing council share in triu for the sum of £350,000 um that sum actually in determin that value um it’s covered in the report there but obviously as members we have a duty to seek um and follow professional

Advice that we’re giving in in these sorts of financial decisions um so an independent valuation of the assets and liabilities has been carried out by iring close which is contained in the confidential report obviously if we want to discuss that we’ll have to go into confidential session because it’s commercially sensitive um officers

Support the negotiated share price of 350,000 um and just to note that the payment would be from Truro from their distributable profits there would be no need to use public funds so we won’t actually have to use any of our reserves or general fund within BCP Council this

Would be met from truro’s own internal funds um all the details are there in the reports I’m happy to take any questions and um Mr hor is is online as well should we have any more technical questions that I can’t deal with thank you um so this hasn’t been to scrutiny

So I’m not going to go and if it did it would go to health scrutiny I’m assuming so I’m gonna go first to councelor canaban because I know he does have ComEd before I ask councelor bartler if he wishes to speak just as a regular counselor uh coun

Canan um thank you Le yes as you as you just pointed out this hasn’t been to health scrutiny indeed since I’ve been chair of health and AD social care overview in scrutiny we haven’t had any scrutiny of Truro in that time at all uh and I

Should perhaps uh also say that I am a nominated member of the executive shareholder group of trira and that hasn’t that group hasn’t met either um uh I am very grateful to Mr Hornsby for uh con a rather hasted meeting hasted convene meeting last week to give us some

Background uh to the discussions that have uh taken place regarding this that was really very helpful so I’m uh grateful for that and I’m grateful to council Brown for for identifying the issues in relation to the governance of Tria which is going to be the subject of a a a separate

Review my concern here is not with with the transfer of share I’m quite I’m quite happy um about that my concern is um what what is going to be left uh with Truro and what what are the what is going to be the impact of all of that on

The services which we are uh commissioning it to deliver on our behalf uh as councilor Brown said the doors that have already pulled out of this operation we we have a daycare opportunities consultation and whatever the outcome of that is going to be there will be an impact on the services that

Tricuro are delivering and an impact on that company and therefore an impact on BCP as the sole um shareholder so um I Council pres identified this slight question mark over the over the time scales of the review but I think the review is really important uh so the the

Assurance about scrutiny from councelor Hannah in in the previous item is really welcom uh and the assurance that there is going to be an opportunity for for us to consider potential options different options for the delivery is also important because you know there is no secret and I have made this point to

Anybody who’s been prepared to listen to me that that um the operations of triurea need to be brought back in house with BCP and I think everything that is going on at the moment uh just reinforces my view that that is the right step um to take so I’m I’m just

Flagging up concerns about all of this in relation to it’s the the operation of the company in terms of the service it delivers for our residents uh and and hopefully that we’ll be able to steer it through a steady path to ensure that none of this impacts too greatly on our

Residents so thank you for that thank you Council Canan council bartler did you have anything you wanted to add yes please ler yeah um I’m I I’m also a member of the ESG Tri ESG um and Patrick’s absolutely right we haven’t had a meeting for quite some time and my

Understanding that was because of the legal uh work that was going on behind the scenes for the separation process but I also appreciate the brief that we got from Phil H the other day on the matter well I would say is that we you know we’ve agreed to uh review the way

That the services are going to be delivered in the future of our our companies I wouldn’t wish to preempt the evaluation on Truro particularly uh because Truro from my perspective seems to be operating well and it was a great surprise to me when Dorset decided to pull out and the

Reasons for that never really became clear because dividend dividends were actually fed back through that company back to both Dorset and to BCP as um and uh you know there was good oversight of the company’s operations um but you know I I think I disagree with Patrick I wouldn’t you

Know it seems to be a matter of principle here rather than the way the company’s because I don’t think there’s been any complaints about the way that company’s been operating uh I may be wrong maybe I’m misinformed but my my My overall impression is that it’s actually operating particularly well

Uh so I wouldn’t want to preempt the evaluation that’s all I would say and I keep an open mind on what what the council wishes to do with it in the future that’s all thank you thank you Council Butler I I think we’ve made it very clear there is going

To be a review and I agree with you uh whilst we know that the view of councelor canavan and a number of his colleagues is that this company should be in house uh that should be an evidence-based approach and therefore we need to go through a process on that I

Just want to make reference to something that councelor canavan said if councelor canavan is the chair of Health um and adult social care scrutiny committee it is in his gift to decide what he wishes to scrutinize so if it hasn’t come to scrutiny I would encourage him to add it

To his board plan um I know that he’s a new chair of scrutiny but as councelor Bartlett will say scrutiny decides what scrutiny uh scrutinizes and then therefore if it hasn’t come to scrutiny uh I I don’t think we can blame the portfolio holder although obviously if a

Paper is coming to cabinet that is often the Catalyst for a committee choosing to scrutinize but but please do feel free to uh ask to scrutinize whatever you like in the remit of your committee uh anybody in um cabinet wishing to discuss this one councelor Hadley thank you

Leader um yeah just a couple of things um firstly obviously uh um uh dors Council withdrew from the arrangement in October 22 as as we heard and as we heard from C it was a bit of a surprise that they they felt that was a good

Thing to do but that’s their choice um but I wonder what assets or or capability they took with them because they’ve clearly set up a separate organizations do that and whether the the sum that we’re looking at paying them in addition is net of of of of that

Because presum they took assets that we had half sharing as well so you know is that is the Reckoning right and I accept we have to take professional guidance on on that the second was around uh um liabilities and and I’m very conscious our new monitoring officer comes from

From Birmingham where Chris of course they’ve got a significant issue around the financial implications of previous decisions about um pay and equality of pay um and just what what reassurance we have that um if there are historic issues to be uh uh um to be addressed

That that come out the woodwork um that Dorset um there’s some some sort of um means by which Dorset would would honor their obligations there or whether we’re absolving them of that in in separating so Clarity really about how unforeseen um a bits would would cover and then I

Guess the the third bit was around U um uh councilor canavan’s concerns and there are areas where we know that the cost of care care for children’s services extremely high and whether there’s a model where we should be looking to invest locally to make sure there is capacity for whether it’s for

Adult Services children’s services and whether trur might be the method for doing that so I think there is something thing about making sure that it’s a viable organization going forwards given that is just BCP and not the shared service that we had um and some of that

May be looking at how we can constrain some of other very difficult costs within the council and use trur as the mechanism potentially for for doing that thank you thank you anyone else no in which case uh Council brand have anything you want to add in your

Summing up before we move forward with uh this decision yeah I will just sum up and and actually I’ll ask Mr Hornsby to come on in in a moment just on on that last point from councelor Hadley but um yeah the the review of the day opportunity strategy and day centers as

As m m c Canan mentioned um will have an impact on Truro um and yes that has obviously been a big impact and changes within Truro as a result of Dorset Council um withdrawing from from the the company um and so yeah that there’s a lot of changes have gone on

Within Truro in the last year or so um and yeah it’s a good time to sort of look back and review and and make sure that they are commissioned for for the what we need for our to for our residents and that it’s the best way of

Offering and that service I don’t have any reason to believe that it’s not actually and that you can’t deliver good value for money and great Services I think it’s really um important to note that despite all the changes that have been going on within Truro The Experience skill and dedication of the

Staff and management within Truro is unquestionable and I’ve seen that from my own visits to to some of their venues and to their day centers particularly recently that the services that they deliver um for some of our most vulnerable residents are really sort of really important and really critical and

They make a real tangible difference to the lives of so many people within bouth Christ Church and Paul so it’s it’s really important that we we get this right and that we continue to deliver those really important Services um just regards Council had this point about the liabilities and dors Council taking

Their fair share any responsibility around liabilities whether that be sort of equal pay or pension liabilities I understand and I’m advize that that was sort of all dealt with as part of the um separation when when dors have gone gone their own way um but I would ask Mr HBY

On on line whether he might be able to add to that he was obviously around and involved in in that that separation and when it took place in 2022 just to sort of clarify that point for you Phil would you like to come in thanks chair yes as one of the

Reasons it’s taken us some time is agreeing the terms of the transfer agreement which was mainly around the staff and then some some smaller assets the buildings were owned by Dorset Council that they have gone back back into they haven’t moved the staff transferred back to the new company that

Dorsa Council set up the the staff that remain within the BCP area services are our responsibility through Tri curo um so there are no um outstanding liabilities but on the point of historical liabilities Council Hadley so that if there was an issue that came up that was pre October

2022 then both councils have joint joint responsibil as the shareholders of the company at that point in time so it would be dealt with jointly by both councils as a as a joint responsibility and if and depending on the individual or the where that service was located that would help

Determine who took the the lead responsibility for um for that particular issue it’s more about the head office staff so stuff that we located in the head office where it’s the the jointness if you like of it that would take uh that more joint liability approach I don’t know if that’s clear or

Whether I’ve just confused you more Hadley thank you no that’s very helpful thank you okay anybody else if not we will go straight to the vote and move this forward so it’s recommended that we approve the transfer of the share for the sub of 350,000 this

Is a cabinet decision so it doesn’t go any further and we take immediate effect so all those in favor that’s unanimous thank you very much uh that takes us at Agenda item 15 which is urgent decisions taken by the chief in accordance with Constitution Mr parent haven’t taken any

Since the last cabinet meeting Tak you had been Christmas so maybe excellent that’s a quick one yeah we might actually be on time cabinet forward plan agenda item 16 I know councelor bartler wants to speak on this just to say it was published very late last night so I’ve had a

Chance to have a quick look through it and there’s an awful lot more that’s coming on board so we’re beginning to populate a a at time frame councelor Bartlett thank you leader yes I I I noticed it was published at just on midnight last night I think it was Sarah’s a

Hero yeah now for the last two years or more uh there’s been an item on the cabinet forward plan regarding ing pay and reward new terms and conditions of employment and the purpose of the report was to seek approval for the council’s new terms and conditions of

Employment um including the new pay and grading system that’s been on there for about two years uh in the revision published last night that’s disappeared so does that imply that there’s no longer any intent for the cabinet to approve the new pay structure or is this just an error in the public publication

Of the forward plan thank you Council B with with the greatest of respect bearing in mind that uh Sarah published it at a couple of minutes before midnight uh we hopefully didn’t read this before we went to bed because we were focusing on this morning’s papers

Uh that the chief executive just said to me uh uh it’s my fault I’m going to pass to him I’m G to pass the buck um and get him to tell us what’s going on if that’s okay with you because we’ve been sat here since early morning thank you Yes actually following

Conversation with councilor Bartlet we identified there was a very longstanding uh old and badly worded item on the forward plan uh so we we took that wording off we will be looking at whether we need to bring a report to the cabinet or Council to agree paying

Reward or what the structures are so we’ll look at that and if appropriate we’ll put it back onto the forward plan I’m happy to keep Council advised of that because I know it’s an issue he’s been looking at um but if if um I tell you the item on the forward plan plan

Was referring to it being brought forward by Lucy eldrid who left the council’s head of HR about two years ago you’ll understand why it was an old item that has been carried forward so that’s my fault that we didn’t uh we haven’t yet got an answer cart Council Bartlet does that um give

You some uh reassurance no it doesn’t really leer given where we are with the paying reward strategy and the the uh offer having been made to unions which is going to ballot on the sixth of January one would have imagined the cabinet would have approved this before

It went to ballot which they haven’t so I I I I I will having seen its bit removal from the corporate plan I will uh speak to the overview of scrutiny um panel uh committee with a view to getting a report commissioned for scrutiny uh the chief exec said that’s

Fine you’re perfectly entitled to do that I suppose there is that it’s that separation of of member officer roles um that we need to be very mindful of um and uh traditionally this count cabinet traditionally I’m not saying that’s what it should be going forward uh takes

Papers that are for the decision of the cabinet not for noting and there is a um there for information that there is an argument that says there are some things that perhaps we should bring through the Democratic process that for which we don’t hold the responsibility but which

We want to air thoughts on so that officers can hear them that that’s a moot point about whether you know that is the role of of the democratic process of scrutiny and cabinet uh which we can obviously discuss uh and and perhaps that’s something you might want to raise

When we have our meeting about how the council um member function works when we have our Workshop um which was scheduled for the 1st of February but is going to have to be moved because grahe and and I have uh managed to secure a meeting with the Secretary of State Michael Gove that

Afternoon in London so uh that needs to be moved but it might be worth lagging there because I do think there are a number of issues which are perhaps officer paid service matters which the water can get a bit muddied and given the governance uh paper we had earlier I

Think it’s really important that we know what our role is officers know what their role is and that member officer um relations and and uh decision making is clarified uh you may have a different view councelor bartler I can see from your face that you probably do but I

Think that’s that’s this is the forward plan which is here to note only so I’m going to um close it at that point if that’s okay so with that it is 12:46 I’m quite pleased I’m only about a minute late uh so I will close the

Meeting uh of cabinet and uh wish you all a good rest of the day thank you very much