Agenda item
Minutes:
The following hot topics were raised:-
Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing
The impact of the Autumn Statement 2022 would need to be looked at following the announcement on Thursday including social care reforms. Social Care was a big part of the cost pressures which Councils were facing nationally.
Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment
An award was received from Chiltern Rangers to the Council on the outstanding contribution to conservation. The Council had worked very hard on the Local Nature Recovery Strategy and other areas such as tree planting (140,000 trees) and improving chalk streams. The Team were congratulated by Cabinet Members.
Cabinet Member for Accessible Housing and Resources
The new County-wide Revenue and Benefits System went live on 20 October 2022 which covered benefits, council tax and business rates. The new system should deliver significant savings and residents were encouraged to register for an online account so that they could view and update their details easily and quickly.
https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/council-tax/
Cabinet Member for Transport
Reference was made to traffic issues on A413 coming into Aylesbury which was due to failed lights, an officer had been called to resolve the traffic management issue from the utility company who had to resort to stop and go boards. There was also some emergency work being undertaken near Stoke Mandeville by utilities which also impacted the area.
He also referred to being successful in the largest ever single bid for electric vehicle charging. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles had fully funded the bid of £400,000 which allowed the service area to push forward on their EV Strategy to have a 1,000 publically accessible points. The Leader welcomed this and commented that the UK had the biggest sales of electric vehicles out of any European Country. It was therefore important for Councils to help facilitate the provision of infrastructure to reduce the number of carbon producing vehicles.
Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services.
The Service Area had won a national award for the best local offer. The National Association of Family Information Services presented the award which was a digital based offer to help families trying to access information about services, including special needs. The Team were congratulated by Cabinet Members.
Cabinet Member for Communities
25th November would mark White Ribbon Day to end male violence against women. Communication around the campaign would include advertising on the radio and the success of the campaign would be analysed by the take up of support services on the Council and partnership websites.
Leader
The Leader also made reference to the Autumn Statement which would impact on the Council’s planning assumptions with regard to building the budget for next year and years beyond that. Normally the Council would have some clarity around budget setting but this year there was uncertainty about the impact of the Autumn statement, particularly in the area of social care reforms. Officers would be analysing the impact on the Council. In addition the Leader made reference to the cost of living crisis and the Council was helping the Government in rolling out their local support which included the Helping Hand Programme to help residents who were struggling.