Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 21 and 30 April 2020.

RESOLVED: The minutes of the meeting held on 21 and 30 April 2020 were AGREED as an accurate record.

The following question was received from Councillor Robin Stuchbury.

“In view of the changes under the Buckinghamshire Council planning procedures to established practice in the Aylesbury Vale area, will there be any consultation with explanation to the parishes on how to best maintain an equivalent level of local representation in planning matters at committee, bearing in mind the position statements from the Buckinghamshire authority about wishing to work closely with town and parish councils? It is also the reality that many of these elected bodies will be preparing local plans presently and in the future and it would appear completely contradictory to the Council’s stated aims if these previous opportunities and rights to parishes were not reinstated at the first possible opportunity.  In addition, for the Member to call in an application under the constitution, they may have to wait for the Parish Council to meet and agree a response to an application that triggers calling-in, and the time-scale of 28 days may not be adequate to allow this due to the schedule of meetings, especially if the period includes public holidays.”

Martin Tett, Leader, clarified that Councillor Stuchbury’s question only related to the Aylesbury Vale area.  

Councillor Warren Whyte, Cabinet Member for Planning, provided the following response.

W Whyte advised that the changes to the constitution had been made and approved by the Shadow Executive and Shadow Authority in February 2020.  The rules of engagement had been inherited so the process had not changed in other areas of the County, just the Aylesbury Vale area. W Whyte clarified the call-in procedure; parish councils had the ability to call-in applications during the first 28 days of an application but they were also given a further seven days, once they were aware of the officer recommendation, to choose whether they still wished to exercise the call-in. Parish Councils had been engaged in the process, including a workshop for parish councils in December 2019; however, the training planned in March 2020 had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic which was unfortunate.  However, the council has also recently published further guidance to town and parish councils on how to engage with the planning process.  This guidance gives specific advice to town and parish councils on the changes, in some areas, to the call in process.  Online training was also available to town and parish councils.  Like all matters in the new Council, this would be kept under review.

John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Property and Assets, advised that the decision on the Bledlow Household Waste and Recycling Centre (page 28) had been deferred until at least June 2020 as it was subject to the outcome of the planning application which was due to be determined at the Strategic Sites Committee meeting on 11 June 2020. 

ACTION:   Democratic Services

RESOLVED: Cabinet NOTED the forward plan.

Martin Tett, Leader, stated that all the Cabinet Members had contributed to the Covid-19 update in the agenda pack.  M Tett advised that the impact of the pandemic had been sudden and unprecedented and had resulted in the re-prioritising and re-direction of many areas of work and staff.  A co-ordinated structure was created with the Thames Valley, Oxfordshire and Berkshire Local Resilience Forums to work collaboratively e.g. on potential storage facilities and the sourcing of personal protective equipment (PPE), in order to mitigate the effect of the pandemic on the public.  Bi-weekly communications had been emailed to approximately 200,000 residents and would continue on a weekly basis.  Work was being carried out with the care homes, supporting the vulnerable communities and with the education services to enable children to return to school.  Information had been received from the government on the new policy for testing, tracking and tracing the infection and procedures would be put in place.

Rachael Shimmin, Chief Executive, Buckinghamshire Council, added that the Covid-19 planning started in advance of the transition to the unitary council and it had been clear that the unitarisation work, in the lead up to the start of the new Buckinghamshire Council, along with the existing partnership work with the health sector, had been extremely advantageous in Buckinghamshire’s response to the pandemic.  ‘Business as usual’ had continued and the report (pages 46-50) outlined the work by each service area.  Many staff e.g. library staff, had been re-purposed to work in the community hubs.  The ‘outbreak control plan’ would be developed and reported to the Cabinet in future.

M Tett highlighted the financial implications.  Finances were being used in line with the government guidance but expenditure to protect the vulnerable had been high and the Council’s income had reduced significantly.  The Council was now entering recovery and looking to re-build the economy across Buckinghamshire.

M Tett invited the following Cabinet Members to provide an update:

Gareth Williams, Cabinet Member, Communities and Public Health

• Staff had been redeployed to work in the eight community hubs. 
• There were 3,522 ‘shielded’ people in Buckinghamshire and over 500 food parcels had been distributed since the end of March 2020.
• Approximately 1,800 volunteers had been assigned, by the Clare Foundation and Community Impact Bucks, to local community groups.
• Weekly calls were held to prioritise where funding should be used and ensure there were no gaps.
• Work was being carried out in the community hubs encompassing both public and voluntary sectors and organisations in the fields of mental health and financial insecurity in order to prioritise recovery towards those that were most vulnerable.
• A section of the Buckinghamshire Council website was dedicated to Covid-19.

Angela Macpherson, Cabinet Member for Adult Social  Care

• An enormous amount of work had taken place to support the care homes; there had been only one confirmed case of Covid-19 in the last week in the care homes.
• The Care Home Support Plan had been drafted and needed to be submitted by 29 May 2020.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To agree the confidential minutes of the meeting held on 21 April 2020.

To agree the confidential minutes of the meeting held on 21 April 2020.

RESOLVED:  The confidential minutes of the meeting held on 21 April 2020 were AGREED as an accurate record.

To resolve that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

Paragraph 3 - Information relating to the financial or business affairs of

any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

Not required.

To agree the confidential minutes of the meeting held on 21 April 2020.

RESOLVED: The confidential minutes of the meeting held on 21 April 2020 were AGREED as an accurate record.

16 June 2020 at 10.00 am.

16 June 2020.