Items
No. |
Item |
109. |
Minutes PDF 84 KB
To approve as a correct record
the minutes of Cabinet held on 12 February 2019.
Minutes:
The minutes of the Cabinet
meeting held on 12 February 2019 were approved as a correct
record.
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110. |
Items of Urgent Business
To receive additional items
that the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter
of urgency, in accordance with Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local
Government Act 1972.
Minutes:
There were no items of urgent
business.
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111. |
Declaration of Interests
Minutes:
Councillor Johnson declared a
non-pecuniary interest for Item 11 as he was the Deputy Chair of
Governors for Benyon Primary School,
and stated that he would refrain from voting on this
item.
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112. |
Statements by the Leader
Minutes:
The Leader began his statement
by reminding Members that the Council was currently in a period of
purdah due to the by-election in Aveley and Uplands ward. He
reminded Members of the purdah guidance that party political
statements should not be made through Council channels.
He moved on to discuss the recent occurrence in Purfleet whereby two off-duty enforcement officers
caught two men attempting to fly-tip hundreds of tyres. He stated
that the would-be fly-tippers were now facing prosecution and a
£50,000 fine due to the actions of the off-duty enforcement
officers, and stated that the council would be looking into ways to
take legal action regarding the proceeds of crime, if they were
found guilty. The Leader added that fly-tipping in Thurrock would
not pay and is not a victimless crime as it costs the council
money, which could be better used
elsewhere. He then asked residents to always check waste carrier
licences if they saw an advert for cheap waste clearance, as
residents could face a fine if their rubbish ended up fly-tipped,
as it could promote criminal activity. The Leader stated that much
money had been invested into the Linford Waste and Recycling
Centre, and over 3000 van permits had been issued since the scheme
began last year. He stated that those people who had applied for
van permits when the scheme was announced would soon have to
reapply free of charge, and reminded those residents to do so. He
added that those residents who would like a permit should apply two
weeks before they wish to visit the Centre. He mentioned that ANPR
cameras were being installed at the site to make the system more
efficient. He also stated that at the recent Environment Agency
inspection the site had received no breaches of usage.
The Leader then described how the 4th round of the CEDF
fund was now available to residents to use to deliver community
projects, for example installing fencing, painting, clearing
undergrowth and improving walkways. He stated that it was up to
residents to decide what to use the money for and he was looking
forward to receiving applications. He added that four events would
be held across the borough to give residents ideas on what to apply
for, and to make the system fair. He finally stated that the CEDF
grant was open until 17 May 2019.
The Leader moved on to the Clean It, Cut It, Fill It Update and
stated that since April 2018: 3225 potholes had been filled, with
98% in target time; 1230 acres of grass had been cut; 1871 fly-tips
had been cleared; 1015 tonnes of rubbish had been removed; and 3660
fixed penalty notices had been issued for offences such as
littering and spitting. The Leader also commented on Councillor
Hebb and Councillor Coxshall’s
non-attendance at the meeting as they were currently attending the
Local Government Chronicle Awards where Thurrock Council had been
nominated for ‘Most Entrepreneurial Council’ and had
been nominated for an award regarding ...
view the full minutes text for item 112.
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113. |
Briefings on Policy, Budget and Other Issues
Minutes:
There were no briefings on
policy, budget and other issues.
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114. |
Petitions submitted by Members of the Public
Minutes:
No petitions had been submitted
by members of the public.
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115. |
Questions from Non-Executive Members
Minutes:
No questions had been received
from non-Executive Members.
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116. |
Matters Referred to the Cabinet for Consideration by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Minutes:
No matters had been referred to
the Cabinet for consideration by an Overview and Scrutiny
Committee.
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117. |
New Council Home Building Programme (Decision 110507) PDF 131 KB
Minutes:
Councillor Johnson introduced
the report and stated he was very pleased to see this coming to
Cabinet. He described how the report outlined plans for 500 new
council homes within the next 5-10 years, funded through the HRA.
He added that Thurrock currently provided roughly 500 council
tenants with monetary advice to stop homelessness across the
borough, and the proposed 500 houses could also stop the rise of
homelessness. He mentioned that this project would be supported by
Thurrock Regeneration Limited, who would be well placed to assist
with the delivery. He then described how a high-level financial
model had been undertaken to ensure the self-financing of the
project, which had taken into account current government
legislation, and found that the project could be self-financing if
weekly rent was 57% of current market value. He added that Thurrock
needed new council homes as well as infrastructure, and stated that
the council would continue to work with landlords and Thurrock
Regeneration Limited to meet the council home target. He stated
that the next step in the project would be to identify the types of
homes needed and their location, and challenges would be
identified. He summarised that this was only possible due to the
removal of the HRA borrowing cap by central government, which
allowed local council’s to increase their social housing
stock, and ensured all residents could be provided with suitable
and safe housing. He finally mentioned that this project, if agreed
by Cabinet, would be going to the Housing Overview and Scrutiny
Committee and then on for consultation.
Councillor Watkins thanked Councillor Johnson for the report and
stated that he felt this was good work. He stated that this put the
council on the right path towards building new council homes, and
looked forward to the comments from Housing Overview and Scrutiny
Committee. The Leader added that this was a good first step in
providing council homes, as there were 1500 new cases of
homelessness in the borough every year, which costs taxpayers
money. He stated that the council would not be advertising how much
they would spend on the project, as Thurrock wanted developers to
meet their criteria, but the figure would run into the billions.
RESOLVED: That Cabinet:
1. Approved that a housing development pipeline be prepared to seek
to deliver up to 500 new Council homes for Thurrock residents over
the next 5 to 10 years to be funded within the Housing Revenue
Account.
2. Delegated authority to the Corporate Director of Place in
consultation with the Corporate Director of Adults, Health and
Housing and the Director of Finance and IT, as well as the Cabinet
Member for Housing, to ensure the Council Homes Delivery Programme
is adequately resourced in accordance with the Council’s
Procurement Regulations and to enter into appropriate agreements as
may be necessary to seek to secure the necessary statutory consents
to deliver 500 new Council homes.
3. Agreed to refer this decision to Housing Overview and Scrutiny
for its consideration and ...
view the full minutes text for item 117.
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118. |
School Capital Programme Update 2019/20 (Decision 110508) PDF 81 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Leader stated that he would
be presenting this report on behalf of Councillor Halden, and
reiterated that Councillor Johnson would not be partaking in the
vote due to his non-pecuniary interest. He drew Members attention
to paragraph 3 of the executive summary and stated that this showed
the council were always looking for alternatives, rather than
placing small bulge classes and demountables across the borough. He stated that the
recommendations were asking for a £2m investment into
expanding Benyon Primary School, as the
population of Ockendon was growing and
the buildings in the current school were nearing end of life. He
commented that it was good to see money being set aside for the
expansion as Benyon was a very good
school, which had an excellent reputation in the borough. He added
that there was also a deficit of 800 places between primary and
secondary education, and projects were being put forward to
alleviate this deficit. He commented that whilst these projects
were being undertaken, the council were looking into long-run
permanent solutions, which were part of the local plan. He then
reaffirmed the council’s commitment to infrastructure first
and expansion second.
RESOLVED: That Cabinet (excluding Councillor Johnson):
1. Approved a £2.2m budget for the expansion of Benyon Primary School to be funded from the
School’s Basic Need capital funding 2019/20
2. Approved a budget of up to £1m for
works to be undertaken to enable construction of additional
classrooms in current secondary schools.
3. Progressed the procurement process to secure design and
construction for the expansion of Benyon Primary School to take forward the proposed
schemes.
Councillor Johnson stated that now recommendations had
been agreed, in which he had not voted,
he felt the school was excellent and the staff worked very hard. He
felt that the school had an excellent reputation in Ockendon and local residents cared about its
wellbeing
Reason for Decision – as stated in the report
This decision is subject to
call-in
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119. |
Adult Mental Health Service Transformation (Decision 110509) PDF 250 KB
Minutes:
Councillor Little presented the report on behalf of Councillor
Halden and stated that before she introduced the report, she wished
to congratulate Collins House for their ‘good’ rating
by OFSTED on all five points. She then introduced the report and
stated that Councillor Halden had worked in collaboration with the
Director for Public Health, and he had been pleased this report was
coming in front of Cabinet. She added that the report had also been
to Health Overview and Scrutiny and the Health and Wellbeing Board,
both of whom had been supportive. She affirmed that an expert peer
review had been undertaken in April 2018, as well as a survey by a
Joint Strategic Needs Analyst and HealthWatch, all of which had considered the
effectiveness of mental health diagnosis and treatment across the
borough, and both had said change was needed. She commented that
they had found a need for increased integration with primary care,
and this was what the report was recommending.
The Leader stated that mental health issues could affect anybody,
old or young, and these issues had been widely covered in national
news. He felt this report was long overdue and was pleased to see
work being undertaken. He thanked Councillor Halden, the Corporate Director of Children’s
Services and his team for their hard work and hoped this report
would show what steps were needed to transform mental health
services across the borough.
RESOLVED: That Cabinet:
1. Approved the direction of travel in
terms of adult mental health system transformation and the action
plan outlined to deliver that service transformation.
2. Approved the proposals set out in section 7.14 to 7.16 of the
report to develop a new Section 75 Agreement with EPUT from 1 April
2019 based on a longer term contract, with a revised performance
and budget framework, subject to the agreement from the Director of
Public Health, Corporate Director for Adults, Housing and Health,
in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Health.
3. Approved the proposals set out in section 10 of this report in
relation to suicide prevention.
Reason for Decision – as stated in the
report
This decision is subject to
call-in
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120. |
Revenue Budget Monitoring - Quarter 3 2018/19 (Decision 110510) PDF 112 KB
Minutes:
The Leader introduced this
report on behalf of Councillor Hebb and drew Members attention to
the executive summary. He stated that this report covered quarter
3, which had ended 3 months ago, and did not give up-to-date
statistics for this year. He confirmed that quarter 3 had seen an
increase spend by the waste team due to unforeseen circumstances
that had been out of the council’s control, but this
overspend had been absorbed by other services and the corporate
budget. He stated that Councillor Hebb and the Director of Finance
and IT believed the council would be on target to spend the budget
by the end of the financial year, and would not be using reserves
or one-off reserves. He mentioned that in the 2018/19 financial
year, general fund reserves had increased by 4% and overspend had
been managed.
The Leader commented that homelessness was still an issue within
the borough, as landlords were increasing rents and renting to
families faced with homelessness from London boroughs. He stated
that this meant the council had to spend more on temporary
accommodation, which cost the taxpayers money. He reaffirmed that
the council were doing all they could to help people who had been
made homeless, such as pressuring central government and meeting
regularly with Leaders across Essex to discuss the problem of
London borough’s housing their homeless people outside of
London. He added that the council were currently looking into
initiatives to stop temporary accommodation such as building more
houses for a permanent solution, as outlined in Item 10 of the
agenda. He stated that last year 1556 Thurrock residents had been
made homeless, which was a 40% increase from the year before. He
summarised and stated that the council were looking into every
service to find efficiencies, such as Children’s Services who
had saved £3.5m, most of which had been re-invested in the
service.
Councillor Collins thanked Councillor Hebb and his team for all
their hard work on balancing the budget and stated that he felt
concerned over the number of homeless people across the borough and
hoped the figure could decrease. The Leader thanked Councillor
Collins as his portfolio of Central Services usually underspent,
which helped those services who had overspent.
Councillor Johnson reassured Cabinet that his housing team are very
proactive when looking for solutions for homelessness, such as
building new homes and new houses of multiple occupancy. He stated
that he had attended a seminar last week regarding the Homelessness
Reduction Act, and felt that no other council were doing more than
Thurrock to prevent homelessness. He stated that he was constantly
looking for improvements, but often the headline figures gave a bad
impression. The Leader reiterated the point that the council were
constantly looking for solutions, and always looked to see if they
could use ideas from other councils. He added that the council were
currently looking into temporary housing, which would be erected in
weeks and had a watertight guarantee of 50 years. He stated that
...
view the full minutes text for item 120.
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121. |
2018/19 Capital Monitoring Report - Quarter 3 PDF 116 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Leader stated that he would
be presenting this report on behalf of Councillor Hebb and stated
that capital projects were now running on time and on-budget. He
thanked all Cabinet Members for their part in ensuring capital
projects were run efficiently, particularly Councillor Little for her work on Collins House and Councillor
Watkins for his work on the Linford Recycling Centre. He stated
that sometimes he felt frustrated as projects could take time, and
often the council were reliant on outside partners and government
agencies which could delay proceedings. The Leader mentioned that
he, Councillor Coxshall and Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price had
recently been to see the new Harris Academy in Purfleet, which was part of the Purfleet regeneration scheme and would be open in
time for the new school year in September.
The Leader then drew Members attention to page 79 of the agenda and
£50m which was being used to develop infrastructure, not just
expansion across the borough. He finally stated that the report
contained a number of appendices which broke down the figures for
each directorate and outlined where the £50m would be going,
such as the Purfleet regeneration; a
number of schools across the borough; the Grays South regeneration; and more money for care
homes. He summarised and stated that they money had already been
set aside for these projects and Thurrock would continue to deliver
across the borough.
Councillor Johnson drew Members attention to page 81 of the agenda
and stated he felt it was good to see that 4 housing projects would
be completed in 2020. The Leader reiterated that the council was
committed to providing new council homes, and these were not just
plans as they were being delivered on. He then mentioned that he
often travelled past the former Tops Club site, and felt that there
was visible progress being made each day.
RESOLVED: That Cabinet:
1. Noted the General Fund capital
programme is projected to have available resources of
£16.154m as at 31 March 2019 with this funding carried
forward to 2019/20 to fund schemes currently in progress.
2. In addition, there is further £50.546m in the approved
programme that is under development and/or dependent on third party
actions as set out in paragraph 3.5
3. Noted the Housing Revenue Account capital programme is projected
to breakeven by 31 March 2019, which will be funded from the
Housing capital receipts.
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122. |
Quarter 3 Corporate Performance Report 2018/19 PDF 147 KB
Minutes:
Councillor Huelin introduced
the report and stated that quarter 3 ran up until December 2018,
and felt that the report showed some excellent figures. She stated
that the council had maintained 70% of services meeting their
targets, compared to 2 years ago when only 45% had been passing.
She stated that some new measures had been put in place, such as
how the council measured the removal of abandoned vehicles. She
also highlighted the number of new apprentices being hired by
Thurrock, and felt this was good to see. She added that weekly bin
collections had been maintained, and although the 98.5% target had
not been hit, this was a very high target. She stated this missed
target had been due to vehicle repairs and poor weather
conditions.
Councillor Watkins stated that he felt this report was good news.
He added that the bin collection was measured on a year to date
figure, and although was below target, in January the target had
been exceeded. He also added that although there had been a missed
target in household waste, there was lots of behind the scenes work
to improve this, such as work with the Cleaner, Greener and Safer
Overview and Scrutiny Committee and internal work with the
communications team to release a new strategy. He added that the
KPI regarding street cleanliness was good to see, and this was due
to the Clean It, Cut It and Fill It Scheme. He added that Keep
Britain Tidy also monitored street cleanliness around the borough,
and produced independent results.
Councillor Little added that she felt pleased to see the time taken
to adopt children had decreased, and described how she had recently
sat on a panel which had adopted 3 children in one day, all of whom
were now going to their ‘forever homes’. She stated
that this service had only recently been brought back in-house and
felt lots more children were now going to their forever homes. The
Leader stated that under the previous contract only 5 children had
been adopted in one year, and now the in-house service were
adopting 3 children in one day, which he felt was good to see. He
also felt that it was good to see 70% of targets being achieved
with the new green/red scale and the removal of amber. He added
that there would always be fluctuations in bin collections due to
factors outside of the council’s control such as poor weather
or people parking inconsiderately so bin lorries could not access streets, but these were
still counted as missed targets. He added that the council were
still pushing for all targets to be met, and thanked the officers
for all their hard work. He stated that residents and Members were
often out on the weekends and during their free time to tidy up
Thurrock and thanked residents for all their hard work. He then
summarised and highlighted the hard work the environment team had
put in during the windy weather over ...
view the full minutes text for item 122.
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