Agenda item

Cabinet Member for Finance and Efficiency – Cllr Charles Gerrish

·  To include: Update on the Council’s budget

Cabinet Member for Development and Neighbourhoods – Cllr Bob Goodman

·  To include: Plastic Bag Free B&NES 2020

Cabinet Member for Transformation and Customer Services – Cllr Karen Warrington

·  To include: Community Run Library

Cabinet Member for Economic and Community Regeneration – Cllr Paul Myers

·  To include: Consultation Workshop feedback; notification to Parishes in respect of changes to Council services; Parish Charter Certificates; Review of Terms of Reference for Parish Liaison Meeting; Protocol to mark the death of a Senior National Public Figure or Local Holder of High Office

(a)  Cllr Charles Gerrish – Finance and Efficiency

Cllr Charles Gerrish, Cabinet Member for Finance and Efficiency reported on the following issues:

·  More funding has been made available for social care; however, the challenge still remains.

·  The Government funding settlement was as expected with no additional funding.

·  The number of looked after children has increased by 12%.  An extra £1.5m has been allocated for children’s services.

·  More social workers have been recruited.

·  WECA has provided £8.5m for highway maintenance work.

·  Leisure centres have been upgraded.

·  Bath Quays regeneration is taking place.

·  £12.3m of savings are required to be made next year which will be challenging but the Council is confident that long-term sustainability can be maintained.

·  The restructure of charges for the Roman Baths will also increase the income received.

·  The ultimate aim is for B&NES Council to become financially self-sufficient.

·  The Council has backed new powers to enable the growth in Airbnb accommodation to be tackled.  Other Councils are also lobbying to ensure there is a level playing field for this type of holiday accommodation.

·  There will be one-off costs for the local elections this year.

·  Council tax bills (basic rate) will increase by 2.95% this year with an additional 1% social care precept.

·  In response to a query from East Harptree Parish Council it was confirmed that the additional affordable housing funding will be made available to providers such as Curo.

(b)  Cllr Bob Goodman – Development and Neighbourhoods

Cllr Bob Goodman, Cabinet Member for Development and Neighbourhoods gave a presentation regarding single use plastic:

·  The goal is for the community to be plastic free by 2030.

·  Cllr Goodman thanked the officers for all the work they have undertaken to improve recycling rates and to reduce the use of plastics.  One initiative that is currently being worked on is to increase recycling rates by residents living in flats.

·  There is still progress to be made to encourage supermarkets to use less plastic and to reduce the use of black plastics.

·  Discussions are taking place with local organisations, businesses, schools and places of worship to encourage them to get involved with this project.

·  He also praised the work being carried out by local volunteer community groups such as the Keynsham Wombles and Families for a Bright Future.

·  Further information is available using the following links:

 https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/environment/sustainability/bathnes-plastic-pledge

·  www.bathnes.gov.uk/plasticfree

(c)  Cllr Karen Warrington – Transformation and Customer Services

Cllr Karen Warrington, Cabinet Member for Transformation and Customer Services reported on the following issues:

·  Cllr Warrington thanked the local communities for their support in transforming branch libraries into community libraries.  A small sum of money has been made available for the set-up of the libraries to ensure their sustainability and viability.  The Saltford Library has been very successful and has retained a Post Officer Counter for the village as well as increasing lending levels.

·  The Love Weston Library now uses the Click and Collect service giving access to three million books.

·  Moorland Road, Paulton and Radstock Libraries are also in the process of converting to community libraries.

·  Two new libraries have also been opened.  One of these, Bishop Sutton, also has a café which is very well used.

·  Timsbury have a village agent and the library acts as a community hub.

·  Talks are currently taking place with other areas and it is hoped that these new libraries will open in the future.

·  The community library project has been driven and helped by the public and community groups.

·  A new mobile library has been ordered which will be more reliable than the current one and will have improved fuel efficiency.  It will be available at the end of April and will also be more of a community resource including free Wi-Fi.  It will also have an awning and be available for small events in the local communities.

·  A service review has led to the library stock being moved from Bath to a more sustainable location.  This has enabled the Council to utilise existing resources – confidential waste, post and archives.

·  Cllr Warrington thanked officers for all their work to improve the library service and to make it more sustainable.

(d)   Cllr Paul Myers -  Economic and Community Regeneration

Cllr Paul Myers, Cabinet Member for Economic and Community Regeneration, reported on the following issues:

·  Parish Councils have expressed a wish to discuss WECA at a future meeting.  He confirmed that Tim Bowles, Mayor of WECA will be invited to attend the next meeting.

·  The B&NES Council budget was set in February and Parish Councils have raised the issue that they need more notice of budget decisions that are likely to affect them.  There is usually a budget briefing before Christmas and more information will be provided to Parishes at this time in future years.

·  Bath City Forum has raised concerns regarding consultations carried out by B&NES Council.  As a result of this a workshop took place which included discussions around how to improve the good aspects of consultation and how to reduce the bad.  Three actions were identified as a result:

o  To develop a charter on consultations.

o  To agree a vocabulary of “consultation language”.

o  To explore this further with the 3^rd sector groups and hard to reach groups.

o  To identify a pool of volunteers/residents to test consultations in future.  This was approved by the Cabinet at its meeting last week and councillors are keen to take this forward.

A report will be presented to the Communities, Transport and Environment Panel on 11 March 2019.

·  The Parish Charter Certificate will be made available on line for those parishes that wish to download, sign and display it as a visual representation of the partnership.

The Terms of Reference for Parish Liaison are being updated to reflect our news ways of working together.  This includes a proposal for the chairing of the meetings to alternate between an elected parish representative and an elected representative of B&NES.  Agenda setting for Parish Liaison already takes place jointly in a meeting between representatives of ALCA and the Council and this arrangement will be formalised in the revised Terms of Reference.  These will be put to Parish Liaison at their next meeting before ratification by B&NES and endorsement by ALCA.  The Parish Liaison Meeting agreed this approach.  A copy of the powerpoint presentation slides are attached as Appendix 1 to these minutes.

·  The death of a senior figure – B&NES Council is required to have a protocol in place for the death of a senior national or local figure.  This would cover matters such as books of condolence, flying of flags etc.  Parish Councils will be informed by the Council once a formal announcement has been made.   On the death of a prominent local figure then the Chief Executive will decide which parts of the protocol it is appropriate to implement. 

The Clerk to Keynsham Town Council thanked the Cabinet Member for the clarification on this matter but felt that more information could be provided at this stage.  Other clerks in different areas were already making plans such as ordering black armbands and arrangements for flag lowering and raising.  Clerks need time in which to prepare for such an event should it arise.  Cllr Myers agreed to look into this matter further and to find to what is needed in advance and what can be provided.  The Keynsham Town Clerk agreed to liaise further with Sara Dixon on this matter.

(e)  Cllr Vic Pritchard – Adult Care, Health and Wellbeing

Cllr Vic Pritchard, Cabinet Member for Adult Care, Health and Wellbeing, gave an update on the following issues:

·  At the beginning of the financial year this service had delivered a balanced budget.

·  The Council works very closely with the CCG to deliver the service and both Primary and Social Care are now among the national leaders.