I’ve got up the live stream on my laptop this one off e Flashing yeah okay we’re back here right good evening everybody from the e’re good to go good go right uh good evening everybody um we’re now live streaming so welcome to everybody members of the public um and counselors I will go through the usual uh formalities that we have to run
Through for our Collective safety and then we’ll crack on into the meeting so welcome to everybody members of the public and counselors I will go through the usual formalities we have to rise through for our colletive safety and then we’ll on the live streaming twice but with a g
With the Gap in between one and the other I know some of the audience are much better at this than I might think 4 for all right live streaming twice they often said you can’t stop D talking and sure they [Laughter] are sure they they it’s about the only time we got everybody’s
Attention we need more technical thoughts no we don’t really all right okay we seem to be on so right okay look um you all come in the building if we had a fire or an emergency would all have to leave it and we have an alarm or somebody would start shouting loudly
Would leave the town hall down the back main staircase or back staircase to the High Street or to the car par behind the town hall and runwal Street in case of disturbance which requires a camera to withdraw from the room counselors should withdraw to the mayor’s par us and doors
Behind me wait forther advice uh this meeting is eventually uh being streamed live over the Internet on the council’s YouTube channel and’ll be available to listen to afterwards use of mobile phones and other devices including cameras by visitors and members is fine uh but please use them discreetly and do not disturb the
Meeting silent no voice or Flash please microphone could be used at all times so that’s speakers who come to the cabinet table and members rounded now I should explain for those who are not aware the cabinet is the main executive body of the council is responsible for day-to-day decision
Making on all Council Services makes recommendations to full Council on major policy issues and on the council’s budget cabinet is made up of eight councils one of whom Michelle Barrow is unfortunately unwell and unable to join us each of those eight responsible for particular range of services um I’ll
Introduce myself and then I should go to the far left excitement um my name is David King leader of the council councelor Paul Smith p holder for housing councelor Natalie Summers portfolio holder for communities Richard Clifford Democratic services manager Andrew wavers head of governance and monitoring officer Lindsay Barker deputy chief
Executive good evening councelor Mark Corey portfolio holder for resources good evening uh councelor Luxor portfolio holder for Planning and environment and sustainability thank you Martin gos myand Ward and neighborhoods and waste councelor Allison J and portfol of holder for economy transformation and performance okay right um item two urgent items chairman uh item three Declarations of Interest are there need to declare from cabinet members around the
Table uh yes uh both councelor Summers and myself are Trustees of the St an’s Community Center which holds the lease from the council which is currently be re being renegotiated uh we have a notifiable interest only on that item I’ve been advised by the monitoring officer thank you very much Paul anybody
Else no okay all right um item four I’ll invite cabinet to approve the minutes of the meeting of the 24th of January 24th thank you very much item five have your say now if we would have your say at the end of the meeting there be a smaller
Crowd just the way of these things I don’t know why because we know we’re fascinating um so what we have is a room for of members uh and and the public and we take have your say seriously we do our best to entertain it I’ve got to say
To you that that that is at the expense of of us and our business often so I want to be very clear about this everybody should have been told when they arrived but let me just sort of spill this out exceptionally unless we really do
Lose a lot of time I’ll give time for each of those listed but I have to say you must keep you must keep to the three minute limit right so it’s two minutes Bell and a minute if you can keep it to less than three you’ll be doing a
Service to us you’ll be doing a service to those waiting in line and there eyes you can look around and see quite a few of you unless some of else puts a hand up now in fact now I’ll be clear I’ll only take those who’ve notifi
That they want to speak um I know that on some subjects um there’s a couple of speakers so I respectfully will ask you to come and speak on that subject and then we’ll give you an answer for the two or the three on that subject I hope everybody will understand that’s
Efficient in time it saves us repeating ourselves to each of you and have you after us leaving thinking why didn’t they say that to me so we have to have some discipline tonight if we running if we run too far on time then I will just cail it so it’s
Down to us all so members of cabinet we need to keep it brisk I’m very happy that we acknowledge and come back to you and that’s the fallback for us if time just runs away we’ve got an awful lot of business the visiting members can I ask
Given that all of these subjects have been through a mixture of governance and audit and scrutiny and several times and in formal and formal as well as for Council that we kind just bear bear that in mind so on the general have your say the same three minute limit applies as
We all know who come to the table but if you could bear in mind that we’ve been through this a few times before I don’t stop ever the right to come and speak but can ask you just REM mind time right so um the first speaker in the order I
Have in front of me is Molina spender Dy Molina now Molina you’ve been here before so you have so please um make yourself comfortable press the press and turn yourself on so to speak two minutes to Bell yes and then a minute to close no longer please thank
You and good evening thank you for this opportunity coming to town this morning on the window of the youth center opposite St Martins I read the poster about the 19.2 million given by the government to make coester better in the text box underneath photo of the Holy Trinity it stays States com
Complimenting Community Real I am here today exactly for that since I submitted my bit about the Holy Trinity I have been approaching as many Community groups religious and other as well as individuals particularly homeless including those in temporary accommodation hotels to ask for their opinion the majority say it is a good
Idea and I have even started getting signatures available to you in the full council meeting I did not have the time to mention that in the community Hub part h of the bid apart from church we ask the building for H to to install kitchen facilities and washing machines
To be used for those who need them and those cing their needs like sou runs with prior bookings and for those who would say that Bon house offers this possibility this is only true for the raap sleepers people in hotels have nowhere to cook or wash their clothes
Which Rises the cost of living tremendously relying on ready meals and lres the council provides no facilities whatsoever to solve this problem problem and decrease the cost of living for hundreds of people including families in the last council meeting I heard that there are 346 families in bnbs this
Vital service is lacking and Community 360 will not provide it in addition they are excluding sometimes unjustifiably I have priorly I said in the scrutiny meeting Community 360 knowing from my own experience provides no facilities to the homeless apart from emergency for one night I have one minut
P h as I said also in the scrutiny meeting I attended in October they are business-minded actually the charity commission recently pointed out they are profit making minded this kind of organization is not fit for the house of God my aim is to provide a roof for those individuals or groups who actually
Assist or wish to assist the homeless and help the homeless help themselves with action and not words only thank you Natalie hi Molina uh thanks very much for coming today and uh I think you’ve got some really great ideas there and as you say there’s a real Gap in uh the
Community uh um unfortunately uh Holy Trinity Church is nowhere near any anywhere near for ready for anything at the moment there’s a lot of work to be done so the officers do have your details and uh when we are looking to to put the use of the church out to a bid
Uh they will will be in contact with you but at the moment there’s a lot of work to be done on the church first to actually get it to a usable state in the first place but please be assured we do have your details and as I say you’ve
Got some some very good good ide to help with the inovation and and look yes yes Council King’s got details and going say that the details have been passed on um so um obviously do keep in touch obviously you’ve got councelor King’s email but you can find my email as well on the
Council website so please keep me updated because I say I do think you’ve got some really valuable ideas there but I say we’re just a long way at the moment from from actually getting anything in there well thank you thank you for your offer thank you thank
You thank you um the next um speaker is Richard Martin on middlewick I understand um Mr Alan short would like to speak also Richard CL you to bear in mind the three minutes um we won’t be offering the second bite tonight so we can make a bit of progress so that’ll be
It at the end of the response from the cabinet member thank you thank you for your time tonight the Oxford Oxford English Dictionary defines the word independent as not depending on authority of another not in position of subordination or subjection or not subject external control or rule this is
A copy of the brief given to the independent Co ecologist given the task of survey middlewick ranges this is not an in independent report on Middle with equality is report by an independent equal that the planning officers have asked for with the emphasis still on building 1,000 houses it asked the
Ecologists to inform the council master plan for the site and in advance of a planning application identify areas of lower significance for bosty and invertebrates detail areas of the site allocation where de development should be avoided Rec recommend me mitigation and compensation this therefore would put even the most experienced ecologist with
The utmost Integrity in a very difficult position in terms of potentially breaching contract with a truly neutral assessment that the habitats are irreplaceable the biodiversity net gain is not possible and the impacts are unmitigable and that development simply can’t go ahead as mult mle experts have confirmed effectively in order to honor
The contract they would have to accept the fundamental pre premise the de the de the de sorry the development is going ahead tell us where we can build and under the biodiversity Net game principle of avoid mitigate and compensate for harm to biodiversity interests yet this brief misses out the
Avoid part doesn’t this doesn’t sound very in independent does it a full independent survey would have none of these constraints and one question should be asked is midwick too value to build on several times as Council said an independent survey would take place under the definition I started with does
This sound independent is the council now up not now not upholding the promises that have been read out by you several times last night scrutin meeting Council Lu of warn indicated she had not read the brief directly but in instead had taken insurance that an independent people by planning officers on face
Value and again we find ourselves in this Awkward Moment where we come along and we tell council’s information she’d already been told you keep telling us to trust the process but how can we trust the process when we keep finding stuff and card the cards are already been stacked against
Us thank you thank thank you Richard I don’t I don’t accept that you won’t be surprised um other speakers on middle week if you’d like to step back Richard that’s all right and Alan would you like to come forward uh good evening I I’ll try not to repeat
What the previous speaker said just to point out that I was an independent consultant for 20 years I worked in 40 countries I was involved in a hundred million uh Suite suit as a um as an expert witness and if I got that brief I would read into it that I
Needed to say something about where you could build the houses now in in my view it’s it’s an open shortcase either the uh original local plan was fine and the original study by uh stantech and uh employed by the ministry of Defense I had um was was was uh was
Was fine um and I would try and find ways to at least answer that question now in my view a mistake was made when this was put in the local plan often with the best of motives the idea of stopping 2750 houses being built by letting them
Build a thousand but in fact it was based on very poor analysis of the biodiversity there which has since been uh done by well if you read the paper 17 different um uh ecologists of national standing um and and that um it was done
By by by m by a genuine mistake and the failure for for the report to actually prove that that what they were suggesting could be done they prayed in Aid that um it was done at um mins week and when we finally wrote to the rspb
They said no nothing like that was done here what you’re doing just isn’t possible so I think that the terms of U reference needs to be at least toned down in some sort of way um and and obviously signed off uh at the council level I also want to remind you that you
Are the councilors and you run the show and that if you decide that something should be done it’s the duty of the officers to make that happen um so if you decide that you want to take it out of the plan then the officers should
Give you the plans the way to do that thank you very much thank you I’ll go to Andrea Lon for Andre Okay uh first of all I mean you know I think you know it’s fine to criticize me for not having read that brief it’s not necessary that I haven’t
Had access to it it’s it’s more that it I have a lot on my plate and uh I don’t necessarily read every single uh piece of Correspondence associated with all of the elements of my portfolio um having said that I was told that the people
That fed into it um were put forward as some of the main critics of santech and that they were happy with it and I suppose you know I’ve got to say I have a very keen interest in biodiversity in the environment but I’m not any kind of
Expert so I I don’t know how I could be qualified to say that that was an adequate or inadequate brief I see I see why you think it’s not independent in so much as it makes the assumption that there is housing there but that is a parameter which which is set by policy
Offices can’t really go outside of that um I suppose the challenge for the people producing the report is to is to turn around and say well you know 3% of this land is possible to be built on instead of the 97% you thought you could
Um you I understand if you ask a certain question you get a certain answer but we are restricted by the fact that it is in the local plan and what we’re trying to do is produce the best mitigation or avoidance that we possibly can within those parameters um beyond that uh I
Don’t I don’t really know what else you know the only other option was to say don’t put a don’t get another report which would be even more irresponsible um uh as for councilors deciding to take the plan out that’s not a decision that we can take yet because at the moment we
Don’t have the evidence on all of the sites on all aspects so significant amount of work to do uh this is one aspect and is specific to middlewick but um you know without going for a long list of of things and mentioning my pet things like infrastructure audit audits
There’s significant amount of work that uh the council has to do before we can start making assessments about what sites could or should be removed and which sites will be included to replace them because the other piece of work that runs parallel to this is the call
For sites um and obviously there’s lots of people very worried about lots of sites that have popped up all over over the burrow uh that may or may not meet the criteria to to stay within um you know within the core for sites as in they may or may not be
Um the right sort of places to develop I mean I’m sure all of us as w c and say everything in our our Ward is not okay to develop on but it you know there’s an assessment to be done um there’s a mythology that that has to be followed
To do that and at that point you know a plan the reviewed plan will be put before councilors now then there is a decision to make whether or not to take that to hearing that’s the only decision councilors have and then it is down to a government
Inspector to say I accept your plan or I don’t accept your plan now if the scenario is that we taking middle we account and put other sites in to replace those numbers uh an inspector will want to see the evidence base to say why that’s Justified and if it’s not justified he
Can make the decision to say no you can’t take it out so you know there is there is a process we have to follow trust me I’ve looked at every possible Avenue that we could duck or dive around this particular issue but you know actually we are we we have a framework
In which we have to work um and that is the best way that I can explain what that framework is at this stage thank you very much I have next uh s Bob Russell s Bob in the early hours of s Sunday the 10th of December the we at middle M collaps
Shortly after Daybreak Council staff put up barriers to ensure the safety of pedestrians and cist to prevent them crossing the bridge I don’t know if the dedication of Staff involved has been recognized but I would like to put on public record my appreciation for their Sterling
Work a few days later huge St sandbars were put in place to protect the brick structure from further collapse again my appreciation for that prompt attention we witnessed the churchillian spirit of action this day but what has happened since three months have now passed nothing visible has been done the damage
Brick structure is needed for both the bridge and wear am I witnessing a standoff between the city council and Essex County Council C the counil responsible for the wear Essex County counil is the highways Authority thus they are responsible for the bridge the bridge is a major pedestrian cycle
Route into and out of the city center people are now face half mile Diversion the condition of the river has visibly deteriorated at the weekend before this week’s rain it was little more than a muddy ditch with water so low at North Bridge you could paddle across from bank
To bank it was barely a tenth of what it normally is the bank on the southern side next to bridge is already showing signs of drying out with a hot summer de further drying out result in the bank crumbling potentially resulting the Riverside footpath becoming unsafe even
After all the rain we’ve had this week little more than an hour ago the river is less than half full the equilibrium of the river has been markedly changed Upstream of the we a lower level of water usually desperately lower Downstream the level is higher than normal why has nothing happened to get
The level of the river back to the level it historically has been there was a mill here in Saxon times before the Normans invaded and built the castle the Rivers had a we at this location for some 1,000 years why is the bridge still closed pedestrians and cyclist how many
Experts does it need need to inspect the bridge and wear and how many weeks does it require for said experts to do their inspections a working party has been formed great reminds me of the hive task force which in three years has done sweet Fanny Adams the lower level of the
River Upstream is already impacting on marine life in the water and on the water vegetation on the river banks has literally been left high and dry with two trees already tumbling into the water what has happened to the council’s boast of a strategy to protect and promote biodiversity my suggest that we
Ask the armage provider Bailey Bridge has been dismissed as a matter of urgency I urge the council to get more large sandbags placed at the location of the way in order to restore the river level to which it has been for the past 1,000 years unless this happens then the
Future of culted Canoe Club is at risk also North bridg is in a Conservation Area a river with little water is not picturesque if one of the listed Cottages there had had its roof blown off in a storm the camps would require a replica replacement was provided I
Suggest the same principle should apply to the camps in restoring the water level the river cone up Upstream of the we in order the setting of The River fits what should happen in this Conservation Area we have seen three months with no physical action this reflects poorly on both the city and county
Councils thank you sir Bob um obviously we have a view that great deal has been happening but perhaps not seen and that’s the very fair point I want to like PA forward any the others if you mind soob who want to talk on this matter I understand that we’ve got um Francis
Likea would you like to come forward Francis and if I might um Mark goer Council Mark goer if Mark if you wouldn’t mind for balance of the discussion if you could follow and then we’ll take the three of you if that’s all right Francis please I’m from co1 residence
Association but I think I’ll speak for The Wider Community tourists visitors and uh local people uh we want a temporary bridge now please local residents continue to be very concerned about the reduced access from King’s Meadow to the outside of lower Castle Park our previous presentation identified many issues following the
Collapse of the middle wear Bridge hopefully we will hear some positive news when agenda 11 is discussed meanwhile our current thoughts and observations are on the positive side the barriers either side of the collapse Bridge of been strengthened after concerns were raised about them being breached and pushed down thank you very
Much for that on the negative side is the signage the sign showing the various diversions have become virtually non-existent the sign next to the Riverside Cottages has disappeared following its unauthorized dive into the river cone the diversion sign near the exit entrance on the path to North Station Road has partially em partially
Emerged from the nearby Bush only to be turned around and lent against the fence there are no indications that there are steep steps at the end of the path from King’s Meadow into North Station Road there are no indications that Corson Road could be used as an alternative
Route in summary there are many indications that in spite of our previous requests res signage it appears that neither monitoring or clear div diversion instructions have been put in place our other concerns highlighted safety I would like to draw your attention again to the uneven and hazardous state of the path between
North Station Road and the area next to the entrance of lower Castle Park as we previously requested some lighting both on this path and the one opposite leading to the steps for my final point we continue to be concerned about the El elderly and disabled residents of our
Association who are residents of the Riverside Cottages their ongoing plight have being effectively housebound in their properties for nearly 3 years due to a large boundary fence cutting off their previous alternative route is a continued source of Despair this fence was part of the long stored office development nearby we previously
Highlighted the issue of increased footfall bikes and food delivery bikes using the Steep steps as well as ongoing ASB incidents emanating from North Station Road has anybody contacted these residents about any adverse effects from the diversions I urge to the committee and the whole Council not to underestimate the strength of feeling
Concerning the reduced accessibility and implications resulting from this collapsed Bridge it’s not just about convenience although this is an absolute priority but the reduced perception of what was a pleasant route is now reduced to a real blot on the land landscape thank you sorry to sound so
Negative no thank you for being so Frank um any other on this issue oh Mark just Mark I know that don’t I mark would you mind coming forward then please thank you very much Francis thank you colleagues um from the the previous two speakers you’ve heard a
Flavor of what’s appearing in my inbox at the moment and um I think that the the the real issue here is there’s a perception um it it is a perception that that nothing is happening and that that um that there’s B basically it’s not being treated with the sense of urgency
That it really needs and so can I ask that please we we do something about the communication of what what is what what the council is doing um about this because it’s it’s a real serious matter I mean there is a real serious fear um among residents on Riverside estate
About potential future flooding um because of course the water is flooding well it’s going down there’s no no proper wear um and I think the fear is what happens if you raise the wear at East Bridge because of potential d uh flooding dangers further down the line
You know with with high tides and Rain um does that not trap the water um around Riverside estate and I’ve seen a map where it is a potential flooding risk on parts of um Wells Road and those those houses by the side of the river um
So that’s a fear in terms of the North Station Road area you’ve heard from the previous speaker about the the the plight of the people in The Cottages um and um why or why are we unable to tell that developer um to open the path that
Used to allow them to go um around the side because is an emergency situation and of course they they’re basically trapped because those if you’re elderly those steps are steep um and there’s another fear now about what happens when the events start in the park um and that
And Kings Meadow is used obviously for for the car parking facilities um and um will will um people be diverted down as those cottages on mass and round when there’s an event because they can’t get over the bridge um so what is happening with that bridge I mean why exactly is
The that the bayy bridge the Army proposal so unfeasible and um and how long what is the potential time scale with this because um naturally people are very very worried and um and um can we please do do something urgently thank you thank you uh Pastor Martin just a
Second if he won’t mind I’ll say a few things thank you Mark I’ll let you go to to all our speakers on this subject so Bob Francis and and mark thank you all very much for being so clear and being so Frank um Mar Martin will talk you through some of the things
That are happening what we will do next week I think we should have to do this given the range of issues is is get out a point brief that picks up every one of the of the issues that been reinforced or raised today um I’d like if we can
Arrange it for us to meet on site and to invite those of you who can make it to to join us down there this may take a week or so in the way of these things but we’re try and get our speci together as well I think it will be helpful on
Site to just walk the course now a number of us have done this but I think doing it together and hearing it the once at least might help so that’s two responses and acknowledge them if I may on my part which I think that in terms of communications you never can do
Enough of it you can never do well enough and when it comes to signage you have to kind of invest in different ways to make sure that the storyline of what’s happening is physically available it’s one of the things we’ve leared in the regeneration work around the city
Center takes a little time to do well but putting up something which shows somebody who wanders up to a much loved bridge to say where we’re at and what’s happening and to update that story in other forms as well really matters so that’s an initial response from me to
Acknowledge and to address this in person uh with our with my good colleague counselor gos and with those we can get together who have the deeper knowledge but it is I’ll just say this and go to Martin it is hugely complex it is taking time and energy it will take a
Huge amount I’m afraid of commitment and spend but we’re up for the principle of it Martin can I ask you to walk through and take this where you need yeah so let’s walk through exactly what happen so there is a working group that’s been set up comprising of the Estates team in
Colchester parks and Open Spaces health and safety and corporate governance alongside um the relevant ongoing Partners uh and communication team so at this moment in time uh protection was installed to try and prevent further loss of the structure uh consultation and communication has been going on with the
Canoe Club the C1 residents Association Civic Society cester Natural History Society and Friends of Castle Park um we’ve had to consult with the environment agency in person and um in various um meetings and feedback particularly obviously concerns raised about the river levels well that ultimately is the expertise of the
Environment agency we’ve spoken to Natural ingrand Essex and suffk rivers trust Essex Wildlife trust and anglian water um we’ve been in correspondence with her Heritage England the asset is not designated and is not on the at risk register currently there’s a Heritage statement underway with the Essex Place
Services and there um is an update report coming uh to the scrutiny panel as well to actually discuss this whole issue um high level costs removal damage structures has been obtained and they are quite significant um initial basic structural survey has been undertaken of the wear with follow on Works recommended for
Additional surveys before removal of damage structures to be undertaken um new structural engineer has been quoting for the next stage of works and this is to carry out condition survey of the cricet Club bridge and ascertain the maximum weight limit and consider cycle access limitations we’re awaiting the quote and the time scale
For this work and there will probably be some other follow on work following that survey and then we also need to prepare a threedimensional layer laser survey of the we to create plans of the as was structure and then carry out various surveys to ascertain the state of the remaining structures to inform
Specification contracts to carry out remov and again we’re just awaiting a a quote and time scale for that work uh we’re also talking to Cafe leas holders at Castle Park um regarding any impact on their operations a meeting was held on the 7th of March with Essex
Highways to discuss uh where we are with the works and the sharing of information Etc um working on a joint com strategy at the moment um and around safety concern turns on the bridge um as well all of this is being uh carried out as part of the survey work I’ve already
Mentioned meeting was held with Colchester Canoe Club on the 5th of March um and they’ve also asked us to consult British Comm canoing the mod mod we’ve spoken to as well about the Bailey Bridge idea and we don’t currently believe the council will meet the MCA MAA requirements and don’t have the
Resources um uh at this time um to pursue it further the diversion remains in place at Middle mbridge with daily monitoring of the bridge by uh the part Rangers the fallen tree as we’ve seen the work uh has now partially been carried out to remove that and ongoing
Uh work will continue um requiring lower water levels to complete it um the the M for events team has been kept in the loop uh and counselors have also been kept up to date um what we’re working towards is a potential shorter daytime diversion route over the CRI Club Bridge
As I’ve said if the survey is favorable and Arrangements can be put in place with the Cricket Club because don’t forget they have the lease on the area on the land um we’re still several weeks away from that at the moment as we need the Lower River flow to get um under the
We need the the river flow to basically slow down get lower so we can actually get under the bridge to complete the survey um and we need to remove any failed structures um to to prevent further damage as well and deal with the water levels so we’re working with Essex
Highways on that um and the time scales will be dependent on that survey work so there is a lot of work going on that gives you a flavor that behind the scenes there’s lots of meetings lots of consultation um some of it is weather dependent but we will ensure that we
Communic unate with everybody and continue but this is not a five minute piece of work it’s complex with various land owners and stakeholders and we need to ensure that we follow all of those uh relationships Partnerships and Survey work correctly to ensure that we get all the
Information so we can look at all of the options and get all of the right costs so we make the right decision for people of Colchester and the local residents thank you very much um my promise stands we’ll be in touch with those who raised the issue um
We’re aware we take the comms point and we see whether we can’t range a productive gathering for those who are interested so um thank you Martin for giving the rich picture as part of that um the next person I have on our short list tonight um Tony chield Tony
I’m Tony chield originally from East London I’ve been involved in commercial property for just 50 years 50 years ago if I was working North essics or South suffk I’d arranged my travel plan to make sure I’d eat my S parked outside cester Castle then I’d have an hour exploring the rich history inspiring
Hospitality of retail sectors of cester cester buzzed it ticked all the boxes so we moved to Ensley court near the Hilly Fields 47 years ago blessed with seven children all educated locally we started our own company with laboratory and office in cester I’ve traveled the length and breadth harate yor Chester and similar
Ancient towns and cities Steep Hill narrow roads BS I learned that for successful towns and cities it is all about building the brand and more importantly maintaining the brand to ensure its resilience do we all agree we broke the cester city brand with the help of D Park Church Manor
Estates I think it’s broken I’m ashamed to say now if we fancy a Saturday out we pop to barison Edwards easy parking brilliant Market good eateries a bit of history but not as much as culture stuff I’m confident we can and will fix it however it is essential our journey
Forward considers every interdependent facet of culture City on the way to recovery including engaging effectively with residents and businesses on the matter of change there must be no further Drift from maintaining the highest standards of democracy crre West broke all Nolan 7’s rules we have to welcome and make it
Easy for folk to visit cester however they arrive if we spend lots of money installing two-way cycle paths that are never used that displac Park and Ride buses the Colchester City brand will be less likely to thrive again my clients include major retail brain Brands check out cester High Street
Retail brands are Ultra sensitive to change in the environment around their Outlets footfall closure of a nearby major retail brand thank you very much thank you very much Tony and I know from our occasional correspondence how passionate you are about the city and how and how I Love It
I Fix it thank you for your observations and I that’s I just simply say um of course we wish to hear from you and others of a couple of things if I might the first is I know that there is a dislike from some of cycop pass and I
Think we all understand and I’m a cyclist but I also use the car um that the heel up here kills me every time so it’s I don’t know how much longer I’ll keep using it but we’ll we’ll go long as we can but it’s part of the to be
Serious it’s part of the the reset balance we need to have which is to make it possible for health exercise and well-being for it and for our children the next Generations for them to have a chance of of safely going on a bike and as we were discussing last night uh in
Scrutiny we have fragment fragmented cycle passs and investment in joining them up and improving improving them although it will have some downsides is the right thing to do for the reasons I described and actually has a benefit in the round if you have suitable Alternatives also to just the car and
The vehicle um to congestion reduces it you got more people who do the last mile by foot or by cycle your wider points completely get I think there is some positives that we see that um I I hope others might and and we have an engagement which I think is really rich
We have we have 200 strong plus residents and I think it’s fantastic people want to tell us what they think and offer a view we get some thousands of people on some of our bigger consultations and the good news is at least some of the time we’re able to
Absorb some of that with our County Council uh Partners we know that the business improvement district in the round have a positive view of the city a really positive view on the city looking at investment and vacancy and occupation and um we think City status in the round
Has done has added to reputation got us on some lists of places to go and we know that this week you know 30 as an example 30 um leading T agencies have been coming around and looking at the city so there are some real bright points what whatever the angle we have
About our city and I would commend it accordingly and thank you for your observation thank you um Alderman Gerard Oxford is it on when you got a light Gerard you’re on like do I oh okay thought that would be stopping me but there you go um right
Okay I I want to talk about section 106 agreements Colchester remains a building site as it has been for thousands of years uh but even more so now the problem is section 106 agreements are supposed to be in the form of mitigation for the areas for development they have
To take sadly it’s not my experience of over 22 years is that the um the wards in which the development comes do not benefit from the section 106 agreements um the money gets siphoned off and spent Elsewhere for instance Highwoods money it’s gone to highways buses Northern Gateway
Sportsub yeah that’s just a few um Sports Hub was what 28 million to build and is losing over a million a year you know that’s really good um whereas the ward has had nothing phase two of the ward was um uh started uh in 2000 and that’s over 2,000 properties and not a
Single child’s play area is in there nothing at all and again the money has gone elsewhere and I know that the mil Road Site uh the remaining site in Highwoods um the section 106 agreement has already been signed where it’s going to go to Northern Gateway and elsewhere
So the ward in which the development has happened does not benefit from any of it at all so Community doesn’t get a community they don’t get Sports youth facilities they don’t get anything at all and my call is that this needs to change for any Ward and every Ward that
Has to sustain the development because it’s just not on that they’re just used as a scape goat to take all the housing and get nothing it’s just not on and this has happened well it’s all of my time on the count so I’ve been lobbying all for all the time
I was here and others too and the point is is that we need to change this because at the moment the decisions are being made by a few few counselors and officers the ward councilors certainly are not engaged in the decision making of where the 106 money goes during my
Time we were never invited to be in involved in that at all and that’s for over 22 years so I’m assuming it’s the same for other Wards so I’m just putting out a plea that start to try and get the thing in the right order and that is the
People who are Haven to put up with the development get something by way of mitigation that they currently do not get thank you I’ll start then you finish um just I mean obviously the way the 106 is divided up some some very large trunks go to highways regardless there’s
There’s not a lot we can do about that there’s another there’s another chunk that goes to a central port which will pay for things like the legure Center or um Castle Park but as far as I know and certainly I can only be W specific it’s the only thing I can actually monitor
The the sections that have to come to the ward come to the ward now as far as again I’ve not I wasn’t I’ve not been a counselor as long as you were but in all the time I have been a ward counselor and certainly before that nagging at the ward
Counselors the sign off was given to those W counselors now they didn’t necessarily get a choice in what it was spent on but it was always a community focused thing so I think without examples of what you’re talking about I certainly isn’t true for weno Warden I
Would be very surprised if it is for for others but you know I can I can investigate an individual case and try and track down why it’s it’s disappeared to go to somewhere else all all of the ones I mentioned are not in Highwoods
Ward at all none of them thank you if I could if I thank you you and I I just finished thank you very much you and I have spoken and had an exchange um I will go back to officers to to get a fuller list
Of what did or didn’t happen in in the narrower sense of I can of Highwoods Ward but you made a point which we must been interesting which we do take which is there is a balance to be struck but local engagement which is what you are urging should happen and um
Some illustrations that experience that it does but thank you for your words based on that long experience and we’ll come back to you with a bit more detail upon the the local examples to which I know um you may be making reference thank you very much chairman uh greina please greina
People good evening on the 13th of February when challenged about fraudulent 5G applications Council stated it was not the responsibility of council officers to check the information provided by companies declaring to conform to nner guidelines this assertion was incorrect the planning inspectorate have confirmed in writing and I quote we are aware of
Questions being asked about the use of fraudulent certificates in 5G massed cases it is important to note it is the responsibility of the relevant lpas to ensure any certificates submitted as evidence as part of the application are valid why do counselors and Council officers persist in making false claims
The days when the public might naively believe whatever the authorities say are over with trust lost and counsel’s obligations to act lawfully and transparently evidence is required to support any claims many councils are being confronted with questions as to the safety and legality of massed installations this council is in breach
Of the national planning policy framework section 121 C which states applications for electronic communications development including applications for prior approval under the general permitted development order should be supported by the necessary evidence to justify the proposed development this should include for a new M or base station evidence that the
Applicant has explored the possibility of erecting antennas on an existing building Mast or other structure and a statement that self certificates that when operational International commiss commission guidelines will be met how is it possible for Council to fulfill its stated responsibility to ensure ensure certificates are valid when the
Applicant does not exist a brief search revealed at least six fraud applications passed a thorough search is likely to reveal more but let us not lose sight of the most important matter it could be possible to dismiss 30 blind carves born in a field beside a newly installed 5G
Antenna as a trivial matter but the public health concerns over 5G radiation harm is not the mgrm experiment notwithstanding I trust each counselor will conduct him or herself appropriately in matters relating to Public Health it’s been made made apparent that few had researched or considered dissenting information or the lack of robust
Evidence before robotically supporting a climate emergency an appalling dereliction of Duty surely the sensible way forwards respecting the precautionary principle and protecting yourselves against litigation is to cease any further Mass approvals until the matter has been properly explored please raise your hands those who would welcome a brief exploration of these concerns thank
You thank you Karina um I’m just going to say this three things first of all the way that this Council Works you’d expect we expect is to act within the law and accordance to the legislation and I’m going to make that presumption until we know otherwise so references to
Fraud for example are very significant and a serious matter and uh would have to be demonstrable and if so they will be referred to the rment authority the planning inspector has confed not having a conversation here respectfully we will not get through the evening so the third
Thing I’m going to say is given the complexity you know I hear the words I half understand them others like um um Andrew might understand them all but this is not the time or place to give you a response in the comprehensive way that you’re suggestion your allegation
Your reading should we say of legislation required so we will come back to you in writing in full thank you I think it’s Bon wack horn sorry B come forward thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen we are all familiar with the old adage that charity begins at home while in the case
Of community 360 the seems have been taken quite literally as we are all aware the leader of the council was a trustee at the charity during an important time when it seems there were some strange decisions taking place the leader of the council has previously stated that had sorry that he does not
Recall the loan agreement from the charity to the chief executive I find this claim to be quite extraordinary is the leader implying to us that he was not prudent in his role as a trustee according to the government’s official website there are six main duties for a trustee of a
Charity one ensure your charity is carrying out his purposes for the public benefit two comply with your Charity’s governing document and the law three act in your Charity’s best interests four manage your Charity’s resources responsibly five act with reasonable care and skill six ensure your charity is accountable will the leader of the
Council now be fully transparent and provide us all with Clarity on what he knew about the loan or would he rather admit to failing to live up to the six duties of a trustee to act responsibly reasonably and prudently thank you very much well thank you very much I think
Beon um this has been uh in in the public domain so I’m just going going to restrict myself to a few points um of I hope fact so yes I was a trustee for a period that’s fact and out there um I have made plain that I share a
Responsibility with other Trustees for decisions in that time there were three issues raised in terms of concerns about this organization and and I was able to respond to two because I could genuinely recall sensations of that time around those two I was not clear and given the
Importance of it did not want to comment upon the third which happens to be uh this loan um I have sought information from Community 360 to help me but I’ve been unable to obtain that that’s their right not to share it after the event I would
Have it would have helped me be clearer about what I saw or did not see in in this period in 21 22 now there’s a a a sensitivity here to organization how it’s treated and the assumptions made about me you can make um perhaps I didn’t show the due diligence that I
Should have done I did my best to help and assist without reward a charitable organization that’s done a lot of great work across the city and I gave them some of my time um I will have to reflect upon that won’t I as to whether I gave them enough or pay them enough
Attention those who know know me well know that I am in normal circumstances diligent but we’re all subject to um that painful Clarity of that comes with hindsight and I’ll have to reflect on that when this matter is over I’m not going to make any other comment um about
A conversation that’s still running between the partners of community 360 uh this Council and others have not been involved in any of those uh past decisions for that organization I should add that and and I’m not involved in the detail now but I want to see a good
Future Community 360 and their Partners across essics as the thing we should really focus on is the importance of the work that they do alongside um other partners thank you right for light relief after that um U judie young judie young um thanks very much evening counselors
I’ll be brief um two things um we’re going through a tremendous uh period of change in the authority with the fit for the future program and I’m referring to the documents around governance um I do think is time for us to review our governance procedures here
To make sure as many members as possible actually get some oversight of what’s going to happen in the years ahead as we move forward with that program um so I just wanted to make that point and urge you to consider changing the government’s Arrangements I know last
Night once again scrutiny was here till 10:00 um it’s a heavy burden for those members that sit on that committee 4 hours and they’ve had a lot of meetings um and I think we need to look at that um some of the members on that committee do do professional jobs some of which
Get up very early in the morning um and that length of meetings isn’t helpful to anyone doesn’t give them the time to actually devote to the serious business that they’ve actually got to focus on so I’ll leave that with you uh leader the other thing I wanted to just mention was
The kpi on relets which is quite down in the agenda today it’s set at 73 days and I know that’s an outside Target but I do think that is presented in a way that you know is not terribly helpful um the standard is 28 days at the moment I know
We’re on performance levels of about 42 days when I last looked I think that has come in a little bit but the kind of pressure we’re seeing in terms of um use of um uh temporary housing for people means that we need to be doing absolutely all we can get those relets
Um ready as soon as possible so I wanted a bit of um a response on that one too thank you very much Julie I ask um would you respond to that point please thank you very much um I absolutely share your concerns about the relet issues unfortunately the government has decided
To move the goalposts traditionally we’ve reported governments on our general needs accommodation only the government has now required that the target incorporates not just general needs but also special needs accommodation and temporary accommodation and you’ll appreciate with special needs accommodation considerably more work might be needed to adapt a property to
Particular requirements of the new tenant coming in and this takes longer that’s the reason for why the apparent target has increased what um we have agreed with culture bar homes through their board is that they will still monitor against the old Target as well so next year we will see our progress
And uh you’re quite right that the T we were up to 40 Days for retting I’m pleased to tell you that Target has now come down to 32 days and we are looking to get it down to the 28 day Target or even lower by the end of the current
Year and the great deal of work is being done to do that but again that Target only relates to the the general lets we have a move Target here and it’s very unfortunate and that’s why cult B Homes were very keen that they monitor against
The old Target as well so we can show a continued Improvement in performance and if I could just also mention on your governance issue um I fully accept forh our meetings are far too long and I would praise the chair of govern and audit who when faced with a similar situation has
Decided to remove a lengthy item from the agenda and hold a new meeting on a separate occasion so that item can be properly investigated and I think that is a far better way of doing it than having meetings that go on too long because with the best will in the world
After 3 hours 45 minutes are you going to give the last item on the agenda the attention which it may very well deserved so thank you very much for those points councelor Young thank you uh Julie um on the latter point I think a thorough governance
Review is something we should look to do with cooperation of colleagues Council Dundas is here won’t quiz him on the moment but we W have that conversation offline about how we might run ourselves more effectively um we’re organization under significant pressures including on our Democratic Services uh team and we
Should use our time well and that’s a mixture isn’t it I guess of which committees how often what issues matter most as well as you know the challenge for everybody of how we as in counselors um lay demands and take the time of each other often as well as those supporting
Us so thank you very much for raising it I’m absolutely up for it we’ll see where we get to in the coming month or so thank you councel SAR n s uh good evening colleagues thank you for the time six years ago Council promised residents it would build much needed
Homes on a site near milroad as part of the northern Gateway GR Vision residents were promised in return for sacrificing Green Space and the Rugby Club site they could expect affordable homes to be available for families in need by 2022 today it’s a wasteland and an eyesa instead of
Action there’s dither And Delay while debt piles up not a single new home has has been built on milroad site and yet this cabinet a liberal Democrat cabinet and still insists it can be a DIY developer despite there not being a shred of evidence to support this homeless families can’t live in broken
Promises M Road site is a money pit the decision to keep it is wasting a quarter million pounds per month in interest that’s more than enough every month to build one home for a family in need three weeks ago this cabinet chose to reject the only workable plan on the
Table to Kickstart building affordable homes on mil Road the opposition proposed this plan it’s enormously frustrating and distressing for those in need but as the saying goes you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink of course it’s your right to reject a sound solution to Residents
Problems as the party currently running Colchester Council but Common Sense dictates you should only do it if you’ve got a good reason chairman you told us you hadn’t enough time to think think it through your fellow Cabinet member flatly refused to accept the only workable plan at full Council so there’s been three
Weeks to think by my Reckoning the last three weeks alone has wasted 168,000 in interest charges my questions are these isn’t it time cabinet stopped wasting time and counil taxpayers money on hopeless schemes with no Prospect of success and will cabinet now accept the only workable plan on the table for m
Road and please just get on with delivering the promised homes for those families in need thank you I’ll start and I go to Forum perhaps Mark might want to offer a response I don’t really want to run respectfully um the intense conversations we had but I just remind
You if I might uh that I don’t think a proposal out of the blue for a fire sale of the site in which proceeds were to come within the year within the year to then be dispersed as part of the rest of the budget amendment was actually as you
Describe it as sound solvable or deliverable just actually wasn’t now the intense discussion we had was around what to do with that site and it’s worth reminding ourselves of two relevant things or three one what’s happened a pandemic a huge disruption to supply chain and and it taking four years to
Get agreement on the absolute obligation to deliver um approvement of Junction 28 for that site in any configuration at all um to be used all of which we knew for which we secured 5 million pounds um so it’s absolutely not true that we’ve spurned um a a re a workable alternative
And we’ve had a very open door we’re need to do that and what we have is a different approach which is to develop that site in the most effective way uh with Partners all of which to be shared and shown and transparent in a way that meets a variety of needs including
Housing within the planning permission that will constrain Alternatives I hasten to add let me go to Paul and Mark if they want to round that off thank you leader uh you’ve taken out the first one of the reasons I had for why the site wasn’t developed of course
There were some others um Liz truss’s budget uh that wrecked the economy and forced interest rates up as a consequence of that the number of houses started in Cula last year were 350 a lower figure than for decades past due to the mismanagement of the economy so to blame this Administration for the
Actions of the government is really I think a little unfair and can I also correct you wasn’t this cabinet that rejected the proposals it was full Council cross party rejected it because it was not a sound solution I mean we also had if I recall at that same meeting a proposal
That we should save2 million pounds in interest on the HRA and cost ourselves 7 million in extra temporary accommodation so I do think taking lessons in financial Prudence from the conservative group on culture The Bar Council is going to require quite a little bit of time to
Get their facts straight on this one so I really do think that from all that’s been said here the issues that we’ve got are far more complex than what we’ve got and the prospect now from what I’m hearing we’re not meant to be getting the proceeds within a year we’re meant
To have got the proceeds immediately please I think you’ve said it all Paul I’m I’m slightly fed up with this rhetoric actually please come and talk to us about the finances because we’re not losing the amount of money you’ve just been talking about on interest either so I happily talk to you about
That because I don’t want that going out into the public and scaring people because if those Figures were corrected it would be ridiculous um but uh the two others have already said what I wanted to say so thank thank you thank you okay um thank you son um you’re obviously not allowing comebacks
On this but given your comments it it is probably grossly unfair to not allow a comeback I’m not going to do that Sara we’re given time to everybody lots of times let me go on to the next speaker please we are an hour and 20 minutes in I just remind everybody we haven’t
Started our our agenda yet so I don’t think we can be accused of intolerance in any sense uh Martin Wars Council Martin Wars please step forward thank you Martin thank you chair and thank you for your tolerance in allowing me to raise this in a General Session as someone who
Works fulltime to have waited till near the end of the agenda to have raised it it just proves the point that others have said it’s very taxing on people when you’re trying to work and take part um and do one’s civic duty um I wanted to talk about the same issue that that
My group leader councel young has raised which is the uh which is the 73 day performance indicator um and yeah I mean I understand what you’ve told us Paul and and I can see that if you were introducing special needs properties that would create extra complications but I don’t
Think that provides a whole answer if you don’t mind me saying um I mean I’ve been around Colchester a while and indeed worked for Colchester for a while and we were having problems with actual deliveries of empty properties get away from the jargon okay um 20 years ago and
Action was taken and it improved and then it slips and then it improves so I think there is a historic problem with this Authority in being able to actually deliver empty properties and as my colleague counselor young said it’s becoming much more acute because we now have over
300 families um who are spending time and you know temporary accommodation and for every day that we lose is another day they have to spend in you know although it’s the best accommodation that can be found it’s not the ideal accommodation some families are even having to spend time in bed and
Breakfast so so I don’t think it’s unreasonable for us to want to highlight that we need to stretch every senu to try and improve our our historic performance on the delivery of of you know empty properties and therefore we need to make sure that other remedies available to us are being
Actively used things such as tency management inspections of properties for people in properties because I’m hearing that one of the reasons is it’s taking longer is the condition of the properties are coming back so we do have been PS within our tency conditions to manage the property
Whilst our are living in situ so I would like to be assured that such visits are taking place and where there are disrepair issues they are being actively managed and where enforcement action is needed to prevent disrepair that then rebounds when the property then becomes empty and requires more work more money
More time we can actually mitigate that because we really would be failing those many people that are now of waiting aning thank you thank you much councelor and I fully agree with all you’ve said um with one caveat that I think the performance culture b b homes on dealing with void
Is still in the top quartal performance on the measures that we’re seeing um but I accept there have been historic problems um I’m conscious that tendency inspections certainly happen um councilor sus and I have um referred properties in our own Ward one of which was found to have been abandoned by the
Tent they were still paying the rent by direct debit but they weren’t living there anymore that property has now been taken back um so we are doing what we can um to that so property inspections certainly happen to take care of it um one annoying fact um and you will have
No doubt read again in our Ward a tenant was served notied to move out of a property in child Court um unfortunately of course that’s not an eviction notice we have to go through a separate procedure to evict that tenant despite the fact they’re now banned from entering the
Property and that needs separate court action so that property will be kept vacant for a period of time which is infuriating and that is putting it in an extremely polite words it is absolutely horrendous when we do say we have families Ed breakfast accommodation and we have an empty property but we can’t
Get in there because the courts won’t set a date for the eviction proceedings so we are trying to do all we can and I can assure you that all counselors if they want to refer any properties for inspection to cbh we will ensure those inspections take place and make sure
That we get the best possible service for our customers thank you thank you very much Martin um I think we have one one other public speaker we thought the gentleman was not here Mr Kerr i’ just like to finish off where I was on the uh uh conversation back in
December and we I got to the point where I wanted to remind you about every 400 years we have a revolution that legislation from magnard is still in full force and effect so um we go on from that to another bit of history with the French Revolution France sustained
The strongest growth After the Revolution because a sector of the population was UN beding the public dry which brings us on to now finances on a more local level the national government is insolvent it is a crime for our 151 officer to do business with the national
Government it is a crime to forward any funds to the national government in any way you are unnown no to that effect um so one of the things that I think you guys are missing in the process of changes between national government and local government you’ve missed some of
The negotiations some of the legislation creep that has changed things what you I don’t think you’re seeing is the outcome of of this legislation changes and the changes not just to that but also to bankruptcy law when the national government gave more autonomy to uh local government to spend
Money throughout the country they’ve been doing that to the point where we have significant amount of bankruptcies but when you connect that to the the other legislation changes and you see where those Securities got cleared on the Euro clear for example and then up to a followup Central clearing party any
One of those clearing parties that goes becomes insolvent all those assets get forwarded to the protected class of Bankers there is a protected class of Bankers they are not named you hard to find that protected class of Bankers but it is documented so the law is not a
Level Playing Field theyve been running simulations for these clearing parties to become insolvent and how to deal with that when those become insolvent those Securities that this Council has will be given handed to the protected class of bankers and I don’t know that you guys have seen that that you need to address
These issues way in advance because even in the case of criminal activity that does not obviate the passing of that those Securities to that protected class so um I just want to add the bankers respect the wealthy class I think most of you guys are fit into that category
And that is why they’re saving you guys for desert so just no just to finish up the nup you have been put on notice that there are there is fraud if the burden now shifts to you with the planning decisions to for to investigate those things and to look review previous
Applications where there has been fraud and deny or and have those applications uh withdrawn thank you thank you for a very interesting uh presentation you guys need to invest this serious stuff really is there is there is available I can say in the time that’s available I
Will just say thank you for your view we work within the law of the country we we are subject to as part of the I will not have the conversation I will just finish off my remarks by saying we’ve heard uh we we will stop there thank you very much right um that
Is all have your say and the usual 15 minutes as curious extended to an hour and a half so I’m going to take a 10-minute break and then we’ll um return to the agenda that we’re here for thank you everybody who’s made the effort to come and talk to us e e e
E e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay um we’re off on the substantial business um have your say as ever is challenging and interesting and something have a look at I think
For the new Municipal Municipal year um officers may want to quote back back to me later all right look um good to see everybody who’s still hanging on thank you visiting members uh for your time and dedication to task and we’re now on to the main stream part of the
Business uh starting with item seven fit for the future transformation uh portfolio and if I start as off and then I’ll just um turn to cabinet members um to give a little bit of Flesh to to the bones of the of the report um fit for the future transformation portfolio is what’s
Underpinned the budget that was passed by for Council and but I have to sort say before I get into this I’ve got councilor dunders sorry Paul I didn’t see you down on the list until the last minute I’m stunned by the variety of speakers today so I’ll get into this in
Just a second and Paul perhaps You’ just like to ra your point how popular cabinet is isn’t it good to see um uh good evening Leader good evening uh cabinet members and officers um I I’m going to be be fairly brief on this because um it’s been spoken about at
Length in in other venues um I’ve uh I’ve watched the screw meeting I think it was wise to have the extra scrutiny meeting um on it um but what I did want to talk about um firstly I’ve just been having a discussion with with councelor Smith you made the point about councelor
Nayor named AIG uh for interest in MRP it’s costing the council relating to mil Road she didn’t quite get the right figure it is actually higher because I’ve just checked on my spreadsheet it’s uh it’s about 199,000 a month I think um is what it’s costing two 2 point something
Million a year um but I digress um what I did want to talk about was the recommendation from the scrutiny panel uh on the 26th of February um which recommends that the cabinet commissions and receives a report on the impact on reserves that the F for the future
Program is expected to have and what reserves will be available to cover possible future deficit spending as far as I’m aware it it was supported cross party on the scrutiny panel the conservatives don’t have a majority on that panel so for it to be recommended
By its very nature he has to have uh cross party support and and I just want to remind ourselves a little bit as to why keeping an eye on those reserves is is so important you know we’re not a conventional business in the sense that we um make profit and loss our
Constraint in terms of what this Council can do in the future is around the reserves um councils which get in financial trouble have got in financial trouble because they have run out of reserves so that’s why it’s so important and that’s probably why we keep banging
On about it uh so much if you look at councils and I’m going to mention some names and yes number of them were conservative runs they’re just as bad councilors like woking councilors like thork what got them wasn’t spending too much cutting the grass it wasn’t um
Tidying up too many parks it wasn’t collecting too much waste in every single case what it was was frankly getting involved in things where they didn’t know what they were doing every single one was commercial projects solar Farms 30 story Hilton hotels all sorts of different projects
What got them was the interest and minimum Revenue provision hitting their general fund working who have a a revenue budget very similar to ours about 24 25 million ended up with a70 million pound a year MRP okay I’m not suggesting we are in that sort of ballp part because I know
We’re not but it is very important to bear in mind that the mistakes those councils made were all not looking at the day job not looking at their services but getting involved in extracurricular activities maybe with good intentions and maybe for good reasons and I do not want to see us make
The same mistakes I’ve said I don’t agree with the fit for the future program I I know this Council has to make difficult decisions I mean no denial about that I think we should make some slightly different ones I’ve said so on many occasions on many forums I’m not going to say it
Again but please when you look at this inure that everything you do is reflected in those reserves projections because at the moment the mtff is presented and I know we’ve done this over a number of years how we presented it and we did it in my
Year as leader as well so I’m just as comfortable but don’t make my mistake is what I’m saying the mtff does not reflect properly on the current reserves predictions the mtff says this thing’s going to happen the reserves projections say something else is going to happen in between we are making an
Assumption that year after year in future years we will make some as yet unspecified savings to balance the budget now if they happen fine yes the reserves projections are right but there is a sort of unsaid assumption in there so if you look at the two columns in conventional accounting terms they don’t
Quite match and actually that has been acknowledged by the finance team and it was acknowledged enough that they actually put the extra table in the budget papers we looked at in February showing that so I would urge you to accept the scrutiny recommendation as I say it was a cross party recommendation
I think they spent four hours on it so you can’t say they didn’t uh think about it long and hard um and uh well you will have to make your decision about fit for the future and uh we will have to uh say we don’t agree with it in whatever
Venues are come to the four in the future thank you if I start thank you thank you thank you Paul as we’re into the mainstream business I have Noy if we’re short about this with a brief response but I want to just keep it tight okay
Um a couple things from me and then I Mark might haveen some others there is no question that um me members of the administration and sympathetic parties I mean where we are reflects all council’s support on balance for the changes set out in the for the future portfolio and
I know that you and other conservative members would have some sympathy or support for least a good proportion of this is how I would say but similarly there is an acceptance I think cross party that we have to manage our finances with real care with a particular awareness of what borrowing
Is going to what is and going to be although we tend to borrow as you know longterm at better rates than that we otherwise might and changes to uh the way in which we set out information and the way you’ve described reflect um a kind of stepping towards uh opposition
If I’m Frank because there’s no question that the form the form the way in which information has been displayed that relationship between reserves and the mtff is the normal approach so the changes we’ve made have been to accept that there is a point here for at least
For awareness that we should respond we should respond Mark Mark will touch on past experience because I think that’s the thing we need to be aware of but this Council does actually on balance meet those kind of challenges in each and and every year and our reserves are
Excess of it but to your point um I was at that long meeting as well and and um we uh do accept the recommendation from the policy panel we will from the scrutiny panel we will keep the bra close eye on on the costs of what we are
Doing as a local Authority we are not we are not are we working or thoric or those authorities that gone over the cliff and our section1 officer the independent person who on the basis of many years of professional advice and a number of authorities it’s very clear that we’re nowhere in that
Position has said that repeatedly to us in different fora that advice that we’re bound to take and that advice for Council took and so that’s where we are today but the attention that you are recommending we pay to this we absolutely do if I may I’ll go to to
Mark who’s going things to add thank you David um Paul you know I’m considerate person I consider what you say and absolutely we continue to have these discussions and will continue to have these discussions because we as liberal Democrats are caring and want to invest but we also are sound on finance
And you’ll see that up and down the country in councils that is where we are we’re kind of in the middle okay and we do things with with thought and we do that here as the political part but we’ve then got officers in the background who are absolutely doing that
As well because we have in the background those shadows and those they’re not Shadows they’re happening literally still now aren’t they of the councils that have gone bust we definitely are not those councils and I’m glad that you make that clear as well but we must of course learn from
Those examples and we are not going about buying up sort of um states of of commercial uh bits and pieces outside of the burrow or or extensive parts we are sweating our assets that we do have yes we have certain deals that again you’ve been part of when you ad an Administration
Where we do have commercial Deals they are not to the size of any of those other councils that we talk about but there are risks involved and we’ve acknowledged that many times publicly we talk about that and happy to continue that conversation with you when it comes back to the
Mtff I’ve been here as a resources portfolio holder before and been leader and over those years those sort of eight or nine years I have got the the figures to show that we each time show in our medium-term financial forecast that there are gaps and those gaps need to be closed each
Time and we do them we have each time over eight or nine years that I have evidence of here we have closed them so we will continue to do that and actually the trend of our reserves recently is that we’ve been prudent and we’ve witnessed good growth in terms of
Business rates for example so we are actually in a in a safer position on reserves than perhaps it would have been over some of those other nine years we actually face more risks now but we do because of the economy and the way economy is um I wish the economy had
Been managed better over the last four or five years so that we weren’t in this position and we weren’t faced with difficult Market forces when it comes to places like Northern Gateway but we are where we are um so I take all the points you say
On board and I do agree we have to keep a very close eye on it and we are doing that and every decision we will make is responsible when it comes to conversations over the HRA and the debt going forward I know councelor Smith will happily come back on that um we
Have much more room in terms of what we could borrow and compared to other councils again could borrow more but we um are going to be prudent about that we will continue to review it as we said we would we are going to go into more of a
Review on that and it is likely that we will have to look at scaling things back because of the wider economy The Wider impacts on the macro impacts on our more uh smaller budgets so I’ll stop there thank you but um we have got in our reserves enough space to cover the
Different calls upon uh budget in the next three to four years thank you uh thank you well I’m I’m pleased to hear that you are accepting the security recommendations you know I don’t disagree with everything you’re saying or everything you’re doing and um in areas we agree will’ll support you um we
Don’t agree with everything um and uh uh rest assured we will keep asking the uh difficult questions because I think it is it is our job it’s our job and we will continue to do it to the best of our ability but um um yeah we’ll uh
We’ll see where it leads thank you thank you very much okay right back to where we were and thank you Paul right um this is the crucial underpinning for our budget right dramatic change in a sensible Pace over three years a mixture of what’s already in train and changes which
Further work cross party will be needed to Define develop and deliver set out here in in in detail it underpins the budget it’s got It’s got good sense to it good contingent sense it’s it’s around a change that takes our people with us it’s about a governance approach
That seeks to take other members with us and and looks to buy and unify and to deliver change to deliver less sometimes um and to deliver better on other occasions with the help shared services and other ways of working at least harm to our residents and our staff and to
And to the greatest benefit we can secure from that funding um for the longer term so I’m going to just go around colleagues and ask them to draw out from their part of their portfolio portfolio of change and starting with Martin on on waste so we’re obviously going through um a
Transition uh we are looking at the um Services we are looking at our strategy um and we have also changed the approach of looking at um using less um flexible approaches with with staff that are not permanent um and done some more permanent recruitment to try and reduce the
Staffing Bill uh where we have to use temporary staff um in the Waste Service um and we have obviously looked at the facilities at shrub end as well Etc and also done some work on the vehicle Fleet so this transition will continue the waste strategy review will publish later this year slightly later
Than we planned but because of the level of work that the team have had to undertake and rolling out garbon waste that’s obviously a major change that we’ve had to do regrettably um like the majority of other councils to to look at other Revenue uh income um that’s just a
Flavor of of what we’ve had to look at uh and we’ve obviously had to look at the cost um of recycling equipment as that has gone up exponentially because of the uh global economy changes uh impacts of oil prices Etc uh plastic bags and and um the uh recycling
Containers the cost of those has gone up hugely so all of that will continue to be reviewed and the service provision will uh continue to be as delivered as coste effective as we can one of the biggest issues we’ve got is we have an expensive hybrid system and we cannot
Continue in that way where some people get collected with black sacks and others have wheelie WIS we know that staff have higher sickness rates on and black sack routs and the garden Waste Service will help with that because it’s wheelie bin only and that has proven to have less sickness less damage with
Muscular scalo uh issues with our staff so that is a is a flavor of where we’re going and where we’ll continue to streamline that service and and make it fit for the future thank you very much I know Michelle Barz is unable to join us
Tonight but I know if she was here she would want to draw attention to the proposals that affect her her portfolio and and which matters so much to us around some of the strengths that we have as a city council around and our city around our fantastic Arts uh
Creative and Heritage assets and um our commitments here despite the work we’re going to have to do which is going to be searching and challenging um to keeping Leisure open uh when others are closing and indeed as I say in terms of Arts um we know that some local authorities are
Stepping back from that so that the good news for those who are listening and the good news for those who care about those great distinctive qualities of cultist is that we as a local Authority going to do all we can and to continue to provide them help and support for the vibrancy
And the income the footfall that they bring and that make us so different let me go to all might on H and housing thank you um to me fit for the future a changing the way the council operates is absolutely essential looking at the old Financial
Models that council’s had be in the H or generally they’re not working anymore we can’t just carry on get taking income in and spending it on Services which are costing more and more and more each year when we find we’re being caed at below inflation rates increases something has to
Give and either you cut services or you do them more efficiently it is as simple as that and that’s the message that all of us are putting forward and that’s why other councils rry eping Forest both which are conservative are supporting this program of working together with us
In joint services and seeing the savings that can be made and that’s not a party political thing so that’s why I’m a little disappointed that the conservative group here are not engaged that agenda of better efficiency and better services but instead have come up with a scheme of having a fire
Sale of our assets and to talk about this Council borrowing we’re half our current level of borrowing is under half our borrowing limit we are considerably less indebted than many other councils that’s a good thing that’s because this Council in the past under its various Shades most of
Which inv involved at least a good chunk of liberal Democrats have been financially prudent and we haven’t gone in for overexpansion and property investment schemes and what have you and we’re seeing that in housing that there are real problems with income being restrained with rental income being restricted and with real difficulties
With housing regulation now increasing the costs repairs up 10% last year alone responsive repairs that’s the danger of having an old outdated stock without the modern stock to replace it to balance the costs so that’s why we need fit for the future and that’s why the 320 families in
Temporary accommodation in culta will want fit for the future because it will give them houses that are fit for the future thank Paul um Allison do you talk about assets I know we got this paper later but perhaps just the headlines sure yeah I’ll absolutely talk
About it later as well but I I think Paul said it very well it’s about being responsible and if we don’t take action uh it would be irresponsible and that would be to all residents those vulnerable ones that Paul’s talking about who need the housing uh but across
The burrow people who do have houses people have businesses and um we have a number of assets ourselves as a council and it’s about being responsible with those we have assets that we need to keep uh upkeep and and keep looking after historic ones as well that are
Quite expensive and random we that we have responsibility for that are quite expensive um but it’s about absolutely getting uh down to the detail and understanding what we own what we may not want to own in the future and how we can sweat the assets that we do own so
As part of fit for the future we’re looking at the next steps of that and making efficiencies by bringing together uh our teams who are responsible for assets into one place and with the corporate landlord team that we are calling it in the can corporate landlord strategy we are going
To do that so we’re going to look at how best to address our Assets in the most efficient way in the best way for our residents in the best way for taxpayers in the best way to ensure our budgets are there to maintain and look after the
Best of the assets and to regenerate or dispose of assets that are too costly and to invest in new assets with that money so essentially that’s where we’re coming from we’re making efficiencies within the teams and then we were looking at how to sweat the assets to
Bring in more income within f for the future thank you thank you very much Mark Allison I know you got a close eye on transformation incing digital which is one of the themes inside the portfolio yeah I think um I certainly am and we should all be very much aware
That the digital system and digital transformation needs which are often not seen or even understood by some of us will actually drive all the service efficiencies and process Chang that we’re looking for um where we are there’s program requests in have been drafted to enable delivery they include resource and investment plans they’re
Looking at a thoughtful process of using atrisk employees and shared save services for recruitment um Frontline contact centers core handling software is being updated they’re looking at better ways of working self- serve on the website and Service delivery plans as a first step um backed up by our
Excellent I think we’d all agree contacts and financial inclusion teams who are there on a day-to-day um basis I’ve certainly had dealings with the contact center this week giving residents exactly the support they need in a really good way I think we can have confidence in the process um surface
Reviews have started as we’ve just heard from other portfolio holders there’s stated Tim taes governance is agreed the First Transformation board has taken place and an oversight group has been appointed and will include the performance and transformation portfolio holder there can be no doubt that ICT transformation is a huge challenge but
It’s absolutely fundamental and I commend officers for their focused approach and thank them for their time for me for my regular briefings so the cabinet keeps cited thank you very much indeed Allison um matam thanks David um yeah I mean the fit for the future program is a crucial
Piece of work um you know it vital to the future of of CST and Council but it it’s important uh we we’ve got to maintain our good relationships uh with a communities of cultist our parish and our town councils as we review exactly
What we do and and how we do it and as Mark has said we will do it with care and with thought um because obviously we need to uh protect the most vulnerable in our communities um and uh this this program is going to have a visible impact across the city
Um so it means we need to sort of work to realign the community’s expectations uh of what we can deliver uh but still maintaining the pride that we always had in delivering our public services and I think I think this program is is a way a way forward thank very much indeed Natalie
And of course the the thing we’ve also started discussing and acknowledging and fellow members in the room will be well aware of this that if the city council has to step back then there is open question about who can step forward and I think the conversations that lie ahead
Will have to be will have to include how the space parish and town and and the voluntary sector in terms of the ways in which together we can continue to ensure Rich mix of services that our vulnerable and other residents need and thank you very very much um I I’ll close on this
Item by just acknowledging and it was touched on earlier the importance of shared services and the and the scope across North ethics councils but certainly with the the core at the moment this is also gone through uh due test through our committee system of shared services and policy panel had a
Good conversation about that last week but it’s not the only one for resilience and efficiency alone that we need to do this and we’re committed to doing this and we know that also this this will over time Drive U some degree of financial saving and benefit as well
Well good practice always does so I’d like to commend that in particular is one of those underpinning threads of work and we’ve seen the benefit of that and our ability to get closer to where we want to be cross party in terms of our understanding of our our finances
And how we express that and how we can make that clear to to Residents and to fellow members and then have a better quality of conversation on the back of that should also mention uh that inside this big pack is a rightly section around our people um they are Central
Aren’t they they are absolutely from what I can see um grown up and willing to to navigate with us all members um a cabinet um and their senior leadership through what is going to be a difficult and unsettling two or three years and we can do that together if we do it well
And if we continue to have a transparancy approaching so far so good in terms of reaction but it’s going to be a long road we need the help support that this paper sets out how we’re going to manage that how we’re also going to communicate openly and well and how
We’re going to ensure that governments is as cross party and open as is possible in a way that supports uh the senior leadership as they make these changes their staff who going to have to conduct them with enough engagement from members to make that productive path so
I commend um the whole of the paper on that basis at cabinet reflecting in effect four councils support for this given that the budget reflects it so the recommended decision is we adopt the portfolio activity to transform the council and ensure Services fit for the future and to deliver the savings
Required in the medium-term financial forecast are we agreed agree thank you sorry leader also can you formally accept the scrutiny panel’s recommendation thank you um I recommend as discussed ear that we do agreed agreed thank you very much item 72 uh hybernation of Kult and for homes
Limited and we have the MD which car here I’m not going to ask Richard come forward unless he feels a completely desperate urge to do that and feel he probably Burt um but I do have uh three visitors Alderman Oxford Council Dundas and counc Sonic ask you respectfully if you could
Come in turn and speak and then we’ll try to respond to the to the sum of the points that’s made if that’s okay so perhaps Geral would you come up first if that’s all right thank you three minutes Geral thank you thank you I was interested when I saw saw the
Agenda with the hibernation of the suggestion to hibernate an for I completely agree with it um I have very strong views on anfor my experience of Anora When I Was Here is in uh I’m going to offend some people and I don’t particularly care is that they weren’t fit for
Purpose um they don’t deliver things on time on budget take so long over everything um OB the only thing that does happen is Staff get paid every month but projects don’t get delivered and and people suffer residents suffer communities suffer and um so I I just don’t think I mean it was mentioned
Earlier I can’t remember who said it about only doing things you can do well and I don’t think it’s something we can do well at all and if we’re going to deliver something then we should um sell something something deliberate for you um under a tender process because that way you can
Put all all sorts of constraints on it including times and budget and so I just don’t think that U it’s something that Council should be um entering into and therefore it’s time I think now to bail out thank you thank you very much General ask Paul if you’d like to come next and
Then William thank you thank you leader last time for me tonight you’ll be delighted to know um I I yeah I support the decision um and I’m not going to get into much detail because um I did have the opportunity to ask questions particularly Mr car at
Governance and audit um last week or week before whenever it was and and I’m not going to repeat those questions but I think actually you know it’s important to reflect on where we started out with this and and really being brutally Frank what a disaster um it’s been
Um I’ve actually got here um and I can’t read all of it out because it was originally published under some of it the financial stuff was under Section schedule 12a goodness knows why now bearing in mind we’re talking about defun company and actually all there’s more figures on company’s house than
There are in here but I’m going to respect that and and not give any of the actual figures uh but this was published in April 21 so it’s presented to me and uh governance audit at the time um and before anybody mentions uh covid or Liz
Truss this was after covid April 21 and um uh well you know I don’t M Trust might not have been an enormous success but um I’m not sure she had a great deal of influence in the Federal Reserve Bank or the European Central Bank who all have virtually identical interest rates
To us but there we go perhaps she perhaps her influence goes beyond where we we think but we’ll we’ll think about that but if we if we read it I mean to give you an idea uh the bit I can read out which was spoken about thing was a construction of
M Road will begin in December 2021 that’s what it says that’s what the report says in July 2022 cahl will begin repaying cbc2 million on a bonly basis sounds very good and the plan was that by now us sitting here um 4177 houses would have been built with
125 affordable okay this is what we were told in in April 21 by the end of 24 under the plans 740 homes including 222 affordable or social would have been built so I I have got a question to ask and my question to ask is can somebody
Actually tell us how many houses C AHL built and delivered both normal and affordable or social I think we need to know the actual number compared to the SE the 740 anticipated um we’ve spoken about the financials um I think it is important actually we look
At the figure you know there are going to be write Downs on this because um there’s been money spent there’s been money spent on numerous things um and nothing delivered so can we have a figure of what the actual write down is going to be on this closing this company
And and exactly which fund it’s going to hit I’ve asked this question I asked this question about cult and former energy I never got an answer apart from the fact that everybody was thinking about it you know at some point we’ve going to make a decision and you kind of
Need to know before you sign it off this evening that was the point I made it um governance and audit but you know please let’s reflect on this you know I’d encourage you I I can direct you towards which governance and audit committee this reports in go and read it okay and
It’s a lesson to us that when we are presented with great things telling us that great things are going to happen in three years time as counselors asking blooming award questions is the right thing to do being a pain in the proverbial is the right thing to do listening to people like the
Sonics who actually could have read this three years ago and probably said well actually you know what I do this stuff for a living I’ve done it lots of times successfully I’m not sure about this listen please and and looking at whatever you’re going to do with the
Remaining assets and I don’t want to have that debate again please have a healthy dose of skepticism please really look at it and don’t take everything at face value because I took this at face value you took face value and look at where we are thank you thank you very much Paul I
William yes I just want to um endorse uh what councelor Dundas said about the reserves and I’m so pleased that uh that we are going to have the reviewer reserves my only question is just one question when be in a within the month uh can it be
Before we look at the there’s going to be governance and audit committee to look at the accounts I think it’s a tricky exercise it’s a really important one I think that if we look honestly um we’ll find that we’re not so much in the goldilock zone as we thought and that’s
All I’ll say on that I came this evening to talk about C culture for homes and you’ll be pleased to see uh hear that I agree entirely with the decision and uh uh I don’t know I I think it recognizes the lessons learned through the garden communi Saga and just worth remembering
That uh three councils got together or four councils got together to form North essics Garden communities and managed to um spend at least 7 million on fees and so on on promoting uh the concreting over of large areas of essics and that the whole thing the whole scheme of the
Public sector delivered um project uh crumbled through our hands in ashes when a planning inspector looked at it and um yes we’ve got one Garden Community going ahead and we have outsourced that basically to our Housing Association so I think we’ve got cahl not a great story got NEC not a great
Story we should have learned our lesson by now that um uh that house build is not a good business to try and do in the public sector and every time you bring in the skills to to to do it which you have to do um you end up you you you
They get they get sidelined they get um uh caught in turf wars and politics and all sorts of other currents that necessarily come in a democratic organization and it’s just very very difficult for anyone uh to do anything and I don’t think I’m out of order or
I’m unusual in in saying that I don’t and I think we’ve all probably learned that lesson um I’ve got two questions and my purpose is really to move on from the decision and say that having decided to hibernate our housing development company what are we going to do with our two remaining
Big developments we’ve got big stuff going on at greenstead as far as I know we haven’t got a plan of actually what we’re going to do there but we’ve got the money for it it’s been going on since about 2017 greenstead and uh the conservative government the politics
Please uh has produced the money to do it but we haven’t spent it uh and have we got the management to do it and most importantly who is responsible politically for that and who which department is responsible administratively for it and we need to get these schemes off the ground we need
That pointiness of organization and I suspect I get an answer that’s you know several parties are there and we got to talk to our partners and everything else that is not the way these schemes actually get off the ground you need someone really focused on it to to get
Going and my second question is what are we going to do what are we going to do in the har greenstead which buildings are going to come down which buildings are going to stay there um I know we’re trying to do it bottom up but you can’t
Do that you need leadership as well to do that and um uh you know have we got those skills on board have the people involved got the track recort and the expertise um it’s a it’s a valid question and then on M Road um we’ve suggested a clean sale not a fast sale
Completely different thing we s suggested a clean sale we’ve got milroad into a state where it’s got planning Mission and it looks in a shape that is sailable yes there are some problems to be solved with the the road Junction but that’s better uh dealt with by a um a
Private organization in my view and we’ve got problems with the electricity connection and I large in my valuation of it I locked large I took large dollops of money off for both those things so I’ve allowed for it the assumption is that the that the private
Sector does it not us I think they do it better I’ve assumed that um it would take a year to a year and a bit to do it and that savings only start from the beginning of the 25 six I’ve got to get my years right Financial year so I’ve been conservative
About it and the figures we’ve got for the savings of interest and um uh MRP are uh are are are figures that have been agreed with officers and you know we can justify all those figures so we have thought it through and uh we have got and the one thing I’ll resist
Forever is that we are trying to produce less social housing I think that our solution produces more social housing if you look back over the track record it’s section 106 that’s produced housing uh much more than we’ve been able to do off our own balance sheet so um uh the I
Want to mention one more thing about this that really upsets me is the suggestion this is an unsound proposal and that it was foed on at the last minute on the on on the council last minute and it was last minute but that followed months of me asking for a uh an
Opportunity for us to present our alternative budget and this was refused and it’s hugely upsetting when you’ve got ideas and you thought them through to have it all um uh conflated into a full Council debate and um I feel that it is very very difficult to put alternative ideas over in the structures
We have and I’m finding it incredibly frustrating being a counselor where where where it is it is so difficult you only get these opportunities you get cut short you get um jibes at your personal credibility and so on and I guess I’ve just got to take that but we do have the
Serious stuff to say um please just you know listen now if you don’t want to accept our suggestion of a clean sale of that site and I think it is realistic then our question is very simple what is your plan and H and what
Are you going to do with it and how are you going to realize that money and are we going to be sitting here in a year’s time doing the same thing that’s all I’ve got to say thanks thank you very much um three speakers there’s a
Range um let me make a start on first of all always acknowledging the value of alternative opinion which is uh William how in some respects you closed um I can only say to you and we’ve had this conversation someone who’s presented an alternative budget this organization has
Made a real effort to make space for for alternative ideas and I I’ve had I’ve had this no disrespect to the County Council who have some Fab like here some fabulous Finance officers who will make time for you but it it was a very limited time it’s just the way just the
Way the way in which the democratic system works that it can just about is how I would put it serve the administration of the day and it does its best to provide opportunities throughout the year to challenge and test what that Administration is doing and and to give and there are a number
Of part so there’s a number of interested members on each of those parties who will want to form a view and sometimes to table it um having that view table so I’m going to work up your they’re not linked to this item I have to say but I will respectfully just
Respond but try and keep it brief I want to acknowledge on behalf of my colleagues the frustrations you and others can have and we will all understand this we’re not challenging The credibility of any um we take different View um that’s just unavoidable but quite often we doly agree um to the specifics
And I go to Geral and say thank you Gerard for for having such a Clarity of view about about Anora and I understand some of that given your the disappointment you would feel as somebody who fought hard for some marks as a development in Highwoods as a
Number of others of us actually also did I would just say about that organization that it’s done an awful lot of things well if one loves the track record as well as have some real difficulties which this item is is acknowledging in recommending the hyp ination of kale um
To Paul um thank you we talked about um we talked about these items and you acknowledge this and you support the decision and I and I thank you for that and we’ll come back to you on on the issue of delivery but we should whil not having the macro
Economic interest rates Federal Reserve versus the bank of England and all of that discussion attractive though it is but it needs a to help it go down we just have to acknowledge how difficult it’s been for every Builder as as councilor Smith set out earlier to actually undertake housing projects
Construction projects anywhere in the country and unsurprisingly that includes culture your central point about a worthy skepticism and and your fair acknowledgement that this covered your period as it covers ours um is well made and taken I think we’re all alive to the fact that it’s not just the promise it’s
The delivery and the reality of delivery that is the true demonstration of whether or not plans and projects and Hope and Faith and differ but we have to have ambition so part of what we do as a council is to ensure that we balance balance these out um lastly uh William
If I can I understand the points you make um the ones around the town Deal Board which is the I’m afraid it is the body that if you care to look at last night’s scrutiny um you will see a presentation there which is worth a look it’s a very
Clear depiction of where we stand in Broad order most of those projects under the town Deal Board linked to luck and fed his Partnerships everywhere now reflecting the relationship between them and the city council is an accountable body working with ECC all that was described there and I hope that will be
Helpful if there are specifics we can perhaps pick that up and lastly when it comes to m road then we go back to the paper um I respect we can talk about what the intentions and the prospects forward we will ensure that as plans mature during the coming months that you and others
Are cited on this is how the promise that we’ve made is ensure our business remains open because that way it’s more likely to be effective and supportive even if it differs from your own approach I hope you’ll feel that’s a respectful acknowledgement at the point if there any others I’m happy to try
Them up away from here and as I say and we can pick up specifics around town deal but this paper is around the hybernation of culture down for homes for the reasons set out in that paper and I’m just going to stop subject to the views of colleagues and then go to the
Recommendation thank you David um I wanted to cover some of the similar points to you I’ll try and be brief so firstly the paper uh and thank you to Richard who is here and everyone who’s worked underneath him to get to this point with the companies um this paper
Is as clear as it can be but there’s still some final of clarity um and we’ve talked about this a number of different panels a number of different places and about the liabilities and the costs that will impact upon the budget and we have those rough costs in place and we can
Cover them with uh the reserves and we we are budgeting for those just to be clear um secondly I I agree with some of the points that have been made that some parts of M for have not achieved what we’ve wanted to um those are because of a number of different
And a lot of them are down to the economy um covid Etc and we have to accept that but we have also achieved quite a few good things um the events Company still goes from strength to strength puts on some fantastic opportunities that Council gos you’re
Often at in Castle Park and around the place enjoying uh and uh the Broadband that has gone round Colchester and provides a real step change for businesses in the town center and all the way out to w home places like my house that benefit from it fully paid up
I will say um and also external funding that we would not have achieved if we maintained just our Council operations so we have brought in external funding to Colchester that be from the government or from external providers so there are positives but of course we’re acknowledging there have been things we
Have not achieved it was quite interesting I was sitting there while Paul you were speaking and then William came and I thought you know what I’m going to praise actually I agree with a lot of the the points then William you went on to some things I couldn’t agree
With but um I I think I I have never done any jibes at anyone personally I think it’s always about listening and we have and and please trust me William that I’ve been to a lot of different councils and I sit on essic as well as councelor king does we are as generous
As we can be with our time and with our officers and listen listening and taking on board comments we do disagree on mil Road I mean I understand where you’re trying to go with it I do and it is an option but we believe that the options
We are putting together um will be uh of Greater benefit um to Residents and to the council in the future but I don’t deny yours as an option and thank you for putting that forward and and one other note of of of worth is that we are
Open and listening and we we would have definitely been able to talk about those um budget proposals before uh the day before would happily have talked further with you on that so please always do come the door is open so that’s pretty much what I’ll say uh leader because
It’s gone from talking about the paper to talking about the other issues that were brought up but uh I think we should approve this going forward thank thank you um colleagues mened decision is we approve the reservation leader sorry can I just interrupt could you just consider the governance and audit committee
Recommendation on this first before you formally consider the report in in cabet please I’m happy to make that distinction but I was going to address this so um given that the recommendation um is just that so we have had um some of us were there we’ve had recommendations um from the governance
And audit committee and um and there’s a couple page here of summary around the hyr nation and for those who had the chance to look at the papers of governments and audit the supplementary detail on the resols to which they refer which do a number of things including the act of hibernation
The the acknowledgment of of residual liability and assets um let’s just take it thank you in in this absolutely in the spirit intended are there any questions or queries around the governments and audit note those couple of pages that get you then to the recommendation no okay I know you’ve been through this
Because we’ve talked about this elsewhere so um the recommendation to this in the governments and audit paper that the resolution set out appendix 3 to Annex a the officers report which was presented to the committee which just referred to be approved and that’s then transferred to our paper here under 7
Item 7.2 so anything else before uh we close acknowledging the the views of colleagues and fellow members and the way that we have taking that learning as we all could forward but ining the work also of Richard Carr and his team and the an for staff oun sorry could I just say one
Thing to say that um I’ve considered information that you’ve just talked about and and I was there at the meeting and then you also were there um leader as well and I think it was a really good discussion really good questions asked and and Richard car answered them in his
Best ability so I just want to say it’s more than just what’s in the paper there we were there listening and are taking those comments on board so I wanted to thank Governor an audit really for that debate and conversation that happened thank you no thank you that’s very well
Said uh and it was a quality conversation in your time and mine afterwards so if we could note for the record our thanks to to the committee and um and pass that forward I want to do the same later for others because so much of what we do reflects test and
Challenge before it comes to us so colleagues that point noted are we content to set set the recommendation agreed thank you in which case you go then through a whole set of papers and get to um item 8.1 the estate plan and um I just love this but that’s just me
Obies don’t want to talk about it let’s go briefly to U counselor Cory mark thank you leader um so this evening we have in front of us an estate plan and uh within it there are a number of items and I I feel most importantly is the sort of asset
Strategy there and how we go forward I have explained earlier this evening that uh we are going for forward with a corporate landlord strategy and this estate plan absolutely fits with that um I want to thank Patricia who’s here and um the team that work with her um we
Have been through this um together with uh Patricia and her officers and believe that this is the next step and the real sort of Progressive Way Forward that we need to go so we need to understand our assets better this plan does that we need to understand how to swep those
Assets better and how to move forward with either acquiring more uh disposing of some and as I said earlier regenerating others so that is a brief overview and um I commend this to state plan and the parts of it to cabinet and to follow this uh forward into the
Future which will be better and will put us in a fit for the future position thank you thank you very much um colleagues anything else from any uh we have been through this in a couple of places including leadership and in committee um I guess what I would sort of just remind
Us all of is that the serious nature of the Endeavor we’re setting out on and has captured well in the executive summary in the first couple of pages uh when you are told uh that it’s Brave and we need to hear that it is brave to tackle headon our understanding of our
Assets um that the liabilities the maintenance at in year costs as well as the opportunities on which course will be focused and it is sobering for me this building alone and what’s coming towards us in terms of Challenge and cost and if you were to look at
1.2 a couple of references know 30% of our 300 Properties or so are listed during conservation areas that’s a good thing in one respect but that’s we all also know it drives cost and complexity and adds an issue should you want to change or change of usage and the last
One and before we go to recommendations that reference to 4 and a half th000 other structures including some really interesting ones you know I go past we Church walls key sides yep you know about what’s happened to those pontoons River beds and monents so this is fascinating great work ahead I thank
Patricia and Mandy Jones and the team like councelor Cory um but let’s be under no Illusions what we’re being to do is going to bring us a mix of news so to the recommendation colleagues at 2.1 to approve and adopt the state plan appendix say and then at 2.2 to delegate
Authority to the Strategic director responsible for asset excuse me and the portfolio holder resources to approve the detailed estate action plan in May 24th for immediate implementation we can run out this we’ll obviously keep colleagues engaged cross party when it matters and we ensure that there is regular Communications about
This on that basis are we content thank you much item 8.2 it’s an extract from the minutes of the scrutiny panel meeting of 23rd of January it’s a great deal about resources in there I know colleagues would have looked through this it is again it was again another thoughtful
Conversation followed by others the recommendation first of all see if there are questions from colleagues or points of clarification members around 8.2 which follows on the recommendation that the portfolio hold for resources provides further information so you see the relationship on what is done to allocate assets which been previously held under companies
Holy owned by the council where those companies are put into dorcy so this links to the earlier discussion around cchl or parts thereof I don’t intend to spend more time on this I’ll be content to accept that thank you Mark item 8.3 I go to councilor Corey
Mark this is business rates over to you thank you and uh thank you Adam for being in the audience um as one of the chief officers uh running uh running this scheme Adam’s over there um so um thanks Adam and thanks Sam and the teams that that work with you on this and
Really it’s about updating the policy um in in ways that will make it more efficient and effective and actually ensure that we are proactive in supporting businesses and and when I explained this um previously I just went went back for context to how we have been uh praised uh for our performance
Supporting businesses during covid it was exceptional in how we got out there and was amongst the first or second in terms of authority rankings nationally for getting funding to our businesses to keep them going and to stimulate our economy during and after covid and this is similar it’s about being proactive
Supportive and flexible to our businesses to make sure they get uh the sort of mandatory and discretionary support available from government to enable their businesses to uh get uh reductions in rates and to flourish through other uh smaller uh discretionary uh funds available so I commend this to Cabinet I commend the
The performance of Adam and his team uh which are doing a great work for our businesses behind the scenes quite often this doesn’t get all the light it deserves businesses one by individually get this support and uh I thank uh the team for this and for this refreshed
Approach thank you thank you colleagues the recommendations if there’s any other points if not we go to recommendations 2123 to approve the proposed discretionary rate relief policy to approve retail hospitality and leure relief as described and to approve the change to the backdating of the discretion rate relief again as
Described are we content agree thank you and then for change of change of voice and tone now we go to council Paul Smith item 91 seeking seeking request for delegated authority U for the W of contracts Paul thank you yes um this is a um method of uh dealing with the large
Contracts in the h that would normally require approval by cabinet uh cabinet meetings are relatively infrequent and sadly contracts do not necessarily neatly fit into the period uh I can remember in earlier days uh the chair of scrutiny was forever having to agree emergency decisions when a contract was due to
Expire and we couldn’t get it approved this is to make the process simpler and more efficient I would stress of course if anyone is ever unhappy with me spending money these uh decisions can always be called in if anyone has any questions or indeed if anyone’s got any
Points they want to raise to do so so I will leave it at that thank you thank you any questions for Paul of course you got the BDI of the fory portfolio holder even though here he’s grip lessons briefly all right so 2.1 recommended decision to so dedicate
To portfol holder for housing as described are we content yes thank you um the next item um it has to be is where it is in the terms of the uh agenda but actually it’s really important so these are the key performance indicated targets for 24 25
This also goes through a cycle through the committee structure and uh to Cabinet through leadership test in year and um to full C so um to you Alison please okay um so it’s just proposed that the set of kpi measures in the table are agreed and set for
2425 they’ve been chosen to reflect our financial circumstances and the Strategic plan for 2326 they’ve been pulled together by the and agreed by the um senior leadership team um I think we should acknowledge that we and I have been working with officers and we now have a really good narrative some
Benchmarking median detail so we have much more control and transparency in place it’s much easier now to look at the figures and understand what they’re saying and then to drill down and ask questions which people all know I do do um in June 23 scrutiny recommended that we looked for continuous Improvement in
Service performance targets um and that the should be set by cabinet to take performance upwards and I think we should reflect that those some have been held to 2324 levels we are in challenging times and I think we can accept the reasoning behind some of those not being pushed forward
Particularly in the area of waste um it’s been accepted um the scrutiny recommendation that we separate the sness for waste and non- waste that’s entirely reasonable and they’re now stated uh individ usually we’ve spoken in detail already about the 73 days that was something that was flagged to me and
Was a concern and I think on the basis that we’re getting um concurrent information on the old basis we can keep an eye on that and we can sort of drill down um perhaps look at some median and comparative data for that as well to make sure that we’re really we’re not
Losing anything by going to the new um the new measure um cultures to borrow homes are obvious reporting regularly now into governance and audits so that’s a new governance requirement for them which means we’ll have much closer control and scrutiny of their figures as well and I will
Continue to ask portfolio holders to keep an eye on the business’s usual income and performance figures as part of their regular briefings so that we keep on top of what’s lying behind some of these higher level figures but I think um I don’t think there’s anything
In particular to highlight and so I just recommend recomend that we accept those as proposed thank you very much just see if there’s any other views from colleagues these are our Collective uh responsibility some of us will have a portfolio holder uh lead on them it’s
Not just down to um Allison any other of view all right okay thank you we’ brought out some of the most important ones so as as recommended um that we Ure it says and we’ve got corporate that’s the reason and we set them as proposed and report we consent thank you very
Much okay uh Allison U next item uh is the to council development policy and you uh chair the members Development Group so this was a really good discussion we had a couple of months go so the leadership um Academy’s the lga’s development program it offers uh three two-day residential modules for those
That are aim or is aimed at those in leadership positions within local authorities is obviously a networking and a learning opportunity off particularly to council leaders Deputy leaders group leaders portfolio holders Shadow portfolio holders and scrutiny chairs um it costs ,000 and it’s in the budget each year so it’s something we
Should really take advantage of the council will fund one place and at the moment that place is allocated by the leader of the council uh the the group recognize the continued value of the leadership academy but considered there should be an opportunity for a wider role for the political groups to get
Involved in the process of nominations not selection just not the nomination process so the change in the policy that we need to approve is that the nomination process should be the subject of a transparent discussion within political groups who they not potential attendees for approval by the
Leader thank you that’s very well put colleagues um I had certainly attended this in the past I found it was very useful um it’s it’s the pointing we haven’t been able to send anyone in recent times but I guess that’s probably reflection on the fact that now there
Are a lot less counselors and the workloads are a lot heavier but I recommend the changes are certainly sensible and I think that’s good Mark same thing really I’ve been on that course and then went on to the leaders leaders course which was also very good
Um so I recommend it uh some people around this table I think would enjoy it and uh yeah I do agree with the proposal thank you thank you uh no other comments in which case um as set out 2.1 the we agree to amend the policy is set
Out within the paper agreed agre thank you thank you Alice that should get us to 112 and councel La J you’ve been extraordinarily um forbiding I know you had no choice in the matter but we are very aware that you’re amongst the last in the audience and thank you for uh
Staying through all that’s preceded you um we’ve got your recommendations in front of us but over to you thank you obviously with policy panel saving the best for last you could say um thank you leader cabinet um I’ll try to brief as it’s the end of another long
Meeting um I just want to highlight a few things from our recent agenda recent meeting agenda um that agenda was very varied I think as it has been across the course of the year I really appreciated having an overview on uh our movement towards shared services from Richard
Block was very helpful um just highlighting I think members of the panel um can understand the benefits and the resilience that moving to shared services can offer um but also um want to highlight you know mitigating against any possible risks that that might be encountered as we move forward with that
Um in terms of the parking strategy I think we really appreciated having um Rich Walker come along and give us a very um early overview of where they’re looking at in terms of their strategy work and something to highlight perhaps is um bearing in mind uh parking spaces
And environments across the whole of the culturist environs and not just in the city center moving on then to the um the case for change in terms of leure and sports uh we you know panel members were very uh supportive of moving to an active well-being strategy and I think
Another thing to highlight from that was uh valuable contributions from panel members about the importance of uh residents being able empowered and supported to um use local spaces to improve their health and well-being and lastly uh panel members were again supportive of the new memorials policy
Uh and how that could uh enable officers and Council staff to make more effective and efficient uh decisions uh and support RIS more efficiently suggest really to sort of draw things together I think uh something that policy panel really values is being able to have like an
Early view on like directions and I think that can really help members across the council because they have a greater understanding and don’t feel that policies suddenly seem to have been fully formed without them having any chance to discuss them so that’s very helpful um and also uh you know the
Panel members also I think appreciated being able to um feedback experiences that they have as War counselors because so many of the issues that we talk about in policy panel um you know we’re trying to as well as sort of provide some kind of strategic um guidance or thought
We’re also wanting to try and give a perspective of of how our residents feel about issues and lastly briefly I’d just like to uh thank all the Democratic services staff who’ve supported our committee and other committees and also um my vice chair councelor Scott boutel um for her work and in previous years
And steering the policy panel and to thank the policy panel members you know for their contributions throughout the year thank you thank you Joselyn for your remarks for your role as chair um and and for helping ensure that we have I one item out I looking at the offices
I’ll go back to the early item um yes they’re pretending thatr they know that I knew but there we go Joselyn thank you so much for staying for stepping forward for what you’ve been doing in the panel um and as somebody who’s attended most of your meetings as
Last year I I’ve done it because it I think we’ve got the right kind of um balance it is early enough for members to feel they’re not just going to on a plate and just say yes and some of those changes and I saw it in the last meeting
As captured here I think we were’re very con structive and I think that’s the balance you know to to help officers feel that it’s worth exposing ideas early when they’re not completely set and there is a balance there does require career constructive response and I think we we’re largely we getting that
Is my observation and and clearly it’s yours so can I on behalf of all of us thank you I just ask um cabinet members if there’s anything you like to pick up or raise all and then naty thank you yes um I I’d like to say how much I
Appreciate the uh reports that come from the policy panel um I feel that it’s a much more collaborative atmosphere that we get from the policy panel than we do perhaps in some other form in the council and I think that reflects well on the way that you chair
It in the this year and in the past shairs have done it as well because I think we get a reasoned argum and it’s quite right um when we’re looking at shared services to raise the issue about independence of the services and the council sovereignty those aren’t things
That we’re negoti in a way we’re not talking about merging councils we’re talking about merging services and I think you’re quite right to raise those points so thank you thank you very much um I I’ll come back at the close Natalie yeah I just uh Echo those those comments really and uh
And yeah when it comes to sort of active well-being obviously we know how important it is for residents and communities um you know helping people be more active it’s not only better for their physical health but it’s it’s so important for their mental wealth well beinging as well and obviously that then
Puts less pressure on the NHS and and other services um that people um end up using when their their physical and mental health deteriorates and uh and as regards the memorials policy I mean who doesn’t love a bit of guidance about Pol about memorials and things I mean I love
Seeing those little plaes on benches and and things like that you know from the the poignant to the down hilarious sometimes so um so I think that’s only a good thing so yeah thank you thank you thank you any other observations from colleagues no okay let’s walk through
These thank you very much Joseline walk through these in turn so first of all shared services a couple of observations to me um which is would be my conditioning for us taking the recommendations so the first are let’s be very clear about the advantages and the need that’s driving us so resilience
Capacity um are you know absolutely essentially are essential for any organization and shared service will help provide them and we should remember please that these are back office services so not front office and I know this was discussed at some length in the policy panel so for us um when we accept the
Recommendations that which should recommend we do it’s in that context this is the right thing to do we’re committed to do this uh the risk I think are slight but it’s a it was a helpful helpful set of observations for us to bear in mind on that basis are we
Prepared to accept that recommendation agreed okay then parking policy and strategy and I I have no observation other I think this is as well the balance will have to be continue to be struck and we need it full life full whole life awareness of where we’re at um in terms of the assets
Relative to the strategy and the demand all of which was talked to very well by Richard Walker um who is a star at this so I’ll be content on that basis agree thank you um the case for active well-being spoken up for by um by Natalie earlier um this is nothing other
Than an endorsement of the approach we’re seeking to take with our partners for the reasons described to be content agreed and then the memorial policy and I am closer to that point that most of you here don’t say anything um on that basis um are we content thank you and then we’ll
Go behave behave let’s go um back to the scrutiny the corporate 112 corporate coms uh and scrutiny items so this captures have your say it’s a whole note somebody knows what the meeting so you have your say onwards and um ends up with a recommendation the cabinet reviews council’s approach to its corporate
Communications with members of the public and this was just for those who’ve read this had the chance to refresh this is to understand that it’s a challenge to provide a response that pleases the individual making the request as much as anything else is about how the response is received and but sometimes
It is of course the case that the the council may give a partial answer at least recipient perspective and and there is something always for us to look at in terms of how we can do this as effectively as possible one particular suggestion I’ve made which I know is
Going to be follow through is that where there are repetitive issues so one for example would be around access to the building when there’s a council meeting and search processes that we are very clear on the policy and that we state it and Link it to the the meetings agendas
Or register so that when some goes in they’re just reminded how are we’re going to do this so make sure we’re actually on point and we’re very clear and we don’t have to keep repeating ourselves it’s sometimes in the repetition uh that individuals here sometimes the whole story sometimes part
Of the story I don’t elaborate anymore but I think we just have to accept that we are getting a real volume a conversation here about have your say and other forms of challenge or request for help and we have to reply in a really joined up an effective way and
It’s a challenge for our staff it’s a challenge for us and this asks us to acknowledge that and continue to keep under review are there any observations or questions anybody wants to raise no okay um the recommendations we review or keep under review are we content content
Agree thank you where next he says to the the responses respon yes thank you right so we have heading back up the agenda for the hundreds who are watching and I I want to congratulate you if you are still um petitions public statements and questions agenda item 111 and we do and
I thank the staff again our very best to track in every th issues is raised and ensure that they’re closed off now back to the earlier point we will not always get exactly right or to to the uh right as received but we are here manifestly doing our best to track issues and
Respond um are there any points from the officers that want to be raised I see that largely as complete but rigid thank you chair I think there were only two that weren’t marked as complete one was from the licensing committee I think uh from a couple of months ago
Related to some ministerial corresponden and I think the correspondence that we got back from the minister sort of obviated the need for any further Dialogue on that issue uh and the second one was a response to councelor Oxford sorry Alderman Oxford arising from the council meeting in February which has
Now been sent by yourself it has and but we will be following that up would appear yes we might be hearing F that’s the first one didn’t work right um are we content yes okay thank you now do we go to one of the highlights the evening for the deputy exclusion of the
Public yes if you don’t wish to discuss a minute you could just approve it in public session okay I I do like make Mark do it but that’s that’s if that’s a collective will um all right then right in the privacy of our own rooms right are we content with the minutes
That we’ve seen in the confidential section content yes all right thank you in which case with huge thanks to to colleagues here to the left and those who’ve left at a sheare worn outness thank you very much for the service to us all through the whole Municipal year this being the last
Cabinet meeting for us um it’s a great shame Michelle’s not with us but um on her and our behalf thank you very much and to my colleagues I’m allowed to say once a year when I’ve by your she but um thank you very much indeed it’s been a
Challenging year we’ve got a couple more months of business to do up to to the other side of the election then we’ll see where we’re at but thank you all very much meeting closed