Council – Wednesday, 24 January 2024 7.00pm

Good evening everyone it’s good to have my voice back welcome to tonight’s meeting of the council may I remind everyone in the chamber that we are live streaming this meeting on the council’s YouTube channel as a reminder for us all please press your microphone button when asked to

Speak and press it again when you have finished speaking in order that the cameras can focus on you given the length of the agenda I imagine it may take us some time to get through tonight’s business with that in mind I wanted to make you

Aware U before we get going that I may make the call to adjin the meeting in order for us to have a comfort break at an appropriate point in the proceedings for those visitors who are in the public Gallery firstly may I thank you very much for joining us

Tonight it is important for me to inform you that this meetings are filmed by our live stream video system and you may appear on the recording with that in mind if you choose to remain in the public Gallery which I hope you all will and or if you speak during the meeting

You are consenting to be being recorded and acknowledge that the recording will be placed on the council’s public YouTube channel I hope that’s okay chief executive do we have any apologies for absence yeah thank you Madame mayor we have apologies for absence from councelors Julie Ashley Ren Chris hows

Mrs Joan Lloyd Andy mcginness Tom Ren and baroness Taylor of stevenage thank you thank you are there any Declarations of Interest no so item two the minutes of the council meeting on the 20th of December 2023 the minutes of the council meeting held on 20th of December have been

Circulated and may be found from page five of the agenda can we all agree them as a correct record thank you so item three the mayor’s Communications I think this is the most uh my favorite part of course the heart of a town lies in its

People our Stephen H motto that is a true picture of our community the core values and aspirations that we have as individuals as a group and institutions have made Steven age as what it is right now we all of us the people of Steven age with our faithfulness integration and togetherness made our

Town thank you Richard John Engler for this motto that you have left as your legacy Richard was a pupil in Barkley school when he won the competition in writing this Richard was 81 years old when he died last month with thanks to Tracy Tracy Frost our mayor in of our mayor’s

Office with her attentiveness to details she found out about the information a few days before the funeral I was able to attend the celebration of Richard’s life service with councelor Simon spell thank you very much councelor spell with thanks to Richard’s family especially his wife Jillian councelor speller and I got to

Know him better and truly he deserve praise and recognition I hope we will have more of this in the future it has been a great 238 mayoral engagement so far the start of the engagement with Steven AG Community Trust Steven AG Works Community chest funds and the betti game

Opportunities trust are also another example of how we are as a town working together to help and support by giving grants and funds to those who are in need from Big to small community or school projects or even individual needs education Child Care bills appliances and many more these trusts are group of

People and businesses in our town who have the generosity in their hearts so thank you to you all this month I have also attended a tree planting in memory of former councelor John Gardner the launch of Heartford share Covenant from all faiths the Holocaust Memorial Day Exhibition at

The Steven age library and visited the co the Cobra first pillar in graceway with thanks to Junction 7 creatives and Community Development officer una Sherlock tomorrow I will be in business Technology Center and will be meeting many businesses in Town based in BTC my huge thanks to W of BTC for the

Generous donations to the mayor’s charity funds a very generous amount and thank you to our leader who actually directed them to actually send the generous donations to the mayor’s uh charity our youth’s congratulations to our very own Sarah pman for receiving the most excellent order of the British

Empire by the order of the king the obbe on Civil Division is for Sarah’s works as the community safety manager of the Sten AG borrow Council and for her services to the victims of domestic abuse in hartfordshire indeed we are also proud of you Sarah you and your team are truly an inspiration

Yay Stephen age is a dementia friendly Community we receive the recognition and have been announced this last month Sheila and Tracy of our mayor’s office had arranged for a dementia budge for us to wear for councelors officers and staff I hope you will support with the donation for our charity and you will

Get your dementia buds from Tracy and Sheila another great man we lost in Steven age many of you here will know Don Hills I wasn’t fortunate to meet Don but I have read about him with thanks to the information I have received from councelor Lloyd Brisco who has a book

Okay uh councelor Lloyd Brisco actually lent me this and took the photos okay for to read something about Don because Don has book a written this one here okay with Margaret Ashby I have the book here so I hope uh councelor Lloyd Brisco will actually lend this to me and actually he just

Told me that he will give it to me as a gift so I hope thank you thank you Lord I am Keen to learn about the many inspiring people in stepen age so I truly appreciate and not only a Loy though actually uh gave me something to

Read councelor spell as well I think we have a very good historian in our chamber also let me this I haven’t read it yet but I hope I will get more information so thank you to you both Don worked as a journalist for 50 years from 1942 to

1960 he was the Press officer with Steven age Development Corporation in 1960 to 1980 and public relations and information officer for Sten hbor Council from 1976 to 1992 he had a unique role of working for both authorities for a few years I know that some of you here would

Like to say something about Dawn so I welcome you all to have a few words about him thank you everyone so if there’s anyone who wants to say don’t um councelor Michael Downing yes I’m glad to have this opportunity because uh I knew Dawn quite well for

For for a number of years and we worked together when I was quite a new counselor um and it’s from him that I learned a great deal um one of the things I was involved in was a project which involved working between stevenage and other authorities in hartfordshire and essic and this involved

When Don drove me to Watford and harow and so on in the course of which he talked a great deal about uh what was going on in stevenage Bar Council perhaps was more Indiscreet than an officer might have been to to to a new member but I was grateful for that and

Uh he he never really um said anything which was denigratory of of the council as a whole I can I can say but um he was very generous with his time a man of very great integrity who I would um trust absolutely in any way um as you

Mentioned there was a period when his service overlapped he remained with the Development Corporation in their dying days and months while already taking up a post with stepen HB Council this was strange because quite often um the the two authorities did not agree on a number of things for example the the

Whole question of fairland’s Valley which talked about at the at the last meeting um but but he managed this very well I there is a legend that one week a letter appeared in the comet signed Don Hills Public Relations officer Steven’s Development Corporation on a certain controversial issue and the following

Week a letter appeared in the comet replying to this signed Don Hill’s public relations officer for Steven Bar Council it’s one of those stories which ought to be true even even if it isn’t but um I will be grateful for all that he taught me and

Um in in so many ways for his company as well as what he contributed to the public life of stevenage thank you councelor Downing it’s very very interesting information thank you councelor Jackie Hollowell thank thank you Madame I I also have have the book written by Don

Hills of Margaret Ashby and it is very much a good read and you know very good history of the Town um I wanted to just say a few words about Don Hill because I’m very sad to hear of his passing I’m as you know a chair of the the ingleheim

Stevenage ingleheim turn Association and Dom was very much a founding member of that Association and although he wasn’t so active recently he was still very much involved with the association Don and his wife Kathy were very much instrumental in bringing the towns of ingleheim and stevenage together in the

Early 1960s that’s actually before I was born and I’m very old so it was a long time ago and it it formed a Civ Civic link which at the time was recognized as one of the most active in England an example for other towns to follow alurn which was already twinned with

Ingleheim joined with both towns in 1975 to create a tripartite Civic link which still exists today and we hope later on this year to celebrate that when when members from Germany and France join us in the summer and I believe your little booklet there is actually the the history of the

Association that Don uh wrote so I think that makes very good reading and I do recommend that thank you Madame mayor thank you councelor holwell thank you again councelor spell for this one councelor Lloyd Brisco thank you Madame May I’ll be brief but Don I first met Don Hills Back in

1970 his youngest son Andrew was my best friend at the time and some of you may know Andrew he was until recently the Steven council’s Chief Architect most evenings after school I will B the short Journey from my parents house in Green Street through the back

Alley to Don’s house which is in Orchard Road Andrew and I and other friends would often reside in a converted Barn at the back of the house and play records and such like much to the shagrin of both Don and his wife Kathy back in the 1950s Don was a local

Sports journalist with the halfer express often writing articles about our Old Siam Town Football Club and our heroes of the day such as lumy Taylor and jiba Jackson a few years ago I had the occasion to visit Don then living in in Hitchin to discuss some research that I

Was undertaking about the St football club during our conversations Don told me of a tale when he and another local journalist were covering the story of a wedding which occurred the other side of hartfordshire it transpired that the bride was a resident of a village called

UGI it’s spelled u l y uh which is as some of you may know is near Bishop stford the groom however lived just 10 miles to the east of stevenage in a village called Nasty some 14 miles away from the Grim’s betrothed now the wedding apparently went very well and

Don could scarcely comp compose himself when he recounted the arm of when he and another journalist concocted the headline of a newspaper the following following week which read nasty man marries ugly woman steepish through and through we have truly lost one of our finest thank you thank you Council Brisco councelor

Spell yeah I feel like the tail gun Charlie here which means that um I have to edit out the bits that other people have spoken in order not to bore everybody witless but also pay homage to someone who is a true legend uh in the

New town of stevenage um so I’ll do my best Madame mayor um Don was a man of many parts in the Memoir he produced for his family and Coast friends and I’m happy to be described as one he described himself as wartime Air Cadet reporter drummer Jazz by the way actor

Press and public relations officer Town twinning organizer Trade union officer nalgo for those of the Vintage Parish Clerk priesthood holder magazine feature writer Entertainer and author well top that I would add internationalist community champion youth Champion for arts and sports local historian and a witness to the greater

Events over his near 100 years on this Earth and a great Storyteller and friend Dom was born and raised in stevenage he was an old towerer we might say who welcomed the new town wholeheartedly as a significant percentage of Steven people did despite the propaganda the other way around the family home and

Shop was 19 aoft Road Dom went to Alain school before his long career in journalism which has been covered and in his teenage years during the war he developed a deep Love of All Things American and they welcome him onto their bases especially the one at nut

Hampstead which is Du e of stevenage and uh fostered his love of airplanes motorbikes and Jazz he had an amazing career in journalism and he certainly used that to good effect both on the power Council and Development Corporation as Michael has explained and uniquely I first met on when I joined

The council in 1978 and worked with him until he retired in 1992 when I left to do other things um the fact that he had a joint position joint post as Michael’s already said was really quite unique uh my my my point in my my notes here are these were very strange times

Corporation did not like having to go oh they absolutely hated it the council were sometimes I think rather bumptious in assuming they could Walt into the corporations rather larger shoes and so the recruitment drive to get people with the appropriate professional qualifications was full on from 1976 to

1980 and I was part of that draft Don I think uh was according to bran Hall appointing D was one of the best decisions that bar Hall and his colleagues made and I think it he’s right because he calmed down a a Handover takeover period that many of

You who have knowledge of corporate takeovers or even MP iple stroke third sector ones we know they can be quite bloody and they can be very difficult so uh I pay tribute to him for that what he did was he looked after overseas visitors evips he did the little team

Public relations work as Michael’s already mentioned and he produced The Corporation document purpose that came out regularly and the forerun to Chronicle called stevenage foren in 1950 Don and CF his wife moved to berryade uh those who door knocking will know very m is in between having two sons they threw themselves into

Steven’s Community Life Dom was active in many of the new town Pioneer campaigns and Jackie’s already mentioned one he helped create the stevenage museum with Dr John Morris who lives in the house I live in now he was a co-founder of the litten players not a

Lot of people know that and he did support lots of youth sports groups as they sprung up as the town’s population grew and uh I think uh I the listing would be too many but above all I think we will remember him for what Jackie says we’ll remember him for being a

Crucial Link in setting up town twinning links with ingleheim then urn and also kadoma for which his son Andy still devotes a lot of time and I think his his contribution this was crucial well I’ll say Madam mayor more on that another time possibly the walks and talks thank you very

Much thank you councelor spell okay it’s really good when we have somebody who actually use words and Pen to make sure that we have to document everything so I hope everyone anyone here will be able to document or a historian for the future to read and then in the future

The generations will be able to read or actually tell the story something like this so thank you so much and I hope you learn something from that Ana and Ella is there anyone else okay thank you everyone so now um before I go to item

Four I would like to thank as well for everyone for those um teams and also counselors who been very helpful especially uh of the last um few weeks you know for with all the uh mayoral engagement so thank you everyone for item four the community presentation so we don’t have any Community presentation

This evening and item five we don’t have any petitions or deputations that have been received item six questions from the youth Council we did not receive any questions an item seven questions from the public we have received a question from Mr Jame bards concerning the principles for new and existing external

Lighting on buildings and structures in the town with respect to Wildlife and Dark Skies the full question is detailed in the agenda order of business the answer from councelor Simon speller has been circulated on the supplementary agenda and may be found on the website Mr bards do you have a follow-up

Question please could you come up to the lecture to ask your supplementary question thank you Madame mayor looking at the light pollution in stevenage indicates the current policy is not working for example there are is unnecessary lighting installations on two quite new structures the council is very proud of

The bus interchange as I noticed just last week when I cycle past it has a double row of Lights along the top that don’t seem to add anything to the area apart from from light they don’t help the pedestrians and they don’t help the buses there is plenty of other lighting

Around the new multi-story car park at the station that has a large lit up sign at night that says stevenage it’s actually near the cycle way it’s not near the road you can’t see it from the road it doesn’t seem to serve any purpose in the

Daytime yes you can see it it’s not lit up but in the nighttime it’s lit up doesn’t seem to serve a purpose the council needs to address the light pollution and Associated costs that currently exist around the town and ensure that all future lighting follows exemplary standards for wildlife and

Dark Skies so my question is can stevenb Council urgently produce a strategy document on lighting across the town so we can get the correct Lighting in the right place cutting light pollution whilst at the same time enabling people to move about safely and part of the

Reason reason for this was the uh the petition in the last council meeting that was of discussed the motion that was discussed where a start of this strategy could come from the consultation with the police and the hearts and middle sex Wildlife trust thank you thank you Mr bards councelor spell to

Reply I’ll wait for Jim to get back um thank you very much Jim for that um and picking up on the two places you mentioned the bus interchange and the multistory car park yes we can have a look at the lighting levels there the Strategic answer is I think you’re right

I’m can’t be the only person that sort of really picked up on this issue after Jen put a petition in and it made me think about too little light in some areas and too much in others and Li in standards is very much something that need to be applied in when planning

Applications come in and the document sits above that of course is the Stevens’s local plan plan so I I can definitely offer you that when the Stephens local plan comes not only prompted by you but the concerns as we work in our way through all our bits and

Pieces of work following the petition discussion at only the last meeting and I think that’s I think the um coverage of the Jen Jen’s comments on that are well and it does have although she’s making a case for more I I think I take your point I think uh we will do that

I’ll call you into a meeting and I think could do that with Zade in the first instance and probably on our Engineers Rob woodis and we’ll take it from there thank you very much Madam thank you uh item eight the leaders updates councelor Phil BBY as leader of the

Opposition has the right to raise one item relevant to the borrow that has been raised since the last meeting councilor BB thank you Madame mayor um I’ve had sort of feedback or complaints from store holders in the indoor market about the reduced footfall following the citing of the bus interchange this is

Particularly the Elder people the less mobile people so I’m just wondering what can the council do with store holders to actually improve their businesses with the increasing footfall and cating for the people that can’t walk from The Interchange to the indoor market thank you councelor bb uh councelor Richard to respond yeah thank

You Madame May thanks for your uh comment and sort of question Phil um as far as I’m aware there’s no evidence to support um what you’re saying but um I’ll work with um Janette and we’ll have a look at that with officers um but we’ve not had I’ve not had any

Complaints from Market or store holders and I’m not sure if Janette has who’s um looking after markets at the moment but we’ll have a look into it thank you thank you councelor Richard Henry I shall Now call upon you again councelor Richard Henry the leader of the council to give this

Updates thank you Madame mayor just a few um today um first of all got councilor spella with coronation living Heritage fund and the flat block recycling pilot Simon for you Madame chair Madame mayor and Richard um thank you for that uh the first one is the coronation living

Heritage fund um the Govern the government’s cor coronation living Heritage fund made 2.5 million funding available to support local tree planting projects across England local authorities were able to bid for between 10 to 50,000 and the fund was made up of two schemes there was a five-week window

Between the launch and closing date so um as per usual it’s very very tight we successfully developed and St a £36,000 bill to deliver three micro Woods in stevenage now get Ed get get get your Japanese uh translation books out micro Woods or the japanese’s miraki I know it’s not something I

Careful about how to say that miraki Woods are reported to be one of the most effective tree planting methods for creating Forest cover quickly this method of planting is particularly effective in the urban environment trees planted by this method grow much faster jump start in the forest creation

Process in capturing more carbon though from A biod diversity point of view they’re particularly useful during 2024 25 and I’ve been assured that local Ward members have been informed and if not please tell me St Nicholas Park to create an extension to wellfields Wood hampson Park to start the creation of a

Wooded link between the existing cops in hampson park with s’s wood and thirdly shelb park to create a link between SHP Lane and the wooded Air at the back of a Coptic Church the locations have been identified to provide maximum value for wildlife without disrupting adjacent Residential Properties or access for

Recreational activity the community including local counselors Local Schools Green Space volunteers and so on will be invited to participate in the tree planting that’s the first one the second one I have Madame mayor is flat block recycling pilot recycling levels at Flats has historically been pretty low

This is not a problem unique to stevenage and increased recycling at Flats is a challenge many if not most local authorities face during last year a pilot project was rolled out which sought to address some of the local issues and attempted to improve recycling rates fire flat blocks in

Ingleside Drive tinon close and Wisdom Road were selected for the pilot as they represented a variety of common issues that could impact the recycling rates residents were invited to complete a survey which helped inform the works to be delivered and officers undertook Baseline recording of recycling at each

Site before the plants commen in other words before and then after could be assessed the key barrier to been able to recycle more was identified information and clarity about what can be recycled so in other words we needed to know a lot a range of solutions was identified from the resident survey including

Installing new recycling frames designed to keep the site neat and tidy with dedicated signage to clarify which materials should be P placed in each bin new additional recycling bins were provided where required new stickers to be placed on the bin detailing what can and cannot be recycled and a new

Dedicated leaflet for Waste Management at Flats would delivered to each flat now I can believe most of you knocking on doors and meeting your residents will have come acoss Ross these issues with flats and you’ll know that not clearly demarcating them and not keep keeping uh waste recycling and a very identifiable

SE separate place has been problematic not least in my old world ping green monitoring of the first phase continues to ensure that the improved recycling is sustained and officers are looking for other suitable sites to extend the pilot all members interested please apply to Steve Deo thank you very much

Thank you Simon um I now turn to councilor bar who’s going to updates on Cooperative neighborhoods and a walkway cleaning program Sandra yes cing initiative has begun to maintain the primary walking routes to your from neighborhood centers across the town this is part of a larger package funded through our UK pay based

A shared Prosperity fund which will seek not only to improve the walkways but to all our local neighborhood centers as well the community payback service will be supporting the council with completing the outcomes and are made up of a team of low-level offenders who are working to give back to their their

Services to the town they are success they have successfully completed many of our other projects projects such as bow planting graffiti REM removal and gener general area upkeep the community payback service operating on alternative Sundays is already begun work on its ongoing maintenance effort this proactive approach ensures a continuous

And systemic system not systemic systematic maintenance effort um the schedule with cleansing efforts initiated first of all in St Nicholas and then Long Meadow areas this marks the beginning of a much broader commitment to enhancing the overall cleanliness and safety of our shared walkways community members can actively participate by identifying challenging

Areas that need work completing during the Cooperative neighborhoods meetings that you all have these areas can then be prioritized for cleansing based on deprivation metrics fostering a targeted and Community Driven initiative thank you thank you Sandra um and now to councelor Brisco who’s going to update us on SBC business support program and

W thanks chair thanks leader um the stepb council is delighted to announce that the business support program which is aimed at the High Street and wider commercial centers has recently been updated members will recall that the original initiative was developed to support a covid-19 business support program to help companies based in and

Around the High Street show showcase their offerings to local residents and reach further audiences uh through a unique business directory the recent update further enables businesses to use a wide range of tools and intelligence to grow and adapt to ongoing challenges and to bet better assist the local economy to

Recover and prosper the scheme now accommodates access to free information webinars videos onetoone support uh on a variety of topics I would encourage local businesses to tap into the updated program of support to enhance their own operational resilience i’ would also encourage members of the council uh to

See the extent of support the council offers by going to uh wwwshop Ste portal.co which provides examples of Engagement with our local businesses and don’t forget members the Oldtown live event this year is scheduled for Saturday the third of August and I hope to see you all

There uh the second Point J is about w um some members of the council may have noticed an article in the local news last week regarding WN celebrating their 40th anniversary in passing some members have had the cause to ask about W what it is and what it does for

Stevenage in response to these queries I’ll best summarize as follows W is an independent not for-profit Enterprise that exists to make it easier and greina to start and run successful businesses it is contracted to Steven Council to operate and manage our business Technology Center the BTC

Center in U in Bess drive as well as the business facilities which we own in Chels on our behalf W delivers training uh mentoring and business advice to budding entrepreneurs and startup companies within the burrow of stevenage wi actually stands for Watford Enterprise agency and is is prominent

Throughout harer and Beyond the services it provides it operates and maintains sence in Watford Potter bar mfield as well as here in stevenage amongst its partners and stakeholders went to consite the councils of Luton Watford Bedford dorum East hars St Orbin Three Rivers North hars hars M and hars County Council

Moreover the beder Chamber of Commerce the harer growth upub the harer Le University of uh University of harer and the nor arts college the stebo council’s partnership with wer commenced in 2009 and in that time over 2,700 residents have either trained or upskilled to a high standard with over

460 new businesses have been created in the town creating estimated some 67.9 million of gross value added from the subsequent jobs created the sbc’s contract with Venter is aely overseen and managed on a day-to-day basis by Mina colbeck who is our own business relationship man manager and if you’d

Like more further information there is a link to enter on the sbc’s website under the business and Commercial sector thank you thank you Lloyd and um yeah I’ve had the uh the pleasure of getting to know um some of the small businesses um and the startups um in the business and

Technology Center over the last year and they do do a fantastic job for uh the town um and so finally Madame mayor um just an update um from me about The stevenage Works initiative uh members will know that or hopefully will know that stevenage works is a partnership

Between the stevenage B Council North Hearts college and job center plus they’ve developed over a number of years and they now work collaborative with over 20 contractors developers and other local organizations to maximize the number of local jobs training and opportun unties for local people and I

Know they uh they work with uh wer in some of those areas too this is all generated through investment development and regeneration in the town since its formation in 2017 over 500 people have attended training courses over 150 candidates have achieved construction skills allowing them to work on

Site our partners have provided CV writing mock interviews guest talks careers mentoring and on-site experiences and there are over 4 40 I was bit above myself then 40 apprenticeships are in place so over 50,000 has been donated by stevenage works over the years for local community projects and good causes in

Stevenage um so I just wanted take the opportunity of championing uh that really great initiative thank you Madame mayor thank you councilors for those updates dat does the leader of the opposition have any comments I have a question about May Madam mayor um we recently got an email

About the um or the maintenance of play areas now the program was delayed by covid and a retirement and the consultation is being rerun and I’m not quite clear what the end game is here because when we originally started talking about this we were talking about

Leaving 50 PL areas and um to be kept up in good working order and I’m just wondering if that’s still the figure whether and a half million will actually cover that thank you councelor maybe councelor Henry do you wish to respond um yeah I’m suris that you’ve raised it on this um U

Phil because it there wasn’t a portfolio update um there um so I’m interested in why it’s raised here but I’m happy to um have a look into it and ask um Lou and Simon to to look into it Simon I don’t know if you want to come in on that yeah

You’re quite right Richard taking words out of my mouth I I I’m not expecting a question Phil I’m not really prepared uh to be able to give you an answer but what we can do is set up a conversation with Steve Dupo to go through all the

Details with you that’s the best I can offer okay Richard thank you councelor Henry and councelor spell so now we’ll go to item nine update from scrutiny chairs may ask councelor Ln martinho to give us an update on the work of the overview and scrutiny committee thank you Madame mayor as

Always I’ll be short um there’s only been one meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee and that took place last night and it was an unusually quick meeting it only took just over an hour um I’m not going to go through all the items on the short agenda they were

Almost entirely concerned with financial reports and one of them will be discussed later this evening then that’s the final housing revenue account um budget setting and rent report um we also looked at the council’s corporate plan and that’s entitled making stevenage even better 2024 to 27 um you might wonder how we

Could possibly make stevenage um even better but I can assure you that there are plans a foot to do just that um in my view the most interesting item was in the part two section of the agenda so unfortunately I can’t obviously um talk about about this evening uh but please

Watch this space for an exciting new Venture which we hope will be coming to stevenage very soon thank you thank you councelor may I now ask councelor me to provide an update on the work of the community select committee thank you yes we met on the

8th of January and we concluded our um scrutiny of the housing Repairs Service um I’m proud that we’ve worked to forward um nine constructive recommendation ations um for the Department um but I will um note that um despite this review going on there was also a separate review going on the

Ridge review as well as um them dealing with the problems that still ensuing from the pandemic the back backlog of complaints um and I would like it noted that all of the offices that helped and were constructive with our review um showed every sign of resolve that I

Would expected to see and was I’m very proud to see thank you thank you councelor me and finally I will go to councelor broom and ask that he provides an update on the work of the environment and economy select committee the environment economy committee has been uh finalizing the work on the bus

Scrutiny and the cost of living scrutinies that were carried out last year looking forward we’ll be doing some work on in early February on scrutiny issues for the next Civic year um followed by a session on biodiversity in February and also one on climate change strategy and finally we’ll be looking at

Some um some work on the decarbonization of housing stock in March thank you thank you councilor broom we’ll now go to item 10 the notice of motions one motion has been submitted for consideration at this meeting the motion submitted by the labor group concerning the impact of the government’s autum statement on local

Government Finance is detailed in the order of business for this meeting councelor Richard Henry to move the motion please thank you Madame mayor um obviously when uh before the Autumn statement we were uh quite encouraged by some of the noises coming out of government that looking towards supporting local government but alas

There wasn’t um support coming through uh which is why we uh have written this motion um one of the key things for me is that a number of councils have already submitted section 114 notices I.E effectively gone bust because they haven’t got the finances to meet uh the

Budget requirements and I think there’s over 40 councils at the moment thinking that they may have to do so in the very near future so it’s a very real National problem um section four of the motion for me is a key thing which um looks at the uh the

National Audit office um has looked at how Stevens’s core spending poers reduced by 64.5% in real terms when comparing 2010 that’s when the first conservative Le government came in um to 2020 um so that’s reduced our funding by 5.3 million and the need to fund inflation pressures has meant the

Council has had to find over 14 million P of savings over the last 13 years to stay financially resilient obviously over that time we’ve had to make some very difficult decisions and been attacked by the opposition for doing so um particularly the conservative opposition who attacked us for cutting funding to various um

Services but it meant that in doing that we we remained financially resilient the decisions get harder and harder and uh members will know from all parties that we go through um we start the budget process straight after the budget um Council to look at the savings

Um and the pressures that we have um to deal with um I just want to say a couple of more things because I think the the motion is um is fairly detailed and um fairly straightforward to understand but in the Autumn statement um I think the the chancellor actually lifted the lid

On 13 years of conservative economic failure um and we were told to expect an Autumn growth growth an Autumn statement for growth but the growth has been revised down year after year and after that um there’s further cuts to come what has come clear is the fullscale

Damage of this government that have done to our economy over 13 years and I’m not even going to mention uh what Liz trusted to the whole um e economy of this country and nothing has been announced in the Autumn statement that will remotely compensate local government so after 13 years of conservative

Government the economy simply isn’t working and despite all that people are working people and working families are still worse off um than they were pre pandemic and I’m sure um people will have um seen a lot of the uh reports recently January 22nd a couple days ago

We a group of 44 conservative MPS and this includes seven former cabinet members they’ve urged the government to provide an emergency injection of funding for councils to prevent major reductions to local services in a letter to uh the Prime Minister Rishi sunak and the Secretary of State for leveling up

Michael Gove the group said that the current local government funding plans fail to tackle the financial needs of County and unitary authorities they didn’t even mention because it’s conservative they didn’t mention a lot of District councils who are um facing real difficulties too so that group of MPS include former

Local government secretaries of State their hands are uh uh their hands are all over this as well Secretary State Robert jenrick and Greg Greg Clark as well as a prominent former cabinet members such as pretty Patel who would have known Teresa coffee Damen green and Brandon Lewis it also includes former

Local government ministers so um with that Madame mayor I’ll um ask if everybody in this room will support this motion um including um if they support the 40 uh conservative MPS across the country uh are opposition members um with that Madame mayor I’ll move the motion thank you councelor Henry

Councelor Janette Thomas to to second the motion thank you madam mayor with many cross count cross party MPS calling for extra Council funding including more than 40 conservatives and these MPS have been written to the Prime Minister demanding extra funding for councils in England to avoid big cuts to Services the local government

Association and the County Council NW Network are saying that they are exceptionally concerned at the measures many local authorities are planning in including raising council tax and cutting services with the local government Association warning of a 4 billion funding Gap facing local service Services I second this Motion in support

Of this Council and every other Council in the country regardless of political persuasion in calling for additional funding to avoid harmful cuts to services and increased cost to our residents I second the motion Madam mayor thank you councelor Thomas we shall now debate the motion does anyone

Wish to speak I’ll start with councelor Phil BB thank you Madame mayor and uh it strikes me this is the rehearsal for the budget um debate so perhaps it could have waited till then but um we’ll probably duplicate a lot what we say then on what we’re going to say

Now but although we have some sympathy with the well run councils that find themselves in financial difficulties and are disappointed with the current funding levels we cannot support this motion which is a blatant attack on the government that is committed to bringing the UK’s economy back in order following

Events Beyond its control it has not been feasible to propose a suitable Amendment we are used to the starma labor rhetoric trying to be Mis trying to mislead everyone into believing that the conservatives trash economy which in reality was a result of covid and the war in Ukraine this all happened at a

Time when we thought austerity was no longer necessary this being in place to recover the economy after Labor spent all our money whilst lasting power up until 2010 and that that reaction is quite predictable actually there must be a labor manual somewhere that says if if you feel uncomfortable what what said

Just Bluster and talk over the speaker and it’s exactly what he done it does show up that you have no idea about money at all and how how the economy has run of course they want to do this all over again and we have to wonder how they will fund all their spending

Promises once they’ have exhausted the attack on non-don Taxation and wealth taxes the government just hasn’t got the money to do all we would wish it to do I never agreed with list trust’s policies but she continues to receive unfair press comment no she didn’t rec

Our economy as what she put in place was quickly reversed increased mortgage rates were blamed on her but interest rates were Rising internationally anyway our base rate is presently 5.25 % but the US and the Euro Zone who have historically had much lower rates in the UK are at

5.25 to 5 5.5 in us and 4.5% in the Euro Zone it is true that most councils supported by the LGA have lobbied Westminster for more funding but I know that the treasury is Keen that local authorities make sure that they drive efficiencies and get value for money but

Let us recognize that the government has announced today an addition additional 00 million for social care from which half you expect 7 million this is an addition to an extra £88 million over 11 years which hared me because it’s going to be spent on roads in our County so

Yes we would have preferred more funding but understand why this is not possible so I cannot support the motion thank you mad May thank you councelor bb councelor Robin Parker thank you Madame mayor um I’ve got a few comments I would like to make about the the motion um first of

All a matter of fact in uh paragraph two of the motion uh what on Earth is or was the conservative liberal Democrat Alliance government such a thing never existed or if it did I wasn’t paying attention I think uh what you’ve done is to turn the clock back 40 years and

Muddle up a few things what I think you mean or meant was the sdp liberal Alliance which was a political party never unfortunately in government so you know the the motion needs changing that uh we to get those words right what it should say of course is just the liberal Democrat conservative coalition

Government if you replace those words conservative liberal Democrat Alliance government with liberal Democrat conservative coalition government and that would make sense um and I hope that the the move of the motion will do that during the debate it’s a minor point just to get it factually correct uh we agree with the General

Thrust of the motion however um but let’s not forget that the initial back in 2010 that is I say initial the 2010 initial cuts and austerity were in fact necessary let’s remember that the UK government was at that time 2010 increasing the deficit national deficit deficit by an amount of £5,000 each and

Every second 24 hours a day um and so action was needed but I would agree we would agree that the cuts did disproportionately fall on local government um whilst in fact the government’s pet schemes like hs2 were left intact and of course they wasted money on the PPE the personal protection

Equipment and there was the fast of the L trust government trashing the economy which she did in fact do whatever anyone else says she did her government did trash the economy and that cost us a lot because her government had a Russian buy um built Russian buy guilts back off the

Market which of course cost us a lot of money so there’s no question that they that they they wasted money and a way was still paying for it um I’ve got a question actually which is um how if at all how if at all will today’s well triled announcement improve things for

Us I’m not sure it will but if any of the officers can tell me a factual answer on that I would be interested I suppose it will come out in due course anyway um or is it only for upper tier authorities I got the impression it was also for as

Well I Do by the way um well not by the way I I do I do an important point I do trust that our finance officers will continue to protect us from section 114 notices going bankrupt as the Press like to call it Al it’s not really the same

As going bankrupt uh the figure that I’ve read that one in five local authorities are running out of funds is to say the least worrying and can basically be put down to uh cuts from central government to local government’s budgets here locally I still believe I always believe that the Financial

Services Group lfsg as it used to be called it’s been called various things but the present Financial assal Group FSG Group which meets um several times a year to discuss possible economies and indeed some growth items as well um I still believe it does a useful job and I

Hope that the um ruling group will continue with that uh that group group because it does enable issues to be dealt with off the Record and without committing anyone to anything and the effect it has is that all of us on that on that committee that group um and all

Parties represented of course it’s an all party group will all come away knowing a lot more about the situation then perhaps we would otherwise do if it was just down to a load of papers to read so in summary um we can support the motion on balance we shall vote for it

Um but I do hope that Richard or someone can take into account the factual eror in that second paragraph and change it to Liberal Democrat conservative coalition government thank you thank you councelor Robin Parker um May I remind everyone that you have three minutes to speak so now I will

Have to call councelor Simon spell okay two minutes 59 58 um thank you very much Madame mayor um and the goal of of what you say Phil um I’m just thinking of this old image and I’m a con Prince kin by the way I never was a

Monist and uh I don’t understand how we’ve managed to trash our economy and our society since 1979 with a short break for New Labor uh and it’s a shame that so often that our people are deluded into thinking voting a conservative is to vote for their own personal well-being when the evidence

Seems to be completely the opposite um the idea that the private sector’s good and knows how to run companies uh and keep a tight ship and whereas public sector’s wasteful doesn’t really seem to stand out much scrutiny when you think of the cost of brexit when you think of

The cost of trying to fly people to Rwanda when you think of pp procurement the waste from this government is astonishing and proplate oh and where the money goes but we’re not going to be concerned about that tonight I would just argue that very simply if you look

At this motion uh the first four paragraphs basically set out the scene and the the key the key part of a motion is Section 5 A and B I don’t know how anyone who’s been actively in local government and diligent around our responsibilities could fail to agree

With this motion it seems to me that in a two-tier County we are joined at hit with the County Council whether you like it as County councilors or not because the County Services going down at to Swan are just as bad for Steven people as they are for anyone else so there no

Political grandstanding or barnstorming or whatever going on here it’s clear political Common Sense basically this is about localists versus centralists you either believe and Brett one day as you pursue your local government career you may find yourself deciding what you are you either are a localist and believe that government

Should devolve to the level where we know best we spend best and in terms of the public sector local government is by far the most efficient Delivery Agent both for local government and for central government we proved it during PPE we consistently prove it I can see

Councelor faar and G up for um oh sorry I get it right one day um for for your statement that the conservative party is the party of Law and Order I can’t wait for you to repeat that one I think at the end of the day this is about banding

Together as the family of local government whether are liberal Democrat green conservative or labor and I support this motion un unreservedly without alteration thank you Madame mayor three minutes thank you councelor spell for not exceeding three minutes as well okay so you’re right on time thank you now

It’s very good with time councelor Jim Brown thank you Madame mayor um I thought in addition to sniggering um and without turning into a history teacher I would start off by just saying Fanny May and Freddy Mack to you and those memory cells might start ticking over about those various

Financial institutions that did their level best to wreck the world economy in 2008 and what Gordon Brown was doing between 2008 and 2010 was investing in the economy so of course he was spending money given a little longer he would have expanded the economy not shrunk it thank you councelor Jim

Brown councelor Steven boo thank you Madame mayor I’ll try and be very brief um I think everybody in this room should be worried about the state of local government and I’m sure most of us are um local government has always been really both the first and last

Resort that uh that people turn to it’s fundamentally about Administration it’s about localism it’s about resilience of communities um and it’s the base for democracy and all of this is just being hollowed out now there’s going to be nothing left if we’re not careful there will be a very bitter

Harvest going forward I think as a result of this and I hope that a new government will begin to look at ways in which we can decouple local government from central government Finance I think that’s the important thing that we need to do here central government has a stake but

It it is not a stakeholder as far as local government is concerned we need a stable and resilient and um sustainable funding mechanism for local government I do hope that the next government looks into that thank you madam man thank you councelor Steven boo councelor Michael Downing for most of my career in as a member of this Council it’s been a privilege to be able to take part in a process even when we always thought we were short of money but we were able to look forward to improving the quality of services and

Building up what had been established by the pioneers of the new town we talked about the Development Corporation earlier and build on their legacy and we did that successfully I then had four years off the council I retired in fact in 2011 uh but came back four four years later to a transformed

World and found that no longer were we generally able to talk about what we could build up but all our discussions and arguments about what could be least damagingly uh cut uh to avoid the the worst effects of what the government was doing in the way of cutting

Resources it really is um strange for conservatives to complain that the reason that the cuts had to be made was because of the mess that was left behind by by the labor government the high levels of spending councelor Brown has quite correctly I think identified the real

Nature of the crisis that the world faced not just Britain but it should also be said and this is my final point that for most of his career as leader of the opposition David Cameron was anxiously pledging that a conservative government would con commit itself to at least meeting and

Hopefully increasing Labor’s level of spending so to criticize the government for overspending is not just inaccurate but uh hypocrisy thank you councelor Michael dony councelor Sid so was local people um it’s our job is it not to stand up for our town for our people so that’s exactly what we

Must do um there’s sometimes this whole political thing goes on and in the midst of this come I find um being challenged on not understanding things so that Sparks me as you know into kind of giving you what I do understand I think I’ve said this before but it’s worth

Saying again each and every one of us pays we are paying in what we’re not paying for is for somebody to take all of the money away to decide in some distant place where to take our money to for it never to return so the taxpayers

Money of the people of our town is paying for services that we need um I I think I remember election times when I’m to we were told oh we have to save money let’s be more efficient with money and that to me um I’ll be happily corrected

But what it seems like to me is that money is just taken away and and and vanished and what makes me cross is that I’m not paying taxpayer money for the likes of Boris Johnson to pay £800,000 for a PL flag on a plane did any anyone

However they voted is that exactly what they were voting for um when Michael go used to tell us that there’s no need for experts um and we seeing now the reason why perhaps we do need some experts and the experts we need are the people running a country and I’m not saying

That as a party political um statement because if our party was running the government this badly I’d say exactly the same thing and so I think we all as local people in our jobs today with our bums in these seats need to vote for this motion thank you councelor Sid councelor Brett

FY thank you Madame mayor it’s another year another four council meeting and surprise surprise there’s another labor motion moaning about cuts and calling for more money they moaned at the last council meeting that we’d already discussed voter ID but this must be the 30th time such a motion has been put

Before this Council but hey ho I’d give the labor group more credit if they hadn’t act already willfully ruled out options to improve and reduce costs in the way we do local government and I’ll prove to you Simon that I am a localist I promise several years ago there was a

Serious proposal to consider merging councils across half into one or two unitary authorities the labor executive turned its nose up at this idea choosing to slate the proposal to any journalist who’d listen this proposal would have saved local government in this County up to 142 million pound per year if that

Saving had been divided evenly between the current Burrows and districts each lower tier Authority area would receive an extra 14.2 million that would have more than doubled our existing budget for this area think of all the extra services that we could have could have provided for local people all the extra

Street cleaning Leaf clearance and litter picking think of the play schemes that would still be open for our Town’s children to enjoy think of the extra support we could have Pro provided for all our vulnerable residents think of the Investments we could have made to improve our aging housing stock but

Instead the labor party chose to cling to a council that they view as their personal fom and residents lost out on better services and a better use of taxpayers money some councils did run consultations about the unitary process although looking through the wording of the questions asked they were blatantly

Geared towards getting a negative response from the start rendering the consultations about as valid as a North Korean election result anyway that’s all in the past now and are likely to be revived soon but I think the labor group are quite brass neck to bring a motion

Winging about a lack of funding when they chose to make a political decision against unitizing which cost our town and its people millions and for that reason Madame mayor we’ll be voting against the motion thank you thank you councelor fy councelor Ro broom this seems to be we’re teasing out a

Debate here between localism and not localism and I am deeply suspicious of any uh changes to the way in which local government work which takes away decisions from local people and Local Economic situations by trying to um centralize things more corporately at County it it takes away not only more decisions at

Local levels around people’s services but it also it also also affects local democracy and it seems to me that we have a party at the moment which is got questionable economic policies um which I think are been pretty well rumbled in public I mean the party that used to be

The party of sound money and um and economic competence has been absolutely torn to shreds um you’re now attacking local government and frankly most of us I think um recognize that there is a need for the local government to be um redress some of the imbalances that have

Happened over the past 15 years um under this present government um there is a need from the point of view Council Council Spell’s points about kesian ISM there is a need for local government to play its part alongside free market economy and to actually address the issues that need to be addressed you

Seem to see the seem to the two as some there’s an antithesis between the two between government or or local economy I think frankly that way of things things has died of death the two complement each other and we need a more mixed market approach if you’re going to start

Talking about economics but of course I don’t know anything about economics cuz I’m in the labor party um we need a more mixed market approach in terms of these things and I think I I hope very much so we’re going to get that very soon in this country and it will start

Redressing some of the terrible um things that have happened to to the local government community in the last 15 years in this country thank you councelor broom councelor Alex farco harson thank you madam May well I suppose none of us should really be surprised once again the labor

Administration like a broken record is putting forward the same rehash point on money as with every time this topic is brought up we go over the same arguments and land ourselves in the same hole of Labor claiming poverty and demanding a government bailout without any consideration for where this money could

Actually come from labor is true to form on this especially given their National Party finds themselves with a financial black hole in excess of 28 billion for their various spending pledges where whether it be at the national level or the local level labor has demonstrated it cannot be trusted with the taxpayer’s

Money in har Council for instance the previous labor administration’s grand plan to build new Council offices went over budget by 100% and that’s without including the 10 million pounds they spent on top of the construction costs to buy designer furniture for the new building in Cen we have an authority

That has gone bankrupt fre times in a row as a result of legacy of bad financial practices bad debt management and ack of good governance from the AED labor Administration in Birmingham the city Authority has gone bankrupt after failing to settle proper pay for officers and a mismanaged IT project

That is over spend by over 80 million up and down the country we have Labor authorities that saddle themselves with debt through poor management haringay with 1.5 billion Enfield with 1.12 billion Warrington with 1.8 billion Lamberth with a billion pound given all this it rather comes across that labor can

Only give us repeated excuses for its failures to take responsibility there are no handouts to give there is no Magic Money Trees and the labor Administration will find ultimately to its disappointment that in a hypothetical starma government it would be in no position to Splash the

Cash starma after all has yet to even address what taxes he might raise what new debts he might take or what cutbacks would come through to cut his 28 billion black hole less alone cover the demands of Labor run councils perhaps of course being the big fans of revisiting the

Past the labor Administration be reminded to write a letter asking Mr s to go caping hand the IMF like a certain former labor prime minister did rather than wasting the time of this Council and the people of stevenage with repeatedly dragging up the same tired old arguments labor Administration

Simply get on with the job to borrow phrase A Little Less Conversation a little more action thank you councelor Alex farco harson councelor Connor mcrath Thank You Madame mayor um I just want to put in a correction on behalf of councilor FY and the Tory plan for unitary authorities

Was in 1993 and many Tory districts did not support it thank you madam mayor thank you councelor McGrath so councelor Henry has the right of reply thank you Madame mayor um I’ll I’ll uh come to you first Robin in terms of the U semantics and the change of word I’m happy to accept

That my point was that um it was the liberal Democrats that propped up the Tory government when they started austerity in 2010 so but I’m quite happy to accept that without a recommendation or um uh an amendment um I’m sure that can be done at the end of the meeting

Um so thank you for that in terms of the lsfg or the council security uh Financial Group or whatever it morphs into there will still be that um function in existence after 2024 um because obviously it ain’t going to change anytime soon um in terms of I won’t pick up on

Everything because uh but thank you everybody for for the contributions but I just wanted to pick up on one or two things um I think um Phil yourself and the conservative group are a little bit deluded if you believe that Liz trust didn’t crash the economy um it’s

Recognized around the world that the 45 days that um she was leader of um this government was not a good time for Britain um obviously there’s some denial going on there um the year- on-year cuts to local government uh and the increasing burdens to councils um it’s affected all councils

Across the country I meet with the leaders of various councils conservative libdem Administration the The Many Colors of councils that we have and they’re all facing Financial uh difficulties and increased burdens by this government so it isn’t just little labor Council I think you might have

Said um Alex but there you go um and I think that’s what prompted 40 conservative MPS to call on Gove to increase funding to local government not just labor governments to local government in terms of the um goes given some money I think you said 600 million

Um Phil out out of that um stevenage uh we did some ballpark figures earlier on uh we get 100,000 roughly it could be a little bit higher a little bit lower that’s a one-off payment that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the um how many Millions 40 million that we’ve had

To save um and the extra burdens placed upon councils which um some haven’t been um fully funded since Co and I think um our section 101 101 151 officer we’ll be coming to us soon saying that the this current government are never going to repay that money that they promised um during covid

Um turning to um Alex as I’ve already said it’s not just this Council is facing Financial um difficulties it’s all councils of all colors across the country um in terms of the unitary argument I thought that was interesting because that was quite a few years ago again I’ve worked with all the leaders

Across heart since I became the leader here and that includes um conservative leaders libdems and um um other leaders of um um no overall control authorities as well as halfter growth board as well as the and there’s no appetite in hartfordshire for unitary Authority it was it was led I think

Might have been during covid that the current leader of the County Council um got some the previous leader sorry know I work very closely with Richard Roberts who uh who is a fan of stevenage by the way um it was uh he he put a bit forward

To take over um control of um hartfordshire and it was quickly squashed and he was soon out of office so there is no appetite for unitary Authority status in hartfordshire we work very well together the hearts growth board is um politicians from all um colors the Le um has representatives

From um myself um as a labor rep there’s conservatives there’s libdems and we work very closely together because of our um view that the economy and harf forer benefits from us working closely together together and we’ve written to government to say that we don’t want an imposition of different types of

Authority so very interesting why you rose raised that argument here because that isn’t um an issue in harf forter as far as I’m aware um and bigger isn’t better we know that some unitary authorities uh you you listed a few uh Alex but also we’ve got northamptonshire County Council which is

A conservative Authority and we know what thork um you know has gone through um and they’re a conservative Authority so it isn’t just us pleading poverty if you look at National statistics it’s very clear from many uh reports that poverty has risen in this country since 2010 so we’re not pleading poverty

Poverty exists um so with that um Madame mayor I will finish thank you councelor Richard Henry on that note councelor Henry will have to put 10 pound yeah thank you so now we will I’ll happily do that Madame may but then I’ll will start to plead poverty

Myself we will now take a vote on the Motions those in favor please show by raising your hand thank you those against please show by raising your hand thank you any extensions please show by raising your hand the motion is carried thank you everyone item 11 questions from members

To committee chairs and portfolio holders five questions are set out in the agenda order of business the responses to the questions have been circulated to all members and may be found on the supplementary agenda on the council’s website each questioner may ask one supplementary question question a concerns the council’s telephone

Inquiry system councelor Nutley do you have a supplementary question please thank you uh thank you councelor RTI for your detailed reply the reason I had asked this question was because I had received many complaints from residents saying it took a considerable amount of time to get through to someone to actually talk to

Having to go through a considerable Ma of press button options which can be very confusing to certain members of the community while I appreciate that the Performance Management data shows a positive trend I ask the executive member to REM to remind the team to be mindful of the residents who experience

Has not been so good and challenge the team to double down and get those waiting times down even further does the executive member agree thank you thank you councelor Nutley councelor Lorraine Rosati to respond thank you uh count councelor Nutley um yes we’re always looking to improve this service if you

Have specific uh members of the public who uh would like to you’d like to uh tell me about um I will discuss that with our uh our transformation team customer service team um I like many people don’t like talking to machines when I phone up I want to

Talk to a person but I also recognize that very often it is easier to uh get through to the right Department by pressing 1 2 3 4 um but I do like talking to a human uh myself and uh so I want to monitor the uh the uh uh system

Whereby people can opt to get a link by text to see whether that is having a positive customer experience uh We’ve not had any complaints directly yet uh as I said in my first answer but um I am always always willing to uh hear about um good and less good customer experiences

Thank you councilor Rosati question B concerns the councilor’s locality budget scheme councelor Parker in the absence of councelor mcin do you have a supplementary question yes madame mayor I do yes so I’m asking on behalf of Andy mcginness um in in your answer uh councilor bar you mentioned

Defibrillators and bleed control units I just want to make the point that we also have those in CHS and Mana in fact I believe in CHS and Mana WS we have more defibrillators than anywhere probably anywhere in the UK actually um but if we’re not noted for anything that’s what

We’re noted for um but just bearing in mind that HCC locality budgets are likely to be cut in half uh from April um I want to put in a quick ple for increasing and possible our lcbs the actual question I want to ask is this I’d be interested in the split

In spending across the board on our lcbs the split between revenue and capital items seems to me that much is revenue but ongoing lasting changes need of course to be Capital items bearing in mind that Revenue items can lead to consequent later Financial commitments my question is are there plans to

Introduce Capital Revenue restrictions or guidelines on how we spend our lcps thank you thank you councelor Parker councelor Sandra b to respond thank you Rob um I I will um citate on this I shall think about it I’ll ask officers to make a comment and I will write to um Alex or

Yourself it depends who wants the the answer but I’m sure that um you will share it amongst your team not not Alex it’s and us all thank you thank you thank you councelor bar question C concerns the par systems for staff and counselors counselor FY do you have a supplementary question yes thank

You I find the fact we know only cost ourselves £5,000 per year since Autumn 2022 on counselor payroll a bit incredible to be honest especially given we’ve just listened to half an hour debate on how you don’t think You’ got enough money your answer also implies that prior to Autumn 2022 and your

Review of the payroll provision that we needed payroll staff to specifically administer the council payroll was separate to the staff payroll I find that a questionable use of resources can the leader guarantee that there are no other strange and quirky setups like this situation where we are causing a

Small but unnecessary cost to the council thank you councelor fy councelor Richard Henry tpine I think there’s small and quirky uh Accounting in all local councils certainly in the work I’ve been doing around the country there’s various different accounting systems what I am aware of though is that the County

Council has two payroll systems and as far as I’m aware they’re not looking to change it so perhaps you could ask um the conservative County uh Council Representatives if they’re wanting to save um taxpayers money in that um and just to reiterate um when I became aware

Of it I um has asked officers to look into it and you know in local government it takes quite a while to uh move systems um and we’re constantly reviewing um all the the way we work in in the transformation program and as we’re doing that we will find

Things that have been in train for many years and we will correct it as when we find it thank you Madame May thank you councelor Henry question D concerns the effect of changes in the local media on the council’s communication team councelor Parker do you have a supplementary question yes thank you

Madame thank you Richard for the answer uh which was mainly though about social media whereas my interest is UN as shamed radio um I actually don’t have a working TV and I haven’t had one for 11 and a half years um and uh for me and many others therefore radio is what

Matters um a brief a very brief illustration of why radio is important the recent post of his scandal that was mentioned in detail on radio many times in the last few years but it’s not until for some reason it got on TV a couple of months ago that people took notice my

Point is so much is missed if you ignore radio with its instant feedback and wide reach we all knew about it if you listen to radio a couple years ago the supplementary question is do we afford all help to the local radio or what’s left of it here at the

Council in other words is the SBC Studio which used to be behind us behind this wall behind me is that still operational and used and if not why not there used to be a fully equipped Studio there I’ve used it myself in the past and I wonder

If it’s still there and if not why not so you know life is not all all all all all TV uh final thought um did VI did video really kill the radio stars or or was it social media that killed him thank you councelor Parker councelor Richard Henry to respond I like the

Reference to the boogles record from many many years ago there Robin and if you remember when you put forward your motion on radio um I supported it as did the labor group because we recognize that radio is really important to many people people um certainly at home we

Have the radio on most of the time even if it’s just in the background um in terms of the studio it’s news to me I didn’t know how to fully work in studio and and obviously as you know the radio is not under our control whatsoever I do

Know that our comm’s team are in regular communication um with all forms of media and we do value local radio and I know they do what they can to um you know uh work with them in publicizing some of the work we do and when we get questions

Um sometimes members um I don’t know if you guys go on the radio but certainly labor members will go on and ask answer questions on the radio so apart from that I don’t think there’s much more I can say I will um ask officer to find out where this secret studio is

Though thank you councelor Richard Henry question e is about the impact of right to buy sales of the council’s housing stuff on the town and residents councelor Mitchell do you have a supplementary question yes please um firstly thank you very much to councelor Thomas for her um long and detailed uh

Answer which I think acknowledges both the challenges to the Council of right to buy as well as the opportunities to our tenants so my question is given especially the uh discounts available to our tenants for right to buy how how are these opportunities um communicated to them and how often

Thank you counselor M counselor Janette Thomas to respond thanks Adam uh the all the details for how people can apply are on the council’s website and I know it works because my granddaughter and her husband did exactly that last year and bought their own house thank you thank you councelor Thomas we’re now

Going to item 12 the final housing revenue account or HRA budget setting and rent report 2024 2025 this report has been circulated with the agenda and may be found at page 17 chief executive do you have anything to add nothing to add thank you Madame mayor thank you thank you councelor

Janette Thomas to move the recommendations thank you Madame mayor this evening I am pleased to move the 20242 housing revenue account budget and rent setting report the draft and final budgets were presented to the executive in December and January respectively and have also been to the overview and scrutiny committee and their comments

Are included within the report the HRA budget has been set in line with the assumptions used in the revised 30-year business plan which is approved by the executive in November 2023 the aim of the budget is to balance the needs of the existing housing stock while allowing investment in new

Replacement homes for those lost under the right to buy system and to meet the needs of those residents on our waiting list for a council home the budget includes funding for 37 million on revenue and capital Works to existing homes and 29 million of investment in new housing stock for our

Residents this is part of a plan over the next 10 years to improve the maintenance of our counsil homes to ensure that tenants have good quality safe and sustainable homes to live in particularly in response to the climate crisis maintaining full compliance with all statutory and regulatory requirements to ensure tenants homes

Remain safe will continue as a key priority for this Council the full operational implications of regulatory changes are still being assessed and implemented as necessary in particular in respects to the social housing regulations act building safety act and the fire safety act The Works include the refurbishment

Program to our low to medium rise flat blocks and we will consult on and commence building safety and refurbishment works to our five high rise flat blocks over the next three years of the council’s decent home program we will install 995 new kitchens or bathrooms 1,875 heated upgrades 1,500 window or

Door upgrades and 1,400 properties will receive Works to improve their Energy Efficiency with the aim of all properties to be at energy performance rating of C by 2030 the 20242 budget will contribute towards the delivery of 447 new homes over the next 5 years in line with our five-star

Promise this is on top of the 500 new homes the council has already delivered to date the report sets out the requirements for Revenue growth for 20242 HRA totaling 2.4 million and which is shown in section 4.4 of the report this includes oneoff growth for void works of £500,000 which will enable

The council to meet the additional costs related to void property and growth of 850,000 will continue the work in clearing the current backlog of fencing repairs and Replacements that’s assuming we don’t have any more storms this year which will knock down a few more fences we will continue to imple

Implement improvements to the council repairs and void service to ensure it offers choice to tenants and delivers cost effective repairs and improvements right first time further proposals on this will will be presented to the council to the executive in due course additional resources of £49,000 have also been allocated in

Response to new and ongoing operational challenges including tackling higher levels of rear and the introduction of new and revised social housing standards and regulations this is alongside growth of £ 419,000 that will enable transformation projects offset it and system pressures and deliver service improvements as as part of the

Council’s oh just move too far part of the council’s climate change commitment we will also be switching our housing van Fleet where possible to hydrotreated vegetable oil Eco fuel from October this year there are some inescapable pressures for the HRA and these include the housing utsman increasing obligatory

Annual fees to the council and the regulator of social housing is introducing its own set of fees next year £89,000 has been included in the budget to respond to this new pressure the HRA has 200,000 savings Target built into the 20242 budget linked to expected savings from the council’s transformation

Program rent provides the main source of funding in the HRA and rents have been increased by 7.7% in line with the government’s rent setting guidance guidelines using September CPI plus 1% this means the average weekly rents will be increased by £8.56 for social rents 109 for low start shared ownership homes

And £ 1330 for affordable rents however it’s worth noting that due to a large reduction in utility costs tenants in some of our flat blocks will see an overall reduction or only a small increase in Combined rent and service charges next year the net rental income increase for

20242 is estimated to be 4.5 million which includes the impact of estimated rights to buys a significant number of existing new expected new properties and properties taken out of management that are awaiting Redevelopment service charges are not subject to the rent increase of 7.7% but are based on cost

Recovery as I said earlier service charges have reduced as the cost of gas is expected to reduce by 40% compared to last year and this has been reflected in the charges for communal he heating systems the impact of these changes is of the 200 2,834 properties that are eligible for service charges

648 or 23% will see a decrease of up to 1750 per week due to lower gas costs and the remaining 2,172 homes will have increases up to 250 per week moving to funding all that investment I talked about earlier new loans totaling 37.6 million and 18.8

Million are expected to be taken in the current and next financial years for 2023 24 and 20242 however the timing of when to take the new borrowing will be reviewed weighing up the cost and the Public Works loanable rates the interest payable in 2023 24 and 20

2425 is estimated to be 8.9 million and 9.4 million respectively there is a net increase cost in recharges from the general fund to the HRA of 179,000 and this has increased the HRA deficit for the year to £ 261,000 this will be funded from balances and adjusted in future revisions of the

Medium-term financial strategy through this budget we will continue to strive to improve our properties build new Council homes and support our valued tenants throughout the coming Financial year I recommend this budget to members thank you thank you councelor and Janette councelor Lorraine Rosati to respond thank you Madame mayor I forly

Second and reserve my right to speak thank you thank you councilor Rosati does anyone wish to speak councelor Steven boo thank you Madame mayor my group very much recognizes is the tight strictures created by our rather shambolic Tory government in which local Authority has to operate we recognize

Too that there are desperate needs out there for housing in our just for reference it was under the previous government the Coalition of the liberal Democrats and the conservatives that Council house building again became possible using logically the receipts from the right to buy sales now welcomely welcomely increased from 30%

Of the right to buy sales to 40% and an increase too in the period in which receipts can be spent to 5 years surprisingly no council housing was built under the last Labor government from 1997 to 2010 and just to remind everyone particularly those sitting in

The bench below us uh that the patron saint of council house sales Margaret aches stopped all Council house building how she and her acolytes at that time thought a growing nation and future Generations were going to be housed I have no idea today’s housing crisis can be traced right back to the

1980s turning to our um to our housing revenue account budget there are obvious problems that we we’re going to have to face soon particularly on the decent uh home standard to bring all uh housing up to that and the later set of building regulations and compliance regulations

Um just moving to the tabular data on page 33 I would like to pose a question please uh 33 33 yes okay why are corporate and Democratic cost allocated to the housing revenue account is this just their Fair proportion of the general fund seems an

Odd way to do it to me and the amount of 10524 million for supervision and management against repairs and maintenance of 13116 million does seem excessive it’s over 44% of the total cost of the housing department do we Benchmark our supervision and management costs against larger housing associations or large

Private landlords with published accounts it would be very useful to know thank you Madame May thank you councelor Steven boo councelor Robin Parker thank you Madame mayor um yes listening to step I I must say agree completely with his first point about the fact that uh

There was no council housing done in the last Labor government or indeed the Tory government leading up to that uh it was wasn’t until the the Dems got into Coalition and insisted on Council house building being allowed again that it actually happened so I was going to make

That point and I’m glad Steve did because he said it far more eloquently than I than I would have done um but that that’s the history which we must remember it was the Coalition that got Council house building done again the second point I want to make is that

Looking at the rent increase for our tenants 7.7% is actually quite a lot although having read the papers it does seem to me I have no magical answer it does seem to me that there is no alternative and when you look at it 7.7% is around about the average inflation

Rate over the last year or so so it could be argued it’s it’s fair one question finally and that is on page 19 paragraph 3.4 it says um about um uh yeah paragraph 3.4 it says um uh decarbonizing the council’s housing stock decarbonizing the council’s housing stock which is currently

Estimated that it will cost 150 million at current prices and of course it will go up by the time we start to do it and that’ll have to be addressed it says Inc coming years I just wonder what um well I was going to say what progress has

Been made on that presumably none yet but what actual plans are we to actually um sort that out because it’s going to be 150 million which we’re suddenly going to have to find well not suddenly but to find over the next few years thank you councilor Parker councelor Janette to

Reply thank you Madame mayor uh Robin with the decarbonization of uh our Council housing we have to bid every time for funds for that we have been successful in two bids and work has been done and is ongoing in some of our housing sock obviously we’re starting on

The older properties because they are the most inefficient and it may turn out that there will be some that cannot be brought up to the required standard but we will be working on that yes I was disappointed that the previous labor government didn’t do any house building but we are building and being

Innovative in how we do it both step and Robin uh we don’t Benchmark against housing associations and I don’t think we have currently been benchmarking against similar councils with stockh holding that may be something we need to look at for those sort of costs uh the

First thing you said Steven yes that is just normal transfer of general fund costs shared across other areas of the council thank you if I’ve missed anything you’ll get it in writing than thank you councelor Janette Thomas we will now take a vote on the Motions those in favor please show by

Raising your hand thank you those against it’s unanimous so motion is carried thank you everyone I just want to check with Ella and Ana you’re still okay to stay so now item 13 members allowances scheme 20 24 2025 report of the independent REM remunerations panel this report has been

Circulated with the agenda and may be found at page 57 chief executive do you have anything to add no Madam May nothing to add thank you thank you councelor Richard Henry to move the recommendation thank you Madame mayor and I’ll just ask the chief executive he

Could put that money in for me going over the speaking on the last time well I’ll have to get some sub from my wife um so anyway thank you um Madame mayor the independent renumeration panel met on seven occasions during the Autumn of 2023 and to assist in their work the

Panel were provided with a variety of comparative information regarding members allowances for the 10 Bor and District councils in hartfordshire the panel um interviewed myself uh the other political group leaders the deputy leader of the council and a couple of other members who requested to be interviewed the panel’s report is set

Out in appendix a to the officer report covering the panel’s recommendations relate to the following three areas with the exception of the proposal for the majority opposition and minority opposition group leaders the basic allowance and special responsibility allowances remain unchanged from 2023 to 2024 and the reason for this

Recommendation is set out in section six of the panel’s report this is effectively a freeze on members allowances and the labor group are very much in favor of this uh the second recommendation is the SR payable to the majority opposition and minority opposition group leaders be combined and redistribu Ed prata to the

Number of members in their respective groups again the reasons are uh laid out in the report and uh the third recommendation regarding payment of depender care carers allowances the hourly rates remain unchanged from 2023 to 24 but the scheme to be changed from a monthly

Maximum of 20 hours to a maximum of 360 hours over the year with myself having the discretion to increase this maximum allowance where demonstrably necessary again the reason for this is set out in section s of the panel’s report I think this Rec this recognizes

That um any of us at any time could become a carer and if um if that happens then um often there’s quite a burden on the person who becomes an immediate carer so that flexibility um allows um to meet the needs required and regarding this one the labor group

Are particularly pleased about the recommendation from the Independent review panel the other interesting thing is they recommend that the the um the changes apply to the 2024 to 25 Financial year only and therefore the panel will need to be reconvened in the Autumn of this year to consider members

Allowances for the following year 2025 to 2026 and onwards just to remind members that in making or revising the scheme the council must have regard to the panel’s report but it is not strictly obliged to follow its recommendations although it would be advisable to have good reasons for not doing

So the labor group support all the recommendations from the Independent review panel so we will be voting in favor of this I therefore Madame mayor move the recommendation set out in the officer report including the revised members allowance scheme for 20242 thank you very much Madam mayor thank you councelor Richard Henry

Councelor Janette Thomas to second the motion thank you Madame mayor as an unpaid carer along with my fellow executive men member councilor Sandra bar we welcome the recommendation about changing the hours from 20 hours a month to 360 hours a year because there were times of the year when we have much

Greater demands on us than others for instance in August you wouldn’t use the 20 hours for the simple reason that there’s very few meetings but at other times for instance if you’re going to a conference for the council it it it costs us money because we we weren’t able to claim the full

Amount that we’ve spent uh so in general I totally support the recommendations of the independent remuneration p and so I’ve formally second this this emotion thank you thank you councelor Thomas does anyone wish to speak I will start with councelor Robin Parker thank you Madame mayor I’d like

To first thank the panel members uh for the work they did on this report I know they take it very seriously every year uh and they did this year as well I met with them and as Richard has said some other members met with them as well I’m particularly pleased that the anomalies

Over opposition allowances are now to be sorted out fairly and I stress sorted out at no additional cost to council taxpayers just a redistribution within the system and this system they now recommending I have been advocating for getting on for 20 years I think so I’m pleased that they’ve listened at last

And I hope we shall vote for it uh I will certainly and my group will accept and vote for it um and at the end of the day we always do on on this side of the house any we always do accept the independent panel’s recommendation for that very reason they are

Independent thank you councelor Parker councelor Phil B again I was interviewed I was quite surprised when they said there was a disparity um with our allowances in other districts and Bs and perhaps some time we can actually look at that actually why that is and if that can be

Justified um but overall yes we do accept the recommendations and I’m happy to accept the recommendations and agree to this motion thank you councelor bb councelor Richard Henry has the right to reply thank you Madame May um I don’t uh wish to comment on the uh changes to the

Opposition because that’s uh we accept the independent review panel just on the on the thing that you said then um Phil we uh the comp Paras which is Hartford uh district and B councils uh we know for instance that a number of councils don’t have housing stock so they don’t

Have that um pressure to work within the the housing sector we also know that some councils don’t have a proactive um housing regeneration and house building program um they did recognize um that in terms of some of the comparators um discounts are very Progressive and we do a lot more work um

Both with our partners and with hartfordshire uh development board um with the local Enterprise partnership in looking at the economy both of stevenage hartfordshire and east of England and we are an economic driver um for that which means that we’re an economic driver for the country so there was recognition of

There of that um one of the things I I have asked officers is to look at the comp comparators with similar councils who do a similar amount of work and regeneration and have housing stock um so that may give a balance to that um but thank you um both for um accepting

That from your group thank you Madame mayor thank you councelor Henry we will now take a vote on the motion those in favor please show by raising your arm thank you it’s unanimous and the motion is carried and last item item 14 the pay policy statement of 20124

2025 this report has been circulated with the agenda and may be found at page 71 chief executive do you have anything to add no nothing to add thank you Madame mayor thank you councelor Richard Henry to move the recommendation I was just checking if I’d understood

What njc is um yeah this comes um from a national uh pay um discussion with the national joint um consultative body and all councils have a duty to uh report in uh an Ann annual Council so the report sets out the pay policy statement for the financial year 20242 which requires Council

Approval um I did have I have got a couple of uh paragraphs about the localism ACT um but I think I will just move uh the recommendation from there Madame May thank you councelor um councelor Sandra bar the second the motion how soon you forgot I formly recommend the reserve

The right to speak thank you thank you does anyone wish to speak now councelor Henry you want to say uh only very briefly Madame mayor that obviously it does put an added burden on the council’s finances um but um obviously we accept what the uh National

Joint um body say to us and um therefore um happy to move the motion thank you thank you councelor Henry we will now take a vote on the motion those in favor please show by raising your arm thank you everyone so that is unanimous the motion is carried and Well Done everyone that

Before 9:00 that concludes the business on the agenda thank you all for your attendance and contributions at tonight’s meeting and as a mayor I always enjoy especially the debates of the motion it’s actually really inspiring that everyone in the chamber you really are dedicated and really look

After our town so everyone I hope you have a safe journey home if you are able to please stand