Transcript

Good evening and welcome everyone to this meeting of the Cabinet. As usual, before we start, are there any declarations of interest or apologies? It's lovely to see everyone here this evening. Welcome everyone in person and to those watching online. Tonight we got on the agenda some really big issues. We're talking about council tax, talking about investments in our roads and pavements, and also in our leisure centres and many other items. Just before we get on to the decision making, if it's okay, I'd just like to take a couple of minutes to update on a few things we've done recently. Obviously, the decision that most residents have been commenting on that we've taken recently is freezing your council tax. So we're now freezing this for the third year in a row and you pay the lowest council tax in the country. Congratulations to Councilor Ireland for all the hard work on this. Because Sam Financial Management is at the heart of everything we do. Maintaining very low debt as a council, maintaining some of the highest reserves in London, which enables us to do all those fantastic things that we do. Another thing we've done recently is launching our Seven Rings, Seven Days Guarantee. This is about a listening council that's in your service. So call us and we'll pick up in seven rings. Tell us about a broken street sign, a dangerous pothole or some graffiti and we'll fix it in seven days. So how's that pledge going? Well, we're still at 100% for the potholes and the graffiti and the street signs. We're on 66% currently for answering the telephone calls. We've learned a lot. We're making improvements and we'll bring forward a plan to push that figure up. And you may have noticed on these leaflets, which have been going out to residents, our lovely new branding. So building on our visual identity from our borough of culture, which we'll hear about later. This is trying to capture that creativity and energy. And we've had lovely feedback from residents on that. And the final thing I'll mention, a huge thank you and congratulations to Councilor Akinola on the launch on Tuesday of our Borough of Culture program. Just one of the best events we've put on as a council. Hundreds of friends and partners in Battersea Arts Center. Some lovely displays of creativity and a real flavor of what's to come in our year as Borough of Culture. So if it's okay, we'll move on to our decisions tonight. We've got decisions about transport, children's health, the environment and finance. So if it's okay, Councilor Yates, do you mind introducing the papers that relate to transport? Yes, thank you very much, Councilor Hogg. So we had a good meeting of the Transport Committee on the 6th of February. There are four papers that need approval of the recommendations in them this evening that have been through that committee. So first of all, there was the paper on the draft, reuse, recycle and waste management supplementary planning document. So this provides helpful advice and guidance to developers on recycling, on waste management and storage requirements for waste within new developments. So I'm pleased that the transport committee members unanimously supported the recommendation that this paper be approved by the cabinet. The next paper for decision this evening is an update on the walking and cycling strategy. So we published the walking and cycling strategy in November 2022. And this excellent paper provides a good summary of all the work we've been doing since then to enable walking and cycling in Wandsworth and encourage people to feel able to use active travel options. So I'll just give a few highlights from it. So we've had five more school streets recently. So we've now got up to our target of 31 of the borough's primary schools having school streets, which is 50% of primary schools. That's our target. So we're very pleased we've achieved that. But of course, we want to go further. And recently, officers have done a good initiative to write to the ward councillors in each ward and set out for them where the ward is up to in terms of the primary schools in their ward, having school streets and asking for them to support the school streets. And in a number of instances that has led to councillors getting in touch with primary schools to see if we can encourage more primary schools to move to having school streets. And we've done really, really well on implementing bike hangers, which are in very high demand from residents. So when the walking and cycling strategy got adopted in 2022, there were just 65 bike hangers on Wandsworth streets. Now we've got 229 and we've started installing another 120 and then we'll immediately move on to another phase of consultation to install about 100 and 120 more next year. And we understand that this is the largest programme of bike hangers installation of any local authority area at the moment. And we've also been putting in a large number of bays for parking e-bikes, given the very high usage of e-bikes in Wandsworth, which are very useful to residents, but we don't want them to obstruct the pavements. And then we are progressing well with our important cycle schemes and schemes to make it easier to walk on Burntwood Lane and then on Queenstown Road. We're putting in many more zebra crossings. We put in 18 since the strategy was adopted and we're going to be putting in a large number of more. So those are a few of the highlights and I'm very pleased that the transport committee unanimously supported the future direction of implementation of the strategy. We then went on to the highway maintenance programme, which is a very important programme that goes to the transport committee every year or that's what's been done for many years in Wandsworth. So this sets out Wandsworth's approach to basically resurfacing our roads and pavements. Now, a couple of years ago, I was very concerned to find out that each year the 95% of the roads and pavements that the Wandsworth Council is responsible for, the rest of the responsibility of TfL, were getting worse each year. So we have put a huge amount of new investment into our roads and pavements so that we can reverse and stop that decline. And obviously, you know, good quality roads and pavements are so important for people walking, people cycling and indeed for vehicles. So in the next financial year, we're going to be investing a record amount for Wandsworth. It's going to be £10.25 million and that will be by far the biggest investment in any one year that Wandsworth has made in its road network. And we believe it will be the highest spend of any London borough. So I'm pleased again that the Transport Committee unanimously supported the recommendations in that paper. And then finally, for your consideration and approval this evening, there was a paper that went to the Transport Committee on fees and charges. Again, this is an annual paper. Most of the fees and charges related to transport will be going up by 2.2% as in other areas, which is roughly, you know, the rate of inflation. So we need that increase to continue to cover our costs. In some areas, the charges will be going up more, for example, in building control. And that is due to the high costs that we incur providing that service. But I should note that for parking, for residential parking permits that our residents buy where we have controlled parking zones and for the on-street parking that most people buy through the Ringo app, we are freezing those charges this year because we did put them up last year. And we are conscious of the ongoing difficulties with the cost of living crisis for particularly for some of our residents. And, of course, the parking service is a vital service that the council provides. So we have orderly parking in Wandsworth and people don't park where they shouldn't. So on that paper, the Transport Committee, the opposition members abstained. And, obviously, the Labour members supported that paper. So that completes my report on those papers and recommendations. And, of course, I'm very happy to take any questions. That's great. Thanks so much, Councillor Yates. Any comments or questions? Councillor Henderson. Thank you, Chair. In my hands, residents have commented to me very favourably about the road repairs which have been carried out in Dainbury Avenue, New Ellisfield Drive, Womba Drive and a number of other places. But I just wonder what type of reaction you've had throughout the rest of the borough. Yes, thank you, Councillor Henderson. Well, it's been absolutely delightful over the last year because we did start dramatically increasing the spend in this last year. It went up to £8 million, which is nearly double what it was before. And we have had a lot of very positive feedback from residents. And what's really nice is that a number of residents have fed back, not only that they're really pleased that their pavement has been renewed, but also they've been complimentary about the ones with council staff who have done the repairs. And, for example, in my own ward, a resident specifically wrote to say how kind and helpful the staff had been to a resident who took a very strong interest in the pavement being repaired. But, yes, so it is really nice to receive that feedback. Here's a couple of quotes. Thank you so much. You have made our day. And that's when they heard their pavement was being renewed. And then another resident said it's made such a difference. Of course, it's so much safer, but it also looks really smart and gives the whole street a real uplift. So, yes, it's great when we can deliver these kinds of improvements, which we're fortunate to be able to do in Wandsworth. Thank you. I've got a question, if it's okay, Councillor Yates. So a few people have written in to the hello at Wandsworth email address where residents can send inquiries about line bikes. And this also came up at the leaders' drop-in we had at Southfields last weekend. And I'm afraid someone contacted me by email today about line bikes being inconsiderately parked at Clapham Junction. Just wondering if you can update us about the situation, how we're working with the e-bike suppliers to try and make sure they're parked considerably. Thank you, Councillor Hogg. Yes, this is a topic that does take up quite a bit of my time. Obviously, e-bikes are still quite a new thing in our borough, but they have become a very important part of our transport network with over a million journeys made on them now within Wandsworth each year, which I'm sure you'll agree is a huge number. And many of those journeys are being made by people who use them regularly every month. But, of course, you know, while that's great and there is some evidence that people are using those bikes rather than making short car journeys, which is obviously good in terms of reducing congestion on our roads. Of course, some of these bikes are parked inconsiderately. And, you know, we are very concerned about that because we don't want them to obstruct, you know, anybody. And, of course, that's very inconsiderate when people need to use the pavements with buggies or maybe they're in wheelchairs. So we are in close dialogue with both Lime and Forest, the e-bike operators in our boroughs. We've introduced a scheme whereby within our busy town centres, there's an area that was what's called geo-fenced. So this means that when you try and end your ride when you're using a bike, the tech on the app tells you that you need to park it within a designated bay. In the rest of the borough, free-floating parking is permitted. But, of course, people shouldn't be parking them in the middle of the pavement. That's an obstruction which shouldn't be happening. So we are putting in a large number of bays for the e-bikes. And we've already put in 110. We're putting in another 65. And then we'll need to move to another phase of bays. But we do continually talk to the operators about how they need to better manage their bikes. So Lime have put a lot more resource into that in Wandsworth, but they need to do more, and I will be meeting with them again soon. But, like I say, it's important to be conscious of the benefits of the bike. There is good evidence, for example, that women use them to get home close to their homes at night, and it makes them feel much safer. But we will absolutely go on working with the operators to ensure that they do manage the bikes better. Thank you. No, that's really helpful. Thanks very much. If there's no other questions, if it's all right, we'll go to a vote on those papers. So, in order, the draft Reuse, Recycle and Waste Management SPD, is that agreed? The walking and cycling strategy update. The highways maintenance program. And transport fees and charges. Brilliant. Thanks very much, Councillor Yates. And if it's okay, if we can go to Councillor Stock and Children's. Thank you, Chair. There were three papers that went to Children's Committee for decision, as well as a couple of papers that are referred to in our papers this evening that went to for information that I think it's right that I update the Cabinet on as well. So, in terms of the papers, first of all, for decision, we had a paper, an annual paper on our school finance budget allocation for 25-26. So, this was to approve school funding for the year ahead on the basis of the funding formula, as agreed by the Schools Forum, which is a collection of headteachers and leaders from across the borough. So, just in terms, first of all, of the funding settlement that we got from national government, so the main block of school funding, that increased by 0.5%. The high needs block, so as Cabinet will be aware, that funds children with special educational need, that increased by 6.67%, and then also a large increase of between 3.8% and 4% for early years. That's really about a significant increase to provide the free education for 2-year-old, 3-year-olds, as part of the rollout of the government scheme, which I know is being welcomed by families across the borough. So, I think there were some political choices, it appears to be made by national government, around really driving increases in funding for children with special educational needs, and we really support that, because that's definitely where we're seeing the most pressure in terms of the dedicated schools grant that we have at the council. But really, what drives funding for schools in the borough is pupil numbers, and as Cabinet is aware, that is a challenge, as it is across London. So, both at primary and secondary school, we're seeing about a 2% drop in pupil numbers, higher rates of drop amongst our secondary schools, which is concerning to see. But I think what we're really proud of in Wallsworth is the support that we're providing to schools to maintain their financial sustainability. So, whilst we've got the settlement, you know, we're really providing high quality and unwavering support to schools to manage their finances. We've got a dedicated role in our finance business manager, education, stability and performance. So, they're going out to schools and really providing that bespoke support to help schools to manage their budget, because largely, as you're aware, school funding is funded on a per-pupil basis. So, that paper is recommending, I think, a minimum funding guarantee of 0.5% as recommended by the schools forum. So, moving on, then, to the second paper, which is additions to the general fund capital programme for schools, again, for the year ahead, 25-26. So, we haven't yet had the confirmation from national government as to exactly what the fund will be. But last year, it was in the region of £2 million. So, what we tend to do is we tend to make a decision at this point on what programmes we intend to fund so that we can get on with design and scoping those projects so that they can hit the ground running in the summer holidays, which is the best time to do capital programmes. So, applications have been received from schools and those who have been scored against our scoring matrix. And this paper recommended four schools to move forward on the programme and then a considerable list of reserve schools. And it is fair to say that, as Covenant, again, will be aware, construction costs have really increased and government funding hasn't always kept up with some of that construction costs. So, it is concerning to see a smaller number of schools receiving some of that capital funding than perhaps there were five or more years ago. But I'd ask the Cabinet to approve the scheme as it is at the moment. And then, should more funding come through from national government, then we've got the reserve list that we will continue to work through. And then, finally, the paper for decision was our annual monitoring, or, sorry, quarter monitoring report, say, quarter three. We reported to committee that we were £315,000 overspent, as, again, Cabinet will be aware. Those are largely being driven by issues that local authorities face nationally, such as the cost of agency home care support, cost of residential placements for children that we look after, semi-independent placements, and also home-to-school transport for looked-after children. I'm aware that those are all things that Cabinet are aware about and will continue to look at to try and continue to balance our budget in the year ahead. In terms, then, of the papers that are also being reported in this PAC, at committee, we had a paper that was provided for information. So, as Cabinet members will be aware, we've received a petition that's actually still ongoing, that's been signed by 187 Wandsworth residents, 761 Kent residents, and 750 other residents from boroughs across England, in relation to our consultation, which we approved to move forward in the autumn of last year, around closing Bradstow Special School, a school that we run, although it's in Broadstairs in Kent. And that decision was really driven by the financial challenges that the school is quite some distance away, over 70 miles away. We're one of 10 local authorities who use the school. The majority of children, or the biggest placing authority, is Kent County Council, as you might expect, because the school is located in Kent. 13 out of the 32 children on roll are Kent children, four of the children on roll are Wandsworth children, one is due to finish the school at the end of the year. We have been in conversation, as Cabinet is aware, with Kent for over three years since 2021 to transfer the school to them, but it was disappointing in October of last year that they decided not to move forward with that transfer. I know you and myself have subsequently written to the leader in Kent County Council to try and reopen those discussions again, but it was quite clear from that correspondence that they don't wish to take that conversation any further, and they were working on transitions for their pupils in readiness for the new academic year. Alongside that, there are challenges around the school managing to recover fees from authorities who place children there, specifically Kent County Council, who owe £2.7 million, of which £1.9 million they categorically refuse to pay, and we have commenced legal action to pursue that dent. That means that the school has currently a £1.2 million financial deficit, and that is growing, and there's a concern that clearly matters that have to be taken to manage that budget can have an impact on the quality of education and care that's provided to pupils, and these are some of the most vulnerable people who we need to make sure that we're providing quality education and care for. So, Cabinet approved to move forward with the first stage of the consultation, and that started in January, and as a result of the petition being commenced, we reported to committee progress on the consultation and what we're aware of so far in terms of our decision-making through that consultation. So, we had a deputation as well from the headteacher and senior leaders at the school. They were talking about the financial viability of the school, the potential impact of a closure, and also, I think, significantly that the governors are exploring academisation of the school. That is something that's for the governing board and a potential academy partner to really move forward with, and it does seem that they have taken considerable steps to move forward with that, and we've definitely been supporting with that process. And I was able to confirm at committee that in terms of our next steps, so we currently have finished the informal stage of the consultation, but there is a further stage of the consultation if it was that we decide to move forward to consider a potential closure. It was agreed, I was able to tell the committee that we wouldn't make the decision to move forward with that next stage until the 16th of March, until after the 16th of March, to enable the school to continue with discussions with the academy partner around potential academisation. So we've given time there, recognising that academisation can take some time. And then just finally, we had another positive paper for information on our pupil referral units in the borough. So we were really committed, really pleased to have the opportunity to be able to profile their work for, again, some of our most vulnerable pupils who are at risk of not being able to access education within mainstream schools. So, again, we heard directly from the headteachers of our secondary pupil referral unit, Francis Barber, and also our home and hospital tuition service, and they discussed some of the challenges that they're facing, some of their good news stories, but also I think it was a really good opportunity for us to spotlight and recognise the best practice amongst some of our pupil referral units, which has not only we recognised, but has been recognised nationally in Green Papers as well. Excellent. Thanks very much, Councillor Stock. I don't know if there's any comments and questions. Councillor Gasser. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for all of that. Can I just ask if there's been any sort of progress on the move towards the canonisation of Bradstead? It's been a few weeks since the committee now. Is there any news you can update us on? Thank you, Councillor Gasser. Yes, I think as I just updated, you know, the decision to academise is ultimately a matter for the governing board and the chosen trust, and we've been fully committed as soon as the school indicated that they wanted to consider that they wanted to consider academisation in supporting transparent discussions, providing documentation, information so that the due diligence can be undertaken, and also to consider potential terms of a transfer if that was considered to be a viable option. So, officers have been supporting that conversation. There were initially two academy trusts that the school indicated were interested in transfer. One has subsequently said that they don't wish to move forward with that, but another academy trust, Cygnus, who run a family of schools in Kent and Essex. Those conversations are continuing and have been fruitful, and I think the governors have been able to move forward with a conversation. What we've also been doing to kind of support that application, which will also ultimately go to the DFE for an academy order, I think is threefold. One in relation to that deficit, which to a certain extent is being driven by non-payment of fees and uplifts by local authority, moving forward with the legal action to reduce that deficit, and also the governing board during the consultation process have come forward with a staffing restructure to think about financial viability, and we've supported them with being able to move forward with that, again, to reduce the deficit, because it may be that if an academy order were to be granted by the DFE, it might be that that could be deferred whilst the debt is managed down to a reasonable level. So, as I said before, we recognise that the academisation process can take some time, so we want to give that the best chance of success. So we have said that in terms of the next stage, we won't make any decision in relation to that until after the 16th of March. Thanks very much. If it's okay, if there's no other questions, we'll move to a vote on those proposals. So, the schools finance budget allocations for 25-26, is that agreed? The proposed additions to the general fund capital programme? And the 24-25 Q3 quarterly monitoring? Excellent. Thanks very much, Councillor Stock. If it's okay, Councillor Henderson, can you say a few words about the proposals you have this evening? Thank you, Councillor Hogg. The first item four decision concerns the CCTV strategy for Wandsworth, which, quite unbelievably, is the very first strategy of its kind in Wandsworth. We reputedly have one of the largest, if not the largest, number of CCTV cameras in London, currently just under 1,300. But we've never actually had any clear strategy as to how they should be used. They are located in housing estates and also, obviously, in public areas, high streets, etc. So, the real purpose of this strategy is because of a number of different issues. The first is ensuring the effectiveness of the Council's CCTV. I'm very pleased to say that since we took over as an administration in 2022, that has actually improved quite considerably. One of the first representations I had from the police was that Wandsworth was pretty hopeless of providing the police with adequate CCTV coverage. That has completely changed. One of the reasons why Wandsworth historically has been so poor, partly old equipment, although there had been replaced, that it was the failure of the previous administration to adequately staff the Joint Control Centre. So, we have now implemented a pilot study, which has been incredibly successful, effective ensuring that the Joint Control Centre and the monitoring of the CCTV covers pretty much 24-7. Obviously, some of the hours are less well-staffed than others. But that really has made an enormous transformation. The senior police officers extremely pleased with the results they're getting, as indeed are police people on the ground. And I cite one particular example. It doesn't happen to have occurred in my own ward, Roehampton. But there was a case of a lady at a bus stop being harassed by a man quite late at night. And this was picked up in the Joint Control Centre. A phone call was made, a contact was made with the police. The police had turned up within minutes, by which time the harasser had actually started to threaten the woman. And as a consequence, the perpetrator was arrested. I could cite a number of other examples. There certainly have been occasions where we almost certainly have prevented suicide as a consequence of the operation of the CCTV. So, it is extremely wide-ranging. Part of that is the growth and sustainability of the network. And that clearly has to do with the quality of the CCTV availability. One particular area, which I'm very proud of and pleased to announce, is the considerable increase, the tripling, more than tripling of the use of deployable cameras. As cabinet members are aware, we have a shared resource with Richmond. When we took over, there were 12 deployable cameras in total for Wandsworth and Richmond, 12. We have now increased that to 38, and we are looking to increase more. And the whole purpose of deployable cameras is to pick up areas of intermittent antisocial behaviour, fly-tipping, things of that nature. And certainly, it is extremely successful when it is deployed. So, a key part of the strategies in terms of determining when and where deployable cameras should be used. The third element, key elements, are the CCTV strategies to ensure that our positioning, allocation, functioning of CCTV is lawful and justifiable. There is a considerable body of law which actually covers CCTV to ensure that it fulfils its purpose, that it isn't intrusive, and it certainly doesn't stray into surveillance. So, the strategy quite clearly sets out a lawful procedure whereby CCTV can actually be allocated. So, this has, as I said, been an incredible success. It's very much still a work in progress. We do continue to have a considerable demand for CCTV, and we're obviously looking at how best to respond to that. But as I said, the strategy actually sets out the procedure, and, in particular, has established a steering group of many officials, although I am an observer on that, so I will keep a very close eye on what the steering group does, what it approves, et cetera. And, certainly, the law does require the appointment of someone who is a single point of control. Or, in other words, this is someone that councillors can contact, et cetera, and even members of the public. The opposition, at one point, did indicate that they intended to move an amendment to the paper. One issue concerned the publication of an annual report and the fact that it should be brought to committee. I was extremely happy to agree to that, because the report itself mentions that we are, we will be preparing an annual report. So, to bring it to committee is, actually, was our intention, anyway. So, I agree to that. And, the second, they did ask some questions about democratic accountability. And, I explained that democratic accountability is pretty much as it is in respect of other matters, such that if residents have concerns, they raise those with councillors, councillors can then raise them. And then, if they are asking for a camera to be deployed, then the process will be set in train. So, I think, with my role as observer on the e-hysteria group and also the explanation of the procedure as to how we can exercise democratic accountability for the allegation of CCTV, the opposition did actually withdraw of their amendments. And, as a consequence, the paper was passed unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to the second paper, which is one to a sexual and reproductive health strategy of 2025 to 2030. And, I think the important thing about this particular strategy, it isn't just simply dealing with sexual services. It's also a reproductive health strategy, and, sadly, there continues to be an unacceptable amount of ill health and incidents associated with pregnancy, et cetera, which we're obviously very keen to eliminate. The purpose of the strategy is extremely ambitious and comprehensive. It's intended to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes for all, particularly for those who face the greatest barrier, saying it is very much intended to tackle health inequalities. This, we will achieve by focusing on equity, comprehensive education, and accessible services. The strategy aims to create a much more healthier and informed community. This is very much a life course approach, and, I think, a very solid foundation for what we intend to achieve in this particular area. And, I'm pleased to say that was approved unanimously. The third paper concerns a report to the committee on, in a sense, the adult social care and public health budget. This was something I was very keen that the scrutiny committee should actually see under the previous administration. Scrutiny committees wouldn't see stuff like this, apart from, obviously, the finance paper, where the report would be embedded in some massive other report. The headline thickness here is, given the very considerable pressures which we have faced in relation to adult social care, in particular in terms of increased demand post-COVID, that we did overspend last year by £2.7 million on a budget of over £100 million, £102.6 million. That's clearly something that we want to avoid. We do have in place very considerable procedures called the transformation of adult social care, which is looking at how we can actually reduce demand, but in a way which is empathetic and meet the needs of residents. I mean, in essence, it's far better to keep people at home than it is to introduce them to more formal settings of social care. As I said, adult social care is under considerable pressure. All forms of social care are. Nationally, there are 131,000 vacancies in social care. The only way we're going to tackle that is by increasing salaries, which, of course, we've done in Wandsworth through accepting the London living wage, but there is much more to be done. So, the other aspect of our report was a 2.2% increase in fees, and as Councillor Yates explained, that is essentially to cover inflationary costs, and I'm pleased to say that the committee unanimously approved that as well. If I could just make one further comment on the paper, which isn't for the decision, but did come to the Committee for Information, and that is the paper on the Adult Social Care Operating Framework, known as ASCOF. Now, this is something the government actually measures, counter-performance. We have measured it against all the other boroughs in London, and I'm pleased to say that we have continued to improve our performance. Five out of seven of the key indicators showed an increase, and I think quite significantly from 2018 when Wandsworth was in the lower quartile in respect of satisfaction is now in the upper quartile. So, that, I think, is quite demonstrably a significant improvement in what we have actually achieved over the past two and a half years. Thank you. No, that's absolutely agreed, not just the excellent progress in Adult Social Care, but the fantastic work on the CCTV network also. Are there any comments or questions for Councillor Henderson? Councillor Dukton. If the President was experiencing ASP, can you tell us more about how we can get new deployable cameras to them? What's the kind of process? Yes, as I indicated, deployable cameras are extremely useful in tackling antisocial behaviour, things like fly-tipping, et cetera. Intimately, one does have crime hotspots, but by and large, I mean, I think its value is very much in its flexibility that it can be moved from one part of the borough to another. Certainly, in Falkenbrook, we have actually reduced the levels of antisocial behaviour, and we do have success across other parts of the borough as well. As I indicated, our CCTV is one of the biggest and most comprehensive in the whole of London, and certainly, again, as I indicated, our staffing of the Joint Control Centre has really proved to be worth the money we have actually spent on that. So, whilst one can never be complacent, nonetheless, I think there are considerable causes for optimism. And, again, I would emphasise that if councillors or, indeed, residents who approach councillors want a particular camera to be considered, then we do actually have a single point of contact that we can approach. Thank you. Great. Thanks so much. So, again, if we can look at the specific proposals here, we've got the CCTV strategy for Wandsworth, 24 to 29. The Wandsworth sexual and reproductive health strategy, 25 to 30. And the quarter three budget monitoring and 25-26 budget. Brilliant. Thanks very much for that, Councillor Henderson. If it's all right, we'll keep going. And, Councillor Gasser, do you mind introducing the environment measures? Yeah, thank you. So, at our climate, at our Environment Committee, we actually considered the three papers, the first three papers here in front of you, we considered them all together at the committee meeting because they're very much related and we have an overarching Wandsworth Climate Action Plan and then we have a retrofit strategy and an adaptation and resilience strategy, which are two major sort of elements of that plan. But it makes sense to consider them all together. Officers presented them all together and then we had a really good discussion afterwards, which went on a good hour, if not longer, actually, with committee members asking questions, making suggestions. So, just to reiterate, you know, we have a climate crisis. We absolutely know that we have. And in Wandsworth, we're doing everything we can to mitigate that against climate changes. So, we have a team. Mr. Hager leads a climate team which then liaises across the council. So, every single team within the council is focused on this and thinking within their area of work what should they be doing, could they be doing to mitigate against climate change and the impacts that might have on residents. So, then we talk about adaptation, resilience. What could we do? Should we be planting more trees? Should we be giving access to shade, to warm spaces, to cool spaces? Every single person is thinking about this. And then, in terms of the retrofit strategy, I mean, that's kind of jargon for all of us, isn't it? For an ordinary resident, it's just, how do we help residents adapt their homes, actually, so that they save on energy and they keep them cool in the summer and warm in the winter and thereby save money as well? And it's so, just some examples of how everybody in the council is thinking about this. You know, Council Dickman's landlord licensing scheme specifies that landlords have to provide properties with a decent energy performance certificate, a C rating, so that will help our residents. It will save energy, save money, and reduce emissions, so it's win, win, win. The transport team are buying new electric vehicles. You know, my ground maintenance team in my department are using vehicles powered by hydrogenated vegetable oil. You know, in every aspect of moving forward, we're thinking about how can we save on emissions. I mean, Children's Services is working very closely. There's a whole sort of climate network, isn't there, they provide a lot of information for the schools, and we know that young people and children are passionate about this, so we are supporting them. And our air quality team goes in and assesses the air quality and makes suggestions of how that can be improved. And we work, you know, our officers work with partners across the borough. You know, the big businesses, the big institutions, the small businesses, the residents, the community groups. So it's a responsibility for all of us across the borough, really. We've all got to do what we can, and we are supporting people across the borough to do whatever they can be doing. So these three papers specify the way ahead for the next few years. We had a good discussion. There were some challenges, which is a good thing from committee members. I mean, particularly, challenge just on targets and measuring impact, and I think that's valid. So officers took that away. Challenge just on communication. I mean, how do you talk to people, listen to people in the language that they, and then in the places where they are and the language that they understand. You know, just talk about retrofit. What does that mean? But how do we help you save money in your home? That makes a lot more difference. So there's a whole list of things in the paper, things we have done, things we will do, and, you know, we're ambitious for the future. So let's, if you don't mind, take and think about the three papers together. And then the fourth paper that we're considering this evening is a review of our events policy. And we sent to, we took to committee a draft of a paper, which would then be going out to residents for consultation. So it was by no means a finished document. It was the first pass, if you like, about how do we work on an events policy together for our parks and open spaces, not including Battersea Park, because that's a big beast and it has its own policy, but all the other green spaces. And the draft document had minor amendments to the established 2014 policy. And our aim was to ensure that all the events we run are sustainable, they're carefully managed, that they deliver benefits to the residents of Wandsworth, but they don't work to the detriment of the green spaces, the grass, the biodiversity. We don't want the noise affecting nearby residents. It was supposed to be tightening up and the aim is to tighten up the regulations to protect both the green spaces and the residents. What we hadn't anticipated was how much the draft wording would worry people. And we have heard a lot of worries. And in the meeting, the opposition group laid down a very complicated amendment, which they sprung on us at the last minute, unfortunately, because there were some sensible things in there, but we hadn't even seen it and we couldn't... Well, it's not when the committee decided not to accept it because they hadn't even seen it. There was the thought that had the opposition sent this in 24 hours earlier, we could have looked at it, digested, discussed, had a sensible discussion, and we might have taken some of their suggestions on board, but the committee didn't decide to do that. And I hope in the future when we're doing this sort of horizon scanning, future planning way of working, we can talk together a lot more sensibly and collaboratively and actually, you know, evolve policy together rather than being confrontational. But the Labour group on the committee also proposed one amendment, which was about making sure that we consult residents on this policy rather than the wording that the officers had used. So that amendment was accepted. We are definitely going to consult residents on this draft policy. But then since that meeting, also I've met with the friends groups in Wandsworth and they've had the opportunity to express their worries to me and to officers, as a result of which, something new to this group of people is I'm actually asking you to adopt something that wasn't quite adopted at the committee. There's some amendments you'll see with track changes in the appendix and the appendix compares the current existing 2014 policy with proposals for a new policy. But then we have amended, having listened to what the friends of Wandsworth Coleman and Tewton Coleman have said to us, what they're really concerned about, residents are concerned about, we have put in some quite significant changes in there. And then if you accept that, then that still is just a consultation document. And we now move to consulting with residents to see what they think because the aim of this is that we put on some lovely events in Wandsworth because we've got London Borough of Culture coming, which is on an ongoing basis, it's lovely to have events to entertain our residents, but there must not be to the detriment of nearby residents or nature or biodiversity or the green spaces or the sports pitches. So it's a careful balance and we need to work together, listening with residents to achieve that. So I'm asking you to accept the revised document with the track changes, the appendix. The leisure infrastructure plan. So we have, obviously we have our leisure centres, we have our parks, we have all of our wonderful spaces where residents go. They have not been maintained for a good few years now. and some of them really need some work doing. So first of all, we need to protect our existing places and spaces and we've requested a budget which went to the capital, went to the finance committee, requested a budget of 20 million to just protect so that our places and spaces are fit for purpose, provide a really good standard of facility for our residents. And then on top of that, we actually want to really enhance some of those spaces. We're out to tender for the leisure centres at the moment, so that's the gyms, the swim courses, the squash courses, all different facilities. We want them to be state-of-the-art, we want them to be excellent for our residents. So we are proposing some investment. We would like some investment. We saw it seeking 10 million in the first instance, but that's an estimate. You know, and there will be a business case written for every single centre or piece of work that we want doing and it's under what we call Invest to Save. So actually, you put in an investment, you do up this leisure centre and we then expect it to generate income to pay back that investment. So over time, it's not such a cost to the council, it's an investment and we get income from it. So that's the leisure infrastructure which was agreed at committee and finance committee agreed the funding, I believe. Arboricultural Services. So yes, obviously we've got an awful lot of trees in Wandsworth and I would like to have an awful lot more. So this is all about, so we need people to plant them and we need people to maintain them. So this is about going out to tender for those contracts and we do talk about the need to actually keep our residents better informed about what's happening because people get terribly upset when trees are cut down and they weren't expecting it and actually they're only ever cut down for a good reason. They're like they're diseased or they're likely to fall over and hurt somebody. But as part of the whole sort of considering about how we look after trees in our borough and we are bringing the tree teams back in-house from Enable so we'll have much closer eyes on that so we'll be communicating much better with residents as well. That's great. Thank you very, very much. There's a huge amount of work there and if there's no comments or questions we'll take that in order. So the Wandsworth Climate Action Plan 2025. The Wandsworth Retrofit Strategy 25 to 30. The Wandsworth Climate Adaptation and Resilience Strategy 25 to 30. The consultation on draft open spaces events policy but with those amendments as Councilor Gasser has outlined. That's agreed. The Leisure Infrastructure Plan and the procurement of arboricultural services. Great. So if it's okay and thanks again Councilor Gasser for the huge amount of work there. If we could move on to finance and I think this will be Councilor Ireland and Councilor Akinola if you could say a few words about the proposals there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Okay so it's actually a paper the third paper in our PACS Connect to Work paper 25 to 87. this is a paper just agreeing how we're going to move forward with the Connect to Work DWP program which is about which is getting people long term unemployed because of disability and sickness back into work. We're going to be delivering it through our work match program that already exists because they're very capable they had really good results in the past. We believe that we can meet the expectations without it being held in by the central central London forward. We aim to have around 200 people back into work or doing work training through this scheme taking advantage of our London Borough of Culture creative opportunities that are happening and developing new and existing and strengthening relationships that we have with businesses in the area. Paper 1 or paper 4 and paper number 25 to 88 which is about the council's new voluntary sector strategy. I'm really pleased that this like Councillor Henderson is the first one that we've ever had within the council which is quite surprising or not surprising. I'm really pleased that this is going to be presented to the voluntary sector next Tuesday. It really sets out our relationship with the voluntary sector what they can expect from us what we expect from them how we're going to move forward as a collective partnership. brilliant. Is it okay if we pause there and just see if there's any comments or questions for Councillor Aconola or Councillor Stock? Thank you Councillor Aconola and thank you for updating the work done on the voluntary sector strategy. I think as Cabinet know it's a really important part of you know with our family hubs across the borough launching our third one in Teething this month in fact you know working with the voluntary sector is a really important part of how we want to strengthen our support for children and families across the borough so it was a real pleasure to be able to go and visit the VCS hub on the ground floor in this building a few weeks ago with some of our voluntary sector providers Keyes House Carnies and Battersea Alliance so just wanted to know a bit more about the benefits that you expect that the hub can provide to voluntary sector organisation when it launches I think in next week You have had a sneak preview Yeah really really pleased that that's opening and we're launching it just after the big voluntary sector in-person meeting on March the 11th so that's a really good opportunity really where I think we should have over 80 different organisations coming together will present the strategy to them and it's an opportunity for them also just to feed back to us on how we move forward because it's not just a strategy that's stagnant and then is going to sit there but it's actually going to we're going to work together to develop co-produce KPIs which is the way that the whole strategy has been produced over two years two and a half years now how we're going to hold ourselves accountable to the strategy how they're going to hold themselves accountable as well because it's a continuing and ongoing conversation so part of that is about having them near to officers because once they have that good communication with officers then we can actually lead and move forward with the strategy together wonderful is it okay Councillor Ireland if you take us through the other finance elements thank you there are four other papers the first paper we discussed was additions to the general fund capital program and we've added over 164 million pounds worth of projects to the capital program in 25 26 and in future years and you've heard about some of these from my colleagues these include net zero decarbonation strategy which is reducing the impact on the environment and providing improved value for money through savings in utility and energy costs the new leisure infrastructure plan and that's to protect the leisure centres and to enhance them to provide good services for our residents and over 8 million pounds invested in repairs and maintenance for schools it's an ambitious program and we see it as correcting years of historic underinvestment from the previous administration we want people to be proud of the streets they're living and be proud of their environment we want to make ones with a more attractive place and we want to secure the libraries and the leisure facilities for many years to come now more than half of the cost of more than half of these schemes is funded from either developer contributions grants or as Councillor Gasser said schemes which will pay for themselves in reduced savings and expenditure now the total investment in the borough is going to be nearly 500 million pounds in the next six years this paper lists each project and with target costs and when we expect to complete the work it wasn't I'm afraid it wasn't supported by the minority party at committee who abstained on some of the votes but we're very proud of our program the next paper we discussed was the treasury policy for 25-26 so this paper reviewed the work we've done so far activities so far and also our plans for 25-26 we will be borrowing to fund our investment in a thousand homes and in our capital program but this paper demonstrated not only is it affordable but it will provide good value for money for our residents we've done well on investments this year we've managed to secure much more in income than we budgeted again I'm afraid that the minority party did not support this paper and voted against it the next paper was discussing council tax again you've heard from leader we are very proud to be freezing the main element of council tax for the third year in a row and this will mean that our residents will be paying the lowest council tax in the country the average bandy bill will be less than a thousand pounds one of our neighbors Kingston just over the border the average bandy bill will be two and a half thousand pounds now we recognize the continuing and growing pressure on social care services you've heard about that from my colleague councillor Henderson so in order to protect these critical services as much as we can we are going to follow the government's recommendation to take the adult social care precept of 2% and this will provide us with the funds to protect these critical services and support the NHS the last paper we discussed was a setting of charges for environmental services we this just brings in an additional 15,000 pounds a year we are increasing charges by CPI in September 2.2 percent but freezing concessionary charges to help our most financially vulnerable residents ensure that they can enjoy the facilities again I'm sorry to say that the minority party did not support this and abstained from this paper I should have said that the council tax paper was supported by six votes in favour members of the minority party on the committee left the meeting before we took the vote on that which is a shame thank you any questions yeah sorry well look thank you fantastic work again for that same financial management and the benefits you're delivering to local people but yeah any comments or questions councillor Yates thank you very much councillor Ireland regarding the council tax paper I know we have a very important scheme to reduce council tax for our residents in lower value and on lower incomes and please could you tell us more about that scheme and how it works and how many of our residents will benefit from that thank you I mean most people think that Wandsworth is a very affluent borough we do have high levels of employment but there's more nearly 36,000 people experiencing income deprivation across the borough and almost 23,000 households are on universal credit so keeping council tax low is the single largest thing that we can do to help most of our residents and I think that while a lot of the councils across London are decreasing the council tax reduction scheme just to save money we are really proud to have the most generous council tax reduction scheme in London it's removed the needs for residents to make a minimum contribution which was the case with the previous administration and instead we base support solely on income levels and household types so over 10,000 of our residents pay zero council tax and over 15,000 are eligible and receive council tax reduction now we see this as just one part of our response to the cost of living crisis so as well as having the largest cost of living fund in London possibly the UK of 15 million pounds we have the access rule scheme which means that residents that are financially stretched can enjoy concessionary rates on leisure facilities and other services that the council provide and also our financial inclusion team are doing some very innovative work to support residents with the cost of living crisis and help maximize their household income so that we have auto-enrollment of free school meals and I think we're the first borough to negotiate or auto-enrollment for social tariffs for TENS water bills we've also run three campaigns to increase take-up of pension credit and attendance allowance and we will be increasing the number of money hubs I mean I would encourage you all to signpost your residents to the entitled to app it's very simple to use you can use it anonymously put some information in it and it will tell you you know that you might be eligible for something and I'd also like to mention the fair debt charter because it's really important that people who are struggling I know it's really hard they need to get in touch with the council they will get sympathetic hearing we'll do our best to help them and help them claim benefits that they might be entitled to thank you thanks so much so if I can bring you back to the papers for your consideration proposed additions to the general funding capital program the treasury management policy 2526 connect to work the council's new voluntary sector strategy council tax 2526 and setting of charges environmental services great thank you all very much I know it's been a busy time but that's really appreciated your work as cabinet members and we have one other item for consideration this evening which is the democracy review paper also in the pack 25104 as a report by the director of law and governance but hopefully you recall this comes out of the year-long piece of work the LGA peers came into the council and observed there were you know some some quite outdated elements of our democracy it was it was too closed we weren't bringing the public in as much as we could so thanks to our colleagues from the center for governance and scrutiny and also councillors and officers who've been working on it over the past months we now have a series of proposals here to make the council easier to understand to make it more open to the people it serves and specifically to open up time for those scrutiny committees to challenge and improve decisions as we've heard this evening I don't think they do enough for that at the moment and and you know importantly making those suggestions upstream before the decisions are properly made I think in the way of things this report is also going to full council on Wednesday but are there any comments or questions on the paper this evening if not is that agreed wonderful well look as I say thank you all very very much for your work for explaining it it's great that residents can just watch this one meeting and understand what you've been up to and I look forward to seeing you at the next cabinet meeting thanks very much