Meeting documents

Venue: Oculus

Contact: Sara Turnbull 

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Items
No. Item

1.

Presentation of Member Development Charter Mark Certificate

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Mrs Birchley announced that the County Council had been successful in the Re-Accreditation of the national Member Development Charter Mark, which demonstrated the strong commitment by the County Council to member development and a programme of work to assist them in their roles.  Mrs Birchley in particular thanked those Members that sat and continued to do so on the Member Development Working Group and to officers in Democratic Services for their work.

 

Mrs Birchley introduced Councillor Rory Love, Chairman of South East Employers to present the certificate. 

 

Cllr Love addressed Members and highlighted the following:

  • It was the third time in presenting the Charter Mark award to the County Council.
  • The Charter Mark was in recognition of the value placed on member development and that this was even more important now with the rise in challenges of delivering services with fewer resources and changes in the local government agenda. 
  • Cllr Love highlighted that the Charter Mark assessment team were impressed with the importance and profile of member development at the council and to the degree it had been embedded.  It was clear to assessors those Members of the working group all had a shared vision and that the programme had a clear link to strategic priorities.  It was also noted that the programme of member development had a high degree of innovation within the best use of the budget.
  • There had been a high level of engagement in the process and submission of evidence which included all Member Briefings and an in-depth induction programme.

 

In summary Cllr Love stated that the County Council should be proud of their achievement and that he looked forward to the development of the programme and the council sharing its success with other local authorities.

 

Cllr Love presented the certificate to Mr S Lambert and Mr M Shaw, Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Member Development Working Group.

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 263 KB

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 22 February 2018.

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Minutes:

It was noted that page 8 referred to January 2017 when it should have read January 2018 and that the draft minutes of 22 February would be updated accordingly.

 

RESOLVED: The minutes of the meeting held on 22 February 2018 were AGREED as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

3.

Petitions

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Minutes:

No petitions were received.

 

4.

Communications pdf icon PDF 14 KB

a        To receive any apologies for absence

b        To receive any communications the Chairman wishes to present to the Council

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Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Mrs Blake, Mrs Clarke, Mrs Cranmer, Mr Harriss, Mr Whyte, Ms R Farwell, Mr Lawrence and Mr Pushman.

 

Mrs Birchley welcomed the Lord Lieutenant and thanked him for attending. 

 

The Chairman confirmed that written questions and responses to Cabinet Members had been published online.

 

Mrs Birchley gave the following update of her recent activities as Chairman since the last meeting in February:

 

Lady Justice Macur had overseen the moving of Aylesbury Crown Court to their new premises on Walton Street.  Mrs Birchley paid thanks on behalf of the County Council to Judge Francis Sheridan for his enormous efforts in keeping one of the busiest Crown courts in England and Wales active in Aylesbury.

 

The 12 March celebrated Commonwealth Day with the flag being raised and a lunch held, attended by those in Buckinghamshire that were born or lived abroad in Commonwealth countries.

 

On the 25 April the Chairman hosted a charity event at Dorney Wood with guest speaker Mr Chris Salmon, Director for Markets at the Bank of England who spoke about how they had managed good mental health amongst their staff who worked in stressful international markets.

 

Further updates from the Chairman would be appended to the minutes.

 

5.

Declarations of Interest

To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

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Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

6.

Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership

Presentation by Mr Richard Harrington, Chief Executive.

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Minutes:

Mr M Tett introduced the item and paid credit to Mr D Carroll and the Transport, Economy and Environment Select Committee for proposing regular updates to Full Council on the work of the Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

 

Mr Tett introduced Mr R Harrington Chief Executive of the Buckinghamshire LEP who presented a presentation on the current work of the LEP, which would be appended to the minutes.

 

Mr Harrington’s presentation highlighted the following:

  • The productivity of the County
    • 3rd highest productivity of all LEP areas
    • GVA per hour worked, almost 20% above national average
    • Exceptional Business Start Up & survival rates
    • Consistently low unemployment
  • Their Business Growth Hub Buckinghamshire Business First
  • Their skills hub working closely with the County Council to establish a new skills strategy for the area including launching the Bucks Skills Show
  • Highlighted the three Enterprise Zones at Silverstone, Westcott and Woodlands
  • Their investment in infrastructure and innovation
  • Their support of the England’s Economic Heartland programme
  • What could be expected for the year ahead

 

Mr Harrington responded to Members questions as follows:

 

A Member asked how the LEP were bringing work and employment into urban areas and also the support to those in urban areas with start-up premises.  Mr Hussain also mentioned the high housing costs driving residents away.  Mr Harrington responded that the Strategic Economic Plan town centre regeneration was very much at the heart of the strategy.  Mr Harrington mentioned that he had previously commissioned a number of master plans for Aylesbury and Wycombe and there were conversations with government agencies about deflecting their resources into local communities.  Mr Harrington stated that when the LEP started their programme the money was available essentially for roads and skills capital.  This had now broadened out to business incubation space.  He stated that they had also invested in various spaces to allow businesses access on flexible terms.

 

A Member asked what Mr Harrington’s thoughts were on the entrepreneurial academic and the entrepreneurial local councillor.  Mr Harrington responded by saying that he were a big fan of entrepreneurship.  He commented that they were working closely with the University of Buckingham which was the first privately run university in the country and has an entrepreneurial programme where the students start businesses, not just from a purely academic point of view but also a practical one.

 

Mr Harrington confirmed that he would be attending County Council on a regular basis to update Members.

 

In response to a question on the Oxfordshire to Cambridge expressway route, Mr Harrington confirmed that the LEP supported the position of the County Council in respect to the Southern option. 

 

Mr Harrington also stated that there were ongoing conversations with Home England regarding infrastructure requirements due to possible growth in the area. If invited to those conversations they could support them and bring more resource that might address some of the issues.

 

Mr Harrington was thanked for his presentation.

7.

Annual Report of the Select Committees pdf icon PDF 2 MB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Mrs Birchley introduced the Annual Report of the Select Committees and asked the Chairman of each committee if they had anything to add to the report.

 

Finance, Performance and Resources

Mr D Watson had nothing further to add.

 

Transport, Environment and Communities

Mr D Carroll thanked the team for their work.  He also thanked Mr S Lambert for chairing the Modern Slavery inquiry.

 

Health and Adult Social Care

Mr B Roberts thanked the committee for their work and Julia Wassell for leading the item on Mental Health.  Mr Roberts also thanked Mrs E Wheaton, Committee and Governance Advisor, for her advice and support to the committee. 

 

In response to a question about how the Committee could focus its activity, Mr Roberts stated that the health service was indeed a complicated area and that this was something that was under ongoing review and discussion with the Committee.

 

Children’s Social Care and Learning

Mr D Dhillon thanked Members of the committee and officers for their support.  He also thanked those that had attended various select committees to give evidence including young people.  Mr Dhillon stated that a Permanent Exclusion Inquiry was concluding and would be reported on shortly.

 

RESOLVED:  Council NOTED the Annual Report of the Select Committees

 

8.

Proposal for additional spending on Highways pdf icon PDF 344 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Mr Tett introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

 

  • The County Council recognised that the current state of the roads was not of an acceptable standard.
  • The adverse weather conditions recently experienced had had a huge impact on the state of the roads and the ability to carry out repairs.
  • Mr Tett highlighted that over the last seven years £120m capital funding had been spent on resurfacing roads and that those resurfaced roads stood up better to bad weather.
  • Mr Tett confirmed that a revenue fund had been assembled.  This would normally be £2m but had also been supplemented by £1m additional funding from government as a result of lobbying, releasing £1.2m from the Council’s reserves and £0.5m devolved funding to Members that Mr Tett strongly urged Members to target on local repairs within their divisions.  By prioritising funding in Transport an additional £0.3m had been released, which brought the total fund to £5m.
  • The £5m would be revenue funding which allowed it to be released quickly so that works could start straight away.
  • This funding was in addition to the £15m agreed in February for resurfacing.
  • Mr Tett stated that while this additional funding was welcomed, it would still not be enough to reach the expectations of residents.

 

Mr Tett proposed the motion which was seconded by Mr M Shaw.

 

Members raised the following comments and questions:

 

A Member commented that any extra funding as part of the HS2 programme would be important and that although Members had a budget for their local area this was still a limited amount which made prioritising works difficult.  Mention was also made of the importance of the County’s footpaths being up to standard. 

 

A Member commended the team for doing a fantastic job over the winter months with the resources available to them.  Members were urged to formally go back to Central Government for more funding overall.

 

A Member highlighted the need for the works to be carried out in a more systematic way and for the works to be supervised in order to ensure that the money was being used in the most efficient way.

 

A Member raised the issue that while repairs had been carried out, some were less than satisfactory and there was a need for these to be supervised.

 

Mr Tett responded to Members comments as summarised below:

 

  • Mr Tett urged Members to advise residents to report any potholes - the Council can’t take action unless reported.
  • The debate with HS2 was ongoing.
  • HGVs caused the most damage to the County’s roads.
  • Even though £5m was a substantial amount it still wasn’t enough and that more money was required from capital to spend on resurfacing.
  • The programme of works would ensure joined up working so that the money was spent effectively.

 

The report set out the following recommendation:

 

Recommendation

It is recommended that £1.234m of funds from the General Fund is combined with the existing service budgets, member devolved budgets, DfT funding, to create a £5m programme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Cabinet Members' Reports pdf icon PDF 760 KB

To note the written report of Cabinet Members, and any written questions & responses received.

 

To receive any additional verbal updates from Cabinet Members on their reports, as well as provide an opportunity for any oral questions from Members.

 

A Leader of the Council

B Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transportation

C Cabinet Member for Community Engagement & Public Health

D Cabinet Member for Planning & Environment

E Cabinet Member for Resources

F Cabinet Member for Children’s Services

G Cabinet Member for Health & Wellbeing

H Cabinet Member for Education & Skills

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Leader

 

In response to Members questions the following comments were made:

  • The leader was asked if the County Council were doing all they could in terms of recycling.  Mr Tett confirmed that not only did he Chair the LGA Economy, Environment, Housing & Transport Board but that he also took a personal interest in the issue.  He confirmed that they had just received the 25 year Environment Strategy from the Secretary of State for Defra which they had supported.  Mr Tett also highlighted the high rate of recycling at the County Council and the ambition to drive that rate up even further.
  • Mr Tett responded to a question regarding residents and business owners being unable to access superfast broadband across Aylesbury town centre and the role the County played in Connected Counties.  Mr Tett confirmed that Connected Counties and the County Council would only subsidise non-commercial areas which would not include Aylesbury.  Mr Tett highlighted that the county had reached 90% coverage for residents and they were working with district colleagues in order to get that to 95%, however reaching 100% had its challenges, in particular in rural areas.  Mr Tett also highlighted that they were in discussion with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) looking at a series of trials of techniques for closing the gap.  A lot of focus had also been on fiber and there was a need to move more focus on cellular as more and more people communicated via their mobile phones.
  • A Member suggested that those companies working towards 100% recycling could be invited to a summit in the County to share their ideas and progress.  Mr Tett supported this suggestion.

 

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transportation

 

Mr Shaw updated Members that he had addressed TfB workers at a recent conference and thanked in person those that had helped with the winter maintenance.  Members stated that residents were also grateful for the updates on social media.

 

A Member asked if the money had been recovered for the damage to the bridges on the A40 at Denham and at Marlow.  Mr Shaw confirmed that they were still waiting on full and final payment from the company responsible.

 

A Member highlighted the need for footpath maintenance and Mr Shaw stated that there had been budget put aside for capital works over the next 4 years.

 

Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health

 

Mr Brown highlighted the following:

 

  • He thanked the Registration Service for their recent dedication to keep services going during the recent adverse weather. Members of the team had gone over and above in ensuring weddings still took place
  • A new Mental Health support service was being created in schools to help support young people
  • the success of the Community Organising in East Wycombe.  Mr Brown highlighted the importance of Members getting involved.

 

Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment

Mr Chapple highlighted the following:

10.

Notices of Motion

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Minutes:

There were none

 

11.

Member Development Events - Information Only pdf icon PDF 214 KB

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Minutes:

RESOLVED: Council NOTED the report

12.

Cabinet Member Decisions Taken - Information Only pdf icon PDF 254 KB

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Minutes:

RESOLVED: Council NOTED the report

13.

Date of Next Meeting

Thursday 17 May 2018 at 9.30am in The Oculus, AVDC, Gatehouse Way, Aylesbury.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

17 May, 9.30am at The Oculus, Aylesbury.