Transcript

Good morning to you all and welcome to the multi-location meeting of the cabinet this morning. There is no fire alarm planned for today so if the alarm will sound it won't be a test and you should follow the appropriate fire exit signs. Also, I just want to remind everybody present that the proceedings of today's meeting are being filmed live and may be kept on the council's internet site and the images and sound recording may also be used for training purposes within the council. So we'll move on to the first item, apologies for absence. We have received apologies this morning from Councillor Glenoch Davis, Linda Evans and Anne Davis. We'll now move on to the second item, declarations of personal interest. As you know you will have the responsibility under the code of conduct to verbally declare any personal interest that you may have in relation to any item appearing on the agenda today. Please make sure you clearly indicate which agenda item you have a personal interest in and also the specific nature of that interest. You'll also need to repeat your declaration of personal interest at the start of the relevant agenda item. So can I ask members, please, if you have any declarations to raise your hand. If not, we will move on to item 3, which is to sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting that was held on the 13th of May. The minutes start on page 5 of the pack. I understand that Councillor Jane Tremlitt is happy to move these minutes. Thank you. Confirm happy to move the minutes. Thank you. Thank you, Jane. Edward Thomas, I understand you're happy to second. Thank you, chair. Yes, I'm happy to second. Thank you. Can I therefore ask members to show by raising your hands if you are happy to receive the minutes. All in favour? Thank you. Nobody against and no abstentions. That has been approved. We'll now move on to item 4, which is questions on notice by members. I can confirm that no questions have been received. So we'll move on to item 5, public questions on notice. Once again, I can confirm that no questions have been received. We'll now move on to item 6 on the agenda, which is the commercialization strategy. This report starts on page 13 of the pack. And the commercialization strategy is noted, which provides a more strategic approach to the development and implementation of income generation across the council. Councillors Alan Lenny and Phil Hughes are jointly responsible for this report. But Councillor Phil Hughes will be moving the report formally. So over to you, Phil. Thank you. Commercialization is not a new concept for local government. And the council already operates in the commercial market in a range of diverse services, namely leisure services, theatres, car parks, garden waste and ground maintenance. However, more and more councils are seeking to become more innovative and ambitious in their approach to commercialization in search of new ways of generating income, given the challenging financial climate that we operate in. As an authority, we need to maximize any opportunity to generate income so that the service cuts that our trade union colleagues refer to are minimized and thereby safeguard jobs. An increasing number of local authorities in the UK are seeking to adopt a more commercial approach to the delivery of council services as a way of providing for more sustainable approaching to deal with the ongoing challenges of shrinking budgets and increasing demands. The audit study on commercialization in local government in 2020 identified that local councils are looking at different ways of making savings, safeguarding services and generating income. Commercialization is consequently becoming more important for councils. John and the team have done some great work in relation to integrating commercialization into the culture of the organization for reasons that I believe are self-evident. We have also been working with our current cohort of future leaders, and this area of work has been the basis for a future leader project led by Ben Catherines as part of the Council's Future Leaders Program. On a personal level, it is an incredibly exciting and innovative strategy that will underpin the delivery of agreed actions and commitments contained in the transformation strategy, our digital strategy and our workforce strategy. Our approach to commercialization is forward thinking, and to quote the Chief Executive Wendy, we need transformation on steroids if we are going to robustly respond to the challenging financial climate ahead of us. Commercialization is an integral to the transformation. Finally, since I presented this report to the pre-Cabinet, I can confirm that this has been recently presented to the corporate performance and resources committee, with members I unanimously supported. It has also been presented to the Shadow Cabinet, and again, it was fully supported. So with those few words, Chair, I have the pleasure of fully endorsing the strategy. Thank you, Phil. Alan, you are happy to second? Thank you, leader. Yes, I am happy to second the strategy. Thank you, Alan, for that. And as Phil said, this is something really important for us as a Council in the next few years as we look at the challenges that are facing us financially and creating income is going to be extremely important. So thank you very much, Phil. And to the Office officers who have put this strategy together over the last few months, so very grateful for that. Are there any questions or further comments from members, please? If not, can I ask you to please raise your hand to show that you are happy to receive the recommendation. All in favor, thank you. Nobody against, and no abstentions. That has been approved. Thank you again to everybody who has worked on this strategy over the last few weeks. So with that, we'll move on to Item 7 on the agenda, which is the Camarthenshire local area energy plan. It starts on page 29 of the pack and sets out the final version of the scheme which has been developed over the last period. I therefore ask Councillor Alan Vaughan-Owen as the cabinet member to introduce the report formally, please. Thank you, Aled. Thank you, Chair. It's a privilege to present the Camarthenshire local area energy plan. This scheme is funded by Welsh Government to ensure that all local authorities in Wales complete the work of creating a scheme by mid-2024. This follows the first phase where one or two local authorities were pilot locations, for example, Pembrokeshire, which produced their scheme in 2022 as a funding condition for the Milford Haven Energy Kingdom project. Other plans across the South West Wales region are being delivered by City Science for Swansea, Neath Potalbot and us here in Camarthenshire. Local area energy planning is a detailed and comprehensive process which has been designed to identify the most effective route or routes to decarbonize the local energy system by 2050. Along with City Science, we in Camarthenshire have led the process, but the plan was developed jointly with a large number of other stakeholders across the county and beyond. While each energy scheme across the region is separately produced and has been tailored to the local landscape, the three schemes will be designed in a way to ensure consistency. As you can see, this plan is comprehensive and detailed. Earlier chapters summarize the findings of the process, giving a comprehensive overview of the current energy system in Camarthenshire. The later chapters consider potential future energy scenarios and the nature of the potential changes which will be required to the energy system, ultimately providing possible course of actions with the main aim of achieving net zero by 2050. The aim of this report is to be a dynamic report that gives local and regional options and ultimately a national plan to transform energy systems to address climate challenges, energy efficiencies and the future security of energy supply. So with those few words, I'm very happy to propose this report formally. Thank you very much, Aled, for proposing that formally. And can I ask Councillor Hazel Evans to second if you're happy to do so. Thank you, leader. I am happy to second the proposal. Thank you. That has been proposed and seconded. Are there any further questions or comments, please? No. As Aled said, this is a flexible scheme which will develop over the coming years and I'm sure that we are all looking forward to feeding into that work as it develops. If you're happy, can I ask you, therefore, to please raise your hand if you support the recommendation as is outlined in the report. Thank you. Everyone is in favour. Nobody against and no abstentions. So that has been approved. With that, we will move on to Item 8, which is urgent items. And I can confirm that no urgent items have come before us this morning. And as there are no other items on the agenda, I, therefore, declare this meeting is closed. Thank you for your attendance today and for your presentations. [BLANK_AUDIO]