Agenda item

The Chair was taken by Councillor Paul Crossley, Leader of the Council.

He said that at the end of the meeting he would answer some questions received from members of the public via Twitter.

He made a statement about agenda item 12:

We apologise both to First Steps and to readers of the agenda papers that within the appendices to the report for item 12 [minute 112] we have inadvertently published detailed information in excess of what was necessary or relevant to the matters being considered tonight. Specifically, this relates to the publication of the full staffing structure of First Steps, which is not directly comparable to the staffing published for the Council Children’s Centres and therefore could be seen as disproportionate and misleading. We will withdraw this information from the published version following the meeting. In essence this will mean deleting the table in Appendix 5 which relates to the staffing of the two Children’s Centres delivered by First Steps and retaining the key data in the paragraph which follows it – i.e. referring to 11.8 FTE in these two centres. We will continue to work with First Steps to ensure information contained in subsequent consultation and commissioning documents is appropriate. Cabinet members are asked to disregard this additional information when considering their decision this evening.

He made a statement about the current floods:

The last few weeks have seen extraordinary weather conditions and nightly on TV we are witnessing the terrible plight of residents on the Somerset Levels and in other areas. Our hearts and thoughts are with those residents. Our praise goes out to all sectors of the public service and local government, who are working so hard for long hours to control the situation and help residents. As a Council we have offered to help Somerset and their emergency response and have provided one of our gulley cleansing machines and crew to support their efforts.  In Bath and North East Somerset we are not complacent and these floods bring back memories of floods in recent years in Chew Valley, Chelwood and a few properties this year in Bathamption and elsewhere. Each individual flooding of property and business is a personal disaster. As a Council we are working closely with the Environment Agency, both our local water companies and all the emergency services. We are prepared, should the need arise, to be ready and able to help residents. This winter we have seen that flood mitigation measures that have been taken to enable the Bath Western Riverside development have been successful. Last summer we cleaned out the gulleys and verges across the Chew Valley, and this helped to reduce the flood risk. Last summer we improved the drainage in Chelwood village, and this has worked. The Council has already commissioned a survey of properties at highest risk of flooding in Chew Magna and has budgeted £200,000 to improve flood protection in the Chew Valley. This is likely to enhance the protection of approximately 7 properties. In this coming year we are planning to commence a major flood alleviation programme in central Bath, working in partnership with the Environment Agency. It should be noted that the most significant impact of this prolonged wet weather in our area is the land slip on private land in Midford Road, which requires the closure of the road for four weeks. This is not a decision which the Council takes lightly, but public safety is paramount and without the measures in place to stabilise the land, it would be irresponsible to open the road. We are talking about people’s lives being in danger if the land slips any further with cars or bicycles in its path, which is why we have no other option but closing the road. Council engineers are working really hard with the representatives of the landowner to identify the underlying causes of the land slip, and work is already under way to develop a solution, which must take into account many complex environmental factors. This is not an overnight job, and specialist equipment, materials and operators are needed to carry out this complex process. We are not as a Council complacent, and we recognise the severity of the current weather conditions and we will be undertaking drainage works across the whole district in 2014/15 as we prepare for more challenging weather conditions in future years.