Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Oculus, Buckinghamshire Council, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury HP19 8FF. View directions

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

Media

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors Baldwin, Bass, Baughan, Birchley, Butcher, Chhokar, Clarke OBE, Collingwood, Gaffney, Griffin, Hollis, Maz Hussain, Jones, Kelly, I Macpherson, Mohammed, Morgan, Naylor, Poll, W Raja, Rush, Southworth, Stanier Bt, Thompson, Waite, Wallace, Wassell and Watson. Apologies were also received from the Lord Lieutenant, Lady Howe.

1a

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Tribute was paid to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II who had passed away on 8 September 2022.  Following a period of mourning, her State Funeral had been held at Westminster Abbey on 19 September 2022.

 

Members were informed that on behalf of the Council and the residents of Buckinghamshire, the Chairman of the Council had immediately sent sympathies to King Charles and the Royal Family after hearing the sad news. The Chairman highlighted the overwhelming response from people across Buckinghamshire and Council staff in attending and arranging memorial services, vigils, spaces to place tributes and setting up books of condolences.

 

Members then observed a two-minute silence in memory of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 158 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor S Broadbent clarified that in relation to item 7, Cabinet Member reports, within the discussion on his report, the six-month grace period for first offences relating to Moving Traffic offences was for a first offence at a specific location only.  It was possible that subsequent offences would be prosecuted.

 

Councillor A Macpherson suggested that in relation to item 7, Cabinet Member reports, within the discussion on her report, specifically on Pharmaceutical Needs, the minute be amended from ‘…the Council formed a steering group’ to ‘…the Council supported the NHS to form a steering group’

 

RESOLVED:

 

That subject to the amendment above, the Minutes of the meeting held on 20 July 2022 be approved as a correct record.

3.

Declarations of Interest

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

4.

Chairman's Update

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman invited the 3 main Group Leaders – Councillors Tett, Christensen and Wilson – to each give a short statement about the late Queen Elizabeth II. Each of the Group Leaders recalled their memories of the Queen, paying tribute to her long reign, noting her numerous visits to Buckinghamshire, her outstanding public service, her unwavering, constant presence to the nation and the remarkable impact she had on so many of Buckinghamshire’s residents. In addition, sincere thanks were paid to Council staff, Members, staff of the Lord Lieutenants office, local faith leaders, partner organisations, including the fire services and police, as well as voluntary and community organisations who had worked so hard in making local, complex arrangements to mark the passing of Her Majesty and the proclamation of King Charles III. The Leader requested that the Chief Executive convey Members thanks to all staff for their work over the past fortnight.

 

On behalf of all Members, the Chairman sent congratulations to the young people of the county for the fantastic GCSE and A level results they achieved.  Buckinghamshire pupils had once again performed higher than the national average.

 

Since the last meeting of Full Council, the Chairman was proud to report that he had attended a number of events, amongst which, included attending the University of Buckingham graduation event for law students, the Buckinghamshire Army Cadet Force Visitor Day, a Citizenship Ceremony, wreath laying to commemorate VJ Day, hosting the High Commission of Barbados and St Vincent in a friendly cricket match, Buckinghamshire County Show, annual visit to Burnham Beeches and lunch at Dorney Wood, Aylesbury Hindhu Temple Trust community event, attending Aylesbury Fire Services to pay thanks on behalf of the Council for the work and efforts over the extraordinary summer weather conditions, proclamation ceremonies for King Charles III, staff memorial service for the late Queen Elizabeth II, Battle of Britain wreath laying service for the late Queen and Memorial services in both Aylesbury and High Wycombe. 

5.

Petitions

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were none.

6.

Harmonisation of skin piercing registration requirements and model Byelaws for skin piercing activities pdf icon PDF 242 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Homelessness and Regulatory Services introduced a report similar to that which was considered by the Licensing Committee on 26 July 2022, on the harmonisation of skin piercing registration requirements and model byelaws for skin piercing activities.  Members’ approval was sought for the adoption of model byelaws for the safe practice of acupuncture, tattooing, semi-permanent skin-colouring, cosmetic piercing and electrolysis across the whole Council area.

 

Currently Aylesbury, Chiltern and Wycombe legacy areas had adopted the provisions of sections 14 and 15 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982, which required the registration of businesses and persons who perform skin piercing namely tattooing, ear piercing, electrolysis and acupuncture. As part of a consolidation exercise, it was recommended that the provisions of sections 14 to 17 inclusive of the Act be adopted across the Buckinghamshire area.

 

At present, the Buckinghamshire area had existing byelaws from legacy council areas which dealt with the hygiene practices and procedures in relation to some or all of the practices of acupuncture, electrolysis, ear piercing, tattooing, cosmetic piercing (piercing of the body including the ear) and semi-permanent skin-colouring including micro pigmentation, semi-permanent make-up and temporary tattooing. However, these were not consistent across the whole of the Council area. A draft byelaw based on the consolidated set of model byelaws, which had been produced by the Department of Health, was attached at Appendix 1. It was recommended that all existing byelaws from the legacy council areas in relation to semi-permanent skin colouring and cosmetic piercing, acupuncture, ear piercing, electrolysis and tattooing or related be revoked and replaced by the consolidated set of model byelaws for the Buckinghamshire Council area.

 

If sections 14 to 17 of the Act and the consolidated byelaws were not adopted, then there may be some members of the public who would not be adequately protected from unregistered businesses. By extending the range of activities that come within the registering regime, greater protection from the transmission of blood borne virus infections would be provided and improved enforcement provisions adopted.

 

As part of the adoption and confirmation processes for byelaws, the Council would be required to publish public notices as a one-off exercise in local newspapers. Whilst the adoption and implementation processes for both the requirement to register business and byelaws would incur a cost to the Council, this would be met from within existing budgets.

 

If adopted, as well as the statutory requirements, such policy changes would be publicised on the Council’s web pages and existing businesses would be notified. Existing skin piercing businesses had already been notified of the potential change in policy as part of communication relating to the harmonisation of the registration fees.

 

If approved by Full Council, the statutory implementation process after adoption of the registration requirements would be completed, new registration requirements policies would be created/extended pending formal implementation and related byelaws for cosmetic piercing, semi-permanent skin colouring, acupuncture, ear-piercing, electrolysis and tattooing would be drawn up in line with the consolidated model byelaws. An application  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Reports from Cabinet Members pdf icon PDF 4 MB

Additional documents:

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

 

The Leader reported that he was aware of a number of social media reports in connection to the Best Western Hotel in Buckingham and its rumoured use as part of the migrant dispersal scheme. Following clarification being sought from the Home Office, confirmation had been received the day prior to this meeting that the hotel was being used as part of the scheme to accommodate up to 140 predominantly male asylum seekers. The Council would continue to seek clarification from central Government and carefully consider its options once the implications were fully understood. 

 

The Leader received comments and questions in respect of Homes for Ukraine, funding for Ukrainian guests, loan payments to other authorities, and a local issue to Buckingham.

 

The Leader explained that many host families’ six-month period of housing Ukrainian guests would be coming to an end in the coming weeks and months and this was a significant issue. The Leader was proud that Buckinghamshire had accommodated the highest number of Ukrainian guests in the country and paid thanks to hosts and staff for their efforts. Many hosts were willing to continue with arrangements, whilst some wished to cease the offering at the six-month period. Other hosts had raised concerns that the £350 per month payment from central Government was not adequate to cover their costs. The Council continued to lobby Government and the Leader had met with local MP’s and asked that they lobby the Treasury to increase the monthly payment. Work was underway to look at potential hosts who had initially volunteered and had not been matched to see if they were still willing to accommodate guests and to explore the private rental sector as an option, particularly for those guests who had found paid employment. The Council was reviewing options to support private renting such as underwriting one or two months’ worth of rent. In response to a related question, the Leader confirmed that the entirety of the Government grant to fund the scheme was accounted for and that this information could be shared with Members.

 

In relation to lending money to Thurrock Council which was in line with the Council’s approved Treasury Management Strategy, the Leader advised that whilst he would like to improve visibility of lending, inter-authority loans were underwritten by Government and no Council had previously defaulted on loan payments.

 

The Leader confirmed that he had referred the issue of hedgerows being removed at Nook Park, Great Horwood to the appropriate Corporate Director and on receipt of a full report would assess what could be done to assist residents.

 

 

Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing and Resources, Councillor John Chilver

 

The Cabinet Member highlighted the MK Job Show taking place on the 23rd and 24th September in Middleton Hall, Centre:MK. The Council would be hosting a stand to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

Questions on Notice from Members pdf icon PDF 37 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

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

9.

Report for information - Key Decisions Report pdf icon PDF 139 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

A list of decisions taken by Cabinet Members since the last Full Council meeting on 20 July 2022 were received and noted.

10.

Date of Next Meeting

Wednesday 30 November 2022 at 4pm

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The next full Council meeting was scheduled to take place on Wednesday 30 November 2022 at 4pm.