Cabinet

Try that again live stream audio check good evening everybody uh and a warm welcome to members of the public and visiting counselors as well as of course to Cabinet colleagues the usual things I have to read out you know that you follow us if there’s an emergency will be going quite

Quickly but um formally there are no practice alarms planned for this evening for alarm sounds please Evacuate the town hall we’re going down this main staircase or the back staircase excuse me to the High Street and then to the car park behind the town hall and some runw Street in the case of

Any disturbance not expecting any which requires a cment to withdraw councilor should go to the mayor’s parlor using doors behind me and await further advice this meeting is being streamed live live over the Internet on the council’s YouTube channel also be available to listen to afterwards use of mobile

Phones and other devices including cameras by visitors is welcome but you’re requested to use them discreetly and not to disturb the meeting set them to Silent not use voice or camera flash functions please could I remind everybody cabinet members and others use the microphones you can

Remind me if I forget let me introduce the work of the cabinet uh it’s the main executive body uh of the council it’s responsible for day-to-day decision making on all Council services and makes recommendations to full Council on major policy issues and as tonight on the council’s budget cabinet is made up of

Eight councilors each of whom is responsible for a particular range of services I’ll introduce myself and then colleagues so my name is councilor David King leader of the council I go to my far left and then come round Allison councelor Allison J portfolio holder for economy transformation and performance councelor Natalie Summers

Portfolio holder for communities Richard Clifford Democratic services manager Andrew wavers head of governance and monitoring officer P honly chief executive good evening councelor Mark Corey portfolio holder for resources and representative for Wen councelor Michelle Barrow’s portfolio holder for leisure culture and Heritage and representative of wood Ward uh councelor Luxor uh cabinet

Member for planning environment and sustainability and Ward member for W Martin gos I’m neighborhoods and waste and I’m mm Ward thank you very much we have one of our own unable to attend that’s councelor Smith so his apologies for the record we move on item two urgent items

There are none chair oh thank you very much Declarations of Interest I invite cabinet members to declare any I see none item four is the minutes I invite cabinet to approve the minutes of the meeting of the 19th of December 23 agree thank you and then we go to item five which is

Have your say and many looking at you in the audience have been here before know the rules to but bear with me if I just refresh them so in a formal sense we put 15 minute limit but looking at the number of people in the audience we’re not going to rather go past

That so um I just remind individuals so it’s three minutes two minutes is there’s a bell and one minute extra I really ask everybody to stop at that point otherwise you’ll be delaying us and everybody behind you in that long cure people wanting to speak also want

To talk about subject matter it can be as vared and know it will be as the matters of the moment and the passions of the moment but for those who’ve come to follow up on last night’s 4our scrutiny meeting please ask we don’t rerun all of that for reasons that councilors will

Should will or should understand ask visiting councils to return back to their seats if they could please to make way for other colleagues I ask members to make have your say as much as they can about a question that helps the audience and helps the flow if there’s anything

That’s on anybody’s mind in the audience whether you’re a member or not that’s deeply technical or detailed it may be better that we take it away but I would acknowledge the point and make a decision when we into the subject but as I say just think

About who else is in the room and who else might be watching we’re always open to discussion here was the right thing but the more Technical and deep it is the less inclusive it is all right thank you very much I’ll look and see who we got

First and that is Sir Bob Russell our high stward Bob you know this place so well please come forward thank you thank you chairman I speak as a resident um I have 60 years knowledge of the council 31 as a participant 29 as Observer as I am now and I think these

Are the most challenging times for all councils in terms of finances and therefore it is important that Financial Prudence is what it’s all about um now the C City master plan um has cost the public purse 142,00 305 um which figures I’ve been able to get from Freedom of Information request

Not they have been published as far as I’m aware I have to say that in my 60 years of uh life I’ve seen many many reports and these don’t rate at all highly um it’s been brought together by Consultants um who are based in London fleeting visits and now they’re scared

Um the local plan um committee last Monday last week only eight out of the 10 people turned up by the way and I’m puzzled as to why something this magnitude has been dealt with by a committee and hasn’t gone to full Council after full Council um debated

The Gaza Strip I have thought C City master plan is something which should have been debated by all councils particularly as the local plan itself was now the car Park revenue um in the current Financial year brings in about3 and5 million now this report is um very much um

Anti-ar um there are only 22 mentions of the car in here but 81 um for Cycles or or cycling so it sort of gives you a indication of where this one is going and um where it’s coming from I’ve tried to find out what the estimate has been

Made of uh in the come current coming year if you put up car parking charges and but I can’t get that answer um I’m pleased to say the animated River nonsense being dropped but the Roman wall park is still there now I would suggest that the council should try and um

Increase we’re told that 800 spare places well I would suggest that you should be trying to increased Revenue not reduce revenue and you’ve blown an officer under delegated pairs on understand it has blown 90,000 by closing part of Vineyard Street car park and but I’d like to end on the last one

Why is the Council so anti the bingo hall in Osborne Street because those of you who have read the report will know that on page 71 um the uh the closure of the bingo club is um is advocated the actual words it says um paragraph 11 on page 71

Osborne Street car park and ground floor bingo hall encourage change of use of grand floor space to things other than the It’s got more members than all the political parties and colder combined thank you you been as you are very Vivid in drawing attention and I understand why you do you have a passion for your city and In fairness I hope you might AC so do the rest of us we haven’t got perhaps

All of us I haven’t Lord long levity but we care deeply why we do what we do about the city that we have now the master plan’s gone through a robust process it’s at Council engagement in different levels it’s the local plan I applaud that and I think I know that

Many members have taken it really seriously we’ve had a an extensive consultation process uh we’ve taken on board the responses and the different the different levels that come to us both in shaping it and then in responding to those dislikes certain parts of it I think it’s a cracking

Document if you accept what it is that it’s shaped shaped for the city of now and the future in terms of guidance and a vision which will be tested and developed stage by stage so there’s a lot more to do on each and every possibility that’s encompassed within

The master plan planning is not cheap Bob you know this investing some some uh fun funds in a reasoned manner to ensure that we have a focused dialogue and some differences of view about where the city can and might go I think is absolutely the right thing and Central to what we

Do you’ve raised some other points Bob I perhaps I’ll just pick up one which is around the point about car parking now we have award-winning officers on this we’ll have a car parking strategy refreshed and Up For Debate my understanding is that minor differences that are proposed or possible will not

Overall make a material difference to our income we are so alive to the importance of I see your skepticism but there we go we’re so alive as tonight is all about the importance of getting our books to balance as we should that we’ll not take any decisions around income

Anything other than responsibly I’ll stop there thank you you have moment wish to reply I okay nobody else wants to speak um CH chairman took me 6 hours to read that one 6 hours to read the original one I have three minutes tonight I had three minutes at local plan committee that is

Not what I call an opportunity for proper debate um you have not explained why the council is uh cutting revenue from car parking when it is one of your main sources of income you have not explained why you are not promoting any business with spare capacity would

Be seeking to fill it and for every just go let’s let’s pit it a bit low 10% just try and fill those 10% of those spaces over the year that brings you in over 200,000 pounds and you’re making cuts and I I understand that can I just you

You have not answered why the council and who gave the steer was it politicians was it the planers who gave the steers to this London Consultants saying shut the bingo hall well we’re not about shutting the bingo hall we are about looking at the future of our city in an imaginative

Kind of way CH chairman and that’s it it says encourage it encourages the closure of the ground floor which is the bingo hall encourage Bob you’ve had your moment I understand I’m happy to talk to you Bob if you’re willing to talk away from this place and give you time if you’re

Prepared to make that a two-way exchange thank you um Mr Orton Trevor Orton please thank you Trevor two minutes Bell and a minute thank you for coming thank you very much you wouldn’t think the time I’ve been here I’d know which button to press but there you go

I’m knocking on a bit now I suppose you’re can excuse me um natural fact my intention was to be in the other room and the next meeting so in in a sense I’ve um at the age of 82 I’m sure when I switch it around to 28 you will excuse

Me however first of all I would like to say that since most of you know I’ve been on sort of a a crusade of my own since 2016 and it’s been a very lonely journey in many ways that means um emails and phone calls ignored etc etc but at last in

2022 we had a new Council in and we are now or as far as I’m concerned working much closer together which I think is thanks now to uh councelor king and the Zone wardens and a little bit of input from myself for that I am grateful it lifted

My morale up tremendously so I thank you there and there’s no Brown envelopes by the way on this this is purely straight to Mr King as a thank you and let us hope that 20 uh 24 becomes the year when cultures deserve its upgrade from town to City

There’s a long way to go but we are getting there slowly but surely my main issue of being here today in fact it should have been in the other location was about the state of our telephone boxes in the High Street and particularly at prania where

All the cars come and go etc etc and where people wait for the traffic lights and they see the filthy set of traffic lights one in fact with no door on that on those telephone boxes the ones in the High Street which I personally cleaned and scrubbed myself a few years ago in

Fact two years ago or three um they are once again in a filthy State during the time that I was cleaning them I did speak to a counselor who I will not name who claimed to me that in fact bit telicom had a project which was to

Remove them that obviously I think was Pie in the Sky because as you well know gentlemen and ladies nothing has happened my point about it is we claim now to be a city from town to city and these issues in my opinion are extremely important just

Imagine a lady from timbak 2 who’s in the crown or in the hotel she forgets her mobile oh there’s a phone box and in she goes and she’s confronted with a stench at sometimes not all the time with booze and vomit on the floor and in

My case two condoms now why there was two I have no idea except they may have had one hell of a time but the question is ladies and Gent gentlemen those telephone boxes in my opinion and only mine are filthy and they shouldn’t be there and they should be removed and my

Question is whose responsibility are those telephone boxes BT made it perfectly clear that they are not responsible for their maintenance and they’re not responsible for the tele for the phone control all the equipment sorry all the equipment in those telephone boxes is defunct it doesn’t work the only people that use

Them are the sleepers where they want somewhere to get warm and we won’t go into other reasons that’s me done thank you thank you Trevor and keeping this simple we take away again the question of ownership of those boxes that there has been a dialogue with some officers

On the back of this including about how we might use our street wardens to and their capacity is stretched to see if they can add to the cleaning regime so um let me take that one away well let me thank you for two things one one for

Coming here and and it’s a rare treat to have a moment of generosity it’s not usually the game here and that’s and that is also fine challenge is part of the business that we all seek to do that’s our democracy at work but thank

You for that and for your I have to say remorseless attention to detail in providing me and others with pictures and issues which you think we should address and I think got better at that and I’m grateful for your acknowledgement thank you for coming can I go now thank you very

Much Mr Ian Drew hello Ian welcome you’ve been here before could I just ask you to watch watch the clock please as you went well over last time so it’s 3 minutes thank you um yes I’m aware of that it’s just a short um statement tonight really some

Of what I was going to say has now been cut out because I’ve spoken to councelor Luxor before the meeting so some of what I was going to cover was was there and know I’ve come back tonight um at the risk of being labeled a comp conspiracy

Theorist yet again no doubt um but um it’s really about the response that we’ve not been getting over the last 12 months from various issues that the the public has brought to your attention um and obviously I need to know regarding 5G which was the thing main thing I

Talked about the last time and we’ve been doing a lot of work testing around around the city um and some of this is what I going to present to council Lux of when I get the opportunity um you’re all all the counsil I I consider as educated sensible people um with maybe

The exception of one whose name I won’t mention um and you must realize that this agenda being pushed by central government is affecting all of us um and you’re really just the foot soldiers doing their dirty work and at the end in the end like us you don’t really matter

To them we’re all just Canon F throughout history the people have been the ones who have suffered for the Empire um we will never surrender we’re all in it together that’s what they tell us um but now they want us to surrender um so they can stay on top the

Wh the wef the UN and NATO this will be the new Empire maybe just another conspiracy theory well um think about it and do some research and instead of being the first city in the country to adopt 5G let’s um talk about it together and try and reject the madness thank you for

Listening thank you Ian and I’m on behalf of all of us want to acknowledge that there is a space for an alternative opinion it’s not one shared it’s not mainstream it’s not shared by this Council in a professional corporate sense it’s not shared by me but I’m very

Happy that you can have a conversation with colleagues including individual members if that’s what you would find helpful but I just want to be very clear about whether the council stands this is not for us and I have to say I know something of the who I know a lot about

Central government and know a lot about NATO work there uh there is I’ve seen nothing to indicate anything other than good people trying to do a job with varying degrees of success and communicating with the people next door successfully I have to sort of say have been the challenge little and connecting

More up so you know I’m afraid it’s not for us but you know thank you for coming being so Frank maybe if we could sit down together I’m sure I can show you lots of things that point to points I’m trying to make evidence to back it up I

Well I thank I thank you for the point and I hope to been equally clear I think that’s mutual respect really you’ve been Frank and I hope to have been as well thank you very much Ian for com here we’ve got two speakers on the next subject which is Middle wear um Francis

W staff I think this is and this Austin if you’d like to come up in turn thank you before I be begin the three minutes I just want to let you know I represent the um co1 residance Association and but I’m sure what I’m going to say is of

Wider interest to the whole Community thank thanks very much we’ll start we urge the budget holders to secure funds to reinstate the iconic middle wear Bridge as soon as possible it’s much admired by visitors and an important scenic route into town the adjacent Kings Meadow is also regularly used for

Car parking for those attending the many festivals and events in the lower Castle Park to have the direct route blocked over the middle we bridge to the lower Park is very detrimental to the culturist of visitor experience meanwhile the issues I’d like to raise with you with you relate to interim

Diversion Arrangements the arrangements put in place since the collapse of the Weir Bridge has caused consternation we recognize the initial Speedy response but since then little has been done to refine and monitor the diversions in case you are unaware the diversion routes are the pathways on either side

Of the river from the North Station Road Bridge the signs when they haven’t fall in the river need to be more ample and helpful also the diverse persons themselves need to include more accessible options the riverbank steps are a dangerous option to a significant section of the public budgeting allocation is needed

For the diversion routes to cover ongoing repair Improvement and upkeep for example more can be done to make the River Walk diversion safer currently routs are very dark and unlit at night or only partly so from lights in nearby buildings the diversion rout view from the river bridge is now dismal with

Current low water revealing mck and DET trit including those Highway diversion signs some of which have ended up on banks the route towards the lower Park is dangerously uneven at the North Station Road end the steps leading to King’s Meadow are steep narrow and worn and can be slippery in wet and icy

Weather after work has been carried out to solve these issues we need funds allocated for regular monitoring and upkeep checking for example that barriers and signage remain in place place and that the newly exposed river banks remain clear of rubbish as a final point we would like to make the council

Aware that our resident Association members in the Riverside Cottages below steps are particularly impacted by these issues and will welcome all efforts to improve routs the residents are elderly and or disabled the adjacent stored Riverside Office conversion project has meant they have lost their previously accessible route to transport including

Their own garages and cars The increased foot traffic past their Cottages has compounded their ongoing problems with ASB emanating from the North Station Road area we therefore urge the relevant bodies to undertake a proper survey of the recommended diversion routes and ensure that they are brightly lit accessible safe and attractive to walk

Along we also request that plans to restore the bridge are agreed upon as a matter of urgency and that strenuous efforts are made to secure ear mark funding to reinstate this important attractive rout into our City Center thank you thank you very much if I ask whether you know each other or not

If Liz is then I’ll ask Liz to come forward and then perhaps um we’ll respond to you both at the same time and is it’s on oh I’m live right well I mean obviously I agree with the points raised by the previous speaker and I have to fess up

That I’m a member of the residents Association as well but I just wanted to add some personal information and a suggestion really that I hope uh you will take in good part um it’s relevant to mention then I live on one of the roads that leads through the lower Park

To that wear Bridge so normally that’s my very beautiful route to the castle and to the town and I often meet um tourists and visitors vors going to the castle or going to the town coming that route and the short time the bridge has been down I’ve met very confused

Tourists and one of the reasons is that their saavs still take them that you know a walking route into the park and um I had one lady who was coming back with two small children late at night and she was very dismayed that um the signage had taken her along that dark uh

Pathway and um had been sort of quite disturbed by the fact that she’d got rather lost so I think the idea of signage which is really um um or the um an interim um set of signs that takes you through an attractive route is really important um and I think that

Problem can be turned into into an opportunity um firstly because those River walks which at the moment as um Fran described as s of rather dismal and dingy they could be made attractive I think permanently they could be a very attractive route um not up North Station

Road but encouraging you to come along the river or um through the park um in addition to that um I just wanted to mention that there’s another quick win I think um at the moment if you come through lower Park and you come to the

Wear bridge I don’t know if you can sort of visualize this but as you come through lower Park you come to the wear bridge and it’s blocked and it says diversion you have to go all the way back round to the cricket ground all the way around the cricket ground which is a

Sort of 15minute walk substantial if you’re um disabled in any way or you got little children and then that can lead you back into the park and then you come through the park and up but in actual fact when you’re at the Weir Bridge there is um a little entrance which is

Now been opened into the Cricut ground very pretty little um gate and it takes you to that very pretty Pavilion and you can walk um avoiding the ground you just walk a few steps across and it takes you to a little bridge that gets you into

The park and and that’s your route to the castle but there’s a gate that’s shut on the other side and I have to confess that very naughtily I climbed over it which whether you should and I talked to a park Warden and said if you could

Open this you’d have a very pretty route and you’d have uh visitors happier once again so um he said uh no not beyond my job and I know don’t please ask me to pass on the message so I’m passing the message to you now if you could possibly

Get that little gate on the other side of the Pavilion opened and then post that route and you got a pretty route back again while the wear Bridge has been fixed thank you very much thank you very much indeed Liz that’s that’s brilliant my view um could we get a

Second chair out please so that um our visitors could come forward could you do that thank you not letting you off Le thank you can I thank you on behalf of all of us I should go in a moment to councelor Martin gos who’s been tracking this as

Close as any has in terms of the remedial work and I think between us we’ll just make sure we pick up the other points if I go to you Martin in terms of the central questions in some respects about the response and then the timetable because this is not yet

Visible and then we’ll see what else we need to pick up thank you yeah I mean clearly this whole situation is very frustrating for many stakeholders and of course it isn’t a simple project to fix and is not going to also be cheap um it

Is going to be a serious amount of money and I don’t know exactly how much that’s going to be because that’s still being walked through at this moment in time there is a stakeholder group of officers that have been B together um which includes or needs to include historic

England Natural England the environment agency Essex County Council and Glam water because they’re all stakeholders in this in various ways for different reasons for different responsibilities Etc but ctchester city council obviously has a huge part to play as again a major stakeholder so all of those bodies officers are talking and looking at

Options and publicly I’ve always spoken that there are three potential options and we’ve been awaiting specialist Engineers to come up with what the high level costs would be against all of those options and of course an option in these cases can can be do nothing uh um we’re not suggesting it is

But there is always a do nothing option um I’m a project manager by trade that’s what I do in my professional day job when you write an options paper doing nothing is always an option um we’re not suggesting it is so the um Structural Engineering Group was asked to obviously

Look at this at the time when it happened obviously this is just pre Christmas so of course everyone in the engineering and building um industry goes pretty much into shutdown so I wasn’t expecting anything to really really emerg until January um so we have got a specialist team looking

At this unfortunately one of the Specialists who was supposed to look at this had a road traffic accident fairly recently which was quite serious um although I believe that they are now out and involved again but that didn’t help the situation because it was their assignment so um it has been looked at

Recently and we are now wait now awaiting the formal engineer in options with costs so we should get that shortly and then that will give us a better indication how much money what the options are how long it’s going to take and then we will have to look to get

Funding so I’m hoping to see that in the next um period and then obviously we will publish that as quickly as we can to keep the public updated but that is the reason that there’s been a delay and um you have to be a little bit careful putting stuff in public domain about

People’s personal circumstances but obvious I’m sharing that obviously you can’t identify who that person is so once we’ve got that obviously of course the options will have to be discussed with all the stakeholders um and and until such time we obviously can’t leave that bridge open because potentially it could

Collapse and wash away and we obviously can’t put the public in danger uh we will take on board comments about the diversions um now some of it will be down to land ownership so for instance the Cricket Club is a another organization I’m in touch with for a

Different reason um but of course they lease bits of that land and they have obviously rights across it because they are the tenant so again we would have to look at any suggestions about diversions across other people’s land Etc and just double check land ownership and leas

Holding and everything else so I will take that away I we’ll ask officers to have a look at it and see what we can do to improve it um and again whether there’s anything we can do now there has been some clean up of the river done there has been quite extensive um

Surprising rubbish taken out including some of the old spin scooters that were thrown in there originally which we did know about um so we are again trying to clean it up as much as possible more work is planned for that but actually the river being level it is is not

Actually being helpful because you can’t always safely get to some of it so we are doing what we can so in summary we will publish the options as quickly as we can in the in the in the coming weeks once we’ve actually received it um and stakeholders are happy or or it’s been

Challenged we will look at the roots I can’t make any promises I’m always really straight with people but we will certainly do what we can obviously some of it involves essics County Council and there can be some complexities about the speed that sometimes we can operate with

Closures and advertising routs um and we will obviously keep the public informed as quickly as possible also mindful I’ve promised to meet the Canoe Club no point until I’ve actually got something to talk about because at the moment we don’t have the costs we don’t know exactly what the options are so that’s

It it’s quite complex is going to take time and even once we get the options and decide on it it’s many many months of work potentially to reinstate rebuild do what it is we decide to do so this is not going to be quick that we will that

We will push it as quickly as we can thank you thank you very much I hope that’s um I hope that’s answer the heart of your questions I think the only thing um that compens reply thank you Martin I just add is there’s an opportunity to

Look at usage of the river and up and downstream by its nature Dar thing to say it’s connected um we should have to have that kind of conversation as well and as Martin says you know there are different pressure groups and with of view the only other thing I think we

Might acknowledge is the importance of communications we’ve done our best on this um there’ll be more coms out on this but we need to look at the local residence and make sure we’re getting something around to them directly um Mark you had something to add yeah

Nothing of detail I just want to say thank you because you both come forward and and eloquently put your point and and admitting you’re from a residents Association there nothing dirty at all I think it’s is fantastic it’s about representation yeah it’s about representation and that’s what we all

Try and do we’re just we residents of a particular area we just happen to be fairly gobby about getting up and talking I just want to say thank you for that and your experiences are so important you’ve given experiences of other people so Martin has listen he’s

Given a technical response and I think David um made some encouraging points too I think to take on board the to bookmark the fact you’ve given this representation and hopefully Martin will keep your details to make sure the residents Association is kept up to date

As well but the other one thing I I felt as a ESS County counselor as David is too that the the future roots that you talked about in particular Liz to make sure they are better I’ve I’ve walked up and down and they they are undulating aren’t almost every path that um ess6

Look after but um if we can improve that and improve some of the lighting just because encourage people to walk along there is fantastic it is lovely along there the amount of Instagram and social media pictures of those little cottages and where you and your neighbors live

Promote culture in a good way so let’s look at that for the future as well so I’ll take that away thank you thank you and please don’t keep shining over fences and walls sorry can I just say one more thing please do yeah so yes we we we knew that

The it was such a complex thing and that’s why really we’re taking the tack about the diversity routs you know they really do need to be and some of it isn’t isn’t about money it’s about monitoring I mean I don’t know where the parts staff can notice like for instance

The barriers of all been dislodged for the last three days over by the we things like that and we do report to our local Council and then he does get on to the powers you know whoever is appropriate but sometimes it should be it should be built in to the strategies

That somebody is monitoring and again when the signs went the signs went up very quickly didn’t anyone notice that the signs had gone down like where were they were County Council signs and they said well where have they gone oh they the river yeah so that and is the safety

Aspect about the lighting and things and also you know I’m a s dog walker over King’s Meadow so I can’t I’m I can’t underestimate you know overestimate just how upset people are about it they regularly asked about or when do you think oh we’ve heard sorry Martin oh

We’ve heard July we’ve heard July we’ve seen it on the neighbors uh WhatsApp and things so they are so keen and really do you know can’t wait for it to be done but thank you very very much thank you both very much um Council Lee scorus Lee is Lee there LLY please come

Forward thank you leader and uh you and Council Cory must have the uh patience of saints after last night’s meeting and another meeting tonight um so my uh two point to make tonight uh first one is on the we um on middle Mill uh but my

Points were more linked to um how we got here how we’ve allowed this to happen because we had a similar instance with fieldgate key where we didn’t notice there was a problem till a resident reported it and even then I don’t think we acted till half a key was uh at the

Bottom of col so clearly there seems to be an issue with some of our infrastructure like this that is close to the water so I I guess really the question is on this um on this bit H are we monitoring these sites often enough or whoever we pay to

Monitor them are they doing it often enough and it seems like they might not be and obviously we are a Town based around a river so a city now based around a river there may be other sites that may become a problem but it’s really worrying that a site is important

As this we didn’t notice till it completely collapsed um the second one is um on what I imagine others will speak on later is on the um what I consider to be a rash decision the closure of the cafe in Leisure World um I’m wondering first of

All have we known how long it has been losing money and how much you know has that been going up year on year um if we haven’t for some time why have we not changed the model why have we not modernized the cafe because let’s be

Honest it’s very drab but there are lots of customers there there are lots of people such as running groups and so forth that will meet there is it too expensive um are there ways we can encourage more parents to eat we give instead of going to McDonald’s we say to

Parents actually your food for children is free at the cafe so spending more money there um but we also have a commercial company and it’s quite woring that we have a commercial company and we’re not utilizing them to go right how can we get this Cafe to work in what is

Very busy and a very vibrant site so for me there are concerns there when we need to raise money actually we do have this site I mean we could rent out the site and that could give us some income but my feeling is actually that there are possibilities here um I understand

There’s been issues with the northern Gateway where area but that’s a relatively new area um this area Leisure World As We Know attracts uh not just parents and gym users attracts a lot of teenagers who use the skate park and so forth um and have for the last good old

40 years so for me I I think it would be good to evaluate how we could improve this site and actually are there options here where we can improve a cafe and look at how we can actually make some money from this whether that is closing earlier Clos uh opening earlier maybe

Getting commuters I don’t know but for me we’ve got a commercial team that I think can look at options thank you very much indeed Lee please stay there I want to ask a question officers thank you for your patience there is as you may know a petition um

With support in fact I think it’s probably s additions out there for support for not closing the cafe and so let’s deal with that first of all um I will want to respond to them in the way you would expect me to would just sort of say very simply here that the number

Of individual members have raised this it’s interesting we do macro changes don’t we worth millions we have to go and do that and very understandably people pick on something that they know on an individual basis somebody talks to them about it and we’ve had approaches from uh colleagues in our own group mix

Spindle amongst amongst them and others in this audience here perhaps as well so where are the sensitivity we’re going to pause that saving measure we’re going to give the time that’s needed for the team to re look at the alternatives for refreshment to hold

Of the area I know they’ had um I think the last count half a dozen different organizations in touch there’s no lack of interest and that tells us all we need to know a real possibility here about what we could do with this but while we’re doing that it will stay open

I think there a a slip was intended to but we weren’t clear enough in confidential Annex that led to the story being out swiftly that’s how these things go so um it will be looked at very closely it will be um communicated to members and the public but um

Absolutely can say will not be closed and we will pause on taking the measure while we have a look through the options and their implications for for individuals who are employed there and for others but we’re with you it’s got huge potential and uh you’ve described

That well so I hope that will give you and members of the public assurance and we’ll pick that up as I say it will stay open and we look to to make help the officers make the success of it that it could be on the other issue of

Maintenance sorry Martin I was just going to say I have a timeline on the uh area that LE has mentioned which I can go through if needed do and then I’ll come back okay yes so a timeline I have it here so July to November 2023 leaks

Have been noticed by the uh by the SLO and officers believed that maybe some Deb had got caught in the sloo gate causing Vis visible bubbling of the water which needed to be cleared it’s common for this to happen at that time of year 30th of October an email was

Received from the Canoe Club and they raised cracks in the abutments um being an issue in the ECC owned Bridge next to Middle M middle mil wear this was reported to Essex County Council their response no change since 2017 no action needed week beginning the 4th of December a park ranger noted on

Inspection that part of the wear had been undermined by water erosion causing a significant sudden drop in water levels uh in the river I was notified about this and also the environment agency were informed and that is when cracks were noted in the brick work 10th of December park ranger reported

Collapse of part of the wear structure the bridge was then closed uh initially by our own staff as a temporary measure and then Essex County Council stepped in because they own it and they are legally responsible 20th of December 30 times uh or 30 ton bags were of ballast were

Installed in the river around the claps structure to try and pres prevent any further erosion of this um and the 8th of January 2024 the middle Mill we working group was set up as I’ve described earlier to obviously push forwards with replacement options and there is a fortnightly meeting in place

So just to give you a bit of a timeline there but actually Essex were notified and came back to say no problem thank you very much Martin I hope that’s some help in terms of the narrower point if I can put it that way but but the one

That most of us are focusing on the moment The Wider point about the condition of structures assets for which we have a responsibility um I don’t think there’s any doubt that the city council over many years been making the difficult choices it’s had to make to keep key service’s life has not always

Invested as much as it might in asset maintenance and and oversight now they could be debated but I think on the evidence of the mall above us you know it’s fairly clear to me has been for a while um that was then where we are now

And the budget in front of us we’re seeking to remedy that so specific medications for for maintenance there is going to be um a fund for the mut all there’s going to be an investment um to follow elsewhere and there is an asset review which is going to be

Comprehensive and we’ll look at the essentials of use purpose and future cost and value and including upkeep so we’re going to get in the right place during the course of the year that lies ahead and that will be widely shared and would involve members as you would expect so it’s a it’s a

Fair point that many of us would make but we’re on it thank you thank you for that um good news on the cafe reevaluate that um on the wear issue Martin if you’re more than happy to forward the timeline to me I will that as County counsel straight to

Director of Highways cuz for me I think this inaction is very very serious and I I think actually as a council we should be looking at legal action to to the get them to pay for this because it’s absolutely disgusting uh for me it could result in someone losing their job it’s

That serious this is really really important it’s disgusting we’ve been let down by that so thank you it’s public now as well which is good thank you very much Lee okay we go on to item six decisions reviewed by the scrutiny panel they were none are none CH thank

You very much indeed in which case we go on to item seven resources and housing um we have got six uh members wishing to speak so I’m going to take those first and then we will pick those up uh when we work our way excuse me Christina Reed wellam and

Six counselors and Christina I’ll call you up in just a second if you could bear me just a moment I just want to make sure that we all understand here we’re going how we’re going to run this so this is a huge amount of work compressed in a lot of paper and uh

Members have given this a a very long test last night to to get under the skin of it um mostly in a positive way from their feedback and uh Council Cory and I were amongst those there what we’re going to do in the next time see how

Long it takes is our section 151 officer will give us an overview including our reserves and these Assurance as to the viability of the budget strategy I will then set out the Strategic drivers and pass to councelor Corey and then to other cabinet members and then between

Us as we work our way through we’ll respond to points that we haven’t picked up at the beginning from visiting counselors and the public we’re can take this in three slices actually a lot of material I want to have a genuine pause so uh what we call the general fund

That’s where we cover our operating cost and running cost um the housing resing uh housing Revenue thank you Revenue accounts that’s what it says on the Tim that’s our 6,000 strong stock how we maintain extend it and use it and the capital section of the budget so we’ll

Have an intro we’ll have three slices we take them together as a cabinet and uh pick up commentary beforehand but let me work our way through um I’ll have your say so Christina Reed wellam you’re very welcome to come forward please do sorry keep you waiting a moment hope the

Context is a bit of help okay now if you’ve heard heard how if you heard how this works two minutes press the red button get two minutes then you get a kind of warning Bell and another minute and then we we’ll pick it up then or we’ll pick it up later thank

You thank you connection is why we’re here and it’s what gives purpose and meaning to our lives it’s a great quote from Bren Brown a researcher and also a Storyteller connection is why we’re here this evening as loyal members of coester Leisure World we are shocked and

Saddened to hear the news of the plans to close the cafe due to financial loss you can see within the petition and it’s supporting feedback is an incredibly short-sighted decision that will impact everyone who uses the site regularly therefore we are asking you to stop and rethink these plans work with the

Current staff and maybe some willing and respected members of Leisure World to explore how best to manage the cash flow and plans to make it remain part of the community is people friendly profitable and fit for the future cited in the council’s three-year strategic plan improving Health well-being and

Happiness is at the Forefront I read the council received 3.5 million Health funding to combat important Health and Social ability matters including loneliness and social isolation refer to the article dated the 12th of January 2023 regarding progress and efforts to improve health and well-being fortunately we are far more

Knowledgeable today than ever about the correlation between sorry rewind the the correlation between mental health and exercise and how exercise is not only vital to improve our physical but also improve and promote good mental health and well-being too the brain Powers The Body Research supports mental well-being powered through exercise and social

Ability of exercise Social connection s whilst exercising in one of the main drivers of the blue zones the five areas of the world where the happiest and healthiest people live B exercise can help combat some symptoms of anxiety and depression and support women as we age and go through

The menopause GPS and other medical professionals will suggest exercise as part of a holistic approach to health and well-being the cafe is unique in position that it could support people of all demographic to meet an exercise either for a walk in the park with a post-walk coffee or after swim and

Exercise see the heartfelt comments received from May cook and others illustrating this poem The Cafe is a key part of the overall package and experiences to why members choose Leisure World key users includes sporting other well-being groups individuals with special needs visiting the site to have improve their motor

Skills and enhance communication skills through people interactions older groups gather here to catch up with like-minded individuals to bond over exercise and shared experiences parents children’s teens pet owners people who live alone and not to mention the general footfall that happens to stop by the list goes on

In essence the cafe is a hub for everyone within the community to thrive enhancing mental and social well-being providing a safe space for all its customers all year round losing the cafe would impact all sorts of people including those hard to reach and vulnerable within our community given

The research and evidence provided we are asking it would be possible to keep the Cafe open for at least another six months or more this opportunity will give The Talented staff along with extra support if required to review the financial model monitor peak times and just opening hours and Staffing accordingly investigate different

Revenue streams exploring how best to manage and maximize the sole revenue for the cafe design a targeted advertising approach to promote the cafe better for its key users with targeting some of the groups un mentioned in the list above which include the vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities to help profit

And keep people engaged and healthy Leisure and fitness is an all-inclusive people industry therefore people should be at the heart of minds of the business people have had their say and from this it’s clear there’s a real need and War for the cafe to remain open and not to

Be repurposed thank could I could I just intervene I’m very H just are you nearly at the end I am I’ve got one little sentence go on then let people continue to increase profit margins whilst creating a caring and kind space that improves Health well-being and happiness

Thank you for your time ears and support you have our time you have our ears and you have our support as you said earlier um I think that was um hugely eloquent and in in many respects it makes the kind of case we make elsewhere when we

Make choices in the in this city to look after those most in need um that between our minds our soul and our physical health you’ve made that very well thank you I won’t repeat all we said before but you’ve had Assurance on this um I think councelor Cory wants to

Say something briefly if I will ask him to do that we have to get on with Core Business thank you so much I’d like you to make sure you leave your details when there’s content details yes because I I think it would be really good to see if

We can’t uh in a whatever way is appropriate and this will be run at this exercise and these choices will be worked out by those who run the center this is how these things come about in any event Mark but could you please yes yeah thank you like the others really well spoken

It’s great to bravely come forward and and speak so thanks for that um I think it’s important to explain how we got here um we have had to make significant amounts of savings as a council over a number of years from sort of reduction of government grant squeezing of the

Finances interest rates inflation bad economy you name it um but that’s no reason to go against the points you’ve said it’s just me trying to explain how we got here and it was one small part actually of paying for the other costs in terms of pay increases for example

And it’s not that we were thoughtless about this we had discussed it but actually there was a slight issue with communication in terms of what we felt we were doing and what was then communicated out and I think the leaders made it absolutely clear for every reason that you’ve spoken about it is

Absolutely right to review to look at that to not close it and to look at other opportunities of increasing the income but making sure there’s a place for people to connect and counselors around this table the other night in the libdem group made that point we have listened other councilors tonight have

Made that point and you and other members of the public have have made excellent representation so we are listening ordinary people who are taken on that point under a lot of strain of uh services so thank you Christina councelor have yeah um I understand your need for brevity and I I didn’t

Particularly want to share what I’ve shared with the group which is a personal story of why I found the the cafe so valuable um and as you say it’s not just about being healthy it’s about being like-minded people that you can you can share things all I really wanted

To say was if there’s going to be a team being set up because obviously this isn’t something I talk about very much but you know in my past life retail and um leure were the things I did on a commercial basis and I’m really happy to offer those services to the council if

We want to look at some brainstorming some ideas of how to make that more commercially viable which I think is a non-b brainer it’s it’s it’s a great footfall it’s it’s got the customer base it just needs a little bit of a tweak to make it work press press the

Button is that right yeah and similar to Martin Goss in fact my my background is project management so I’m more than happy to yeah well let’s leave it that we’ve got volunteers is that a great thing and we’ll we’ll get ourselves together and work with the community and

Whoever else has a passion for this thank you everybody thank you very please pass that on um visiting councilors I’ve got Council of law councilor Wars Council Dundas councelor Jay Young councelor Pearson and councelor sonx if you would be good enough to come up in in turn and

I’ll remind you in case you forget down the list where you’re at and then we’ll we’ll go into presentation and and uh a response in the and a broadcast if You’ like sharing of where we are where we are and what we’re doing so councel law first hello that’s much better thank you

Good evening Leader um and cabinet uh nice to be here again this evening um as I enjoyed attending the scrutiny panel last night as well so thank you um I’m here in my capacity as War counselor for Highwoods um and I just want to raise concerns really on behalf of residents

At some of the impacts that cuts in the in the budget um are going to have um and I wanted to really sort of concentrate on three um specific areas um firstly the proposed cuts to services in Highwoods Country Park at The Visitor Center um you know it’s a very popular

Destination site the country Park uh has a a large footful it’s recently had a a a refurbishment of the play park and being able to use the refreshments facilities and also the toilet facilities that’s really important for people who visit the park um you know it’s important in terms of

Those that may have accessibility needs or for families with young children that they’re able to access those facilities and also that you know that there are people around in the park if there are any emergencies or you know any um you know antisocial behavior I’m also aware that the um

Areas there are areas such as Forest areas that schools use and those have been subject to antisocial behavior and vandalism I’m concerned as well that of you know there’s been fly tipping in the Country Park and that um less resourcing at The Visitor Center could mean that this kind of situation and behavior

Escalates and that you could see you know increased costs in terms of um dealing with um sorting out the the impact of fly tipping or antisocial Behavior vandalism so saving money in one area could cause costs in another area so that that’s one sort of area I’m really concerned about secondly uh I’ve

Also seen about the uh cuts to the Highwood Sports Center budget and that’s a facility that’s right in the heart of community in Highwoods it’s very accessible um easily reached by foot or by public transport you know I I understand that there’s a huge amount of resourcing going into the northern Gates where

Gateway Sports Center you know culture is a sports park but as I say Highwood sports center is right in the heart of a community and it’s really important for People’s Health and well-being and my third point that I want to um talk about really are the cuts to the proposed Community

Facilities uh St Marks on the old rugby site uh rugby ground site at M Road you know it’s disappointing because for health and well-being being able to make social connections at Community facilities is really important so it’s really disappointing to see that being cut you know I understand that there are

Plans for the proposed um Community green which is really important but that’s still some way off and for example last summer during a growing season um grass in that site uh along the path it became very long um dog fowling was quite because there was long grass people didn’t feel the need to

Pick it up so it didn’t you know it if Community facilities are cut for example in the Country Park um and at sites such as rugby ground residents might have a perception that the council aren’t concerned about providing you know good facilities that are you know in the open

Air there’s a cost of living crisis so it’s easy for residents to access but um you know if they become unattractive or are subject to antisocial behavior that that really puts people off and people may feel that the council aren’t supportive and I think all the sorts of

Sites and the examples I’ve mentioned also really link into the importance of health and well-being you know I that is something that’s in the council strategy um it’s something we’ve discussed at policy panel as well and you know I’m really impressed by the partnership the council have in terms of working more

Closely with the health services but you know it raises concerns really that cuts to the amenities that I’ve mentioned might signal that the council isn’t concerned about People’s Health and well-being don’t prioritize that and also um as I say when there’s a cost of living crisis that they um aren’t

Concerned about providing accessible facilities you know as I say for those who might be financially challenged or for those of accessibility needs thank you thank you I I’ll answer briefly so please say um we’ve got a fantastic record and your party has been part of

That in recent years and you’re a um an informal partner now and you know this you know the scale of the challenge that faces this Council every member does members collectively have acknowledged them sometimes it’s informally sometimes it’s formally but you and your group I hope really do

Understand the scale and it will be a question of hard choices and we’re going to make them as thoughtful as we can so I continue to say it’s about least harm least harm most good that’s the balance we all seek to strike but there’s two or three things it’s worth picking up so

You know we’ll listen I’ll ask officers to go back through the specific points you made around the lger around the visitor center and the fair point if we can quantify it you might save some money and lose some money we’ll see if that is valid I think it’s a reasonable

Challenge but more widely now I know this area well I’m the county counselor for it I live nearby if we lucky enough to live in that patch High woods and mland we are blessed frankly we’ got the Highwoods Country Park we got community centers in and around the

Area we’ve got uh the sports park and 70 acres to walk through uh we’ve got um the Leisure Park just months from starting to open up first parts of that site are you know we are blessed in terms of what we have to be Rank and

This is not to not to say it’s anything other than fair if you see a change that you don’t like or you think residents might not like but I think we have to keep some balance on this now this Council looks after people and it does

So in a cross-party way we look after the most vulnerable to which you made a reference and we do so in my view a superb way we win awards for it we help thousands of people each year so I hope that you can see this in the way at

Least acknowledge the points that I’m making in the same way I acknowledge was and I should mention that when we talk about um these Marx facilities we have to acknowledge they always intended to have a primary function of supporting the development alongside which hasn’t happened yet is some years away we get

To that later on maybe a case then to be looking again about what we do with that uh that uh social space should we say until we decide on its future we’ll be wrong to spend a lot of money now ahead of the facts and ahead of the use at the

Moment we have sufficient capacity but we’re going to as you know um modernize and extend the life of what we have in the current Center which is right in the heart Highwoods I hope that gives you both an acknowledgement and a context and as I say well we’ll have a look at

That point neat point you made about whether or not there are some compensating aspects to this thank you could I just come back briefly um also you know in terms of sort of facilities at the uh Visitor Center due to the you know footfall is there scope for example

As in with um Leisure World and M there um to see you know the scope for um helping you know attract more people is a sort of a destination play Park uh you know and it’s a very popular area for people with preschool and up to older

Children so it it might be that you know um you could sort of uh Pig back off you know increased usage with the revamp play park that might be one thing and just returning to your point about um looking at at the site of you know where

Marks would have been in terms of those facilities you know I appreciate that um you know we have um budgetary constraints in terms of what we can do but you know it’s just important to be able to kind of maintain or to keep a site sort of so that it’s attractive and

Usable for instance and and doesn’t you know become unattractive or put people off using that area so thank you for looking into that and for giving me your time good evening thank you and we that help thank you very much Joselyn Council Wars Martin if he’s if he’s

Here thank you um councelor Pearson for for The Hundreds avidly listening in uh councelor Martin Wars wasn’t able to join us but the points he wanted to raise have been raised and answered that’s great so councelor Paul dunders Co think you know what to do de probably just about working out thank

You uh good evening uh leader good evening cabinet um you’ll be pleased to know I’m I’m not to repeat four hours of scrutiny I I did watch it Well Done everybody um and I don’t want to turn it into a budget debate no doubt we will have further budget debates and of

Course we have four Council to come up but I’ve got a few comments and questions um my first question is there’s been an announcement this evening that the funding settlement has changed it’s going to be core spending plus 4% I doubt that’s going to make a huge difference but um I’m sure our

Section1 officer will be able to tell us what that amount of money is and you can tell us what you’re going to do with it um my second question actually need just come up on coffee shops um the there are two coffee shops operated um the figure

For the Leisure World one is in the confidential section so I’m not going to say it but it’s a small amount of money it could easily be turned around with a to work however we have another coffee shop which is losing 50,000 a year so my

Question is why are you closing the one which is hardly losing any money but apparently at least on the face of it keeping the one losing a fortune open it doesn’t seem particularly sensible if you’re looking save money and I also just want to pick up on what came out of scrutiny particularly

Around the the reserves um I’m pleased to hear that our section 151 offic is going to explain that soon but we do need something in writing in this budget on what the actual Financial State of the council is on the 1st of April 24 because you need to be able to make a

Judgment as to whether it’s prudent budget you are passing and then we are passing as counselors in full Council uh I’m going to give a couple of examples of why it’s so important uh on reserves and debts now if we look at the last audited accounts for kale cester and for our energy

Limited it shows and it’s they’re audited so it says in very clear writing there is a debt to culture C City Council of 1,699 634 and that was owed to the council as of the 31st of March 2023 so my first question along with the

Coffee shops is has it been repaid if it hasn’t when will it be repaid and when we’re talking about reserves it it’s important because when you look through the mtff we are looking over the next 5 years at accumul deficit of 7354 million that means in simple terms

That if everything goes perfectly to plan if all the extra income comes through interest rates don’t go below 4.8% next year every single saving is achieved everything in this budget actually happens we will burn through 7.35 4 million of reserves by 28 29 um because that is the figure of the

Deficit over the MTF if you add up the def deficit each year um is add it up um if you don’t if nothing changes because that’s what it says because you’ve got a deposit there for year and each year you use the deposit you’re going to have to fill it

With something you can only fill it with reserves it’s simple maths and I also just want to talk about the fit for the future a little bit and why it’s going to be very difficult unless you really do expand on detail hopefully on February the 1st for any

Council frankly to make a judgment on this um budget and vote for it we have in Greening and Street care cuts of a million pounds I repeat that a million pound and the entire description for cuts of a million pound to Greening and Street care is service options

Appraisals now no counselor with a good conscience go and vote on the three-word description service options appraisals they need to know a million pound cut they need to know what it actually means and hopefully would explain that but that is actually better than active and well-being which has a 3/4 of a million

Uh pound cut because that only has a two-word description interim transition what does interim transition mean presumably we’re transitioning to something and presumably we’re transitioning to something which is interim which isn’t even the end destination so what does it actually mean you you need to explain it to

People if they’re going to make any judgment on it um I think I’ll Pro I’ll probably stop there but um you need to get this out there the detail because parties also need to have the opportunity to read it they need to have the opportunity to understand it and

They need to have the under opportunity to develop and put in amendments to some of the things you are proposing um so can we hopefully we’ll see it by February the 1st and please is going to have to have some detail in it because in all good conscience you

Shouldn’t expect counselors to make a judgment on it without the information thank you thank you Paul and I kind of think you went a little bit beyond the I Shan do what we did last night because I recognized some of the ground but the point I was trying to give some answers no

I I thought during the course of four hours actually in those exchanges just one point actually last night I might missed a few bits because Mr heart’s microphone wasn’t working for quite a big proportion of them meeting it was working where I was before but but look look let’s walk back up your

List so we start and end and you and I have had this conversation before we got to scrutiny of course we need to ensure that members have sufficient detail to understand the decisions that we being made but I would I think I said then I say now very clearly there is a huge

Amount of information and you have to make a structural balance about how much and you might recall I think you were there Paul when we had members in and for the first time had a had a Clarity where spend went that would help anyone make a judgment about what they felt about the

Council’s priorities and its expenditure and income so it’s not like we come out of the blue we’ve been having briefings at different points during the last year and we got to a great deal of clarity Before Christmas you haven’t we had alumni and we’ve had we have another

Briefing to come for members and we have that information to which you refer the 1 of February which is going to fill out a lot of the detail so you have to decide with your colleagues as well others whether that’s enough I would say

And I’m not I need to say this I’m not a chared accountant but I really do understand government and how it works that this as a budget strategy that looks ahead through the mtff in a way let’s be frank past budgets haven’t always is a really good signal of

Intention with quite a great deal of information to support it and in that sense it goes a bit further than sometimes we might what’s going to come through in February which will have scrutiny in the middle of February is going to fill in more of what you could

See as the residual headline detail it’s not going to get down to um 6 .3 people over here at this Cafe let’s get back to that in a moment but it will get more information it will give a Lou riching picture but I think you have to take it

I ask you to take it in the way I’ve described this is much further advanced than many long-term change programs are and the whole approach and style and you’ve been good enough thank you to acknowledge it as to be as open and transparent as the circumstances allow

So in my view I’m really crystal clear about this in second really crystal clear about this as a budget strategy which provides significant detail on year one and a great deal of supporting information this does hit the mark it carries the confidence of section 151 officer we’ll hear about that in just a

Minute I however do take a couple of the other points it is important that we give Clarity across the piece so we’ll take away some can answer it that’s fine but I don’t want to go into all the detail tonight what we’re doing with relative coffee shops we picked this up

Because it’s a member issue and it’s a public issue we’re approaching everything we’re doing with a very critical eye looking at choices and income and I’m very happy to ensure as before that these these decisions are ones that take account of members views as well as realities we face but frankly

It’s Realties has to shape this and that’s why we have to drive this budget I’m not going to go any further but Mark thank you David thank you Paul um we had some good discussions at the leaders budget alumni which again I praise the leader for doing because it’s

Uh helps with openness you and um I think councelor Davidson were there as as past leaders from your group and it was helpful one of the comments you made was was about giving more detail for the fit for the future program and we have explained last night and we explaining

Again today on the 1st of Feb we will have more information uh in the paper on page 71 um I think it’s 71 that might be the other agenda but um 4.4 appendix C we do give more detail I just wanted to correct something you did say because I

Think sometimes the way perspective is there’s perspective about the deficits and I’ll come back to that in a minute but the perspective about how we read the fit for the future program I think you you got a bit wrong you said um a million pounds with Street care and

Greening program um there is around a million pounds in the neighborhood’s service but actually the street care and Greening program is 100,000 so you’ve got that wrong to times 10 um hopefully when we talk about the budget we’ll we’ll make sure we get that right but um it is £100,000 budget impact um

Whereas over all the neighborhoods yes there is a much larger chunk but almost a million of that is um from garden waste and looking at other Alternatives of bringing income um so that that deals with that the one other point and I’m sure the section 151 officer will do it

So I won’t take too David just explaining about the deficits the one thing I would say is we are in this year because of the fit for the future program because of the tough decisions we’re able to balance a budget in the coming year and actually put a bit of

Money back into the reserves the following year yes there is a deficit but we will address that because our legal duty is to pass a balanced budget so we’ll address those deficits so therefore addressing them delivering the fit for the future program means that actually we only have reserves going

Into the budget over the next few years that are limited and focused for particular reasons and I can explain that later otherwise we will be aiming to deliver um balanced budgets and therefore we will not rack up those deficits that you’ve said in that way uh and instead we have smoothed with

Reserves in the last few years we will put aside a contingency within reserves for the fit for the future program in case any slipping and in case we need to do more work to invest to save um so we are doing everything we can prudently

And we will aim each year to deliver a balanced budget and therefore no deficits thank you Paul I think the last thing I I might round it off and just a reminder for those listing as well and I know you’re aware of the dates but we

Have I mean it’s it’s an open door if you have a particular issue please do come Feel Free as before to come to myself or or or to mark um indeed for any one of them but do feel you can and and then we look through the coming weeks we’ve got 13th

Of February we’ve got scrutiny we got information ahead of that we got on the 14th of February got a member briefing and of course I know we got full Council and let’s be honest by then everybody’s made their mind up what is most have it’ll be to see the usual dynamics of

Play so we’ve we’ve got um a period in which information can be shared views can be taken and if we are able to help genuinely open-minded members to take a view on on facts that trouble than we’re going to do it but I do you know I kind

Of end where I started on this against the professional standard I think it’s reasonable you we’ve got a rare Vision here and it’s and it’s carefully crafted to be more than singular it’s intended to fit the council to address the whole of the council’s operation and and to to

Get to earn widespread support but it’s going to be you will know this we need to say this it’s the starting gun your point about deliver is well taken which is why marks referred to reserves we set aside to ensure we can respond to delay and difficulty because that happens

Everywhere frankly um and then it goes through round the lab you know here comes the specific proposition here comes the test and challenge we’re at this for three years things will change what’s important is we’re really clear about what we got to do right now in setting the scene for the

MTF thank you I I’ll just come back very briefly because it’s getting late but the talking about The Greening and Street care it’s in table 4.3 there’s 100,000 2425 150,000 in 2526 and another 750,000 in 2627 um they’re the big cuts um and it just says Greening and Street Care

Service options and appraisals so it goes back to what I said earlier if there’s no detail in it people make assumptions on the mtff and talking about just accumulated debt I mean just I’ve got a query actually you might be because haven’t got my glasses with me if we look in

2627 you’ve got net expenditure of 26497 and funding of 25819 is that 819 or 816 816 but you say that’s a surplus just just how’s that coming out as a surplus because to me the the expenditures more than the funding and you’re saying you’ve got 1 1.31 million

Surplus no well we’ll ask the section 151 officer pick this up with their explanation of the whole should we that might save time Paul that’s okay I I know we’ve got this debate we don’t want to have had at lengthly I know there’s been a bit of debate about the

Presentation of the but an exlamation on that would be good I I get it but I wanted just because other people are watching and some are listening to this for the first time they don’t know what the pleasure we can have walking through these numbers but we did make a promise

Last night from the coffee shop at the end will be well thank you as I’ve said we’ll we’ll work our way through that Paul happy to address that later on thank you um right um councelor Julie Young please hello Julie thank you leader good evening uh

Counselors um I want to say um a big thanks to officers I know have burned the Midnight Oil in getting to the stage we are to tonight in terms of looking at this budget um their work is appreciated I won’t go into the detail of the budget proposals um that will be

A matter for another day however I think it’s worth thinking about the context of this budget across the country councils are making difficult decisions the BBC report today features Somerset Council where they’re turning off all their CCTV cameras other councils are making equally difficult decisions if we take a

Glance backwards the formula grant settlement in 2009 St 10 for the council was 12168 Million had the government grant kept pace with inflation this 12168 million would be worth 18.5 million at today’s prices if we remove the new homes bonus which was never intended to be used for

Running costs our government grant this budget round is 6.9 million resulting in a real terms 2/3 reduction in support since 2009 this reality together with inflation the impact of the cost of living crisis the burden of meeting the escalating homeless tally results in the situation we fa face today

Leader I’m not a chartered accountant but would the leader of the council agree with me that from 2010 onwards the funding from government has been inadequate to meet the needs of our community thank you Julie and the answer unavoidably it’s it’s an apolitical answer is it has proved inadequate and

The thing I track I know you do I you mentioned some of it I’ve looked it up it’s much wider than CCTV it’s down to to stopping having Beach guards you know closing sports facilities and theaters and and or at least with drawing the Grant and much more much more else so

Had to be kind of Frank sad nerdy person as I am don’t say anything to my colleagues you know there’s 14 councils have gone into section 114 since in the last 20 years but quite a number of them in the last three or four years and um

Somerset to whom you refer who found us 30 5 million slice of 100 million p hold in their budget are just one more example of deep Challenge and problems across the whole of the na whole of the nation the nations in the plural sense and um lastly you will know that local

Government Association has said it could be one in five councils who are privately privately saying they’re at risk so thank you for setting the context U vividly and eloquently in the work for what we are seeking to do with as much support as we can gain from your

And other colleagues across the chamber we need to we need to address this while we’re able to command our circumstances um what the difference is and we’ve heard some tonight there will be as nothing compared to having Commissioners to whom there is no accountability they can decide as they

Wish and actually Somerset their plans including raising council tax by 10% because that’s one of the things you can do in those exceptional circumstances so thank you very much for coming to the table thank you thank you councelor Chris Pearson evening Leader evening everyone local authorities up and down

The country are faced with a problem that is mostly not of local authorities making is a problem that we Face here it’s quite right and proper that every now and again a local Authority should refresh look determine whether or not there are efficiencies that can be made

Or there are services that could be repurposed or even maybe no longer fit for purpose but we’re not in that situation we are in a desperate time and we’re not the only local Authority that is in those desperate times I just wanted to quote something from the uh House of Commons Library the

National Audit office estimated in 2018 that local Authority spending power had fallen by 29% in real terms between 2010 and 2018 the local government Association has forecast that inflation including pay demands energy price costs uh Rises Etc will add 22.4 billion pounds to previous budget forecast for

2324 my uh my labor group leader has already made reference to Somerset Council and there are others who are reported on the BBC today um as being in grave difficulty so we’re not um at that stage fortunately but we are in between a rock and a hard place and much of that is

Because of the low support from central government since 2010 the uh the other area that hasn’t been um considered this evening as well and and is referred to in the BBC report is the amount of money that local authorities are having to spend on homelessness that wasn’t

Anticipated and I’ll just quote from a liberal Democrat Council leader who suggested that uh of every pound that’s being collected in council tax 49 p is going on temporary accommodation 49 P out of every pound I mean that is ridiculous in the uh 21st century so I think that just leads me to

My final point leader and that is the recommendations that you have this evening to put before full Council and you’ve got uh in 2.3 recommendations one 2 3 4 five can I suggest that there should also six recommendation and that recommendation is that we work collaboratively with local authorities

Up and down the land to make representations to central government for fair funding for local authorities thank you very much Chris um I certainly will reflect on the latter point I will just say that of course we have been doing this you know um it’s part of the rais and Detra of local

Government is to connect particularly in crisis so there are a number of alliances if you like some of those um are cross party which my personal view is the best um and Nationwide others have been east of England and north essics councils and of course there are some cross groups particularly on issues

Like homelessness and and housing but the principle of what you’ve suggested absolutely absolutely behind that so thank you and thank you for your time again thank you thank you very much and I have counselor sonx next William good evening I was at the for our our session scrutiny panel

And um I don’t want intend to rehearse it but I want to ask some questions um uh and to also alert those who weren’t there uh some of the points um I want to I see that there’s a recommendation from the scrutiny panel asking for three extra bits of information and that’s

Great so that’s really good still really happy unhappy with the budget and um feel that uh the administration this is an opportunity for them to pull their socks up and get focused in a slightly different way and a different direction um wanted to talk about also we’ve heard

A lot about how um uh the national cuts and how it’s the fault of the government and everything else that we have trouble and I’d urge that we focus internally and coming from the private sector into the council in 19 in 2022 um I observe an organization that

Has an awful lot of quangos and unnecessary long reports and yearlong pieces of work all sorts of stuff that really could be cut and should be cut before we go cutting um uh real Frontline Services I see it as a hugely inefficient organization so I don’t

Rarely feel um bad that real terms Cuts have come from central government and I also think on particularly today when there’s been an announcement there’s going to be some further money for local authorities I think we should try and stop blaming other people and say good we are getting we are getting some

Recognition and support from elsewhere so I don’t rarely accept the sort of you know the the the the the blame other people line that um we’ve heard from a couple of speakers this evening I’ve have just four questions that I hope that the panel considers and I I I

Really think they should take some care before approving this budget the first is do you really think you could uh convert this year’s deficit into uh a small Surplus next year without doing anything specific and fit for the future seems to be a process that you’re starting on not

A um uh not a specific prop set of proposals to do less as we’ve acknowledged that we have to do that doesn’t seem we can’t identify what we’re actually going to do less of and um our track record isn’t very good and uh we can debate staff numbers and so on

But a track record we haven’t actually cut cut down staff numbers in the past so that’s my question do we really think that we can achieve that turnaround and I will bet a chocolate ice cream which is my highest reward with anyone who will take it that we um we will be

Nearer My UM estimate that we’re actually bleeding at 5 million a year than at the that we uh achieve a surplus and we’ll see who that’s wrong and that’s defined in terms of total decline in reserves uh not in terms of what you can actually see on the front

Page uh second question um I think I’ve covered it actually do you really think that fit for the future will work uh within the year third question can you possibly evaluate a budget without looking at the reserves do we have any way of understanding how many years deficit spending we can

Continue with and uh we haven’t been we haven’t been given a a a reserve forecast we don’t really know where we are in reserves now we’ve got two years without nearly two years without any accounts nearly four years without any audits what if there’s a big audit

Adjustment comes our way these things do happen we just re we’re restructuring some of the companies and as councelor Dundas has referred to there’s going to be some right offs in those connections we need to see a forecast of the reserves and an evaluation of what the

Risks are if we’re to be able to evaluate this budget and we haven’t got that at the moment so can you rely approve it this evening and the last point is uh did you all realize that this budget is You by approving this budget you’re approving

Doubling the debt and the bulk of the extra spending that’s doubling the debt is going to be spent on social housing which might yield us 1% and the debts are going to be costing us 4 and a half% did you realize that that deficit uh will be costing us 345 million pounds a

Year and have you thought this is in five years time have you thought where what we will do to cover that cover that deficit my view charted the accountant I think it’s a crazy budget and uh we’ll hear that out from the section1 officer that I’m wrong oh you will William um

Keep this very brief um yes we are going to approve this budget yes we do have competence in it yes it’s properly constructed and actually some of your colleagues at least acknowledge that after those four hours of of torture or stroke pleasure last night point about Reserve awareness you’ve had sight of

That but we’ll address that later on I would accept your bet okay um you better buy a large one and a couple of P to go with it because frankly serious matter though it is you’re just playing wrong on this and I hope that it’s been tried

Before that we can between is giv you more confidence in the quality of the work and the quality of the organization than you see you and I have had the Frank conversation hope you won’t mind it again here which goes this is not your shop your show it’s not mine

Actually I’m just doing my level best with a fantastic team of colleagues and members cross party to help chief executive and her great team of senior people to bring this organization to that better place on that much we agree that it needs to be in a better place

Fit for the future we’re not blaming um others are you um it’s easy to do it and there’s facts to support it that we accept responsibility for where we’re at all that you have seen tested I think we mostly been proved so far about right

Has been on that basis of it’s our canoe we’ll get paddling and I want as many people inside it William I’m helping us do that so I’m going to stop there my socks by the way are pulled up I’ll leave a couple remarks to Mark and then

We’re going to crack on with actually doing what it’s supposed to do which is pass the budget thank you Mark thank you um a couple of things your question too was about fit for the future we have explained that more detail will come on the 1st of February

But just to reiterate some of what I said last night and just to make clear the garden Waste Service is something we have to take we had to take a difficult decision on and that’s something where we’ve stopped doing the service that was there before and they’re bringing in a

New service so that’s one thing where we’ made a difference then there’s um written in the detail about Holly trees for example and how we’re making a change there there’s also the channel shift that I talked about last night and how that would mean investing in different programs

More digitalized software would mean we would require less resource I less Staffing which is written in there so that’s another example final example at the bottom small but um another example of where we are accepting uh a different staff instruction less staff is build control so there are examples in here

And there will be more examples coming forward um the other point that you’ve raised a number of times but I know you spent time with our section 151 officer in the Deputy talking about is the deficit spending so that is something that in in the last few years through

Turbulent times we have used more of the reserves but actually forecast going forward we are in in the forthcoming year 2425 contributing a small amount to the reserves in the following years 2025 26 and 2627 we’ll be putting in specific 200,000 chunks in each uh of the budget

To uh put contributions from reserves in however we are aiming to deliver balanced budgets in those years at the moment we are forecasting um a deficit in in some of the years within the medium-term financial forecast but as I said to Paul earlier it is our goal through the reduction in services and

Staff and costs of 25% through the fit for the fit for future program we are going to try and keep accelerating that with contingency fund that I talked about as well to match those uh differences but I’m sure the section1 officer will reiterate those points

Thank you thank you Willam if we got a final 20 seconds or so I think it’s time we heard from the section one F 151 officer I’ll be good thank you very much that’s an accident it’s nearly qu to 8 I’m going to suggest we take a few

Minutes thank you very much let’s take 10 minutes break and then we’ll start with the show from the section 151 officer team thank you very much Please hold up your phones to the the screen thank you all right okay folks um actually after 2 hours I’m not going to go into the budget I think actually properly usefully we’ve covered an awful lot of the central arguments um and the case for why we are

Doing what we’re doing and as a wider and opener way as we can and why it’s in such in watch such good hands which case I now refer to section 151 officer Andrew please come up and um as you do uh huge thank you again to you and the

Officer team for all you’ve been doing for us I know that’s I know that that’s a cross party view you might wander in the push and Sh and heat of the debate but absolutely is a huge respect for you and your colleagues thank you I hand over to

You thank you leader and good evening cabinet uh I had a short slide deck I don’t know whether that’s available or not um I’m conscious that we’ve probably um covered probably a number of the points already so I I will try to be brief uh I’m sure that’ll be appreciated

Uh and if any point that I’m covering ground which you think you all comfortable with and just please otherwise I can do it through MIM that’s it’s amazing how long time will be when you’re waiting for something I can I I can start going through it if you like in just do it

Verbally if that’s if that’s if that’s okay and if the slides come up we’ll perhaps we’ll catch up so I I think you know it’s it’s um not lost in ourselves that this has been one of the most challenging budget years we’ve probably had to deal with in many many years

Um and it’s clear that that that we can’t carry on as councils go try to approach balancing our budgets in the same way and we need to deal with the issues that we’re facing at a more structural level really which finds it’s finding longer term and Sustainable

Solutions to this and that is part of the overall budget package that’s in front of you this evening so uh thank you second slide please so what we need to do as a council is um looked for ways to maximize our income streams drive out efficiency review all

Of our asset use and focus on affordability I think we’re all in the business in providing Services really to our residents and the last space we want to be in is is actually um take making cuts to services to core services so as I said this the budget this year

Has been one of the most challenging to address um uh and as you know that there was was a gap that we had to deal with the actions we’ve taken to deal with that budget Gap are to maximize our coun tax increase uh 2.99% which works out at £6 33 per

Anom um we’ve developed a fit for the future program which we’ve spoken about already this evening and and there will be more uh coming through the the Democratic cycle about uh what that looks like and how that will be uh achieved we set out to achieve a savings

Uh from um from salaries to cover the cost of the pay increase the additional pay increase that took place during the current year and we’ve looked at the reserves and I think there is some capacity in our reserves to try and um smooth some of the savings targets that we need to

Identify and finally we’ve reviewed the capital program as it’s an integral part of the overall budget of the council because its financing sorry its financing costs are so important in the overall budget um round itself can I have the next slide please thank you I’m not going to go through that in detail

But we identified during our considerable engagement around the budget an overall budget gap of 2369 million pounds that was further um um um adjusted as as we went through the the month of December the approach to balancing that is um savings from fit for the future in 2425 of 1.8

Million some salary Savings of £480,000 and uh part of the review of review of reserves work identified there was capacity to utilize or reduce contributions to reserves of nearly £600,000 and all of those combined together means that actually we can contribute to our general fund balance a figure of about £335,000 in

Total uh next slide please when we feed that into the medium-term financial forecast it shows we have a balanced medium-term uh sorry a balanced budget for 2425 but there’s a gap in 25 26 uh and then the balance of savings from fit for the future really kicking

In 26 27 and our deficit comes down dramatically at that point in time which is as I say a part of looking forward to balance the budget rather than approaching it through a Cuts exercise annually uh as I say more to come on the future we did it’s been commented upon

About whether that’s an understatement of the level of um um cumulative deficit that the council faces uh and the number has been um um put forward that it’s a a higher figure but that assumption is on the basis that we do nothing over those intervening years to tackle the budget

That we’ve ID budget deficit we’ve identified and we have a statutory responsibility to address the challenge in front of us and and we will deal with that uh but I think we’re going to present it differently in terms of the overall final report have the next slide

Please bit to the Future I’m not going to dwell on that other than to say that it’s it’s a integral part of balancing the overall budget uh over the next few years and there’s 1.8 1.84 four million worth of savings um factored into the budget plan and and some um larger Savings in

In future years we do know to lever out those savings that it will require investment on the part of the council and we’ll need to um essentially pump Prime that work with a a pot of money in order to invest um sorry in order to deliver that that investment to make those savings

Have the next slide please just moving on to to balances uh balances come in two flavors that there’s unallocated and then there’s ear marked so our unallocated balances are a general fund balance and we set ourselves a minimum level of general fund balances to hold um in the event of unexpected costs our

Current minimum level is one is 2.75 million pound and that’s what we opened the year with 23 but as you as you’ll know um uh we forecast an overspend during the current year of 1.4 million pounds so it just goes to show just how volatile local government Finance is at the moment and

I think that for me that that that emphasizes that that probably right now having a higher level minimum level of general fund working balance would be appropriate there’s lots of um you know we’ve already touched upon the issuing of on one SE C 114 notices council’s facing bankruptcy in essence

Um there’s various National media um stories out there from one in5 councils to one in 10 councils at real imminent risk of issuing a 114 notice and I think the leader referenced as statistic about 14114 notices having been issued if you go back four five years and we were in you know

Um section 114 notice was virtually unheard of really until we until Northampton share County Council probably in recent times issued one um but now it’s it’s it’s it’s Rife in the media and there’s so much talk about it there must be a structural problem within local government finance and

That’s you know that’s that’s something we should not know we we should be aware of and we should not ignore and that means taking difficult choices I think to uh balance budgets and and I believe this budget does just that so I I so I would recommend that the

Council moves to a higher level of of of um sorry unallocated General balances and this budget does add a contribution to the unallocated balances of £355,000 um and we’ll look to a wider review of the E balances to to to hopefully make up the difference so I can have the next slide

Please so ear marked reserves and I know this has been a topic that received much attention and much discussion over the last year and I understand the need and the desire importance of having clarity about the level of reserves that the council holds and the demands against that so we have been working

Systematically through that list of reserves uh it’s tied into producing final accounts information um and we work through each Reserve to test its its its individual validity and and and future demands against those Reserves that works thus far has identified at least a couple of reserves where we think there is an

Opportunity one is a pension deficit Reserve uh the pension fund has gone into Surplus and and I think that will remain so for a while uh and whilst it is in Surplus there’s no point in making a uh either a contribution to it or holding a balance against it and I

Thinking we’ll deal with a deficit in the future if if it do go back into a deficit the other one one is the business rate Reserve where we have commissioned a piece of work from some professionals uh in in the sector who’ve identified that that Colchester is doing

Very well out of business rates growth for the most part and I think there’s capacity within that so now it’s better understood what our level of reserves are I think we we should continue to U review those to see how they can better help the council deliver against its strategic

Ambitions and uh that’s a piece of work that I think we still need to do if I can just go on to the the next slide please my real I appreciate that’s quite a there quite a lot of information packed onto that slide and therefore probably difficult to see but we started

The current Financial year with a uh earmarked balances of 28 a half million pounds which I think is is is is is a healthy position to be in really by any measure um if you could move on please again to the next slide sorry back one Capital program

Just to say that we have reviewed it we did a review in October we followed through on that again uh in terms of a further review that’s part of this overall budget solution there are some key additions to it in including um C just the northern Gateway enabling works

And repairs to the to the motoall we’ve put in provision for capitalized repair of uh to the council’s major Assets in fact all assets and provision for ICT schemes as well and we’ve taken out some of those schemes which are temporarily paused while we look at reviewing Northern Gateway

Generally and I can say that the capital charges that are part of that are the consequence of that Capital program are reflected in the in the revenue budget so they are consistent and that’s an important part of bringing the capital program and the revenue budget together at the same same

Time uh again of we can move to the next slide please so hous and revenue account just quickly to say that it’s balanced it does include a rent increase of 7.7% not 7.77 7.7 which is CPI at September of 6.7 plus 1% which is the maximum that we’re allowed to increase

But all of the income generated from that rent increase remains within the housing revenue account and is utilized to uh undertake repairs to the um to the council house stock and you’ll also see that the from the overall papers that the hous and revenue account balances over the mtff period as well and

Um but there is a review planned of the housing revenue account during 2526 we’ll look at the longterm affordability aligned to the 30-year business plan that we have for the hous and revenue account as well last slide please I think it is so I just wanted to give the cabinet some

Assurance really um from U myself as the section 151 officer I would say it’s it’s been nine months since I’ve arrived at Colchester now um and I think one of the things that we did identify that the council’s approach to its finances have been prudent over a long period of time

And I think that’s important my predecessor was was very cautious in some of his assump and I think that that that gives the council a strong springboard in terms of developing future year budgets it’s a balanced budget proposal that does include a contribution to general fund balances uh bringing up

General fund balances to a to to perhaps a stronger level uh I think there’s a clear and demonstrable ambition within the council and cabinet offices to address the gaps that are in the mtff and a clear plan to to deal with that really as well through

Fit for the future I would say looking at reserves I think they’re in said the goldilock Zone I think it’s not too much not too little but just about right I think for a council of this size with these this council’s issues there is some um um some national statistics out

There being prepared by the government which supports and reinforces that as well and I think you know we we are in in a fortunate position with our business rate growth as well um which will help provide confidence and reassurance to myself and to the cabinet around the level of balances that we’ll

Have in future years I am required as part of the overall budget package to to issue a section 25 report to council which is a robustness of the budget report from the section1 officer and I I am happy to do that based on the information that is

Presented here and what I’ve seen in terms of budget development work and that’s all I wanted to say thank you leader thank you very much U any points of clarification Martin yeah it was just actually to pick up with the heat Network and how that was treated I think we to just expose

That so it’s been discussed as by the governance and audit as well really so it’s been raised in that and I think I recognize there’s a risk around unwinding of that um that um scheme and it does need to be addressed I think it’s one of the things we need to pick

Up as part of our overall with looking at the reserves that the council’s holding uh whilst it’s in a comfortable position I think we need to identify and understand what all of the risks facing the council are and make sure that we adequately provide for all of those

Risks um so there is some Works to be done before we close the accounts for 23 24 and that will mean working out what the transactions are one that that the heat Network scheme um I believe I I I believe that the number is is a couple hundred thousand

Pounds that the council will have to probably write off but I think there is risk around some of the base Grant um and I think that’s what we need to reflect within the council’s overall approach to understanding how much reserves we hold on to thank you very much thank you Martin

For raising that anything else from anybody else if not then let’s move on thank you very much indeed we cover such a lot of what would have been opening remarks that I I was suggesting to myself and others we don’t do that um that we go to um the

Recommendations of the scrutiny panel last night um which are I’ll read them just for clarity for colleagues I think we’ve got to site but for the record um we had three recommendations from the scrutiny panel um that we have further information produced to support the council’s consideration of the 2425

Revenue budget medium-term Financial forecast statement of reserves for the period consing the reserves position well that we we’ve walked through um I understand absolutely uh the Instinct from colleagues of seeing how we can stretch that view into the future but many imponderables in there especially if you if we

Accept that what we’re going to do in each and every year is address any additional pressures or the ones indeed that are stated so it’s likely that it’ll be what we’ve had tonight we have asked for some additional notes with it so the second thing is the first thing

Is statement reserve the second thing is a treasury management strategy statement or further information on the current position and I understood that the latter uh was was more feasible in the time that we have and thirdly a supplementary note to the forecast to provide Clarity and explanation regarding appendix C of

The budget papers and the accumulative deficit figures and this was touched on earlier there are at least a couple of ways in which you can set this out so we’re going to make sure that both are shown so that we answer the concern about how things can be misread so those

Are the three points statement reserves tragedy management statement supplementary note on the mtff um I’m going to go to Mark Cory on our behalf Mark is there anything you want to add on that or you content that we recommend to Cabinet I think you you’ve made clear

That we have discussed this at length um in terms of cabinet discussions workshops um again you’ve been very open with bringing in members of the labor group working with the um leaders alumni group so it has been looked at and we will continue to evolve and I think these recommendations from scrutiny are

Absolutely fair and useful um we explained at scrutiny again why or why not U some of this information was there I think the the reserves point is absolutely Fair we’ve talked about this leader haven’t we that uh it’s important to do that um and we will do that in a

Sort of draft caveated form to say for reasons I explained yesterday and the chief uh finance officer did just now we are still refining in terms of being prudent with our reserves but also looking at how we use them flexibly going forward to invest uh

In order to save as much as possible um the Tre treasury management statement um was discussed last night briefly and uh I I think it’s useful to attach that and then to attach detail that shows the current situation of of both borrowing and investment that we have at the

Council and um I think it’s a matter of perspective as to how you do read the papers I think whatever we do it’s it’s complex local government finance and um whatever we can do to make it clearer about how the deficits uh or the C cumulative um Surplus deficits are shown

We will do that as well so I think these are reasonable I think we had a good scrutiny process um you leader and I both enjoy and and rigor um and so do the officers um I think we got to be clear that this is a prudent Council

That has been prudent over the years and the section 15 officer believes the medium-term financial forecast as outlined is also prudent I wouldn’t want to whatever people’s perspective and challenge which is welcomed wouldn’t want to undermine this Council by saying we get things wrong or the the figures

Are incorrect when it is more of a matter of perspective when it is uh an issue that we want to bring up we’ll take it away or like with the recommendations from scrutiny we will take them on board and deliver so we will do that so lastly I’d say thank you

To all of the members of Staff who’ve contributed to the fit for per fit for purpose I keep saying that fit for future program and the additional savings to meet the cost pressure increase in staff pay I’d like to thank the finance team and uh their new leadership with Chris Hargrove here and

Andrew small uh above with the Strategic responsibility of the section1 officer um and officers Like Richard Brock who have dealt with a lot of the sort of negotiations between us as politicians and officers and and the finance team to make sure we we can land these proposals

So I do think it’s been an absolute team effort and I think with Pam’s leadership as chief executive as well it’s one that has been inclusive understanding of Staff this will be difficult for staff we understand that a reduction in numbers of Staff a reduction in um some of our

Services but also for residents and I’ll make one final point I am a resident of this great City burough and a little town outside of coester called weno and I pay my council tax I face the cost of living challenges that are current economy faces and I believe we sit

Around these tables and we spend a lot of hours putting our effort into this as do many residents of the burough who are our officers and we care passionately about this and I know for example Chris and Andrew here tonight care passionately about the numbers and how

They present it and they’ve done an excellent job improving how that’s done over the recent year so from a resident of this burough I commend this budget to cabinet I will take fully the recommendations from the scrutiny panel and we’ll go forward to the different meetings we have to confirm the details

Of the fit forp purpose plan to confirm the reserves the treasury management and the medium-term financial forecast to then make sure we pass it at full Council thank you thank you all right so members we’ll deal with those two things together the recommendations from scrutiny which we recommend are accepted

Agreed and and that that rounds out the conversations we’ve had around the general fund so do we agree with those recommendations as well okay um I’d just like to just touch on um the the next item which is the H which again had a very lengthy um and

Intense discussion last night I don’t want to rerun that again it’s had the conversation the papers serve the purpose I think we ought to just acknowledge that what lies ahead of us includes a really deep review and to ensure that we are we are confident for the future uh that um the

HRA is viable in every sense uh that cultist of parah homes who are a brilliant sister organization drawing closer yet in the family to the city council deliver to the standards we require and that and that the way ahead that review will include a robust examination fresh examination of

Performance against a variety of tests and uh in a very independent and transparent way to ensure we all have the competence that we require which we’ve had before which has been shared again recently in the way it’s being run and the way it seeks to serve the

Population so there’s much to do here um but the HRA uh as presented does balance to the terms that set out in the paper and we’re reminded of by the section 151 officer but as I say we’re going to we got a lot of work to do here to give

Ourselves long-term confidence and we’ll respond to the the facts as they emerge from that deep review by the deputy chief executive are we content with the HRA element of of the budget thank you very much which gets us back to Capital um there’s a great deal of information here I intend to keep

Mark if you’re content um really light is anything you would like to say on this before I go to one particular item no okay the one particular item I want to bring out and it’s almost thematic there’s about three points if you bear with me one this still has

Breadth and ambition but that carries risks and that car carries consequence and that carries there is a question in here which we will all acknowledge that’s led to some uncomfortable decisions they’re right to take in the circumstances um we have had in this last year very robust review of project

Management of capital costs contingency and risk and that approach has got to continue so we have to counter optimism with contingency in time and cost that will underpin this doesn’t in this Capital program the one additional point is this um circumstances will change and we have to

Respond so when we judge what we have to do we’re going have to look at this in terms of of its wider affordability and that balance between projects in View and projects that may arise and I want to mention specifically the hi as a as an example of where we have some

Significant long-term challenges which are going to take some degree of help and support uh we have some outline view of that we’ve got a a Fresh Approach uh with my chairmanship I hope with the city council playing a forward role but we’re not the lead authorities here or

On flood or on highways or in or in the environment so there still will be stakeholder work so we will make sure um that whatever we do we have the scope within the wider capital budget to ensure that we address those and emerging emerging issues and we touched

On one earlier Council Goss on um middle Mill and the we I’m going to stop at that um I’ve been as reminded and I’m happy to be reminded that we’ve agreed tonight is to pause savings measure on the Leisure World coffee shop and that will need to be rolled into the final

The final version of these papers before they go through to full Council so on Capital are we content agree thank you so that is that on that right folks we’ll crack on with the rest of the agenda thank you Mark right formally we have signed off to the recommendations to set

Out in the paper which reminds me we had one additional one from councelor Pearson around cooperation and collaboration which I would be happy to support if that would be acceptable to colleagues we’ll have a look at the exact language but we take away as a point of principle okay we agreed on

That also thank you very much indeed it’s our way of working is it I’ve G through a half an inch of paper which gets us through to um item 8.1 and I’m pleased to say I can see um only two rather than six visiting counselors um Paul your first up followed by uh

William thank you leader just indulge me for a minute it was very remiss earlier I didn’t thank the finance team for their work on the budget and whilst I might have issue with a couple of bits of presentation I think the overall presentation is a step in the right

Direction uh compared to what we’ve seen in the past um so I can only encourage them to continue on that on on that route and and I thank them for their work um but but to this item in particular I’m not going to make any jokes about total car crashes don’t

Worry um but I think perhaps start we need to look back on on where it came from I mean it’s probably over 10 years old probably the sort of inception of of the whole thing um and if we’re absolutely honest this aspect of it on Cults of the northern Gateway South um

You know hasn’t been a gloring gloring wonderful success really um you know at the moment we we we we’ve got some sort of holes in the ground which cost a couple of million quid and and a path and a demolition site surrounded by by Harris

Fencing um so the best one in the world we haven’t covered ourselves with glory and of course we equally have probably something approaching exra 20 million pounds of of of capital burrowing sitting on our books at the moment which we’ anticipated would have been paid off

By now um which is you know is a drag however much you quantify it it is a drag on on on the council and the report makes quite a lot of um the change economic circumstances um since it was conceived about the cost of of borrowing but you know let’s be

Honest actually none of that was really mentioned at the time if I can take you back to December 2018 if anybody remembers that actually uh the F very first question I asked in full Council related to this project so this is kind of where I came in uh um and it was to

Councelor goss I wasn’t picking on him at the time he was the portfolio holder responsible for infrastructure um and others would have answered the same and I asked the question about how um careful we were with our assumptions and and what would happen um to the resilience of the

Viability of the project if there were changes in the economy interest rates the housing market Etc and the reply was and we had a JY good laugh about conservative for the small CA um that the project was very resilient to such things and the viability was indeed very

Conservative with a small C so we we can’t just blame it all on change circumstances you know some of it may be but we are where we are um I think we have to accept and I think the report does really say it particularly if you read between the lines that a project

Conceived before 2016 or around 2016 doesn’t necessarily work in 2024 um the mix is wrong the viability is wrong if is ever right the world has changed and we also have to accept the council doesn’t have the financial resources all the skills needed to develop a huge commercial housing

Project that’s not a criticism um we’re a district council um why would we why should we I doubt commercial developers are very good at collecting bins and if you we know know the struggles of getting roads adopted they’re not very good at doing many other things councils

Do but stick to what you’re good at would would be my expression so the specific point I mean I think on balance I I support Parts 2.2 and 2.3 of the recommendation you do need to look at it again we need to look at it again and uh

Find a different project for this site my concern and I have thought long and hard about this because I do get the arguments on both sides it is a balanced argument uh I am concerned about committing what is a very large amount of money with a very big drag on the

Revenue budget um to something we’re not actually 100% sure is necessary um you know does it add 7.7 million pounds worth of value to the land I can’t see any details in the report saying it does if it doesn’t it’s a very poor value investment if it does

Well prove it and then I might be persuaded furthermore you know the section 278 Works they’re required for the old scheme not whatever the new one is because we can be pretty sure whatever ends up there won’t what there’s currently planning permission for and actually the report basically

Says it so you’re approving a spending spending £ 7.7 Million worth of culturist a residents money on a development you know probably isn’t going to happen and the report says in black and white there isn’t demand for that office space we know why we know you know changes the world’s changed and

I think the hospital I’m not sure I’m going to ask that specific question is perhaps looking a bit suspects the direction of travel is probably towards more residential and we need housing so that seems to make make sense so we also know that traffic is generated far more by commercial

Developments than housing so you might find if you end up with a residential based scheme or farmer residential that the section 278 Works required don’t need anything like this amount of work because you will have less traffic so do you really want to spend 7.7 million on

Road works if they turn out to be totally unnecessary because it would it would be money down the drain so my specific questions are are what’s the status negotiations with the healthcare provider are they still live are there still talks going on or or should we basically consider that not a

Realistic thing going to happen uh what’s the status of the power supply at the site because I understand that there was an issue around that um you know have have we resolved that and I’m not going to mention any figures but there are figures in Part B

Which is why I’m to mention them but how have we arrived at those valuations um if you use normal appraisal figures and I know that they’re they are what they are but even if we use the ones used at tendering cultures to borders um residential land is usually worth

Considerably more than commercial when you do viability but we’ve got it the other way around we’re saying that the commercial side is worth vastly more than the residential in the report and actually if you were to develop the whole site for residential if you use the culous to figure

Available for viability uh studies it comes out to 55.7 million now that’s of course a gross figure that’s before you take out affordable housing possible uh uh road work section 106 and other costs but nonetheless that that a hugely different figure to the one you’ve got

In your report so my question is and you need to be asking why so my recommendation is this look at this look at it again take to parts to two the two latter parts of the recommendation but work out what you want to do with the

Site before you spend any more money on it don’t be pressured by national highways by the time a new projects has gone through all this appraisals and they looking at through marketing through potential sale of the site through contract negotiations planning financing and goodness what else and the

Fact that you might not even need to do anything to the a12 at all anyway you’ll actually be at the next slot probably around 202 that’s the time scale big it’s only two years away that’s the time scale these things take so I just I’m worried we’re making decision back to

Front we’ve spent enough on this enough has gone already work out what you want to do before you spend anymore would be my recommendation thank you very much indeed Paul um I assume that Williams down here as well can I hear from him so please stay please do stay at the table and

We’ll try and deal with it together uh William if I can frame it this way is there anything different to what Paul said in your courteous best style um that you would want to add I get the clear message that you don’t want to hear what I’ve got to say and I will

Take it along there I want to back up everything Paul said uh a lot of the figures um uh he quoted come from the garden community and I think it’s very interesting that we’ve uh I don’t want to say anything that’s in a confidential appendix but uh the figures

Are so different that we’ve been presented with there than we’re than we’re being told to believe in the garden community so we need to uh we need to start putting a numerate template around these things and I I can’t believe I can’t believe it we we we’re been asked

To spend 7.7 million there’s not a plan of what the road layout is or what it’s going to be it’s just sort of 7 .7 million we’re going to give to someone I I I just I I just can’t I just words fail me that we we’re doing that uh more

Seriously I want to back up Paul’s point that we shouldn’t be in this business of spending uh this money this is development work uh we’re not specialists in that and uh this is certainly something that should be done I think by a master developer and we

Ought to be uh moving this site on and not not uh not sitting on it and going around in circles trying to do something with it they’re really complicated to do these sites and there’s lots and lots of bits of it and I just don’t see the council without any uh strong appraisal

Or financial or development ability on board for anything or experience for anything of this scale I don’t see it as a great idea to be proceeding with it um and I’ll shut up uh thank you you I’m going to um look forward to some comments from colleagues

I just sort of start with I have some sympathy with uh because but let’s start with what we agree on we agree that the world’s changed we agree past the past and a a long-term development project has had some successes we could argue and here we are

With this is a further opportunity which absolutely has to be looked at a fresh thank you Mark and we will and um I think there’s one thing that’s not said on which I hope we would agree that location location location this site is really well placed if we get the right

Development to maximize our return now beyond that I’ll only say this which is this is not a go now and spend 7.7 million this is and I’m sure you’ve read through the recommendations this is in sure that people understand where we are today and where we’re heading and sure

We have in the capital budget and it is a choice I absolutely set with a consequence um making provision for the capital spend now the way we’ve worked and the promise that’s been given I’ll say out loud has been that we’ll be obviously thoughtful we’ll take yet

Further advice we do this cross party in the way we’ve done before so that we have a in the right place in the right way a depth of conversation and understanding I mean I’ll stop there but we are probably closer than you might thinkk agree and I support that D and I

I welcome the conversation and we’ll have more conversations that um I think are important to do cross party um this is a significant site there’s a number of sites to be honest um when you’re talking about site it’s not always clear which one you are talking about up there

And in a sense um we have up to this point been in in some form or another a master developer hence why this does fall more at our door um and David you you made some of the points I was going to make I absolutely understand the caution that you’re putting forward and

We listen we listen to that we hear that we have that ourselves um we understand don’t we both um your Administration and ours previously signing up to the The Ledger South development and the risk involved in that so there are risks due to the economic uh sort of

Situation outside of our control but we are in controlor you’re in control of the mic um we are in control of a number of pieces of land there so we have to understand what would facilitate going forward the best kinds of economic growth and the recommendations I’ll go

Back to um to approve the inclusion of 7.7 million into Colchester city council’s capital program um to agree to revisit the delivery strategy for Colchester Northern Gateway sites um and to delegate to the deputy chief executive that is Lindsay Barker to the rest of us and she has already been

Working with um working group on this of officers uh for the last few months in consult in cons in consultation with me as portfolio holder for resources um to really look at this in detail so most of the questions youve put forward we will go over and we will work with you and

Other partners across the council to make sure we are answering those questions and it talks about uh looking at due diligence reviewing the development strategy the market and potential delivery options to fund any viability and feasibility Works needed to progress delivery of the site so what

I’m saying is hearing you this is a mark in the sand to say look we have a date with um highways that we want to meet it keeps the door open it does not mean that that money is going out the door tomorrow absolutely not it means that we

Are earmarking that in reserves and we will be taking the action outlined in the recommendations so that will cover a lot of the questions you’ve asked just to to go back slightly in terms of you asked Paul for example asked about where things were with with those um sites I

Think it’s best to talk about those and I will bring you in and we can have a a briefing on that because they are ongoing so we still have Partners involved but it’s about again when will they bring forward their options will they be the same as first discussed say

3 or four years ago um they have changed within those three or four years so there is a lot to uh to understand and that’s why the group of officers have been doing the work um I have been appraised of that but I’ll ensure that

We do that cross party as well I’d stop there um leader but I mean what one other thing I’d say is it’s about investment in our infrastructure that’s quite important for us to do we know that we have Partners in terms of Essex uh and National highways who do that but when

It is under our control when a lot of the sites are causing uh potentially new traffic into the future we need to accept that and look at what we have to do I use that Junction fairly regularly accessing the northern Gateway Sports Park which is a fantastic venue to visit

And the junction is already uh close to capacity and that’s what highways do say so it needs looking at but hopefully that gives some confidence that this is not an immediate decision this is about opening the door to that decision on the infrastructure and it’s about taking the

Due diligence looking back at the strategy looking at the market and going from there thank you uh thank you yes the only problem is that by putting it in um the capital budget is inally linked to your Revenue budget and by putting it in you are impacting your Revenue budget and that

Is constraining some of the things you can and can’t do on your Revenue budget so it’s very easy to fall into trap of thinking like capital expend is almost free but it’s not it has I think I can’t remember on the MTF I think it’s heading

Up to about 30 million out of25 million Revenue budget um it it’s it’s Capital MRP is very expensive um and the other thing about commercial I mean uh I can’t remember who said it and I’d hope where it said today it would be put in a slightly more

Gender sensitive way but events dear boy was somebody once said and that always they will always be events and if you are involved D in the commercial sector you will buffeted by something and events and difficulties always and when you know having just had a long discussion about how tight our Revenue

Budget is over the next few years do you really want to be adding any extra risk and Commercial risk to that if you can avoid it you know we can control development we hope by planning if we say we can’t and we’ve got an issue perhaps with our planning maybe not

Quite as much as we’d like like but um I my inclination would be when it comes to very large amounts of money on this project is to accept that we might be better letting somebody else have the risk because we probably can’t afford it to go wrong again that’s that would be

My only comment but I I I think actually looking at it again and that is there I think that’s sensible and I I won’t talk in public about contract negotiations I’ll happy to talk about those in in private thank you thank you and the only

Thing I would just add is we get the point of perhap risk and M development but there is there is a a reality about our position our responsibili the the relationship that we we have with the national highways and uh and se6 highways and the background of discussions here around this Junction

Need to spend on it so but that wider piece about development all I would say is that’s well that’s well understood that in my my take I think marks as well we’re expecting a transition to a different mod model they’ll be part of those conversations that we’re going to arrange away from

Here thank you thank you both for your observations much appreciate it can I just make one comment um if you look at the if you look at where the traffic congestion is you can do it so easily on Google Maps this compared to the a120 this is

Absolutely doesn’t seem to be a priority when you look at the planning permission that’s has been given I don’t know how we ever thought we could fill 4,100 Square met of commercial I mean that’s 3,000 jobs that’s putting a huge strain on the The Junction so I really

Would think that as part of the exercise I accept you’re going to put it in the budget part of the exercise we ought to be looking again at the traffic forecasting with a realistic number of office office bases there no one’s going to build 45,00 square meters of office

We’re in the same place on that and I I think that’s both in the paper and came through a hope in in the remarks I mean Linds is not here but the deputy chief executive um has absolutely been with um expert advisers and officers going through those realities as you described

Them and what we know from the modeling is available and the projections forward and which you know those who deny or agree to what you might do or some other might have to do have a very strong view So you you’re right to point out the fundamentals I can only just give you

Some measure of assurance that that’s what we’re addressing Martin I think you want to say something briefly if you could thanks yeah just briefly I mean that Junction is already over capacity there is data to show that it is already over capacity with the existing traffic modeling that’s available so it’s only

Going to get busier as other businesses Cinema Etc open whenever they come on Stream So that so I don’t think there’s any question that that that that Junction is already a problem because it should have been built bigger were in the first place when it was done 10 plus

Years ago so there’s no question work is required and I think my comments are publicly known that I do not like traffic lights and that we seem to have them all over Colchester and that just seems to be the solution by Essex highways so my comments on that are

Public and I I you know will stand by that I expect you to Mr fax that’s that’s thank you both very much leader I suggest we go to the recommendations really we’ve rehearsed the arguments I think Martin’s Point just there is yeah we we would all like

To look a bit more look again at the detail of what highways are suggesting but perhaps that’s not for now um that is in the detail that come forward um in this work it’s about allocating the potential to go and do that work uh to do more due diligence so leader I think

We’ve been around this um informally and uh now and uh hopefully we’ll get to go and work with Lindsay on this going forward thank you thank you very much so uh colleagues 2.1 to 2.3 as described are we content agreed thank you very much okay um item

Eight next according to me it’s is that right need two officer pay policy statement for 24 25 who would like pick this up this is a a statutory requirement that we do each year and uh I really would say that uh I’ll take the papers as R I recommend this to cabinet and

Then it will go on to for Council as well um really it goes through the basics of what we would understand I thank Jess Douglas in the audience there for the work on this and for managing our HR across the council and much more these days that she takes on um but it

Does also reaffirm our commitment to the living wage the fact that we do pay our workers a real living wage and uh we have always tried to ensure we have u a decent uh spread in terms of uh officer pay and also that um our gender pay Gap

Is is quite positive in a sense that actually it does lean towards favoring uh female staff more than it does male which is bus the trend and we do have an excellent female chief executive and deputy chief executive um up feminism but moving on from that I would say

Let’s go to uh agreeing the report thank you colleagues agreed thank you which case we’re on to item 9.1 and I’ll look to oh I be this is a cracker as well the managed service solution for temporary workers um I’m a great fan of this but um let me go to counselor Mark

Cory I helped you find the paper’s leader now I’ve got to do the same um and this this paper is something that reports on uh part of the organizer ation that we we feel needs to be passed and um I’m not sure if this one will go to um full Council like the

Last one um so it’s just for us um and it’s working with our our County Council um contracts as well um the recommendation is to sign up to the Essex County Council managed service solution framework for temporary workers for 3 years from this April the 1st um

And really again it’s a sensible way of managing the organization um and working with our partners to ensure uh we look after our agency staff that we need and and temporary workers so I recommend this to us all oh so agreed thank you very much and now finally 2 91 Council Anon

J okay then so this is a look back on halfe kpis 23 24 to September and we’re now at the end of quarter 3 so what I’ll do is just give a quick update and review um can I first of all thank the program and performance managers for their responsiveness to requests from

Cabinet and scrutiny for a much more detailed and comparative narrative which I think you do all agree we now have we now have some really good benchmarking to sip uh recommended 15 nearest neighbors and that our nearest neighbor local authorities based on 41 metrics of similarity so rather than going for best

In the field we’re actually getting a um a good balance against those that are similar to ourselves um there’s 29 kpis the majority have been met 12 have been achieved and exceeded so uh I just highlight housing benefits and local council tax support um the customer facing St staff should be thanked and

Congratulated for their hard work on this they work front end and sometimes in difficult circumstances and they do a really good job um we can look at the seven red targets uh quickly those are rent collected so the number of tenants currently receiving Universal tax credit is increasing this impacts our rent

Collection because it’s often done in AAR um people wake up to five weeks for their first payment which means if rent’s due and they’re not able to pay it any other way there’s obviously an inbuilt lag in the system but I’m happy to say that we’re now at um a 97.6 eight

Percentage rather and against the target of 98 so that’s moved on quite considerably since the report bement Services income uh the rolling 12 month is in line with preco and we are aware there’s likely to be a 200,000 short um but assumptions for the 23 24 income

Target have been tested and will be realistic and actually the first the third quarter growth if that’s replicant replicated in the final quarter will actually meet targets so it’s moving closer um household waste recycled reused and composting we we’re off Target again mainly due to less overall

Waste because of the cost of living crisis and a drop in spending but from the benchmarking and the medians that are in place you can see that we may remain below the median so we’re actually performing better than the majority of our nearest neighbors um based on 2122 figures we are actually

35th out of 333 local authorities so we’re actually in the Tom top 10.5% of performers so I think we can round that up and say we’re in the top we round it down and say we’re in the top 10% um we’re not complacent and as we’re all aware

There’s a waste review strategy that will drive change that will hopefully move us towards the government targets um in terms of housing which are probably our most uncomfortable kpis the average time to relet has been a focus but I can report that that’s now down to 32.5 for days so

Again there’s been significant improvement over the last quarter repairs and customer satisfaction are still a way of t Target but that’s these are obviously related to each other and subject at the moment to intense portfolio hold a scrutiny and review so hopefully again we’re doing what needs to be done to move those

Forward um all the kpis reported are under a process of review by the um senior leadership team and they’ll be coming to Cabinet in February to look at the range and re relevance of those that are currently being reported for 2425 five and at my request they’re looking

At the inclusion of some customer support team satisfaction um because I think we need to be reporting on the teams that are performing well uh and at scrutiny request we’re also looking at provision of some historical data for context um that’s really the the kpi’s uh strategic delivery plan quickly there

Are a couple of items in red status and we know this includes the intense resettlement work which has been ongoing and the building maintenance which is part of the asset review um so both of those are part of the senior leadership team feedback and I think we can be

Confident that um those are being looked at and finally accreditations I think the focus tonight has been very rightly on the budget but it is worth mentioning the success of the council in some awards particularly green flags for our open spaces and a customer service Excellence award for the contact team

Which during a recent visit with them they were quite rightly very proud and I think should be mentioned thank you very much indeed Allison you and I talked about the scope for transformation we didn’t get to that did we in in the budget terms anything

You want to add in that sense of where where just briefly where this might go well just in terms of um the transformation obviously we’re awaiting the fit for forecast fit for future detail myself now um we all know that business transformation addresses changes in processes organizations it and

Technology it’s wide ranging and disruptive but it will help the council perform effectively and efficiently the proposals before us are necessary to drive the scale of change and cost savings that are needed within the council having personally been through to significant organizational changes um which actually resulted in a change of

Role for me literally over overnight on both occasions and having led a business integration process following a merger I’m very empathetic to the uncertainty of change and the potential loss of friends of colleagues which is a difficult byproduct of the process but it also provides opportunities and whilst some hard and uncomfortable

Decisions have had to be made um I just think the engagement and focus of the senior leadership’s t team is there and that as the detail comes out we can feel comfortable with the process certainly my dealings with the team is that they’re they’re all on it

And some of the particularly it and Technology will make a big difference to the way we work going forward thank you very well said and and I know that the officer team will welcome your you being inside that Loop so each portfolio holder here has the responsibility of their own patch but

It’s really helpful that you Allison look across um and have a sense we both agree on this benchmarking data comparison the thing for us needs to be really ISM this coming years you there is a price sometimes for keeping performance in the top 10% as an example

Not saying we shouldn’t but we’ll have to be aware of that as we work work through um such a significant set of changes thank you very much indeed it’s very helpful anything else from other colleagues okay then um we’ve done our duty of looking at this we’ve had our

Feedback I think we discharge the report obligation to review We content agree thank you very much and thank you everybody for sticking at this I’m not going to call a break unless people are desperate please just leave we’ve had an hour at this we’re clearly I think nearly near closed

Now and which is no disrespect to it those behind item 10.1 and Justin Council La please do come forward and thank you for hanging on so long thank you very thank you very much leader and cabinet yes uh I’m just speaking here and uh I’ll be brief with

Recommendations from the policy panel uh on the 10th of January uh thanks to officers for their uh help with that meeting and for Tom Taylor in his presentation on asset-based Community Development and also the input of community 360 into that meeting and we were very pleased to see the continued

Progress of a roll out through training in the ABCD approach across Council Office uh through you know through the council and members were also particularly Keen to see that officers as well as continuing to um put that great work into practice in the community that um there could be a

Spirit of dismantling any sort of barriers or challenges that residents and groups faced in terms of being able to be empowered and to take forward initiatives um some Council has felt that sometimes it was difficult to progress issues because there might be barriers due to um sort of uh

Obligations that would be quite challenging uh for some small groups to be able to contend with so appreciative of you know uh people taking the time to take those that feedback on board and then secondly I also wanted to highlight an issue on behalf of my vice chair

Counselor Scott Batel she is very concerned that going forward uh that the council and cabinet might be able to revisit the uh responsible dog ownership policies that have been uh looked at and devised in the past particularly when you think about the pandemic and there’s

Been quite a high rise in the number of uh ownership of dogs uh however there’ve been think challenges when perhaps people return to different working patterns or cost of living circumstances arrive um and sort of irresponsible ownership of dogs uh in terms of behaviors and also in terms of dog

Failing can have a significant impact on community and perhaps in the future the cabinet will be minded to review those um those that work uh that’s all for me thank you Le thank you very much indeed Joselyn and for the work of the panel attended that it was a there was an

Interesting set of conversations on other matters as well which as you know we’re picking up including around accessibility and so look um cabinet members you’ve got two recommendations here around ABCD um the latter was around moving barriers and red tape affecting that work we’ve had a supplementary point

From Council of law um which is would we um have a look at would officers have a look at dog ownership policies I’m very wary of any of these issues in the sense of not yet having had the chance to do this but as a question from any member

The answer is always yes of course we’ll we’ll have a look there is Law and regulation which we all understand frames out or restricts um what role we have but um that’s a reasonable request so if colleagues are content then I ask that we agree the two recommendations

Made in the paper and we also note request to review log ownership policy and the potential role for the city council are we contented on that basis yes my apologies I assume that we were content with this but yeah okay thank you very much thank you J thank you for hanging

On all right 111 progress of responses to the public anything you’d like to say to us on this budget I have nothing further to add to the report chair I think they’ve all been dealt with okay um on our Collective behalf can I say a huge thank you this is you know

You capturing a sense of the complicated exchange as I continue to say is a remarkable feat and uh with the help of colleagues tracking all the ways in which people ask for something from us to ensure that they get you know the ultimate courtesy of an at least a

Response if not an action that’s Remar that’s great work thank you okay colleagues if we’re content then we’ll go on to 141 oh this will be part B won’t it which case yes one of the best roles for the deputy leader of the day if he can remember the words to go with

It I stand ready leader in accordance with Section 1 A4 of the Local Government Act 1972 and in accordance with the local authorities executive Arrangements meetings and access to information England regulations 2012 to exclude the public exclud including the Press from the meeting so that any items containing exempt information for personal

Financial legal advice in partway of the agenda printed on the yellow paper can be decided exempt of information is defined in section 100 I and schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 19 72 thank you we have to agree to adopt do we agree agreed thank you with excitement