Transcript

All right, good evening, everybody. It's just gone seven o'clock, so we're going to start the meeting. Welcome to this meeting of the Cabinet, those in the audience, and those watching online. Quite a few interesting items on the agenda, so hopefully you get something out of it. My name is Councillor Shantanu Rajawat. I'm the leader of the Council and also Chair of Cabinet. I'm joined around the table by my Cabinet colleagues who will be taking part in the debate and introducing themselves as they speak. I'm also joined around the table by officers of the Council who do not take part in the decision making but are on hand should we require their assistance during the course of deliberations. Also around the table, we have the Leader of the Opposition, who is here and able to ask questions but also doesn't take part in the decision making and we've had apologies from the Chair of overview and scrutiny who would normally also have a standing invitation. Before we start, for those in the audience, can I just very respectfully remind you this is a meeting in public, not a public meeting. As such, you are very welcome to observe today. However, only the decision makers around the table are able to take part in the discussion. Cabinet colleagues, can I just check that you've got the main agenda and the addendum here? Excellent. Wonderful. Before we get into the substantive item, I'm just going to use Chair's privilege for a moment. Cabinet colleagues may well be aware that our Chair of the Lambton group, Martin Creswell, is retiring at the end of September. He's taken the decision to retire. He's been with us for a number of years and in that time he's also filled in as Interim Managing Director as well as Chair and I'm sure colleagues around the table will join me in sending our thanks to him and wishing him the very best for the future. I know you won't be a stranger, Martin. I know you're watching online. You won't be a stranger to Hounslow and we always welcome your advice and thank you for everything that you did. Can I also take the opportunity to introduce Louise Round who is our new Interim Monitoring Officer who joined us, comes with a wealth of experience and I know on behalf of Cabinet Louise we really look forward to working with you as well over the next few months as well and in doing so can I also extend my thanks to Rachel McCoy who has moved on and wish her well in her new job as well. Right, so we move to the first item on the agenda which is apologies for absence. Now I've had apologies from Councillor Sue Sampson and Councillor Ciararraza. I think everyone else is here. Yep, everyone else is here. Can I ask Cabinet colleagues are there any declarations of interest? Yeah, I think we all received items. Go on, Councillor Bruce. Received communication from residents on item 12. I was thinking about something else to do on item 7 as well as communication from Councillor Biddulph as well. And I think that's the same for all Cabinet colleagues on item 7. Yes, to be clear, 7 not 12. Not 12, exactly. Any other apart from item 7, any other declarations and communications? Good. Can I ask Cabinet colleagues to make note of the monitoring officer's note on declaring interests as well. So moving on, we go to the minutes of the meeting held on the 16th of July. I'll take that page by page for accuracy and matters arising if I can find it. Starting at page 7. Oh, 7, Councillor Dunne. Yeah, so it's recorded that Councillor Dunne reported she had received correspondence on e-bikes. She added for the record she was a member of London Cycling Campaign. Although she pointed out she did not consider this conflict of interest. It's not me that considers that. It is the view of the monitoring officer previously and I've checked with the new monitoring officer. So if that could just be clarified, that would be helpful. Thank you. Absolutely. That's my understanding of the situation. I will amend those to reflect that. Anything else on page 7? Page 8. Page 9. Page 10. Page 11. Page 12. Page 13. Page 14. And finally, page 15. Our colleagues, happy for me to sign those minutes as accurate with the amendment. Agreed. Excellent. Thank you. Right. We move on to the first substantive item on the agenda, which is consultation on Hounsell's local council tax support scheme. That is a report from me and that starts on page 16. So this report is asking Cabinet to authorise us to go out to consultation on proposed changes to the council tax support scheme commencing from the 1st of April 2025. Now to add a bit of context, we need to review everything across council. Nothing is off the table, but in particular this scheme in the context of the significant financial challenges that the council and local government in general faces over the medium term as set out in our July 1 Hounsell financial strategy cabinet paper. What we found is increasing demand, historically higher inflation and ten years of continuing government funding cuts means that we must be willing to make difficult decisions to keep the council's entire financial position in a good place over the medium term. We are committed to maintaining financial stability over the medium term and the new proposals aim to ensure that that remains the case. So the new proposals recommend that all residents pay a percentage share of their council tax in the future. But there is also a clear recognition and realignment of the current policy to direct improved support depending on the size of the household. As such, a number of people will benefit from the proposed changes. The principle underpinning the new scheme are therefore targeted more directly towards need. But we are not simply putting these proposals forward as a fait accompli. The new scheme proposal will be accompanied by an in-depth consultation period beginning in mid-September after we've been to overview and scrutiny which follows our radical overhaul of community engagement principles. We plan to outreach directly into our many communities to ensure that everyone potentially affected has their say in the new scheme. The findings of that consultation and the full Equalities Impact Assessment will come back to Cabinet ahead of the new financial year to recommend to council any changes to the scheme. Alongside any changes there will be some transitional support to allow residents to adopt the new billing arrangements and this also will be presented back to Cabinet alongside the final outcome of the consultation. So in that introduction I move the report. Yes, very happy to second and will reserve my right to speak. Thank you, Councillor Bruce. It's now open for discussion and debate. Anybody like to say anything? Councillor Dunn. Yeah, thank you, Councillor Catherine Dunn. I didn't say before. Councillor Catherine Dunn, Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Transport. Yes, thank you for bringing this report. It is very important that we look at it and give it its consideration and take it out to our residents to have their say on as well. Making reductions in spending in support is difficult and it's not something that any of us came into politics to do but given the situation that we're in it is the right thing to consider doing. So it's never easy making those decisions about spending but there are easy ways to do it and we are not simply proposing the easy way to do it. We're not just saying let's remove this amount of funding from the scheme and otherwise keep it as it is. We are taking this opportunity to look at the scheme as the whole and say okay if we have less money going into this how can we target that to the most vulnerable to the people who need it most and we are looking to support families and people with children. And so difficult as these decisions are I think we've approached it in the right way so far. We will of course take it out to consultation, listen to residents and then reconsider in due course. Thank you, Councillor Dunn. Absolutely right. Councillor Bath. Thank you, leader. I support this proposal to go out to consultation and I kind of echo what Councillor Dunn has said. I mean I think budget pressures aside I think some of the proposals from what is being proposed here hopefully will make the scheme a lot simpler. I think it is quite an onus I think on residents at the moment in terms of providing, submitting information in terms of getting the right sort of support and help. So I think where we can simplify things for residents and make it easier and more transparent I'm absolutely in favour of that. So obviously budget pressures aside and having difficult decisions to make but I'm hoping that a lot more people will benefit from this as a result of the proposal. So obviously it will be interesting to see what we get back in terms of consultation but I think it's also important to point out as Catherine Dunn has said that we're looking at the scheme in a wider sense, the whole scheme in itself and to make sure that actually it is easy not just to administer but for people to understand and it is targeted appropriately and less administrative cost for us but hopefully helping more people as well. And of course you know targeting there will be people that will potentially lose out but hopefully on balance it will help more of those that need the scheme that need the support but more than happy to sort of support it going out to proper consultation which is what we are doing tonight. Thank you Councillor Bath. Councillor Thompson. Thanks I appreciate this comment it's not an easy area is it and it's really vitally important that as you mentioned, leader, that the consultation process is detailed and thorough and it's not just a rubber stamping exercise talking to the usual suspects and all the rest of it. The principles behind the new proposed scheme, the first one for example making sure that everyone contributes something I think is a fair and I think most people, those who aren't in the scheme would I think support that notion behind it. I'm very conscious that Hounsler has a very generous scheme compared to many authorities and I'm sure none of you are particularly happy that we have to go through this but I would just made the point about and I'm sure you totally agree you said it already the consultation has to be real meaningful there has to be no sort of pre-conceived ideas, no sense that we have to save 10 million and all the rest of it we just need to go out there and ask what impact it would have and whenever there are changes we're seeing elsewhere in the country very mindful of those who fall through the new system because there are always people who fall through the system for a variety of reasons. So I think from our side we're looking forward if you like to the results of the consultation and hopefully that's a very detailed report that we can look into and get a real sense of how these will impact on the real people in Hounsler. Thanks. Thank you Councillor Thompson. Anyone else on that? No I can't see anyone else indicating so just in summing up and just responding to your point Councillor Thompson we'll have an opportunity at overview and scrutiny to air some of the consultation plans which I look forward to doing in any way but also we've got the benefit of our quality diversity and inclusion strategy work which identified areas and potential groups that we've always struggled to engage with or haven't engaged with us and I particularly want to hear from those groups as well about the impact that this will have so you're absolutely right to say that this needs to be a thorough consultation process and I'll be monitoring it alongside Jake as the Executive Director throughout its passage until we get to the end results as well. So no one else and I've summed up so the recommendations on this report are on page 16 11 and 12. Can I see all those in favour? That is carried unanimously. Thank you very much colleagues. Right the next item is also mine which is the delivery plan monitoring for quarter one so this is the first quarter of the new financial year. I won't say too much on this report because cabinet colleagues will be very aware of this report. It's a usual report that comes through. It's very important as I've always said for us to track performance against our corporate plan which is a very ambitious set of pledges to our residents and delivering those are important. It's not about greenwashing a report it's about being very honest and open about where there are areas that we need to either accelerate work or consider work again and where things are lagging behind where we planned being honest about that and bringing those back online so cabinet members will be aware of this report and I formally move it. Yes I'm very happy to second it as well reserve my right to speak. Thank you Councillor Bruce. Right serving for discussion and debate anybody on this report as I say it's fairly straightforward. No I can't see anyone indicating on this so the recommendations are on page 43. Can I see all those in favour? That is carried thank you. Right my third and final report is the financial monitoring if I can find the page. Financial monitoring update again a report that cabinet will be very used to this is for quarter one so this is the first of the new financial year since setting the budget. Just to draw out some points from the report you'll note that the general fund the council general fund is presenting a 14.9 million pound overspend just to give you a sense of where mainly that is coming from unaccompanied asylum seeking children's costs that's about three million which I will say is an outlier in London in terms of demand and for our part as a council we continue to call on the home office to adequately fund our extraordinary costs as we lose on average ten thousand pounds per child so we would like to see that funded. There are also cost pressures in waste and recycling and that's mainly due to high inflationary costs. Social care costs which will be familiar to cabinet colleagues both in terms of demand but also in terms of staffing and I know council Choudry council Bath you're working with your teams to look at that going forward and then there are structural pressures of six million following the 23-24 out turn as costs continue to increase after we had set the budget. Cabinet will also note that there's a new section in the report which outlines both risks and opportunities and this will be expanded upon in subsequent reports as a demonstration of the hard work we as a cabinet and our officers are doing to keep costs under control as far as possible. I will say and I'm not making an excuse for the pressures because we absolutely have to keep up the rigor here but the budget challenges that we face here in Hounslow are completely reflective of the London position with almost every other local authority projecting significant overspends as demand continues to rise and the six million pound budget structural overspend is likely to feed into the medium-term financial strategy on top of our 30 million pound gap reported in July and we'll be reporting on that later on in the year as we present the midterm financial strategy so I formally move the report. Once again I'll happy to second it and reserve my right to speak. Thank you Councillor Bruce it's open for discussion and debate. I can't see any Councillor Thompson. Just I am conscious of the national pressures in the areas you mentioned but I suppose we are in the situation where you know February we present a balanced budget and then a few weeks later months later there's problems and then we have to work the rest of the year to try and sort it out so I suppose my question if there was one is what confidence do you have that through the quarters as we progress through this year given all the other pressures we still have in the early report mentioned there's 30 million savings we have to find and all the rest of it on top of this how confident are you that we will by the end of the year be in a good place that we don't get again having to tap on those reserves because they must be diminishing rapidly and they always form a key part of our budget proposals and if there's nothing left in the part I don't know what we're gonna say next year so yeah. Okay I'll come to that and sum it up. Anyone else on this report? I can't see anyone else indicating so yeah I mean of course we need to keep up the the rigour around budget monitoring and I meet regularly with each cabinet member around their their budget situation we know that some of this will be helped with some certainty around funding in the long term but we do know that demand is increasing and to a certain degree that is out of our control without some national intervention and you would have noted Councillor Thomson that each cabinet member has or will be writing to their cabinet lead setting out a set set of asks a lot of those are financial related but also in terms of changes to legislation to make things a little bit easier we've always been very good at managing the money yes if we have to dip into reserves we do but we appreciate that once they're gone they're gone and we want plenty left for your alternative budget when it comes in February and we're not in a position of being bankrupt and not being able to meet our liabilities but it is about keeping up that rigour and what you will see is a little bit of a watch this space as we get into the midterm financial strategy you'll start seeing some of the proposals that we've got around balancing the budget one of which may well be the council tax support scheme that we talked about earlier okay I can't see anyone else indicating on that so the recommendations on this are on page 138 over on 239a2k can I see all those in favour that is carried unanimously excellent thank you very much right now we now move on to item six which is procurement of a hired passenger transport for s-e-n-d and that is council samia chaudhary thank you leader council samia chaudhary cabinet member for education children skills and employment um this contract contract is to procure external transport splires many cabs and mini buses companies were sent home to school transport and booking for all the council teams and the current contract expires in april 2025 with potentially a short extension to allow for a transition between the current and the new contract as the current contract is coming to an end we have to go out to tando for a new contract the transport coordination service works closely with some colleagues and have strategy duty to provide home to school transport for our eligible children's young people and adults with an education health and care plan up to the age of 25. the figures provided in this report are on page 191 um they're up till july 2024 we are currently preparing for a new academic year which has already um started today's third of september and it is anticipated that the number of people to be transported will increase over the new academic year um we have an in-house service that provides most of the minibus journeys transporting 354 people as of july 2024 this contract is required to provide an additional transport that the in-house team do not have the capacity capacity to do for example the smaller vehicles such as cars and pvs and additional mini mini buses external contractors as of july 2024 transported 590 people currently as of july external spry suppliers operated 195 routes on behalf of the council and 52 routes were in-house due to our strategy duty we need to commence procuring this contract in order to ensure provision is in place when the contract the current contract expires and transport demand will be monitored against the sun safety of and reviewed regularly in partnership with financial colleagues and our trans transport coordination works closely with eeling mancap to provide independent travel and training to our young people who are assessed as if they are able um to have a training to travel by themselves and the resources are in place currently enable approximately 26 young people to be travel trained per year and the scheme has been running um for a number of years so in this report the recommendations are on page 190 one two and three and with this i'll just move the report thank you i'll second the report and formally reserve my right to speak it's now open discussion questions and debate council bruce yeah thank you councillor chaudhary um my time as uh lead member for education and children's services this was a uh an issue that constantly came up it's a very um demand heavy as we talked about demand in financial context earlier this is a specific example of where that demand um another specific example where that demand is is needed and it seems to it does increase year on year on year it's important that those young people with scnd um are given appropriate transport uh to school um that forms a variety of different things it may be for some that walking or taking public transport with support is right but for others uh going by minibus or uh various other forms particularly when they're traveling far away is exactly what they they need and what we should not just you know uh legally but i believe morally be providing for them so looking at the the range of options that we have uh and expanding on those range of options that we have in order to make sure that this meets their needs but also fits in with the financials that we find ourselves in is is really really important so absolutely support uh these uh proposed changes thank you thank you very much council bruce anyone else on this one no can't see anyone indicating so as council chad we said the recommendations are on page 190 123 can i see all those in favor that is carried unanimously thank you very much right we next move on to agenda item seven uh and that is the results of the consultation um for the designation of the gleba state as a conservation area council bruce yes thank you very much very interesting um item i believe this evening um we have a number of conservation areas in the borough already uh and this report is asking for uh approval to designate another area uh as a conservation area um this one has had um a couple of challenges which i will describe um and i think it's understandable why some of those have arisen but also i hope i can explain why we believe that and various other groups believe that this area demands um conservation area status um so work started actually about three or four years ago back in 2020 2021 there was a uh with officers looking at this as a concert conservation area at that point and there was an open consultation then um at that point actually the residents themselves had also held a ballot previously but you know that was a an informal one i want to acknowledge but an informal one didn't meet the um you know legal requirements that a council one would hold um there were various issues around uh that consultation namely there was quite a bit of misinformation and it was decided not to take it forward at that point i wasn't the lead member um council steve curran was a lead member and decided not to take it forward at that point um i was contacted by a resident who said this is there's been a huge amount of work on this would you councillor bruce look at it again so i sent off to officers i said what's the situation here is this something we should be looking at and in in part of uh the wider conservation areas that are being uh looked at and designated and the work done they provided the work and said let's go out to consultation again let's look again and present all the updated evidence um and and and ask residents again now it it's clear from the report and clear from the appendices that you can see that actually the responses were very similar to the previous one um but it seems there's been a lot of misinformation and that seems to have taken hold what is very clear is that um and this says it in uh 2.6 in the summary that the opinion of officers but also historic england the victorian society the 20th century society and labor heritage is that the character and appearance of the glieber state is such that it should be designated as a conservation area so it's very clear that those groups who have interest in this and ensuring that our conservation um our our areas are conserved that's the phrase i want to look for um and it says here that this would ensure by by bringing this forward as a conservation area this would ensure the council is carrying out its statutory duty regarding such areas of special character so i i say all of those things to to indicate that this isn't a um this isn't hasn't been straightforward and it certainly is the case that not all the residents in the area agree with this however because of variety of of different bits of information that was got out that was was given out the council have tried to um respond to those but um the principle around yes or no consultation yes or no conservation area wasn't really the consultation um questions being asked it was more around what are the special characteristics because it's deemed it should be but it's what are the actual special characteristics and lots of residents came forward with with a variety of different things and that has all made it made its way into the report there are a number of appendices here 12 appendices that's why the number 12 was on my mind earlier when i missed my misspoke yes there you go i was counting up how many uh appendices there were and in the 12th append uh appendix appendix appendix 12 it gives quite a lot gives the common misconceptions there and a response from the council to those um and why some of those things that are believed and i understand why some of those things are believed why they're not actually the case and i hope that regardless of people's view who live there but also live in the wider area of Chiswick and in other conservation areas can see uh what we're saying about that that for example um it says here a misconception the council wants us to stop changing the color of a painted house this can't be refused as a conservation area does not require planning permission so it's not you know those things are not the case and there's a whole list of those so lots of the council lots of work has been gone gone into from officers um lots of work by by uh interested parties a lot of support from the groups that i mentioned earlier to designate this as a conservation area and that's why i am recommending that before you this evening thank you thank you council Bruce i will formally second the report and reserve my right to speak it's therefore open for questions and debate council Thompson thank you i've got a special interest here because for 20 years this was part of my award when i was a turn green council so i know the estate very very well i can't imagine how many times i walked up and down leaflets through a variety of color doors and all the rest of it um i suppose at one of first glance it might seem to be a bit of a strange decision for a listening council to be going against the consultation but i think you've explained that often there is misunderstanding uh i do smile when i see described as a working class estate i don't think it's very working class anymore but it's a i sent a resident earlier when i first started on the council it actually was that it was quite mixed community of folks who've lived in Chiswick for a long time and literally were the butcher and the baker and the candlestick maker they probably moved on and um the houses have been taken over by other groups i suppose it's not for me to make a call either way it's it's for cabinet but i suppose there's lessons to be learned here aren't they in terms of moving forward so i just like double take because i was fairly sure we did we did this 20 years ago but i looked at the map and we did all the other ones back in the day when area committees decided but um yeah for some reason this was left out and i can't say it took a reason but i i do understand what you're saying right it's it's not an easy one uh and at face glance you know for a first look you might be thinking folks don't want it and it's their house but there is i think an education job to be done if we do perhaps roll these out i'm not quite sure where else is left in angela that needs one but i'm sure there will be areas uh in terms of you know going to those groups i think that's right and proper i slightly smiled when i saw labor heritage i had a google of who they were they're just a membership group of the labor party so i'm not quite sure what their particular expertise is and maybe we don't want to put too much weight into what they said but certainly the other ones are well worth listening to so um i do understand your presentation and sit here and see where you're coming from thank you thank you thank you yes i i can understand why people have reservations about this i can understand why people living on the the estates do we are taking away their rights to do certain things with with with their homes and we have to remember that it's not a decision that should be taken lightly it's one that has to be balanced with the reasons that are put forward in the paper as for why should go ahead with this why there is a special character to the area that that is deserving of of being protected i don't think we can completely live in the past and we we have to we have to get those balances right this doesn't mean that people won't be able to make any alterations to their homes and that's been explained it doesn't mean that that people won't be able to to get planning permission what it does mean is that for some things planning permission may be more difficult to achieve may be required where otherwise it wouldn't be and again that is something we are now imposing on people so we need to be cognizant of that um in particular people may be worried that they can't implement things like solar panels other heat pumps renewable energy sources which as the paper points out people are wishing to do for for reasons of the climate but also the cost of living crisis and so as the paper points out it is still possible to do those things but now the the responsibility on us as a local authority and planning authority is to ensure that people can do those things and that where applications are made it's made relatively easy for people to find the right solution for this conservation area yeah it's absolutely the right point it's balancing conservation with advances and the ability to change make changes um in their houses can't see anyone else indicating would you like to sum up uh no i need to thank both council dunn and uh council thompson for their their words and you know to say that we we are a listening council council thompson we have listened i have absolutely listened to all the various voices that have come through that doesn't necessarily mean i'm going to be able to please everybody um and and and we also want to have it's not just about listening i want to have that conversation with people and be able to talk about conservation conservation areas but you know conserving important characteristics of this borough of which there are many and this is one one area that has uh as great characteristics um alongside you know as i look out of the the window new developments going up and i think balancing that as a borough making sure that we we have both the best of both is exactly what we want to do so uh thank you yeah thank you all very much good okay the recommendations on this report are on page 198 1 1 and 1 2 can i see all those in favor that is carried thank you very much everybody right we now move on to agenda item eight the development of a culture strategy for 2025 2035 now shahin thank you very much leader counselor salman shahin cabinet member for culture leisure and public spaces i'm bringing this report forward to you at a particularly interesting time i would say for the borough and its and and its cultural outlook we stand very much i would say at the crossroads in terms of culture in hounslow we've just come off the back of the creative mile in brenford a fantastic achievement a fantastic celebration of the arts and creative creatives across our borough bring so many different people together and i think it's so important to recognize what we have um we've just we just come off the back of the renovations we've seen at boston manor house we've seen the events in bell square we've seen world-class musical acts brought into our our parks and open spaces and i think there's so much to celebrate so many tremendous opportunities out there but we also have to recognize the difficulties the challenges we face there's been colossal challenges to the arts nationally and locally and let's not beat around the bush when we saw the hounslow arts trust pull out of waterman's that was very much a blow to culture in the borough and i think we do have to recognize that now we will found a new art center of that i've absolutely no doubt but that's not enough we have to as a borough punch above our weight we have to be more than a sum of our parts it can't be just about this venue or that event we need a holistic culture strategy for the first time ever we've never had a holistic culture strategy before and we need to bring together all stakeholders all artists all creatives all those with an interest in arts and culture across our borough together through a series of workshops to forge a culture strategy that will look at stronger partnerships with providers and funders boost investment into arts and culture in the borough and see a better management of our cultural assets now this culture strategy that that we want to set ourselves down the path towards founding will guide our cultural approach for the next decade and i think it's a tremendous opportunity for us to forge a new pathway and you won't see it written in this report but it is very much my hope and ambition that the end point of that will see houndslow win london borough of culture absolutely uh let's hope that happens and i'll second that and second the report and reserve my right to speak uh it's open for discussion and debate anybody on this one yeah yeah just to say thank you for bringing this in front of us i mean clearly this is the starting point for this and there's a huge amount of work that needs to go into developing this and also of the next 10 years in ensuring that we do win uh borough of culture at some point uh in in the future and and what an ambition and name that is and something we can we should all uh be uh striving for it works um and in that the report talks about this that it works well alongside other um strategies that we have developed and that we are developing um not least the business case for growth that i'll be bringing forward to cabinet in a couple of months um talk about how we are looking at you know the expansion of various things in our borough how we can bring growth in and culture and arts can be part of that while it's not seen necessarily as well there's money in that actually the wider benefit to the community and how that does bring in that wider those wider economic benefits to the borough having good quality acts having good quality venues having good quality things going on here is incredibly important and and feeds into all of those areas so this is yeah this is a great jumping off point and um something i'm looking forward to seeing develop in the next few years absolutely thank you council bruce anyone else on this one council thompson it obviously an art strategy vitally important i'm just very practical here there's obviously there's no money for it so uh what are we talking about in terms of officers using you know existing resources to make this happen uh future future bids down the line if we need to have you know glossy publications and all the rest of it is literally as you say a starting point but we seem to appreciate that there's you know there's there's no cash so um i'm just wondering how you're going to get this done by 2025 you've got the year haven't you yeah thanks well you can address that and you're summing up that's right if there's anyone else on the nope can sum up thing at the moment we're we're not asking for any money for it because we are at a juncture where we just want to begin a path of consultation workshop groups many of which i'll i'll be chairing myself and i'm not going to charge you and the council any money for that for that it's it's about holding holding conversations at this stage down the line i'm sure we will be asking for money and and down the line we will be looking for for funding from various different external interested parties in the arts and actually this is the strategy that should seek to achieve greater funding of the arts and how to in in in in in the future okay good i can't see anyone else uh indicating on this one so the recommendations are on page five three five one and two can i see all those in favor that is agreed excellent thank you all very much right final item is a petition uh around a retractable question bridge from brentford to cube gardens um the petitioner was due to be with us unfortunately can't be uh so you have got the petition uh in front of you colleagues uh can i ask council bruce would you like to respond to it yeah i think council uh done and i will do a bit of a double act on this as well um if i just kick off i say i mean i i really like this petition is one of the reasons i thought actually it would be good to come to cabinet and hear from from the petitioner so it's it's a shame they can't make it obviously uh whatever reason they couldn't but um it's a great idea and one that has been uh kicking around for a while and looking at greater connectivity right across the borough whether it's cycle lanes or whether it's pedestrian crossings or whether it's a bridge crossing over the tems into another borough into a um wonderful world heritage site that uh q garden next to the world heritage site that q gardens is is a terrific idea and has lots of benefit as the um the petitioner speaks to in the i won't repeat all of that but he speaks to in the the the um the words that he's submitted today um the difficulty is as i'm sure everyone can imagine is the cost i mean when this was looked into quite a few years ago now i think we were talking 10 million plus this talks about the retractable bridge i mean which is going to you know with inflation and and everything else plus the retractable nature of that it really at the moment is not something that we're able to take forward but it's not something that i want to dismiss completely so it is something i want to say on record that you know doing these sorts of things doing these major projects in conjunction with lots of other uh groups and looking at how we might bring something like this forward i'm not even going to promise a time frame we could be talking a decade but it's there to say that you know as a as something that we could be thinking about in the future it's certainly not something i'm going to dismiss today um council i'm sorry if i've stolen everything you wanted to go on that's fine i mean i agree with councilor bruce um on all of that just to say yeah really good idea something that would benefit the community as council bruce has said it's not something that's feasible for us at the moment i would add that there are additional challenges and it's not just the money but things around land access ownership challenges due to the the nature of the the tems and the tidal range at that point all kinds of things but as council bruce has said it's an idea that's on the table we're not making any promises right now but we're not taking it off completely either um it will it will sort of stay there for for potential future consideration thank you council bruce thank you council dunn cabinet colleague oh sorry council did you have a question just just a very quick one uh just accurately it's just a great idea isn't it and uh it's really nice that residents and local groups sometimes bring the things forward like this that perhaps we wouldn't have thought of i'm not sure when he'd be around the room have but and sometimes they they have ways to you know think about quite a few things happen in chiswick that they can get the money and make things happen and get sponsorship and suppose sometimes councils do have money to build bits of bridges on the tems i think we did ourselves i mean not so long ago a bit further down um it's about priorities isn't it as you say but i think it's really good to have this almost like a a wish list and i i was teasing a little about being listening council but inviting people to come forward across the borough with these sort of little eyes you know blue sky thinking what we call them these days schemes it's no bad thing and as and when a pot appears somewhere you know or some you know a few million floats around maybe sometime in the distant future given the pressures are under it'd be quite nice to to enhance the realm by looking at some of these these approaches yeah just to just to kind of well to sum up but to carry on from that i mean i think you know it would it would be two boroughs looking at this anyway so you know conversation with uh richmond borough council as well would be um a starting point there but q gardens right next door uh you know they would benefit hugely from this there was lots of development in the borough and some in richmond uh that you know perhaps and so starting to think about how that might come through i mean it it doesn't seem very likely very soon but as council done said you know and you know having these things on the table keeping this on the table but as you say getting these coming through i you know i'm surprised it only had 14 signatures you know and perhaps that's just a level of you know we might get more where hundreds of people are saying yeah let's do this and you know who knows but let's uh you know let's let's congratulate i'll thank the lead petitioner mr peter coombs for bringing this in front of us so cool thank you all very much cabinet colleagues can we note the response then noted noted excellent thank you very much right i've not been notified of any urgent business uh the date of the next meeting is monday the 14th of october uh starting at 7 p.m can i thank those that are here in the audience and those who have watched online and bid you all a very good night thank you very much [BLANK_AUDIO]