Agenda item

Question from Councillor Michael Bracken to Councillor Peter Strachan, Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration

My question follows a period in which I have been seeking to advise and assist a number of residents impacted by construction and planning issues in a particular location. The underlying issues are complex and clearly difficult to address and include:-

·       prolonged and delayed construction project including multiple changes of contractors and project managers;

·       repeated disruptions to access residences either because of deliveries or of inconsiderate behaviour and the parking of vehicles blocking access;

·       poor site management practices which took no account of their impact both causing detritus, dust and noise through to outright damage to neighbouring properties and possible planning breaches requiring investigation;

·       additional wear and tear to public roads and pavements including damage caused by deliveries and equipment;

·       noise disruption including construction work at unreasonable hours such as weekends and bank holidays; In particular residents were dismayed at around the time of public examinations where students had their ability to study and work on revision harmed or constrained; and

·       light pollution at the site including through the night  directly into neighbouring properties. This arose from both construction lighting as well as what appears to be a permanent feature of the new property which was not considered at the time of planning.

May I ask you to consider reviewing the impact of problematic construction projects on residents and in particular:-

·       consider the instances of problematic construction projects and whether this may be a category which should receive additional attention. For example consider the tracking of issues which are reported to our various departments, functions and to the extent that we are aware, external agencies; and

·       as we look to continue to improve our Website to review the advice and guidance available to residents when faced with a problematic construction project. Specifically it can be difficult for residents to know to which department or function either in the council or separate government agencies they should properly raise issues and the mechanism to do so.

Question from Councillor Robin Stuchbury to Councillor Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services

Many of our secondary schools are oversubscribed, I understand that this includes The Buckingham school with classes containing over 30 pupils. Are there any figures available for Buckinghamshire regarding school places by catchment area/secondary school to better understand how the education authority is managing the growth within the community?

If these figures are available, do they include any children who have to travel out of their catchment area to obtain a school place which could be detrimental to the Council’s aspiration to lower its carbon footprint and which also incurs a cost to parents and/or the Council’s home to school transport budget?

Members would also benefit from understanding capacity and vacancy figures for primary schools given the significant growth in Buckinghamshire, particularly the north of the county.

The following responses to the Cabinet questions were noted:-

Question from Councillor Michael Bracken to Councillor Peter Strachan, Cabinet Member for Planning and Regeneration

“My question follows a period in which I have been seeking to advise and assist a number of residents impacted by construction and planning issues in a particular location. The underlying issues are complex and clearly difficult to address and include:-

• prolonged and delayed construction project including multiple changes of contractors and project managers;
• repeated disruptions to access residences either because of deliveries or of inconsiderate behaviour and the parking of vehicles blocking access;
• poor site management practices which took no account of their impact both causing detritus, dust and noise through to outright damage to neighbouring properties and possible planning breaches requiring investigation;
• additional wear and tear to public roads and pavements including damage caused by deliveries and equipment;
• noise disruption including construction work at unreasonable hours such as weekends and bank holidays; In particular residents were dismayed at around the time of public examinations where students had their ability to study and work on revision harmed or constrained; and
• light pollution at the site including through the night directly into neighbouring properties. This arose from both construction lighting as well as what appears to be a permanent feature of the new property which was not considered at the time of planning.

May I ask you to consider reviewing the impact of problematic construction projects on residents and in particular:-

• consider the instances of problematic construction projects and whether this may be a category which should receive additional attention. For example, consider the tracking of issues which are reported to our various departments, functions and to the extent that we are aware, external agencies; and
• as we look to continue to improve our Website to review the advice and guidance available to residents when faced with a problematic construction project. Specifically it can be difficult for residents to know to which department or function either in the council or separate government agencies they should properly raise issues and the mechanism to do so.”

RESPONSE from Councillor Strachan

The Council provides a number of services which investigate issues occurring at construction sites in its area and have powers to pursue formal action where such issues breach either local requirements (such as planning permission details) or national legislation (such as highways). Due to the large array of potential issues that could occur at a construction site (planning, highways, noise, light, dust, Health & Safety), and therefore the complexity of legislation involved, it would be difficult to address all the possible scenarios within a single team. Therefore whilst I acknowledge that the issues you raise are likely to cause local concern, it is our job to ensure we provide a joined up response across the teams that are involved. It would be unfair to expect residents to know who within the Council to report their concerns to without us trying to provide some assistance, so we have already commenced internal team liaison meetings where we will seek to provide a guide to reporting issues with the correct team on our website.

In the meantime and in addition, I can also report that the Planning Enforcement Team have recently commenced a series of pro-active monitoring of planning conditions on larger construction sites. We are piloting a series of development sites across Buckinghamshire of 10 or more units and will be investigating the compliance with pre-commencement conditions. This will include desktop investigations as well as our on-site presence to monitor and enforce compliance with imposed planning conditions such as the provision of wheel washing facilities, hours of operation, on-site parking provision, delivery of materials etc.  If we can continue to bear down on these issues with the support of local members like yourself, we can continue to make a positive difference to local communities.

Question from Councillor Robin Stuchbury to Councillor Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services

“Many of our secondary schools are oversubscribed, I understand that this includes The Buckingham school with classes containing over 30 pupils. Are there any figures available for Buckinghamshire regarding school places by catchment area/secondary school to better understand how the education authority is managing the growth within the community?

If these figures are available, do they include any children who have to travel out of their catchment area to obtain a school place which could be detrimental to the Council’s aspiration to lower its carbon footprint and which also incurs a cost to parents and/or the Council’s home to school transport budget?

Members would also benefit from understanding capacity and vacancy figures for primary schools given the significant growth in Buckinghamshire, particularly the north of the county.”

RESPONSE from Councillor Cranmer

In most year groups the Buckingham school is below their planned admission number of 210. In two year groups they have exceeded that number, this is due to pupils arriving in catchment outside of the normal admission point in Year 7. In both these year groups the school has admitted children above their normal number due to Fair Access requests from the local authority. Buckingham School would normally be asked to take under Fair Access where it is the nearest school, as we try to place the children as close to home as possible to minimise the need for home to school transport.

The school place planning team use an established methodology to ensure that there are enough school places in each planning area, and with only very rare exceptions, schools have been able to accommodate the first choices of all parents who have chosen a catchment school for transfer to secondary school.

We review the school capacity of all our planning areas across the county on an annual basis, and whilst there are peaks and troughs in the predicted and actual figures, we have strong relationships with schools so that we can work with them to create capacity as required. Where significant capacity is required, such as with the development of the Kingsbrook Estate in Aylesbury Vale, we have worked with developers to bring a brand new secondary school on line. In the next ten years, the highest number of pupils that we have modelled is 335, 25 above the capacity of 310 that upper schools in the area would normally take, this is not until 2029 and we are confident that we can work with schools to find a solution for this.

Question from Councillor Sophie Kayani to Councillor Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services

The Q2 Budget Monitoring and KPI Reports on Education & Children’s Service demonstrates a service in crisis and a portfolio without a firm grip, namely:

·         £9.2m adverse on its operating budget (worsening by £5.3m in Q1) due to placement budgets (£3.2m), agency staff (£1.9m), client costs (£2.9m), adoption and special guardianship allowances (£0.5m), and care leavers’ accommodation and allowances (£0.9m).

·         The portfolio is failing to deliver its planned savings with a shortfall of 35% (£0.3m) due to these agency staff commitments, even with the Social Worker Academy.

·         The contingency for Children’s Services’ demography (£1.4m) will be fully used up, but High-Cost Children’s Placements contingency (£0.5m) is seemingly not being deployed in spite of the shortfall noted above.

·         This contingency has been proven to be wholly inadequate although categoric reassurances were given by the Cabinet Member during Budget Scrutiny.

·         It is failing to deliver its capital projects, such as school places (£3.4m), SEND projects (£1.5m), and Children’s Homes (£0.5m)

·         There is “£0.6m pressure in Legal & Democratic Services from increased demand linked to Children’s and Adult cases”.

·         KPIs show worsening Red ratings on Re-referrals within 12 months, EHCPs issued within 20 weeks, Family Support Plans issued within 31 days, repeat Child Protection Plans, Children In Need seen within 4 weeks

The Report provides no confidence, stating that “a detailed review of the budget and forecast expenditure is taking place in order to identify actions that can be taken to reduce spend. An action plan is being drawn up as a result of this review identifying priority actions, timelines, and estimated savings. This plan will be monitored by Children’s SLT and Children’s Budget Board and the potential financial impact included in the forecast in future months as actions are agreed and implemented.” This 2022-23 revised forecast and 2023-24 Budget will clearly need to be the subject of detailed scrutiny through the Budget process.

Can the Cabinet Member provide a categorical reassurance that this is the worst-case financial position for 2022-23; how spend can be possibly reduced in a so-called “dysfunctional” Children’s services market where demand is increasing, even with all the substantial demography assumptions made in the 2022-23 budget; confirm when this detailed review will be completed and subject to scrutiny by the appropriate Select Committees; and that this portfolio is not creating a further reputational and financial risk to Buckinghamshire Council through inferior or inappropriate placements for children ending up in unnecessarily traumatic and costly legal disputes?

RESPONSE from Councillor Cranmer

This Council, like every local authority in the country, has a significant challenge in securing sufficient placements for looked after children, especially older adolescents. The placement ‘market place’ nationally does not work for children and young people and requires a national approach in order to address the problems. This is a well-publicised problem that to date has no solutions in play. All staff in the service are fully focused on the implications to the Council of having to purchase external placements at extremely high cost and having to use placements that are unregulated. Officers keep Ofsted, the Department for Education and the Children and Families Courts fully appraised of all unregulated placements. Significant work takes place on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to drive down costs and devise solutions for all high cost placements. The current projections for this financial year and future costs will influence Medium Term Financial Planning (MTFP) discussions. This is a national challenge facing all local authorities and meeting our statutory obligations to children and young people in a demand led environment means that no cast iron guarantees can ever be given.  

In addition to the above, the recruitment and retention of social workers is also a significant challenge for the service and whilst having a permanent workforce and reducing reliance on agency staff is one of the main priorities for the service, the size of the national social care workforce is not keeping up with demand. This, coupled with demand challenges are impacting the service’s ability to maintain consistently high performance across all indicators. The actions of the service to ensure that children and young people are being protected in line with their presenting risk and that drift and delay does not become a strong feature of casework continue to be effective. In our drive towards delivering the council’s ambition to achieve consistently good services, the service will continue to follow a cycle of improvement, reviewing and testing our practice and oversight to ensure that the service is making progress and creating actions to address our priority areas.

On the subject of capital projects, the service has not failed to deliver its capital projects and the capital programme is progressing as planned. The favourable variances detailed within the Q2 Budget Monitoring relate to the associated costs to complete the work or where future projects have not yet started. Whilst there have been some minor slippages due to building work, all school places have been delivered as planned. In addition, SEND projects remain on track and at present, will be delivered within the initial time frame. The investment of £0.5m in Children’s Homes was quite rightly been put on hold as the service continues to review its strategic response to the increasing the availability of provision, including both in county and regional options, for our children and young people that meet their needs and provides them with a safe place to live and thrive. 

The Leader of the Council spoke in support of the service area and highlighted that they were doing an excellent job under particularly difficult circumstances which were being faced by Council’s nationally.