Transcript

Thank you Kirsty and this is a very quiet silent room and I do apologise that the room is not really quite big enough to have enough chairs for everybody who's attended this afternoon so I'm sorry about that. We will get through the public questions and the public part of the meeting as quickly as we can. My name is Councillor Jane Scullion, I'm leader of the council and I'm chairing the cabinet meeting this afternoon. First of all, may I start, even though the bells, the time has not rung on the town hall clock but I think we'll go by this clock. It has. I missed it. Thank you. Okay, we'll start with item one, apologies for absence. Do we have any apologies for absence? Yes, I believe he's in that there London. We hope we get him back. Thank you. Item two, members' interests. We need to remind members of the need to declare any disposable pecuniary interests or other interests they might have in relation to any of the items on this agenda. Do members have any interests to declare? Okay. Move on then swiftly to item three, admission of the public. It's not recommended that the public be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the items of business on this agenda. Those who followed these meetings for some considerable time might note that I think it's the final item, the commissioning report, previously has been an exempt item and we took a decision for the purposes of transparency and democracy that this item would no longer be exempt and we would have that discussion in public, which was a change from the previous convention. Councillor Darrins. Sorry, I was looking at my papers and not responding as quickly as I should have done. I do have an interest in one of the items. I was on the review board for the health and wellbeing work. I think I can't remember which item it is on. Just to declare that six. Thank you. There it is. Involvement rather than any pecuniary interests. Just to be transparent. Thank you. Thank you for that. Okay. We will just move on then quickly to the minutes of the meeting held on the 11th of March. Quite a long time ago. Sorry, Councillor Courtney. Yes, please go ahead. Members having read the minutes, with that correction to the name of a person who asked a question at the last meeting, are members content for those to go forward? Thank you very much. I will sign those. Moving on to question time. I would like to invite questions from members of the public. I have here a question tracker which tells me when and who came in first. The first question which came in was to, it is not clear to myself or to the public, but it is a question that came in from a member of the public. I will ask our legal advisor to read the question. Thank you, Councillor. Question from Alex Greenwood. Would the responsible cabinet member clarify what measures are currently being undertaken to ensure council employees and agency staff understand, one, the principles of GDPR with reference to service users' data, two, the GDPR principles that surround when and how to lawfully request, collect and process service users' data in a secure manner, three, which communication channels are appropriate for such data requests, and four, the nature of special category data and the specific protections that surround it. Thank you. Councillor Decker, I think you are going to have a stab at this one. Thank you for your question. This will be forwarded to you, but the response is that all Calderdale Council staff must complete a mandatory data protection and GDPR e-learning course every two years. The content of that course includes the Data Protection Act 2018 and why it is important, the different categories of data, the seven data protection principles, the standard for consent and lawful processing of data, the eight rights of individuals in relation to their personal data, accountability principle for data controllers and processors, the requirements for transferring data, providing an overview of processing for the purpose of law enforcement and breach notification requirements. There is also, it includes the requirements for the safeguarding of children's data and the exemptions to the processing of personal data. Clearly the Council collects data from service users in a variety of ways in different circumstances that can be in person, through the website, through a hard copy of paper or via email. Information is held securely on the Council's systems with the appropriate technical and organisational security measures in place. In line with the Information Commission's published guidelines, if an individual makes a subject access request for their information electronically, it is provided to them by email unless the individual requests otherwise. All Councils are sent using a transport layer security protocol, which encrypts the emails, so that's effective what it is, it's an encryption provision, encrypts the emails to protect the emails as they move across the internet so that the response is guaranteed to be received by the person who has made the request without any interception on all of the major UK domains. So as I say, a copy of that rather lengthy and detailed answer will be sent out to you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Councillor Daycare. You might want to switch off your microphone there. That was indeed a lengthy response, it was a complex question. I wonder if perhaps I could appeal to other cabinet members perhaps to be a little more concise in their answers, because people who ask questions, whether they are in person or read out by our legal advisor, will actually get a full written response. And we do have 30 minutes allocated on the timetable to questions. I want to try and get through them all. The next question I have is from Elizabeth Riedel. Is Elizabeth Riedel in the room? Do come forward please. >> My question is actually linked to a later agenda item about the climate emergency which many local residents are very concerned about. As cabinet will know, the council has agreed a goal of Coldale being net zero by 2038. Progress has been made towards achieving this goal, but more needs to be done in tackling one of the leading causes of climate change, what we eat. In the list of actions that members of the climate action partnership can take, the council recommends implementing low carbon food policies. The science is clear that animal products have a much higher environmental cost than plant-based food products. And as the BBC puts it so clearly, even the most climate friendly meat options still produce more greenhouse gases than vegetarian protein sources. So my question is, will Coldale Council follow its own recommendations and implement a low carbon food policy that supports local growers by committing to 100% plant-based catering, which sends a clear message to residents, businesses and other institutions across the district. >> Thank you. Councillor Paterson. Thank you for your question. In the interest of brevity, I will try to cut it down, but you will be given a full response. I agree with much of what you just said and you will probably be aware that our climate action plan includes a number of actions related to sustainable low carbon food. As a cabinet, we really do believe we should be leading by example. And that is why you will have seen later in the meeting, the cabinet will be asked to approve a plant-based catering policy for recommendation by adoption to council. And it defines plant-based food as food that consists largely or solely of vegetables, grains, pulses or foods. Ideally plant-based food should compromise whole food, which is minimally processed where possible and it should be sourced importantly, it should be locally sourced and seasonal. More recently, in the past few weeks at Mayor Macon, Councillors have had the opportunity to try plant-based catering at the Mayor Macon and feedback has been really positive and I understand it was a net saving of around a third in terms of cost as well, which is important, bearing in mind budgetary issues. And the council is going to be working as part of the Coaldedale Food Network to develop a Coaldedale Food Strategy, which is due to be published later on this year, which will help set out with our partners what we have to do to enable that. When the food strategy is adopted, the council will hopefully develop a sustainable food policy in-house as well for the whole organisation setting out how we'll contribute to the food strategy. We'll also be thinking about food waste, the circular economy and everything in between, but as I said, a wider and more comprehensive response will be sent to you. Thank you. Thank you. My next question is from Mr Greenwood. Mr Greenwood, it is a lengthy question, so I put a plea to you in terms of some of the detail, perhaps. Thank you. Some time ago the Greek and the Stane Land Neighbourhood Forum decided to enhance the area by engaging with Vision 2024. We want to put Coaldedale on the world map as a place for heritage and the 50-year anniversary of the authority by leverage of the heritage assets of the locality for the benefit of the communities of Coaldedale. This consisted of placing in Hoyles Memorial Park, a replica of the Roman altar, circa AD 260, found at Top Thickens in Greekland, carved by John Swift of Yorkshire stone carver, Shea Lane, the original now in the archaeology and antiquity museum in Cambridge. This to be enclosed by the Victorian cast iron railings and flag pole from the top of the recently demolished Westfield works tower retrieved by a private individual and renovated by specialist coatings at Hopwood Lane. The intention is for the local school children to raise appropriate flags provided by private donation to celebrate Yorkshire Day, King's birthday, the Union flag on appropriate days and any other day as decided by agreement between the forum and CNBC. This project was welcomed by the assistant director of communities as a positive enhancement to Coaldedale and its vision. An application was then pursued by the area development officer. Unfortunately, a negative response was received from planning and legal stating that the covenant was in place in Hoyles Park stating, No building of any kind shall be erected by the council upon the land hereby conveyed, but the council may, if it so desires, erect a bush shelter and/or other shelter thereon or on some part thereof in a manner and style to be decided by the council. With the above in mind, unfortunately, it will not be possible for the replica Roman altar and railings to be installed on the above site. From conversations with legal acquaintances of mine, I contend that the altar cannot be considered a building as there does not seem to be a legal definition of a building. Also, according to section 237 paragraph--para 1 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, CNBC is accorded the power to override easements and other rights to erection, construction of any building or work on land which has been acquired or appropriated by the local authority. Whilst the authority seeks to rely upon the government in schedule item 4, the authority then fails to implement the covenant it produced contained in schedule item 2. Will the appropriate cabinet member seek clarification and a way forward to pursue the objective of the Greekland and Staland Ward communities and of Calderdale heritage? I look forward to a transparent, honest, and evidence response. Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much, Mr Greenwood. I am not sure who is fielding this one. In that case, the honour falls to me and I will try to be as brief as I possibly can be. Thank you for the question, which you did do speedily. It was very lengthy and complex. I am aware that a response on this issue has already been provided to Councillor Prashad who has raised some of the same points. I am afraid that the Council does not concur with your contention in your question. Let me just try and be very brief in terms of some of the answer is basically about this question of definitions of what constitutes a building. There is a wide definition which includes any structure or erection, and this definition has been widely interpreted by the courts to include structures which would not ordinarily be described as buildings, including the one of which you speak. There are various bits of case law, say what the criteria is for a building, size, permanence, physical attachment to the ground and so on. On the basis of the above, the Roman altar does fall within the legal definition of a building, and we would of course be willing to consider any advice that you have received setting at a contrary position, and perhaps you would be kind enough to provide that information to the planning service to enable a review to be carried out. On the question of the covenants that you raise, then appropriate consideration would have to be given should the above issue about the definition of a building be resolved. I will put this in writing to you in some detail. Thank you very much for the question. Conscious members of cabinet and people attending the meeting that we are in danger after the first three questions of exceeding the 30 minutes allowed for public question time, I'm proposing cabinet that we extend this and that we get through the, I think it's 13 questions, we've done three, given that most of the questioners are here, I feel it's fair to hear the questions, but once again if I could please ask cabinet members if their answers here in public can be brief and the full response will be sent to the members of the public and the Councillors who ask those questions. Are members content to extend this period of the agenda? Yes, I'm seeing nods, so I'll take that as given. My next question is from Mr David Pugh. Mr Pugh, thank you. Thank you very much for letting me ask the question. My question is also linked to the climate emergency and we want to see the Council lead by example on this. It's about the incinerator, proposed incinerator at Serby Bridge. The Council has employed a consultant, Buro Veritas, and to look at the application for environmental permits and in the report that's on the website it only focuses on one concern and that's the air quality issues. The review does not mention for example the environment agency statements about it being a high risk of surface water flooding at the site. There are many design issues that are not resolved. The R1 calculations are inaccurate. The installation is not an energy from waste facility. There's a dryer specification that's totally incorrect. It says that it's going to dry aggregates. The machine that they've specified dries organic material and refuse derived fuel. There's a mismatch of working hours of the incinerator and dryer. The company has been sold to a new company. Now, where's the due diligence on the new company that's taking this on? There's a lot wrong with this. Basically, my question is, apparently there's been 858 objections to this. Why are the other objections remain unanswered? The website doesn't seem to be clear on this. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr Pugh. I'm going to ask Councillor Durran's to respond. Thank you. Sorry about that. The Council will consider the application in accordance with what regulations are needed to govern such a permit and whilst those regulations do require the council to consider any representation made pursuant to the regulations, there isn't actually a requirement to respond to them. As you say, there has been 858 representations made so far, but there isn't a responsibility to respond, sorry. Thank you for your question. There's no requirement to do so. Thank you, Mr Pugh. Thank you, Councillor Durran's. OK, the next one is from Ms Pugh. Jane Pugh in the audience. Hello there. Thank you for letting me ask this question. I would like to question the Council's communication skills in relation to the way the environmental permit application, as we spoke about, S13006 is being handled. I am concerned because I believe that the local authority will not take account of or report back to all these members of the public on the decision-making process and the many outstanding technical objections to the issuing of an environmental permit. I've contacted my local Councillors and they too are not being informed of the decision-making process. They're asking questions and they were just being blanked all the time. I sent an email to cabinet members and most of the members in this room and offices and explained in detail point by point why the cabinet is able to make a determination about the environmental permit. My question is why haven't I had a response to my email from anybody? I did have a quick one from Craig Whittaker. That was all. Thank you, Ms Pugh. I think it's back to Councillor Durran's. Thank you for your question, Ms Pugh. I can assure you that the Council does consider the permit application in accordance with the requirement to do so that is placed upon by the regulations which govern such an application and I am sorry that your email didn't receive a response. As we said earlier, 858 representations have been received and as I said earlier were not required to respond to individual questions in that manner so I am sorry. Thank you, Ms Pugh. My next questioner is Clive Wilkinson. Thank you for letting me ask a question of cabinet. Given that a government planning inspector rejected an appeal for an incinerator in Sorbet Bridge less than a year ago because of its potential harm to human health and the environment, it is imperative that local people should have proper consultation on the latest application or should I say reapplication to run an incinerator. After the initial comments deadline passed on 1 April, CNBC posted on their website that the process was being halted while further questions were asked of the applicant and that once those questions were answered, they would be published and objectives would be notified and given 14 days to comment further. It seems CNBC posted these answers on their website on 23 May and a deadline of 8 am on 6 June for further comments but in a straw poll of local people, less than 10% of previous commenters have been notified. Will the cabinet now ensure that all those who originally commented are notified by email and that once this is done, to restart the 14 day consultation process? Thank you. Thank you, Mr Wilkes. I am sorry I did not have a copy of your question. Do you have a copy of the question? No, I am sorry, could I get him written out and sent out? We move on to the next question from Vanessa Lee. If the cabinet passes the plant-based catering policy today, it will demonstrate this Council's lack of support for our local farmers and rural community. Many farms in Calderdale do prioritise livestock and despite the conservative motion being passed in March 4 Council meeting to support these farms, this current proposal puts these communities at risk. It appears that labour is indifferent to their livelihoods and would rather see them face financial hardship. Does the cabinet member responsible for climate action honestly believe it is right to withdraw his support for traditional livestock farming which is vital to communities in his ward and also across Calderdale? Our society prides itself on personal choice and enforcing such a policy runs counter to this. Thank you, Mr Lee. Just firstly I would like to disagree vehemently with your assumptions. The Council very much values the contribution that rural and farming businesses make to the local economy and I am delighted that local farmers have been involved in the development of Calderdale's climate action plan and their contribution is reflected in a few different sections of the plan. So for example the land and nature section of the plan mentions the importance of grazing to some ecosystems and the need for more sustainable land management. Also representative from the South Pennine Farmers Group has agreed to join our climate action partnership so farmers' interests are really well represented on the partnership. The green economy section of the plan talks about the need to support businesses to access support and about celebrating green innovation and businesses who are making progress towards net zero as well. So it is a bit unlikely that plant-based care policy will have a significant impact on local livestock farming due to the very limited amount of catering that the Council does. I think we worked out it is less than around £2000 and interestingly there is an item later on in the agenda that is around multi-million pounds worth of spending that does not seem to have generated as many questions. We briefly touched upon the Council wide food strategy and that is very much in concert with local partners, farmers, smallholders and agricultural businesses who very much had a hand in that. So as well as promoting plant-based food the intentions that very much include local and seasonal food, organic food, fair trade food whilst reducing water and food waste and it would include the provision of food for sailing Council sites and the promotion of sustainable food to staff so therefore increasing our support to local food producers and suppliers but I will endeavour to get a wider response to you, thank you. My next question is from Hazel Sharp regarding Northbridge Leisure Centre. Despite promises from the cabinet that the new Northbridge Leisure Centre would open in early 2026 after years of delay, progress appears to be very slow. There are no visible signs of construction leaving residents in Halifax frustrated with the Council's failure to deliver projects on time. An update of the project's realistic completion date is urgently needed and would be appreciated, thank you. End of question. Thank you, Councillor Courtney. Thank you, a nice brief response. So thank you Hazel for your question if you're watching online. Currently the Northbridge Leisure Centre project is coming to the end of Reba stage 3 and that's part of the architectural and planning process. Spatial coordination/developed design is what Reba stage 3 is and it's due to go out to tender in July of this year. Subject to governance approvals, construction is scheduled to begin in early 2025 with a completion date of summer 2026. Thank you. That was indeed short, thank you very much Councillor Courtney and thank you to Miss Sharp for a question and again a full written response. My next question is Councillor Haye, Councillor Elaine Haye, is she here? Hello there. Thank you, it's another question for Councillor Paterson I think. I very much welcome the news that Calderdale Council had signed up to No More May for the first time this year. It's understandable that this has been treated as a pilot scheme this year with only 45 sites across the borough being included. I'm interested to know what the plans are going forward in terms of not just No More May but actively making Calderdale in general more pollinator friendly. When I take the bus into Leeds it's really apparent that pollinator friendly initiatives are taking place all over the city and I'm thinking specifically of roadside verges and roundabouts. These initiatives appear to be funded partly by local businesses sponsoring each site and therefore providing themselves with publicity and the council with funds to pay for the projects. The sponsored signs also communicate and educate the public as to why these sites are being managed in a certain way. I wonder if this is something which Calderdale would consider going forwards but my specific question is about a roundabout in my own ward of North Aromon Shelf. The large roundabout at Stonechair is due to be reworked soon due to safety issues and I would like to ask if as part of the reworking this roundabout could be designated as a pollinator friendly initiative. The roundabout is large enough to provide a significant haven for bees, butterflies, beetles, birds etc with food as well as shelter if it could be planted and maintained in an appropriate manner. Thank you very much and before I pass over to two cabinet members on this I just wanted to say I'm so pleased that finally something is happening in relation to the safety at Stonechair roundabout. It has been an issue for so many years already and let's hope the proposed plans actually do something in relation to safety. Your question covered a couple of portfolios so I'm going to ask Councillor Courtney to say something about the transport side of things and then I'm going to ask I think Councillor Patience rather than Councillor Doran to say something about normal and pollination. Councillor Courtney. Thank you Councillor Hay for your question. The proposed road safety scheme in this location will not be making any changes to the roundabout as it's simply looking at approach speeds and pedestrian facilities around the periphery. This has a scheme under development in North East Calderdale connecting North East Calderdale. However, the scheme currently has no capital funding. If capital funding is secured we may be able to undertake some changes in planting here but as mentioned we do not have a budget available for this at the time. If funding becomes available we'll certainly give this consideration at that time. Thank you. Over to Councillor Patience. Thank you Councillor Hay and just for the second part thank you for bringing it to our attention and it's certainly something we'll look into. It clearly reflects our aspirations around biodiversity, ecology, quality and all those bits and we're always on the lookout for areas that are appropriate for less invasive forms of maintenance as they offer a win-win in terms of environmental benefits and the need for less maintenance resources. I know my wife's very happy that I finally mowed the lawn after five weeks today so thank you. Thank you Councillor Hay, thank you Councillors. My next question is Councillor Prashant, hello. Thank you chair. I think my question has been answered in part but it's quite concise. In January this year I asked a question regarding the progress on the Northbridge Leisure Centre. Can you now advise if the revised layout cost plan and operating income assessment have been completed and tenders issued to potential contractors to enable the works to commence in autumn this year? Thank you and I'm going to go to Councillor Courtney on this one. Thank you very much Councillor Prashant. It's another brief response. So a revised layout and cost plan has been completed in line with REBA stage 3 requirements and a full operating income assessment has been produced. The tender is due to be issued to the marketplace in July and then as previously mentioned subject to governance approvals, construction is scheduled to begin early 2025 with completion we hope in 2026 in the summer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your question and again the written answer will come to you. My next question is Councillor Lee. Thank you chair. My question is about the incinerator and part of what I'm about to say has already been said by Mr Wilkinson. I'm going to say it anyway. Thank you. So now that the deadline for the council to request further information from the applicants has expired on May 30th please can you provide a further update? I appreciate the second consultation is ongoing but it's disappointing to see that it's not been publicised by the council. We need to ensure residents provide their views. It is in the interest of everyone to extend this deadline and share this information more widely. Furthermore residents deserve clarity about who will make the decision regarding the environmental permit. Will the cabinet make the decision as it did on the previous environmental permit in 2021 or will it be delegated to officers? Thank you chair. Thank you Councillor Lee. I'm sure you will appreciate the application will be determined in accordance with the appropriate regulations and considerations will be given to all representations that have been made and as previously been stated it's going to be considered by officers pursuant to the delegated authority provided. So there's no plan to advertise this further nor any plan to make it a longer period for consideration. Thank you for your question Councillor Lee. Thank you. So question from Councillor Carter. Where is the freedom of choice in the plant based catering policy? The premises of British values is individual choice and freedom which means that the state should not dictate how people live their lives. If we are truly committed to addressing climate change we must recognize that coercing people to adopt a specific lifestyle will not effectively incentivize change. End of question. Councillor Patience I think that's yours. Thank you leader and thank you Councillor Carter for the question. An interesting take there. Although the council doesn't provide catering for events and meetings very often we do think it's really important to lead by example and we want to encourage other partners and businesses to consider using locally sourced seasonal fruit and vegetables to lower their own carbon impact in line with our climate action plan and the council holds as I've said before very few catered events but we do respect the right of people who attend those events to not eat the food provided. Councillors did have the opportunity to try plant based catering at our recent mare making as I've said before and the feedback has been extremely positive. Thank you. Thank you and Councillor Carter will receive a written answer in relation to that question and my last question is actually Councillor Hunt. Welcome Councillor Hunt. Hello chair thank you so much. Quick one. So residents of Elland grow increasingly despondent about the protracted delays in the opening of Elland train station. There is also an absence of substantive updates so that residents have a better understanding of when the facility will be open. Can you give a breakdown of the work being conducted and a time scale of works being undertaken leading towards a specified completion date? Thank you very much I'm going to Councillor Courtney for a response on that one. Thank you. Thank you very much Councillor Hunt and yes so the council is working with the West Yorkshire combined authority to progress work at Elland railway station and we remained committed to develop delivering the project as efficiently as possible. Over the recent period there's been a significant amount of work undertaken to appoint a contractor to take the station forward through to the next development stage. Once this has been completed there will be more detailed updates that can be provided to confirm the program for immediate next steps which will include pre-construction site investigations, detailed design work and conclusion of the compulsory purchase order all of which will lead all of which lead to the completion of the full business case. We will then also be able to provide updates on expected time scales for construction works commencing on site and ultimately the new rail station opening and becoming operational. We do recognise the frustrations with the time scales for delivery and whilst there have been unavoidable challenges in delivering Elland rail station the project continues to progress and retains the support of the rail industry. The project has passed a number of key milestones which are essential to deliver a new rail station including achieving planning approval and design approval from network rail. Thank you very much for your question. Thank you Councillor Courtney and that response will be provided in a full written answer and that concludes the question time part of this meeting and we now move to other business. Thank you. We just leave a moment for those who wish to leave the meeting to do so. Then we will move on to receive reports from scrutiny boards. There are some chairs now available if anyone wants to take the weight off their feet. The next item of business on the cabinet agenda is receiving reports from the work of the scrutiny boards. It is in two parts. The first is a report from the children and young people scrutiny board. Can we have who is giving the report? Councillor Tremaine. Thank you. Would you like to introduce yourself and introduce the title of the scrutiny report? Thank you chair. I am Diana Tremaine. At the time of this I was deputy chair of children and young people's scrutiny board. We previously brought some interim recommendations to the cabinet and the review is entitled emotional wellbeing and mental health of children and young people across Calderdale. I will outline a few points. As some of the interim recommendations were previously brought, I will not go through all of those for the sake of time but they are all in the information packs. You will be aware that this review came out of discussions at CYP over a period of time around questions regarding emotional wellbeing and that being a primary concern of members but of reports brought to the committee. In particular, over a period of time, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, of a downward trend from the emotional health electronic health needs analysis over recent years which comes to the scrutiny board each year. That was something which we wanted to consider. As part of this review, which obviously is quite wide ranging, we have spoken to lots of children and young people, a variety of other individuals and groups, schools, youth provision, voluntary sector, NHS partners, open minds partnership and council offices as part of the review. It has been extremely wide ranging and involved a lot of conversations. Just at this point I want to say thank you very much to all those members and others who were involved and who spoke to us as part of this and also some of the council officers who were involved, particularly Naomi Marcus from public health who was a part of the review group. What we have seen as part of this is just very clearly the challenges that all those young people but also those involved in supporting them are facing at the moment. We have tried to just let them lead very much the agenda. We took an appreciative inquiry approach here to try and look at what the challenges were but also how they were being responded to in different settings and to try and explore how that could shape some potential recommendations. One of the key aspects I think of this review work has actually been going and listening to all those involved, particularly children and young people but all those involved in supporting them. That perhaps is almost one of the recommendations that has come out of it is that we spend more time doing that. The focus of the recommendations that came out were around three areas in terms of thinking about putting them into different groups around connectivity, empowerment and access. That seemed quite a good way of thinking about how we could make recommendations, which we felt we were very aware of budget constraints, other constraints in terms of capacity as well and we wanted to make recommendations which we felt were achievable. That was one of the comments that I know people were asking when it came to the Scrutiny Board. We feel that the recommendations which we are bringing are very much achievable and can be measured through scrutiny work but also through existing work going on in the Council. In terms of the recommendations which were made in the second part, the final report, these included for example looking at the Healthy Schools Award which we are already engaging with, schools are already doing a lot of work on and developing that to include a focus around inclusivity, something which could be developed with young people and with school leaders. This ties in very effectively with the existing EHNA work and the reporting that comes through from that. Another focus around empowerment was looking at trauma informed practice and embedding that more deeply within schools across the borough. That is again something which is ongoing in many schools so there are many examples of good practice there which can be built on. A lot of what we looked at around connectivity and access is about building on positive networks that already exist to some extent or exist perhaps in relation to other school roles. So for example building on the good work of the clusters which we have across our primary schools and secondary schools and how they can work effectively to share good practice and offer mentoring and support to colleagues, often informally so we are not talking about vast amounts of money. This is something which actually is going on to some degree and it is about thinking about how we might build on that. This also ties in very clearly with work which is going on in terms of our family hubs and thinking about how that can relate in terms of supporting children and young people and those who work with them and those who they go to for support in the places where they live. We were very clear that schools in particular as well as other provisions such as youth provision provide kind of community hubs and community places where young people can access trusted adults and can find people who they want to go to as their first port of call and we wanted to kind of encourage that we build on that. I think the final point I wanted just to stress again, one of the points we made initially was around the planned single point of contact which is already an intention, is something which is being built on and we wanted to just endorse I think very strongly that if we can build on that sooner rather than later we felt that would be a really effective way of ensuring that all the different organisations and all the different reports which go out to the different groups and organisations involved are just coordinated really effectively just to ensure that support is accessed as effectively and promptly as is possible. I hope that just provides an overview. Thank you Councillor Tremaine. It certainly was a very insightful report and very timely really because you do see a lot of press reports in terms of young people's emotional and mental wellbeing and particularly post Covid really so I think it's very timely to look into the social services in this area. Councillor Fenton-Glin you indicated first. Active listening, right I clearly mistook it for indicating. Is there anybody who wishes to comment or ask Councillor Tremaine any questions? Councillor Daker. It's just to say that it's unfortunate that obviously the member for Children's isn't here today and I assume that there have been conversations about how Recommendation 7 on the facilitation of the conference might actually take place. Yeah we haven't looked at this in detail yet but again as part of the scrutiny board we're already engaging very much in involving children young people as much as possible in our meeting so I'm hoping that that's something that we can take forward and engage with the relevant member and other members of CYP Directorate. Can I ask what really struck you in terms of things that were new that were positive and things that were new that were not so good? What struck you? I would say perhaps that they perhaps almost go together that what particularly perhaps from going into schools but I think from other settings too was a real an absolute commitment in terms of school leaders and all school staff in terms of how to address the challenges they were facing in a way which offered the greatest support possible for the needs around emotional wellbeing for their pupils. So I think we saw some really innovative ways of looking at challenges around okay well I don't have as much budget as I'd like to do this so I'm going to try and do this in a way which is perhaps holistically addressing some of those issues and they were quite creative. There wasn't a set answer I don't think from lots of schools. So I think what we have seen is some models for addressing things like emotional wellbeing in a much broader way than perhaps we might have considered so perhaps relating to cost of living crisis and how actually addressing some of those issues was having a really positive effect on family wellbeing and therefore on young people's wellbeing. So I think some of it was about creativity I think in quite challenging circumstances and I think actually one of the real pleasures of it was listening to children and young people I'm sure Councillor Durran's will agree with me but just actually hearing how absolutely as a whole within their settings they really did all have trusted adults and people who they knew they could go to if they had concerns and I don't think we felt a real sense that certainly the schools that we went into were communities which had the wellbeing of their children and young people at the heart which obviously we would hope for and expect but within kind of challenging circumstances I think that's really important to remember and it was really important to hear that and actually the key thing was how much they valued us going to listen to them and that certainly again you sometimes perhaps think that you're going to be not a burden turning up somewhere and kind of expecting to take some of their time but actually they all welcomed us and really valued having us there but actually the privilege is ours to go and have that opportunity. Councillor Durran's. I forgot sorry and it was really open wasn't it and quite transparent with their challenges which was really quite positive yeah. I also thought the children being aware of their emotions is a real positive because that went throughout all ages didn't it and that is something that I think is something that should be celebrated because when children can recognise emotions we can work through them and allow them to understand them better I suppose so that was a positive. It was a really really valuable piece of work wasn't it. Councillor Courtney. Yeah just briefly I really welcome this report it's a fantastic piece of work and I really particularly welcome the trauma informed approach I think there's sort of evidence around that trauma can be created by people not being listened to as much as events happening themselves and I think being able to have that you know space where if practitioners are trained in that and that can actually help stem things and actually can be quite positive for stopping things progressing you know into the future so I really welcome this and I hope that we manage to adopt a lot of these things thank you. Thank you I'm not seeing MDLs indicate the convention is as you will know that cabinet receives scripting reports and then the portfolio holder works with the directors to provide a formal response to that. Are cabinet content to receive this report I think I know the answer to that thank you very much thank you Councillor Tremé and thank you for stepping in the next scripting report is on the review of knife crime Councillor Dickinson welcome. Good afternoon cabinet good afternoon leader following on from council to mainly allow me to introduce myself as though if you don't know what you know me my name is Regan Dickinson for Restrick and at the time when we did the detailed review into knife crime within Colvedale I was chair of place and honored to lead this review. I would like to pay tribute to the scrutiny team who organized the terms of reference did a lot of it of the all the legwork and put together what was an incredibly informative learning experience on the scrutiny in a day that we went through meeting people from blossoms we read about in the report right through to police in the late afternoon and quite frankly with each of the testimony received from each organization and so we could have spent all day talking to them in turn it was fascinating interesting stuff. Let me start with the good news knife crime as it stands in Colvedale is low it's our interest in this the timing was unfortunate when you consider that the incident in Halifax the tragic incidents in Halifax that led to deaths on the night out. This is not a reactive report this is proactive this is something that was flagged up well before this happened and I think it does need saying so this is very clear. The work that we did and you'll see in the recommendations that there is a recommendation that perhaps cabinet might be interested in commissioning extra work on this I think they're all doing will generally be extra work to be done on this it's going to be a state of evolution going forward and if electorate willing I'm still a counselor in two years from now it will be something I'd like to bring back to have another look at again to see how far we've evolved with that because there are areas where there are for want of a better word a few blockages in terms of overcoming cognitive dissonance between understanding terms of reference and terms of definition and also in terms of cohesion I think could also be smoothed over and approved so I would very much like to not see this gathering dust that is recommendations are considered and perhaps yes the extra piece of work that we suggest going forward and any spin offs from that will be taken forward as well. And I think actually do you know what I think that's pretty much most of what I wanted to say those are the key headline points really that I wanted to bring forward but it was as far as I'm concerned a very worthwhile piece of work. However having stated at the beginning that whilst the incidents of knife crime in Colbydale is low and it ties in to a certain extent with council for mains work because I did accompany them to Rastrick high school the benefit of Rastrick high school it's A in my ward and B a nice school and their perception of the risks of knife crime were different from testimony we heard elsewhere and also from what you will see in the report with regard to the statistics in terms of perception but that perception is important to recognise and understand that whilst people statistically may be safe they may feel not safe and at a time when my son who recently turned 18 has entered the most dangerous demographic for a young man 18 and 24 you know it's you don't feel it at the time I'm feeling pretty vulnerable when I was 18 but statistically you're not but there are going to be people out there who are going to be vulnerable who are going to be at risk of harm at risk of succumbing into into that culture and whilst the probability in the instance of that is low within Colbydale it needs to be recognised it is also important to recognise that sense of perception of young people as they go through their lives that that risk is perceived and understood and noted. Thank you very much. Thank you Councillor Dickinson. I'm good to take Councillor Fenton Gwynne this time, thank you. Yeah thank you for this and it's you know another good piece of scrutiny work which is always good to see. I think you're right in terms of the perception being really important particularly for young people I was heartened when we did the peer review that one of the things that they mentioned was one of the young people that they spoke to who went to the college in Trinity said you feel safe in Halifax and so obviously we're getting something right but obviously you know particularly the recent incident in the evening there is still a perception that there's an issue and there is an issue and I think there are also certain groups that are more more at risk so if you look at kind of some of the work that we've done around kind of following the burnt bridges report there are people that live often street-based lifestyles more at risk of coming under that kind of attack and also you look at the work that Councillor Ahmed has done for on night-time economy workers and particularly kind of making sure that the bar staff get home safe and things it's quite clear that you know that that's a group that are particularly at risk and I think you know one of the things that might be worth kind of building on this with is making sure that we're looking at those specific at-risk groups and what we can do and some of it's education as well some of it is we had an interesting conversation with Neve from our public health team recently about you know one of our challenges is the middle class drug users who don't think there's any cost to what they're doing when you know they when the same person that you know might sell something to them in Togborden is also the person that you know satisfies to a semi-homeless person street-based persons flat in Halifax and you know it's getting people to understand those issues and those connections that I think is perhaps part of what we can do in terms of trying to tackle violent crime tackle and kind of protect some of those who are most vulnerable so thank you for this work more to do and hopefully we'll see you coming back to do well actually hopefully we won't but you know I hope I hope we can revisit it in some form yes thank you for the patience thank you and briefly a really really good report and I guess it picks upon the point that those on the wrong end of the blade aren't the only victims recently a play came to have the bridge call the long road specifically around how knife crime could not just affect the family of those affected by knife crime but also the perpetrators and their life stories and how they brought up and I think really that interventionist sort of angle of working with communities to make sure that vulnerable young people are supported through their lives as using this kind of angle as a hook is going to be key to making sure that we keep our communities and young people safe if I may yes it was the work of the Youth Justice Service particularly was was picked up on and yes our recommendations urge that this is maintained and at a more slight personal level I'd also I know that the budget was cut at the budget council with regard to youth youth club provision if a few quid turns up from behind the sofa somewhere I would encourage it ends up going in that direction because this ties in having seen the work that we do for example in Rashford Field Lane it's not just a youth club it's also an early intervention policy as well and I would try to encourage that and if anything if not just maintain it expand it where possible thank you thank you um Councillor Durrence did you indicate yes thank you chair and I was also on this review group and it was a really interesting piece of work and I think Councillor Patience comment about the wider implications is one of the key messages that we've found largely the young people was open transparent and not guarded really with the information was there which was quite interesting but I found it more interesting that they use it for protection not to use they've never used it to use but yet they're three times more likely to be a victim of knife crime if by carrying one that's right ain't it Regan so the education part and working with them is a key part but yeah it was a great piece of work so thank you Councillor Dickieson thank you chair thank you I'm not seeing MDL's indicate so as part of the convention our cabinet's happy to receive this and to take it away and to work on the recommendations thank you thank you very much to you and the team thank you cabinet okay we'll move on then to item seven which is the transfer of special educational needs and disability information advice and support service and I'm just pondering in the absence of Councillor Wilkinson who is covering this particular item shall we if you can say a few words council Fenton Glynne and then we will move to look at the recommendations it's a pretty straightforward it's quite straightforward they started integrating the service in 2018 it came up for review after five years they have done a kind of a bit of a push over over but they just it just needs to be approved by cabinet to continue to be delivered jointly with Kirkley's and that's to help make sure that we're giving the right advice to ACM. Thank you I'm just getting the recommendations up in front of me. Delegation from Kirkley's council which integrates the right it's recommended there are two recommendations it's recommended that the council approve the new agreement with the continued integration of Cordonelle council and Kirkley's council SEND IASS services under a delegation of functions agreement it's recommended that the council accepts the delegation of functions by Kirkley's council in relation to I don't know whether one says send the aspect the SND services the services and independent services and I think it relates to what we've just been talking about in terms of the two scrutiny reviews in relation to making sure that young people have their services whatever their backgrounds and the particular circumstances that they need to have in terms of living a good life in Cordonelle and Kirkley's the integration already exists this is basically approval for the continued integration of the services between Cordonelle and Kirkley's which are particularly welcome actually in terms of efficiencies and cost savings and the closeness between our two boroughs. So recommendation 3.1 and 3.2 are we content to approve 3.1 to approve the new agreement for the continued integration of the Cordonelle and Kirkley's arrangements and 3.2 is recommended that we accept the delegation of functions from Kirkley's council to ourselves. All those in favour? Great. Thank you. And the next item I think we do have somebody here to introduce which is the plant-based catering policy which has already had a bit of an airing, a patient so if we could move on to that. Thank you. Thank you Lida and yes it feels slightly like deja vu in that we've covered a little bit of this through the questions already so I guess I'll just try and pick out some of the highlights in the interests of brevity so thank you very much this is building on this is building on a recommendation that came out in 2000 around becoming a climate-friendly employer so we're just enshrining the specific point around plant-based catering now through policy. It's been really cheering to see the interest that this has generated already in sort of local national press and here as well tonight so thank you everyone that's come to speak for it and for those against as well. I guess it's towards, it's the first step towards a wider food strategy and we've said about it supporting our rural economy and building on the kind of work that groups like Incredible Edible Todd Madden have been doing for the last 15 years but certainly are not in isolation. Lots of growers, smallholders and food heroes around Calderdale that we're keen to support in this journey. So plant-based catering policy and it's I think what's at its core is harking back to young people as well when we were doing some of the outreach for the climate action policy and we were speaking to young people specifically at places like Brig House High. They were really clued in to the impact that food has on the environment and making sure that young people have a continuing role in our climate discussions is really key. Just want to set out a few things of what we won't be doing and what we will be doing based on some of the information and stuff I've seen online. What we won't be doing, we're not going to be sending officers sneaking into people's houses to steal away their way for thin ham. We're not going to be policing people coming into the council bringing in normal milk or bringing in their own you know, pat lunches and stuff. What we will be doing is providing plant-based catering at a very small amount of events we run at the council. We will be trying to encourage people to think about their diet, to think about the impacts on local food systems and think about climate and how food affects that in general. So although there are a couple of recommendations within there around this A, B and C and C is about developing a wider food policy, that is being done anyway. So this recommendation is the first step in developing that wider food policy and the recommendation is to develop a plant-based catering policy for Calderdale. Thank you. Thank you council patient. Anybody else want to come in on this? I think as somebody who's not a vegetarian I have to say that I thought very long and carefully about this and I thought about questions from the grandchildren in particular in terms of individual responsibilities, in terms of organisational responsibilities and in terms of collective and science society responsibilities and we're all doing our little individual bits, we're trying to do things as organisations, as the council, as businesses and so on. We're all thinking about how we can stop climate change in its tracks and tackle these things and this is the council, as council patient says, I think the actual events are something like between six and ten events a year. So I don't think the world is going to end if the council takes a small amount of responsibility for reducing its carbon emissions as part of its commitment to tackling climate change. So the cabinet are being asked the recommendation. It's not a cabinet decision, it's a recommendation to council. So I expect we will have a longer discussion at council. The cabinet recommends to council that the plant-based catering policy is adopted. Can I see all those in favour? Thank you very much. We'll move on then to the next one which I guess is also a health related item. Local tobacco control plan and local stop smoking services and support grant. And this involves accepting money which I think we're always glad as a cabinet to do. Thanks. Councillor Swift, are you taking this one? Yes, thank you leader. So as colleagues will be aware, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable ill health disability and death in the UK. And Coldale has specific responsibilities around smoking prevention, smoking reduction and indeed we're already working on a tobacco control plan and details of that attached in the paper. The government announced their plans to create a smoke-free generation, plans which had general cross-party support. And as part of that, allocated funding to each local authority to help smokers to quit. This funding is ring fenced to enhance local stop smoking services and support and to help more smokers give up over the coming five years. Although with the calling of the general election, the legislation on restricting access to smoking fell, the money for this work was already allocated. And in case of Coldale, the sum allocated is £263,562 for this financial year. Sums for future years are not specifically identified but the report asks cabinet to consent not just to agreeing this year's, to receiving this year's grant but future years there. The uses of the new investment will focus on three areas, secondary prevention, that's where people have already been diagnosed with a health condition or offered support to help to quit, to prevent or delay the health deteriorating, tackling inequalities by making sure that stop smoking services are more accessible and more effective for groups that have the highest smoking rates and reducing smoking in pregnancy to complement the existing provision. So I'd ask cabinet to agree to receive the funding and to support for the priorities set out. Thank you, Councillor Swift. Two recommendations in front of you to approve the, basically agree to accept the money and to allocate it this year and any subsequent funding allocated for the next four years until March 29. And the second part of that recommendation is to delegate the specific use, the detailed use of that grant funding to the director of public health in consultation with the cabinet member for public health and the deputy leader. Are members content to agree those two recommendations? Please show. Thank you. The next item is, I think, a very good news item called the visitor economy strategy and that's over to you, Councillor Cote. I know how much work has gone into this. Thank you, chair. Yes, so I'm proud to present the new visitor economy strategy which is proposed for 2024 to 2029. It's been developed in collaboration and consultation with our key partners and stakeholders. The purpose of the strategy is to give direction to Calderdale's visitor economy over the next five years and for this to work alongside our inclusive economy strategy and our voluntary community and social enterprise strategy which will be coming to the cabinet near you very shortly. Together, along with the input into our brilliant towns, we're hoping that these will underpin our economic recovery and building on our resilience and continuing our excellent partnership working. So from consultation, we've developed a primary aim which is to generate more and longer trips to Calderdale to benefit the local economy and increase jobs and ensure that we remain competitive, compelling and attractive as well. The strategy also highlights the importance of preserving the cultural and environmental integrity of our place, creating a legacy for the future of its people. We want the borough to work for our residents as well as our visitors and the people who work here. So through this strategy, we aim to increase the size and quality of the tourism sector and this will be achieved by working with our partners to deliver three key priorities and they are delivering our product and places, increasing the awareness and appeal of Calderdale and managing our visitor economy effectively. I could go into more detail around the detail within those three headlines, but those are all in the report. So just to summarise, the success of our visitor economy relies on developing strong and lasting partnerships. A partnership approach will be key to delivery of this visitor economy strategy and there are three recommendations. Do you want me to read those out or shall I leave that to you? Okay. So there are three recommendations and it's recommended that cabinet notes the progress made in delivering the visitor economy strategy 2019 to 2024. So that was the previous strategy. So we need to note the progress that we made delivering that, that we approve the next recommendations that we approve the new Calderdale visitor economy strategy 2024 to 29, which sets out priorities and overarching actions for the next five years. And also the third recommendation that cabinet agrees to review and revise the format and structure of the Calderdale tourism board to focus on delivering the strategy in consultation with board members and wider partner industries. It could be either. Thank you, Councillor Courtney. Any comments or questions on this? I have to say the figure from 2022 in terms of tourism and the visitor economy being worth £430 million. And that was immediately post COVID. Actually, it does show you what an important part of our economy is and in terms of growth and we know it has to be sustainable growth. And I was pleased to see within the report and indeed within the strategy that it's not just about attracting visitors, it's making sure that we who live in this place also feel the benefit of the visitor economy strategy. So it's very positive. Thank you. Councillor De Koo, you indicated. So from the perspective of my membership of the Todmorden town board, this is very helpful to the board when they're trying to set future goals for what happens to Todmorden after the towns fund money has been spent. It's a useful framework for rules and for the spin off panels that we that are formed alongside the board to have in mind when they're looking at how we make how we make the best use of that investment. Again, as you say, both of the people already living there because people living here also want to go to events and have places to go. But also how we bring all the people in for longer. So I think it goes very much welcomed by town boards as well as of the partners. I would obviously agree and I would add Brig House to that. MD who knows me, if anybody comes to if MD comes to work for the council in a senior role, I have my standard tour of Brig House that I drag them around. And likewise with Todmorden because Hebden Bridge, of course, we know gets a lot of day visitors. Why are people not going in the same numbers to somewhere as fantastic as Brig House and indeed Todmorden Bay. That's one of the aims, if you ask me, in terms of visitor economy strategy. Those fantastic places should be better known actually. So we've got three recommendations in front of us. Absolutely. And I think having things like events, you know, having programmes of events and being able to have some sort of coordination around all of those sorts of things. Just seeing Tod Folk Festival a few weeks ago, the number of people that that brought into the town and that's very, very positive. So I think, yeah, working with the town boards, working with the towns and working across the council overall really, really can help strengthen that. It's really exciting. The 1940s weekend at Brig House. Okay, we've got three recommendations cabinet that Councillor Courtney has read out. I don't intend to read them out again. Are we content to take those three as a batch and improve this visitor economy strategy? Thank you. Okay, our next item, I think that's you, Councillor patient, is item 11, Gypsy Travel Traveller and Travelling Show People Development Plan document options paper. Thank you. Thank you, leader. And I'm really, really pleased to announce that we're finally moving on with this. This has been some time in the making and it's really cheering to see us moving on with it. Of course, what of past people's knowledge that we've just given the ability by the court to fire on all cylinders with the local plan. And this is just part of that process really. So local planning, local development scheme of committed the council to preparing the gypsies travellers and travelling show people development plan documents. So not an SPD, this is a DPD, just to make that important distinction. And the options paper is the first stage in preparing this DPD and setting out the proposed scope of the document. And it's to allocate land to meet the identified needs of the traveller community. But it's important to stress no sites are identified at this stage. What's also brilliant to for people to understand is that Leeds Gate have been integral as part of this process. So we're not doing it to a group of people we are doing it very much with and in conjunction with and that feels right. And I know Leeds Gate have said that they feel really good and positive to be sort of co-produced in this process and long may that rain. So the options paper includes a suggested set of themes for vision and some proposed objectives and their concern with provision, location, impact on the environment and co-existence with settled communities as well. And there's commentary on the evidence base which identifies a need for eight traveller pitches and a larger travelling show person's yard over the period of 22-23 to 39-40. And the consultation document is a proposed sites assessment methodology along with what they call a call for sites form that will allow people to invite submissions of land that people wish the council to consider as part of the site assessment work. The consultation document is accompanied by a number of appendices which I'm not going to go through but the proposed recommendation is that cabinet give approval to consult on the gypsies, travellers and travelling show people options paper for six weeks alongside publishing the call for sites to accompany the options paper. I know just as an aside that Steve Sweeney a former councillor would be especially proud of the work that's happening today so really recommend this to cabinet to put the recommendations as put out in 3.1 and 3.2 forward. Thank you. Thank you a councillor patient and I very much welcome this because some of you will remember in the long process of the local plan originally this was supposed to be part of the local plan and we asked for further time to consider this properly really as a councillor patient has indicated and I think this thorough report which goes out to public consultation, approval is being asked for it to go out to public consultation, I think we agreed with the inspector that we would produce this after the local plan and this is fulfilling that obligation. And there are one or two recommendations here, has anybody got any particular comments or additions? Councillor Courtney. I just want to add my voice in that I'm really glad to see this report come to cabinet and that I'm really glad to see that we're finally able to move on this, it's really, really welcome. Councillor Daker. Just to add that paragraph 11 specifically notes that the DPD will make an important contribution to our priority to reduce inequality and I think that is extremely important but I do also urge the groups that were mentioned by councillor patient to engage positively in the consultation. I did not second any of the reports which have come in front of you, we're out of practice since March, there's been too much of a gap really, I've lost the edge. I haven't proposed any of the reports that have come thus far, I'm very happy to second all of these reports. Kirsty, you usually remind me so frequently if members are content, members of the cabinet are content for me to do that formality. Thank you. We now need to move to having proposed and seconded those recommendations 3.1 and 3.2, are members content to accept those proposals? Thank you. Item 12 then, we're onto a couple now of supplementary planning documents, we've got a flooding and drainage SPD and a biodiversity net gain SPD and I think that's you again councillor patient. As important as the previous item was, this one is a massive one as well, so supplementary planning document this time, not development planning document and I know this is especially going to be helpful for people like yourself and me, having had issues of flooding ourselves but also communities all over Calderdale. So this supplementary planning document relates to local plan policies, CC2, CC3 and CC4 and the draft SPD on flood risk and drainage gained authorisation for consultation to be undertaken back in cabinet of November of last year. So consultation took place between 24 November and 22 December, which is a statutory four week period and accompanying the cabinet report, the statement of consultation which you can see all of the representations that we got back and a number of those were received from a range of organisations including the environment agency and our local hero Slow the Flow to name just a couple. The representation will be considered and a number of revisions made to the SPD and some of those are listed in the statement of consultation and they include importantly a new section which have been added on heritage assets which was requested by Historic England. We felt that was really helpful to have in there especially when so much destruction can be wrought on all of our buildings and heritage buildings across the borough. We also added cross references to other supplementary planning documents including the biodiversity net gain SPD and also the place making and design guide as well which we felt was quite important. Wording around sustainable urban drainage systems revised to make it clear that the council's preferred approach is to surface water drainage but reflecting the fact that SUDS might not be appropriate in every instance as well so how can we do things differently in terms of natural flood management and also further clarity added on flood resilience measures and flood storage capacity in flood plains and flood areas and we made some additions as well. So as per the council standing orders the SPD needs to be referred to full council so that full council can adopt it formally and the recommendation therefore is that cabinet notes the comments received during the consultation together with the proposed revisions are set out in the statement of consultation appendix one and recommend and recommends to full council that it formally adapts the flood risk adopts sorry not adapts the flood risk and its drainage supplementary planning document which is at appendix two. Thank you. Thank you and I'm happy to second that. We have one recommendation in front of us folks which is basically to refer this to meeting a full council our cabinet can attempt to do so. Thank you. I'm straight on then to the next SPD biodiversity net gain. Wow it's the SPD show this evening so this one is the biodiversity net gain which for the uninitiated is an approach to development or land management that aims to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand. We were already on with this before national policy changed in February so we're ahead of the game and we've got some of that consultation done in advance so BNGs to be implemented through the planning framework and local planning authorities like ours are required to have a mechanism in place to achieve biodiversity net gain and the SPD is an appropriate mechanism. So the draft SPD on BNG gained authorization for consultation to be undertaken back at cabinet in October of last year and consultation took place between the 23rd of October and the 20th of November. Accompanying the cabinet report the statement of consultation again and a number of representations were received and those representations have been considered and a number of revisions made to the SPD and they're listed in full in the statement of consultation and some of the highlights are updating of the SPD to reflect legislation and guidance published as just reference since the draft SPD was published, restructuring of the SPD including transferring some of the content in the appendices into the main body, deletion of some appendices, clarification of various requirements and inclusion of flowcharts to illustrate the BNG process just so you can help navigate the clunky and clumsy world that is biodiversity net gain. We also expanded the glossary as well and we added a reference list as well so as per the council standing orders the SPD needs to refer to full council in order to the council to adopt the SPD and the recommendations therefore is that cabinet notes the comments received during the consultation together with the provisions are set out in the statement of consultation appendix 1 and recommends to full council that it formally adopt the biodiversity net gain supplementary planning document. Thank you. Thank you Councillor Patience. Are cabinet happy to agree that recommendation for referral to council? I need to second it, thank you. It is a bit late chief executive coming in with that advice. I do indeed second it, thank you for that. The next item on the agenda and we are getting, this is the third from bottom, the appointment of members to serve on joint committees exercising executive functions for 24/25 municipal year and you should have in front of you a copy of those recommendations. This is the joint committee, this is the shorter one in front of you. Are we content with those nominations as circulated? The next one is a longer one, it is the establishment of working parties and other bodies which the cabinet can do for 24/25. You will see there is quite a long list to work through. Many of these, quite a few of these are in the daytime, particularly in the colder carers, thank you to everybody for the work they did in terms of populating this. I see there are still one or two vacancies and no doubt those will be filled at the next cabinet. The delegation is given to the head of legal and democratic services. Mr Hughes will be able to fill those last vacancies. Thank you. Are members content of the seconds? Sorry, I have only noticed this meeting was going on. I think the membership of the Halifax board is incorrect, I think the terms of reference has more than four members on it. I assume that could be picked up by the mechanism that Kirsty has referred to. I think because of the nature of Halifax we have slightly more members on that than the four indicated here. Thank you. If members are content, Mr Hughes has the delegated powers to fill those final vacancies and make some adjustments depending on each town board. It is important for the autonomy of town boards that they get to select what is right for their particular situation. With those corrections, are members content to agree the proposals are set out? Thank you. Now onto the lengthy item, that is item 16. Councillor Wilkinson is not here and he is extremely well informed about the children's aspects of those. I think Councillor Fenton are you going to give up? Sorry again, apologies I did not pick this up earlier but can I declare an interest in this item as my wife is in receipt of some services that are covered by. Thank you for that declaration. I have been waiting all year for this to come and then did not realise when it did come but yes again I have a family member who has been in receipt of some services. Councillor Doran. It is one of the joys of being a local Councillor that you use the same shops and the same doctors surgeries and the same Council services as everybody else and it is what makes local Councillors really properly representative of their place. Thank you for those declarations. I will pass over to Councillor Fenton to give us an overall introduction to this important paper. This is an annual report. In previous years this has been done with press and public excluded and actually this year we looked at it and said we do not have a good reason to do that so it is better to be open and transparent about that. We have brought this into the public. In part that is because we did a bit of an assessment. Also you will see about half way down there is a lot of the ongoing procurements that have been extended. There are far fewer of them than there used to be. I am not going to do all 15 pages in detail but I will take you through some of the highlights. I will do more adults and I will do children and young people because simply I know more about the adults than children and young people but I will do my best to do both justice. We procure a lot of services. We have 448 procurement activities. They are broken down in 493. There are 286 adult service contracts, 64 children and young people contracts, 80 all age services, four software packages and 14 who are providers who are dealing with individual service funds to adults. Some of those that we produce are demand led. What we do is we try to find the best price and then we do it on a per unit basis. Obviously we have, both with adults and children, some statutory things that we have to provide when people ask for them. That makes keeping hold of these costs a bit more tricky when you keep it within a budget of 97 and a bit million which is our budget for both of these. The table at 4.10 is about the contract extensions. I want to pay some tribute to our procurement staff on this. When I took over this department it was coming out of COVID and I think it was over 25 contracts that were being rolled on in this section of the report. Now it is three. Most of those are fairly good reasons in terms of rationalisation and things like that that have come to this happening. I think that shows how much work clearing that backlog our procurement staff have done. I want to take a moment to pay tribute to them because it is not easy when you are having to do this for a whole programme as a layout above that kind of level of procurement and it is just worth underlining that. I draw people's attention to the housing related support at Claremont Court and Miven Meadows just because that is one of the areas where we are making savings and we will pick that back up when we come to the recommendations. Just so that you are aware of that and I am just seeing if there is anything else I have highlighted. I think that is more or less everything I have highlighted. The basic thing I would say is this is the most important stuff that the council does. We procure services at all levels to help some of our most vulnerable citizens. It is certainly the most expensive thing that we do. This is nearly 100 million worth of procurement. If you look through it, there are some tough decisions coming up. We are making some decisions on savings and efficiency in the next couple of years but we are going to have to look at everything if we are going to meet some of these funding targets. I don't want to get too political but it is really disappointing that we had three questions on £2,000 worth of catering at the start and no one thought, maybe I should ask about spending 100 million quid. Maybe I should ask if we are getting the best value, are we delivering the best services and I think that is important. I was disappointed not to see more engagement with the main spending issues. I will finish with the recommendations. One is that we note the procurement activity plan and approve the extensions that we have there. The second one is that we note the identified savings, particularly on the housing related support, which I think I mentioned where that was, above 10 point something. I put these recommendations to the cabinet. I am looking for a seconder. I am happy to second. You have four recommendations, as Councillor Fenton-Glin has said. It is a five-year rolling programme. It comes to this cabinet every year. I think it is important because there is a general rule of local government that you spend a long time talking about the precise positioning of the bike sheds and yet the complex, really complex work that we do to support young people and adults who need our support actually just gets naughty. It is a well-known rule of local government. We think this is important because this is the commissioning of local companies and organisations to provide the services. As Councillor Fenton-Glin rightly pointed out, it is becoming more challenging because much of it is demand-led and there is an increasing demand for those services. There are three contract extensions. Sometimes the decision is taken that value for money is better rather than re-tender and re-procure to actually extend the contract for reasons of efficiency and value for money. You will see also within the recommendations to note the level of saving. At the same time as we are doing this procurement, prices are going up, we are also trying to be efficient and get the best value for the taxpayers. Four recommendations in front of you, the cabinet, approve the activity plan in appendix B, the specific contract extensions listed in table 1, the delegation to the director of adult services and the director of children and young people services in consultation with their portfolio holders and following consultation with the head of legal, the head of finance to basically delegate the authority to procure the contracts listed on the plan and to implement the specific contract extensions and finally to note the level of saving that is made as part of this process. Are members content to agree those recommendations? Yes. Thank you. I do promise to be more on point for the next meeting. I will be having words with the officers afterwards. Thank you very much for coming to the first meeting of the municipal year and I look forward to a productive year. Thank you very much.