Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting by explaining that this meeting is being held under The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020.  The Council has agreed a protocol to cover virtual meetings and this meeting will operate in line with that protocol.  The meeting has the same status and validity as a meeting held in the Guildhall.

The Chair invited everyone to remember with a minute’s silence all those who have lost their lives as a result of Coronavirus, and also in memory of two men who drowned in the River Avon on Thursday 28th May.

None.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

At this point the Monitoring Officer issued a dispensation in relation to any Councillors that were in receipt of any grants that had been awarded by the government under the COVID-19 Regulations, such as business grants or furloughing, to allow all Members of the Cabinet to take part in the debate and invited any councillors that this applied to identify themselves.

Councillor David Wood declared a disclosable interest in agenda item 11 ‘Covid-19 Update report and position statement’ as he was on furlough leave.

None.

There were 12 questions from Councillors and 4 questions from members of the public.

[Copies of the questions and responses, including supplementary questions and responses if any, have been placed on the Minute book as Appendix 1 and are available on the Council's website.]

Councillors and members of the public may register their intention to make a statement if they notify the subject matter of their statement before the deadline.  Statements are limited to 3 minutes each.  The speaker may then be asked by Cabinet members to answer factual questions arising out of their statement.

David Redgewell sent a statement (a copy of which is attached to the Minutes as Appendix 2 and on the Council's website) where South West Transport Network and Railfuture Severnside have expressed their concerns about social distancing regulations within Bath and North East Somerset on the public transport network.

Councillor Neil Butters thanked David Redgewell for his statement and added that the Council had been in contact with WECA on issues raised in the statement.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 13^th February 2020 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

This is a standard agenda item, to cover any reports originally placed on the Weekly list for single Member decision making, which have subsequently been the subject of a Cabinet Member requisition to the full Cabinet, under the Council’s procedural rules

There were none.

This is a standing agenda item (Constitution rule 14, part 4D – Executive Procedure Rules) for matters referred by Policy Development and Scrutiny bodies.  The Chair of the relevant PDS Panel will have the right to attend and to introduce the Panel’s recommendations to Cabinet.

There were none.

A list of Cabinet Single Member decisions taken and published since the last Cabinet meeting to note (no debate).

The Cabinet agreed to note the report.

This report summaries the Council’s local response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It sets out the revised Governance Arrangements to ensure that the Council took quick and decisive action to effectively manage the impacts of the coronavirus as they arise.

As a result of the exceptional circumstances facing the country in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Council has streamlined its decision-making processes to respond quickly and effectively to situations as they arise in order to meet obligations to protect life, contain and mitigate the impact of the emergency, and to create the conditions needed for an eventual recovery to a new normality.

The Chair introduced this item by saying that it was important to share publicly what the Council’s response has been to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Council has been busy making sure that there was a plan in place to address what was needed to be done by all Council services and our partners.

The Chair informed the meeting that the COVID-19 update report and position statements have been presented to the Corporate Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel, on Wednesday 27^th May 2020. 

The Chair read out the summary report of the comments and recommendations made by the Corporate PDS Panel.

(A summary of the Panel’s findings has been placed on the Minute book as Appendix 3 and are available on the Council's website).

The Chair thanked the Corporate PDS Panel for their comments and invited Will Godfrey (Chief Executive) to take the meeting through the report.

Will Godfrey said that it was important to recognise that the Council have been through some extraordinary set of circumstances which have required adoption of practices from middle of March, where everyone had to adapt and adopt to different ways of working.

The emergency was formally declared on 23^rd March 2020 (by the Chief Executive). It was important to recognise that this Cabinet meeting would mark the end of that process in the sense of establishing all of the democratic processes and ensure full accountability for all of the decisions that have been taken during and since that time.  Will Godfrey also said that the Council have been transparent about what has been happening during that period making sure that there were regular communications with every resident.

In the early parts of the Declaration of the Emergency, the Council was focused on issues around public health in particular (for instance, closing down the play areas to manage social distancing; temporary closure of the heritage sites and a number of other similar measures).  The Compassionate Communities Hub was established to try to assist people who were shielding, and to provide a facility for those most vulnerable.

At the same time, from the Council’s organisational perspective, a lot has changed. The Council had around 1,500 people working from home with interactions on Skype, Zoom and similar.

Will Godfrey took the Cabinet through the rest of the report by highlighting help to businesses and that the Council was now in the middle of the COVID-19 situation.  Due to this unprecedented crisis, the Council would face huge financial challenges this year, and in years to come.  The officers would continue to bring update reports to Cabinet and other Council meetings to ensure that everybody was aware on their ongoing work.

Will Godfrey reminded the Cabinet that the full COVID-19 financial recovery report would be presented to the Cabinet on 2^nd July 2020.

The Chair thanked Will Godfrey for this summary and invited each member of the Cabinet to comment on Council’s response to COVID-19.

Councillor Sarah Warren started her comments by expressing her sympathy for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.