Agenda and minutes

Contact: Ian Hunt - Email: democracy@buckinghamshire.gov.uk 

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

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Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors S Adoh, K Ashman, M Baldwin, A Baughan, A Bond, Q Chaudhry, A Christensen, E Culverhouse, M Dormer, P Drayton, M Fayyaz, T Green, P Griffin, G Harris, T Hunter-Watts, Mahboob Hussain, C Jackson, N Rana, G Sandy, Sir B Stanier, and L Sullivan.  Apologies were also received from Ms D Brock, High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire.

1a

Mr Tony Mogford and Mr John Cole

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Minutes:

Tribute was paid to two past councillors, Mr Tony Mogford and Mr John Cole, who had recently passed away. The Chairman recorded sincere condolences to both families on their sad losses.

 

Mr Mogford had served on the Aylesbury Rural District Council and also been a Member of Aylesbury Vale District Council from 1974 to 1982, representing the Wendover Ward, and a County Council Member from 1970 to 1985 representing Aylesbury Rural No.5 (Wendover) Division. 

 

Mr Mogford had been the first ever Chairman of Aylesbury Vale District Council in 1974-76.  For 35 years he had been chairman of Wendover Community Trust (now the Lionel Abel Smith Trust).  In 1999 he had received the MBE for education, and work in the community of Buckinghamshire. 

 

Mr John Cole had been a Member of Aylesbury Vale District Council from 1999 to 2003 representing the Wendover Ward, who during his time on the Council sat on the Development, Economic Development and Environment Scrutiny Committee. 

 

Members then observed a minute`s silence in memory of Tony Mogford and John Cole.

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 612 KB

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Minutes:

Councillor S Wilson stated that the previous minutes in respect of item 9, Capital Investment Strategy, did not mention some of the points he had raised during the debate. Councillor Wilson had highlighted to the Cabinet Member the need to understand the assumptions made behind Growth and democratic changes in Buckinghamshire as noted in section 2.2 of the relevant report. Councillor Wilson stated he had also mentioned that most of the forecast growth from 551,000 to 567,000 in 2033 would take place in the Aylesbury area. The current Local Plan indicated housing growth of 46,500 and an estimated population increase from 567,000 to 638,000 which he believed to be inaccurate figures on which to base the Capital Investment Strategy.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 23 February 2022 be approved as a correct record subject to the above change.

 

3.

Declarations of Interest

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Minutes:

Councillor R Carington declared a personal interest in agenda item 13, specifically the notice of motion on food poverty, as a trustee of the Buckinghamshire Food Partnership.

 

Councillor T Dixon declared a personal interest in agenda item 13, specifically the notice of motion on food poverty, as a trustee of the Aylesbury Food Bank.

 

Councillor S Raja declared a personal interest in agenda item 13, specifically the notice of motion on food poverty, as a trustee of the One Can Trust.

4.

Chairman's Update

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Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed the appointment in April 2022 of the new High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, Ms D Brock, succeeding the previous High Sheriff, Mr G Anson.  The Chairman wished Ms Brock well in the role. The Chairman reported that he had continued to be involved with the Council’s tree planting initiatives and in March had attended Billett Fields, Black Park along with Councillors Harriss, Strachan, Jordan and Matthews on a day where 500 trees had been planted. Over 3,500 had been planted on that site in total.

 

The Chairman advised that the Chairman’s church service had been held in Hambleden on 6 March and had been very well attended. The Chairman placed his thanks on record to the Reverend for allowing the event to happen and to all those who had attended.

 

The end of year Chairman’s reception was scheduled for 9 May and invites for the event had been issued, the Chairman welcomed Members to attend where possible.

 

The Chairman also reported that he had been given a tour of the Princes Centre, in Princes Risborough, and recognized the hard work of staff and volunteers in making the centre, which looked after elderly residents and adults with learning difficulties and mental health issues, the great place it had become.  

5.

Petitions

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Minutes:

There were none.

6.

Corporate Plan Refresh pdf icon PDF 189 KB

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Minutes:

Buckinghamshire Council’s Corporate Plan set out what the Council wanted to achieve and how this would be done, addressing the challenges faced and harnessing opportunities as they presented themselves.

 

The current plan had been approved in February 2020.  A light-touch review of it had been undertaken to reflect key events and changes in priorities since the drafting of the plan in 2019/20.  The revised plan reflected the impact of the pandemic on the Council’s priorities, together with other key developments such as new national legislation.

 

The Leader introduced a draft of the refreshed Corporate Plan that could be seen attached at Appendix 1 to the Council report.  The plan was intended to cover the period until 2025, in accordance with the current Council term, and would continue to be subject to an annual refresh.  The review and refresh also accorded with recommendation 1 of the 2022 Budget Scrutiny Inquiry to review the Corporate Plan prior to the end of the financial year.

 

During the debate, Members highlighted the following points:

  • Members supported the Corporate Plan refresh and encouraged wider engagement with members on future refreshes of the plan to ensure it covered all areas adequately.
  • it was suggested that the refresh of the Corporate Plan would have been beneficial for members of the Budget Scrutiny Inquiry Group to have seen prior to the undertaking of the budget scrutiny exercise.  The national uncertainties and pressures residents faced including high inflation were raised and a member expressed dissatisfaction with the way population figures had to be calculated for different strategies of the Council which meant that figures could appear inconsistent across published documents.
  • that they welcomed close working with Town and Parish Councils and requested more detail as to how this would happen.
  • The Leader highlighted that the Corporate Plan was a living document that would continue to evolve and reflect the economy and challenges Buckinghamshire faced as it continued the journey out of the covid pandemic. There were detailed metrics that underpinned each of the action plans within the Corporate Plan and Town and Parish Councils were recognised as key partners who the council would continue to work closely with.

 

The Leader moved the recommendation to adopt the Corporate Plan for the period 2020-25. This was seconded by Councillor D Barnes.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the refreshed Corporate Plan for the period 2020-25 be ADOPTED.

7.

Homelessness Strategy pdf icon PDF 233 KB

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Minutes:

The Transitional Arrangements No.2 Regulations 2008 required a new Buckinghamshire Council Homelessness Strategy to be in place by 1 April 2022.  Following delays arising from the pandemic and service restructure, work had been undertaken to develop a new draft strategy for consideration and adoption.  The Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities had been updated and notified of the timetable for adopting the Strategy by the end of April 2022.

 

The Cabinet Member for Housing, Homelessness and Regulatory Services reported that the Strategy would replace the existing legacy Councils Strategies.  A series of stakeholder events had been held during November and December.  A draft of the Strategy had been considered by Cabinet in February 2022 and had then been subject to a public consultation process from 21 February to 21 March.  The consultation had generated a total of 28 responses, which had shown a very high and consistent level of support for the draft strategy.

 

Following the completion of the public consultation exercise, the Council had reviewed the draft Strategy document and made a small number of amendments and additions to it.  No changes had been made to the key themes and priorities. A small number of areas had been expanded to provide clarification in response to feedback and a small number of additional actions had been included in the Action Plan to provide more details and reflect comments received during the consultation.

 

A copy of the Buckinghamshire Council Homelessness Strategy 2022-2025 was included with the agenda, and comprised of the following sections:

Appendix 1 – A strategy document setting out key findings and the high level priorities and action plan going forward.

Appendix 2 – An evidence base showing the current position including key information on housing and homelessness in Buckinghamshire and emerging themes and challenges. This document also includes a summary of the stakeholder consultation exercise that took place to support preparation of the strategy

 

The Strategy had been assembled to provide an overview of the current and future homelessness situation in Buckinghamshire and high level priorities and actions for the next three years 2022 – 2025.  It would be reviewed annually to ensure that it was fit for purpose.  Once adopted, the Council would move forward in updating and revising its existing Homelessness Service Operational Action Plans which sat beneath the Strategy and set out the detail of how the Council and its partners would operationally deliver the priorities in the strategy.

 

During the debate, points highlighted included:

  • that partners had been widely consulted on the strategy.  Thanks were expressed to those Members who had attended the Members forum on housing and homelessness and who had made comments which had helped inform the strategy. The figures in the report highlighted the issues Buckinghamshire faced and all those involved with the rough sleepers initiative were applauded for the significant work undertaken since Buckinghamshire became a unitary authority. During 2019/20, an 86% decrease in rough sleepers in Buckinghamshire was seen, which was the second highest in the country. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Electoral Review of Buckinghamshire pdf icon PDF 243 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (LGBCE) had held a consultation on the second stage of the electoral review of Buckinghamshire Council seeking views on a pattern of wards that should apply from the 2025 local election.

 

This followed the previous consultation on ‘council size’ by the LGBCE. The Commission was minded to recommend a membership of 98 councillors so proposals were therefore being sought on a pattern of Wards equivalent (so far as possible) to that number of Councillors.  As the ‘council size’ was determined at an earlier stage of the Commission’s process, this question could not be re-opened.

 

While the second stage of the consultation had run until 4 April the LGBCE had confirmed that it would be willing for full Council to formally to approve a submission at its scheduled meeting on 27 April.  However, the LGBCE had requested a draft proposal by the end of 4 April and as delegated by Council, a draft submission was made to the Commission by the Standards & General Purposes Committee on 30 March 2022.  The draft submission was included as Appendix 1 to this Council report.  The Committee had recommended to Council to endorse the draft submission as the Council’s formal submission.

 

In arriving at a draft submission, the Committee had been supported by a cross-party Electoral Review Working Group of the Committee.  The Group met twice during February and March to work up the broad set of draft proposals for consideration by the Committee. The draft proposal was agreed by Committee on 17 March.  Prior to this, the LGBCE had been invited to deliver briefings to all Buckinghamshire Councillors, and to Parish and Town Councils.

 

The next formal phase of the review would be the consultation by the Commission on its proposed way forward.  If Recommendation 2 was approved by Council, the Committee would intend that the Electoral Review Working Group would continue throughout the next phases of the review to advise the Committee.

 

In arriving at its draft submission, the Committee had regard to the LGBCE’s published guidance and the three statutory criteria for determining a pattern of wards, namely:

(i)                 Delivering electoral equality for local voters - given the total forecast electorate of 443,064 by 2027, the average number of electors per councillor, for this review, is 1 councillor per 4,521 electors. The Committee had therefore sought to keep within +/- 10% of that notional figure.

(ii)               Reflecting the interests and identities of local communities.

(iii)             Promoting effective and convenient local government.

 

The Committee had proposed a pattern of 50 Wards based, largely, on two-member representation for each Ward, achieving 98 councillors overall.  The draft submission was at Appendix 1.  This gave a list of proposed wards and their names together with maps showing them, plus the underlying electorate data.

 

The Committee had been mindful that ‘one size’ did not fit all which had resulted in a proposal that includes a mix of one- and two-member representation per ward.  In certain cases, the existing Ward  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Recorded Vote
TitleTypeRecorded Vote textResult
Item 8: Electoral Review of Buckinghamshire Resolution Carried
  • View Recorded Vote for this item
  • 9.

    Review of the Constitution pdf icon PDF 228 KB

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    Minutes:

    Under section 9P of the Local Government Act 2000 the Council was required to prepare and keep up to date a Constitution containing the standing orders of the Council and such other information as was required or was desirable.  On 27 February 2020 Buckinghamshire Council Shadow Authority had adopted the Buckinghamshire Council Constitution to have effect from 1 April 2020. The constitution had been reviewed in April 2021.

     

    The power to change the Constitution was reserved to full Council via recommendation from the Standards and General Purposes Committee.  The Monitoring Officer also had delegated authority to make amendments to ensure the Council conducted itself lawfully, and to make minor amendments where appropriate.

     

    A Constitution Members Working Group consisting of the Chairmen and Vice-chairmen of both the Audit and Governance Committee and the Standards and General Purposes Committee had met a number of times to consider proposed changes and provide initial comments to help inform the review of the Constitution as required by full Council.  Feedback from appropriate members and officers to the proposals had also been obtained.  The proposals for changes to the Constitution (Appendix 1 to the Council report) had been submitted to the Audit and Governance Committee on 22 March 2022 and then the Standards and General Purposes Committee on 14 April 2022.  The appendix also included comments made in relation to the proposals.

     

    The changes were set out in principle in Appendix 1 to allow drafting of the proposed changes to take account of member feedback, further legal input or ensure other affected parts of the Constitution can be amended accordingly.

     

    During the debate, points highlighted included:

    • The incorporation of Community Boards Terms of Reference into the Constitution which would reflect the current best practices from their first two years of operation. It was raised that the sixteen boards all operated in slightly different ways so the Terms of Reference would provide a base set of rules and regulations which the Constitution Members Working Group would review prior to approval.
    • There was a concern raised around Members being permitted to ask only one question of Cabinet within the Cabinet procedure rules as this was not conducive to holding Cabinet Members to account.
    • There was a further concern around permitting the Chairman of the Council to remove items from the agenda as this could affect the level of democracy in meetings, although it was clarified that this would be in special circumstances, such as when a meeting ran significantly over time.
    • Council was reminded that the Constitution Members Working Group would meet to review all officer wording prior to any change being put forward to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion in the Constitution.

     

    Councillor T Broom moved the three recommendations as noted in the report. These were seconded by Councillor R Newcombe.

     

    RESOLVED –

     

    (1)               That the changes to the Constitution be APPROVED, as detailed at Appendix 1 to the Council report.

    (2)               That authority be delegated to the Monitoring Officer to determine the final amendments in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

    10.

    Scrutiny Annual Report pdf icon PDF 198 KB

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    Minutes:

    Members considered the Annual reports authored by each of the 6 Chairmen of the Select Committees which reflected on the work and the outcomes achieved over the past year. The reports detailed and examined the role and the key areas of work undertaken by each of the Select Committees together with its future programmes of work. The information was provided at Appendix 1 to the Council report.

     

    The six Select Committees the Council operated were Children’s and Education, Communities and Localism, Finance and Resources, Growth, Infrastructure and Housing, Health and Adult Social Care and Transport, Environment and Climate Change. In addition to reviewing key areas of work at each of their meetings, Committees responded to consultations, questioned external partners, and held a number of inquiries and rapid reviews to help drive improvements. These included the Budget Scrutiny inquiry, an ongoing inquiry in to primary care networks across Buckinghamshire and rapid reviews in to Community Boards, Member engagement in planning and Social Worker recruitment and retention. 

     

    Councillor R Bagge, Chairman of the Finance and Resources Committee presented the report and commented that the Council operated a very robust scrutiny framework holding the Executive to account and that the process at Buckinghamshire was highly regarded by other councils, and by the LGA.  He took the opportunity to express his thanks to the Cabinet Members and officers for their time and for answering, often challenging questions regarding the scrutiny function.

     

    RESOLVED –

     

    That the Annual Report of the Select Committees for 2021-2022 be noted.

    11.

    Audit and Governance Annual Report pdf icon PDF 723 KB

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    Minutes:

    Councillor R Newcombe, Chairman of the Audit and Governance Committee introduced the annual report prepared to inform the Council of the work carried out by the Council’s Audit and Governance Committee during the 2021/22 financial year. The content and presentation of this report met the requirements of the CIPFA Audit Committees Guidance 2018 to report to full Council on a regular basis on the Committee’s performance in relation to the terms of reference and the effectiveness of the Committee in meeting its purpose.

     

    The report included information:

    -                     That the Committee had met six times during the year.

    -                     That the Risk Management Group, a sub-group of the Audit and Governance Committee, had met seven times during the financial year to review the strategic and key directorate risks facing the authority and the internal controls and governance in place to manage those risks to demonstrate how risk management is embedded within Services.

    -                     On the Committee’s Work Programme which sought to look at levels of risk and the priorities of the Council in then approving the programme audit and assurance work undertaken in the highest risk areas.  For example, the Audit Manager had continued leading on the assurance arrangements over the Covid-19 grants received by Buckinghamshire Council, and the Investigations Team have assisted with the controls over the payments of business grants.

    -                     That throughout the year, the Committee had continued to receive valued professional reports, support and advice from Corporate Finance, Treasury Management, Risk Management, Procurement, Internal Audit and from our External Auditors.

    -                     That the Committee was responsible for approving and monitoring the Council’s Whistleblowing Policy, Anti-Fraud and Corruption Policy and Money Laundering Policy, as well as approving the Council’s Financial Statements and Annual Governance Statement.

    -                     That the Committee approved the terms of reference for Internal Audit (Internal Audit Charter), the Business Assurance Strategy including the Annual Internal Audit Plan, and the Counter Fraud Plan.

    -                     That the Committee provided challenge to the external auditors to ensure the Council was receiving value for money.  There had been increased requirements put on external auditors by the Financial Reporting on Council in recent years following some failures within both the public and private sector which had compounded the delay.  This had been part of that reason that only 9% of authorities across the country completed their accounts by the due date.

    -                     That during 2021/22 the Committee had considered a motion, referred by full Council, relating the Climate Change risk management.  It had been agreed by the committee that the Council had already acknowledged the importance of climate change and that the Strategic Risk Register already reflected the risks to the Council’s responsibilities associated with climate change.

    -                     That the Committee undertook the scrutiny role for the development of the Treasury Management strategy prior to its presentation to Council for approval. It received mid-term and annual reports on the extent of compliance with the approved Treasury Management strategy and an analysis of the performance against the targets set.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

    12.

    Reports from Cabinet Members pdf icon PDF 1 MB

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    Minutes:

    Members received reports from Cabinet Members. There was an opportunity for members to ask questions of individual Cabinet Members about matters and issues affecting their portfolios.

     

    Leader of the Council, Councillor Martin Tett

    Members paid tribute to the work of the Leader, Chief Executive and Officers for their work in making the Helping Hand for Ukraine project such a success. The response was said to have been outstanding and the Council was an exemplar in its efforts to welcome refugees and support Ukraine.

     

    The Leader thanked the officer team for their fantastic work, this included the Chief Executive who chaired weekly meetings with the Council’s important partners. Homes of those welcoming refugees were being fully inspected, relevant checks were undertaken, detailed welcome packs in English, Ukrainian and Russian had been made available, and refugees were being supported in accessing bank accounts, schooling and English language classes. Many of the Ukrainians already in Buckinghamshire were very keen on entering employment and links were made with Buckinghamshire Business First to liaise with local employers and support as best they can.

     

     

    Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment, Councillor Peter Strachan

    Councillor Strachan received questions on Wycombe bin collections and green waste charge and carbon reduction.

     

    Members were advised that the collection routes had been revised to provide a more agile, efficient system. The new rounds would commence in May and those residents who would be affected had been informed. The Cabinet Member confirmed that residents would be made fully aware of green waste charges being introduced and agreed to report back to an individual Member around the legality of introducing charges within the Wycombe waste contract that was entered prior to the unitary authority coming in to being.

     

    Councillor Strachan also invited a Member to contact him with any query relating to the last report of the IPCC and how this impacted Buckinghamshire.

     

     

    Cabinet Member for Communities, Councillor Steve Bowles

    Councillor A Hussain, Deputy Cabinet Member for Community Safety presented the report in Councillor Bowles absence and received questions on the voluntary sector grants member working group and the household support fund.

     

    Councillor Hussain agreed that either he or Councillor Bowles would contact an individual Member to advise of the progress on the formation of the cross party voluntary sector grants member working group.

     

    The Leader responded in relation to the household support fund explaining that a report would be presented to Cabinet, it was anticipated that the expected £2.4m would be received by the Council relatively quickly and would be of great support to residents in significant financial difficulty. The Leader was confident that all of these funds would be used by the set deadline of 30 September 2022.

     

     

     

    Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Councillor Clive Harriss

    Councillor Harriss received questions and comments on the potential for a Bernwood to Oxfordshire cycleway, the Playing Pitch Strategy, Court Garden Leisure Centre, and trees planted in Buckingham.

     

    The Cabinet Member advised that it remained an aspiration to have a cycleway running to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

    13.

    Notices of Motion pdf icon PDF 167 KB

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    Minutes:

    (i)                 Food Poverty

     

    The original motion was proposed by Councillor Melanie Smith and seconded by Councillor Robin Stuchbury as set out below.

     

    “This Council believes that no family or child living in a fair society should rely on food banks to offset low income and economic hardship.  These views are shared throughout the local authority and elected members.

     

    Council calls on Cabinet to use its influence with national government to gain additional funding to implement the 14 recommendations of the National Food Strategy of July 2021, and to urgently establish a task and finish group with a cross-portfolio brief and including cross party members to analyse the current situation and to make recommendations of action to mitigate any worsening of circumstances for our residents.

     

    As part of the task and finish group Cabinet should ensure:

    ·                     that a named cabinet member is assigned to lead on this study.

    ·                     the cabinet member receives the support and resources to complete the task.

    ·                     the cabinet member provides regular updates to all members on progress.

    ·                     the group produce a report detailing their findings and making recommendations for action.

    ·                     the report is completed in 3 months including recommendations for action and details of costings.

    ·                     the report is disseminated to all members.

    ·                     as part of the follow up, local members are consulted about the next steps.”

     

    An amendment to the motion was proposed by Councillor M Tett, seconded by Councillor G Williams, and accepted by the proposer and seconder of the original motion.  The amendment was then put to the meeting as the substantive motion. The wording of the amendment was:

     

    “This Council believes that no family or child living in a fair society should rely on food banks to offset low income and economic hardship. These views are shared throughout the local authority and elected members.

     

    Council calls on Cabinet to:

    -                 use its influence with national government to ask them to consider gain additional funding to implement the 14 recommendations of the National Food Strategy of July 2021, whilst recognising that their full implementation are issues for national, not local government and would require a significant extra financial expenditure which would need to be funded.

    -                 recognise and congratulate the Government on its many initiatives towards supporting local Buckinghamshire people during the current cost of living pressures. These include:

     

    o   Raising the national Minimum Wage

    o   Increasing taper relief so that working people on Universal Credit can retain more of their additional income

    o   Reducing Fuel Duty on petrol and diesel

    o   Raising the threshold at which people start paying National Insurance

    o   Providing £150 per household in Bands A to D to help towards increased energy costs

    o   Providing Buckinghamshire Council with £2.4m for additional Household Support. This will enable us to help with food, energy, water bills, other essential costs and in exceptional circumstances, rent.

    o   Providing Buckinghamshire Council with an extra £1.2 government grant. This will enable us to pay £150 to households  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

    14.

    Questions on Notice from Members pdf icon PDF 933 KB

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    Minutes:

    The written responses to questions from Members, published as a supplement to the agenda were noted.

    15.

    Report for information - Key Decisions Report pdf icon PDF 216 KB

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    Minutes:

    A list of decisions taken by Cabinet Members since the last Full Council meeting on 25 February 2022 were received and noted.

    16.

    Date of Next Meeting

    Annual Meeting – Wednesday 18 May 2022 at 4pm

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    Minutes:

    The next full Council meeting was scheduled to take place on Wednesday 20 July 2022 at 4pm. The annual meeting of Council would be taking place on Wednesday 18th May 2022 at 4pm.