Transcript

Good evening, councillors, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the cabinet meeting. My name is councillor Anne Dorrian, I'm the leader of the council and chairman of the cabinet. To my left is councillor Dale Broughton, deputy leader of the council and vice chairman of the cabinet. Before we go into the preliminary items of the agenda, I need to run through a few housekeeping details. I'd like to remind you all we are being live streamed on YouTube and if you're going to speak to the meeting, please use your microphone quite close up. Now we'll move to part one of the agenda. Apologies for absence. No apologies have been received, Madam Chair. Thank you. Declarations of interest. Does any member wish to declare any interest in any item on the agenda? No declarations. Thank you. Minutes. Do I have permission to sign the minutes of the meeting held on the 26th of March 2025? Thank you. Questions from members of the public. Are there any questions from members of the public that were received two clear working days prior to the meeting? There are no, Madam Chair. Okay, thank you. We'll now move to part two of the agenda. First of all is recommendations from the overview and scrutiny committee. Are there any? There are no, Madam Chair. Thank you. Item two. Recommendations from the Boston Town Area Committee. Are there any? There are no, Madam Chair. Thank you. We'll now move to item three, which is the Boston Market Development Plan report. That starts on page seven of the agenda pack and Councillor Broughton is going to present and propose the recommendations. Councillor Broughton. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening, members of the Cabinet. This report provides an update to Cabinet on the Boston Markets Development Plan agreed at the 27th of March 2024 Cabinet meeting. The plan has subsequently been back before E&P at its 11th of February meeting to provide an update on its progress over its first year of delivery. Cabinet at its 19th of February meeting also agreed to revise markets policies as as from April 2025 revised markets and severe weather policies are now in place. Following comments raised at the 11th of February E&P meeting and consultation with myself and the leader, the BBC Boston Borough Council market fees have subsequently been reduced as from April 2025 and the report shows that. For a pitch only regular trader fees are reduced by £1, casual fees reduced by £4. For pitches with stalls and gazebos, regular fees have been reduced by £5, casual fees reduced by £7. A successful capital Investor Save funding bid for £47,750 has seen the replacement of the markets vehicle with a newer van, new gazebos and associated equipment to support the delivery of the evolving market service. Reduction in the stall erector team and hours of operation in Q3 has resulted in savings being built into the 25-26 Budget. This service review has now been completed with a new erector team in place with reductions in contracted hours. Positive action continues to be taken regarding outstanding trader debt, with debt collection measures being instructed for traders no longer engaging with credit control. Work is also ongoing through PSPS colleagues to simplify future bookings and payments. A Saturday market road closure was introduced following consultation in Q2. Final consultations are currently ongoing with an aim to apply for a road closure on Wednesday market days in Q1 this year. Markets are being integrated into events such as the Hoology Successful Christmas Festival and Boston College Food Festival and the Teenage Markets events have seen a great response for the upcoming three events. The new makers and farmers market events have been created to be held monthly between March and October, which has been a great success so far, with at least 19 additional pitches per month alongside our regular market. On Saturday the 26th of April, the market saw 61 pitches in total occupied out of the 64 available. The market hasn't seen this for several years. New branded gazebos are now in use from April 25. 30 more are on order, with a likely delivery of May. A new gazebo guttering is now being delivered to prevent traders' goods from being damaged. Following the projects to restructure and revitalise the market's infrastructure, we are in the process of preparing new layout plans for both the regular markets and the associated events throughout the year. Development of the social media presence, particularly on Facebook, is increasing, and this is due to be expanded to other platforms such as Instagram and Google. Our market's Facebook page has been revamped with new content. An extensive number of local groups now joined to enable us to now reach thousands of people to promote the market. In April 2025, we reached our goal in the action plan of 3,000 followers. New professional photos of the market have now been developed and posted to the Boston Market Facebook page, with fantastic feedback from followers and traders. The market occupancy rates have increased by 1% year-on-year for Q1 and Q2, with an 8% decrease in Q3 due to several markets being restricted due to Met Office yellow warnings, which resulted in no stores being provided and a decreased number of traders on the day of approximately 75%, affecting our overall occupancy figures. Q4 sees no change year-on-year with 54% occupancy rate. The markets have now received new barrier covers to use for the road closure, advertising the markets and how to become a new trader. New banners have been put out to advertise the market opening times around Boston Town, and new banners are in place for the makers and farmers market. Artwork for a poster to advertise the markets and posters have also gone into each notice board in the town centre. Market bunting is in place and has received great feedback from the public. The market's logo has also been updated in line with Boston Borough Council colours. A new selfie square is now being used to promote a Featured Trader of the Week. This will advertise a brief history of the trader, what they sell and their company details. The markets team also aims to develop its relationship with the stump and is looking to provide their visitors a discount voucher for the market, an attempt to engage with their visitors, which we have recently lacked due to the reductions in coast trips to the town. In conclusion, the Boston Market Action Plan has been developed as a live document to be continually developed to support accountability within the service to deliver strategically and operationally what is required from this very important borough asset. There are currently 13 actions within the Boston Market Action Plan and, to date, nine have been completed, two are on target and two AMBER that require further work to ensure they can continue to aim to meet the timeline set. Therefore, this report recommends that Cabinet notes the progress made to date against the commitments set out in the Boston Market Development Action Plan. Thank you. Thank you, Dale. Well done. Do you have a seconder? Sandy. Thank you. Councillor Gough seconds. Thank you. Well done. That was a really comprehensive report. I think you've achieved an awful lot in the last year. I'll open the debate now to questions and comments. Yes, Councillor Baxter, John. Thank you, Madam Chair. What a wonderful report as you read this and listen to Dale. I wanted to say thank you to the markets team, lots of work and new initiatives, but obviously we see people out and about. The comments I've had are helping that they see David, the markets manager and the staff walking around. They stop and chat and also the social media. The number of viewers has gone up and people use that quite a bit. It was fantastic. The other week as well. I saw the pictures of the number of people around the market and I saw somebody today at the event who did the woodworking stall and everything and they can't wait for the next time they're on the market. So I think that's fantastic. The progress is brilliant as well. Just one thing I was going to ask, you know, when it comes to the targets on page 12, you mentioned like it's gone up probably 1%. What is our target? You know, like if we say it's occupancy 54%, what would our target be then, please, Councillor Borden? Well, obviously we'd like 100%. Oh, yeah. Over the last few years, it's been decreasing. So we're looking at hopefully get 70, 80% would be a good target. But obviously our aim eventually is to get 100%. We've had 61 out of 64 filled on the maker's markets and hopefully due to that initiative, we're looking at hopefully some of those coming on to be permanent traders rather than just once a month. Also, I had a conversation yesterday with somebody who's potentially we're going to, I've got to speak to the markets manager about this, potentially doing a bit like the maker's market, but on a Wednesday, potentially once a month as well. So that's something else we're going to be looking at going forward as well. So again, it will increase the numbers. I was going to mention as well, it doesn't mention footfall, presumably we can't monitor footfall, because I mean, when you see the pictures now, well, on social media, some of our residents have commented, there's never anybody at the market and took pictures of only a few people. But the last one, the amount of footfall was amazing. You could see the atmosphere and people made positive comments, but presumably we can't monitor the footfall. Funnily enough, me and Councillor Sharpe have had a meeting this morning. Regarding footfall and there is new, potentially new data going to be coming forward in the coming weeks and months. So I've been pushing for this data, obviously not just for the markets, but obviously for the businesses coming into town and everything. So that is now being addressed and hopefully going forward, we will have footfall data on every single market. It's coming to the tourist season as well, so if we can get people here. The only other thing I was going to mention, obviously, this is being streamed. Some people aren't aware that charities can get a free store, which gives it atmosphere. And I know Councillor Creswell and her involvement with the store, that the College put a wonderful article on social media. And it makes me wonder if we publicise the fact that charities can have a fundraising store. So I just thought I'd mention that whilst we're being streamed. So I think that's good as well. So well done to everybody. Just coming back on that, Councillor Baxter, that is regularly advertised now on the updated Boston Markets website and Facebook. There is more charities and fundraisers coming up, but we have also got a designated market day. I think it's July where we have all the charities which we had last year. We even had a fashion show last year as well, part of that, which generated quite a lot of money for all the businesses, the charities who stood. We're having that again this year. I think it's in July, but I can get back to you on the dates on that. Thank you, Councillor Baxter. Councillor Butler, Callum. Thank you, Chair. Wow, Dale. I mean, it's all right saying it, but it's when you actually go out into the market as well, it's encouraging, as Councillor Baxter has said, especially on the makers and craft market, how much footfall has increased. I mean, I know Mother's Day is traditionally quite a busy Saturday anyway, but it was extra busy and it was so nice to see the marketplace busy. I've just got three points to make, really. Firstly, what do the traders think of all the changes that have happened? Are they happy with the, as have they noticed an increase in footfall? I'd like to do one at the same. Yeah. If you've got three, that's all right, yeah. As with anything else, Councillor Butler, 95% of the traders are happy. Some aren't, but overall, the majority of the traders are very happy. The residents are happy. Visitors are happy. They're saying it looks more professional. And that's the only, obviously, we're not in any job or business. You're not going to please 100% of the people. I personally think it's the way forward. Obviously, with more people standing now, it's obviously working. The people who stood at Christmas using the gazebos as a bit of a trial all loved it. Several traders who was quite, don't know whether the gazebos would work or not, are actually relishing it and saying they look really good and it's making everything look better. Obviously, there's a few who are not taking it on board, but unfortunately, we're not here to please everybody. We're here to please the majority and also get the market with more traders on. So we think this is the way forward. We're not there trying to punish anybody or saying this is what we want, whether you like it or not. We're doing this solely to get Boston's market back to how potentially it used to be. And obviously, on these Saturday initiatives that we've come up with are showing that it is working. Thank you, Dale. This is more of a comment than a question, really, but I'm pleased to hear about Wednesdays potentially having events as well, because I think traditionally Wednesdays tended to be more rural residents from the villages coming into town to do the weekly shop, whereas Saturday tended to be the town's residents. So it's nice that they potentially will be able to access the facilities more. And finally, it's great to hear that the number of views on social media are increasing, and you've got plans to roll that out to younger generations as well on such as Instagram and whatnot. I know we had a continental market in the past, and I've seen murmurs on social media about having a continental market again. Would that be something that could be considered now that we've got better advertisement to push that and hopefully make it more successful for potential traders? The continental market we had last year, the year before, was actually an external event. But we are open to people coming to see us about any extra markets, anything like that, continental markets. We're open. Just contact the council, and we're more than happy to accommodate any of this. Anything that's going to bring footfall into the town, trade is busy, business is busy, and get the town flourishing. So we won't say no to anything. Thank you, Callan. Well done. Councillor Sharpe, Sarah. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, mine's just more of a comment, really. Just really thank you. Boston's known to be a market town. And yeah, going up there on a Saturday now, especially on the makers and farmers market, and I've got to get up there early to get my sourdough. But yeah, it's absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much. And like you said earlier, it's not just the market traders and the public. It's our bricks and mortar businesses as well that this is going to have an impact for, which is brilliant. Thank you. Well done. Sandy, Councillor Gorsh. Yes, thanks, Chair. Yeah, absolutely support this, because especially this reduction in the gazebo prices, we stand well with the neighboring authorities. That's absolutely well. So just a quick technical question to Brendan, probably. So it's paid 360 is going to be live in August. How well it fits with the payment system here, the online payment system, or it's a different system. Are you all right to answer that, Brendan? Or we can discuss later. I'm afraid I don't have that information, but I'll provide a written response. That's fine. That's fine. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, if we're all asking, did you want to ask anything, Chris? You're welcome to take part in the debate. I just want to say I went, I've been to the last Saturday and Wednesday market and was hugely impressed and really chuffed to bits to see so many local residents and visitors enjoy the experience that you've worked so hard to improve. So well done. When we walked around on Wednesday, we had the opportunity to speak to some residents. We met a woman who was on a bus trip from Braintree, of all places. We met a woman who was here from Cambridge and then we met a family of pensioners from Grimsby. A family of pensioners, I'm not sure that's a thing. Two pensioner couples who'd come to stay in a lodge in Old Lake and come every year and had already booked for next year. So that was really heartening to see how other people see us. And that's a famous Robbie Burns saying, isn't it? If only we could see ourselves as other people see us. So, yeah, well done. I'm really chuffed to bits what you've done and thank you very much. So, with all that being said, we'll move to the vote. All those in favour? That's clearly carried. Thank you. And sorry, I forgot to introduce Chris. Welcome to your first Cabinet meeting, Councillor Mountain. Thank you very much, Chair. Right, moving on to item four, the waste services delivery module. The next item is going to be taking us through it will be Councillor Butler. It starts on page 29 of the supplementary agenda pack. So, Callum, would you like to present and propose the recommendations, please? Thank you, Chair, and good evening, everybody. The Environment Act 2021 introduced the Waste Reforms Programme to England. A central pillar of this is simpler recycling. This requires Councils to collect food waste weekly from all households from April 2026. As part of this scheme, Boston Borough Council has looked at two ways of collecting the food waste, with pod vehicles being seen as the most economical and viable, and also the most environmentally friendly way. In order to fulfil our collections, Boston Borough Council will require 14 new pod vehicles. These vehicles need to be ordered in June, as there is a lead time of over 40 weeks for delivery. We are proposing to bring forward our capital programme of fleet replacement in order to facilitate this new collection method. It is worth noting that changes to collection routes, which will invariably mean changes in collection days for the majority of our residents, a full route review will be procured should these recommendations be approved tonight and at full Council at the end of the month. As part of the waste collection review, we have also looked at our sideways policy. Currently, four extra bags can be placed next to a bin, and the bin crew will collect them. We are proposing that this will cease from the introduction of the new food waste scheme. This is being proposed for a number of different reasons, including Boston's poor recycling rates, which are currently about 39%. Safety of employees. We've had bin men say to us that they've been jabbed with needles or glass, and nobody should have to deal with that. It prevents bags of waste from being moved from next to bins, and then ultimately the resident being accused of fly tipping. And this will also help highlight some of the problem properties in the borough when it comes to overcrowding and other issues such like that. Boston is currently the only Council in Lincolnshire with wheelie bins that take side waste. By setting this to cease at the same time as the food waste scheme being implemented, it gives the Council time to make residents aware and minimises disruption, as all the changes will happen at once. I therefore ask Cabinet to approve the following recommendations.

1. Note option 1B is presented within this report for collecting food waste weekly from households.
2. Approves drawing forward $2.01 million from the capital programme allocation for 2027-28-29 to 2026-27 to fund the capital costs of purchasing food waste collection vehicles subject to Council approval. Approves slippage of $0.84 million in the capital programme allocations for food waste for 2025-26 and into 2026-27 to fund the capital cost of purchasing food waste collection vehicles subject to Council approval. Approves an additional $0.13 million to the capital programme in 2026-27 to fund the capital cost of purchasing food waste collection vehicles subject to Council approval. Approves the placing of an order for 14 food waste collection vehicles in June 2025 for delivery in the 2026-27 subject to the budget being confirmed and finally approve the change to the current waste collection policy to remove the presentation of bags alongside bins requiring waste and recycling to be presented within wheeled bin containers provided by the Council and I look for a seconder. Thank you. Sorry, that was seconded by Councillor Gauche. Thank you, Councillor Butler. Well done. I know you've worked really, really hard on this alongside Vic, your officer. So I'll now open the debate to comments and questions. Councillor Cresswell, Emma. Thank you. I'm fully supportive of this. Anything that's going to improve our recycling and make sure obviously we're fully compliant, I'm really, really happy with. I'm particularly happy as well about removal of the side waste because it does concern me as I drive through the borough, particularly my ward, where often there are bags next to bins which then get opened, animals get into them and it ends up we're just waste all over the road that then has to be dealt with and often as fly tipping. So I think that's a real positive and I think, you know, it will encourage people to recycle hopefully and get the right stuff in the right bin. So I'm fully supportive of it and thank you very much for all your work because I know it's been a long time coming. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Baxter, John. Thank you, Chair. I put a different head on tonight when I read this. Obviously, as councillors, we get used to council spiel. But as I went through it, I thought if I was a resident, what would I be asking? So well, the first one was it's a legal obligation. So it's been imposed on us. As we know, residents are a bit, well, we don't like change. So the other thing, well, straight away, I thought about sideways as councillor Creswell mentioned, and I thought, well, will there be support or transition arrangements? So I know on page 33, paragraph 211 it mentions, and this is what I love to read, council officers will support residents through the wider engagement as food waste collections are introduced. And obviously selling the factors that councillor Creswell mentioned, hopefully that will persuade our residents because some people don't like change, do they? The other thing I thought about when you read about new staff and everything, the sort of thing that you would probably think about is, will it affect the service? Will there be arrangements? So the training of the staff, will there be backfill and things? So perhaps, maybe if you could cover that, please. Vic, would you like to speak? Thank you. Thank you. Yes, councillor Baxter. Yes, so there will be a full training programme for the staff in all of this, both in terms of the equipment they're using and in terms of the messages that we give out. We're also, we work with, and I think you'll remember from when we brought the paper and card bin in, the separate bin, we work very, very closely with the county council, with their engagement team who worked with us. And that's not just about working with us as officers, but that was actually on the ground. That was actually talking to residents and understanding concerns and trying to alleviate those concerns. Because at the end of the day, with anything that we do, it works better if members of the public and the residents of Boston Borough actually understand why we're doing it and know how, how it can help them as well as well. I think that's been, I can remember they stood outside the camp at Aldley and they came to the hub, didn't they? Yes. Yeah, I remember. Yeah. This is another silly thing. As I've read through, I thought if I was getting a brand new car, I'd have to trade the old one in, unless I was going to keep it as a second car. So we're talking about purchasing, how many is it? 14. What happens to the old ones? So what happens now is that we sell them. So when they come to the end of life, we sell them. They go to all sorts of different places, auctions, and we look at where's best, where we're going to get best price for selling those off. And then that receipt will come back in. That hasn't been included in the report because it will depend on when we go to sell. So when these vehicles, we won't sell them obviously before the new ones arrive, but we don't know. You've gone on, Mike's gone. Just that the video won't pick it up if you lost it. Oh, brilliant. So thank you. So yeah, so we won't know now what the capital receipt will be when these new vehicles arrive. But that will come back into the council. Thanks Vicky. So in effect, some of the figures quoted, if we get a good price for the old ones, it will reduce the capital program and the costs there. Yes, it will go back into, if it's a sufficient amount, it'll go back into the capital program. All right. Thank you. Next is Deal. Actually, you've been waiting, Cairns and Broughton. I've got two comments more than questions. The first one, I'm fully supportive of all this report, but my thing for getting rid of the sideways as well is for the safety of our hardworking bin men as well. It must be, it must be worrying having to come every day to work worrying in case there's a needle in a bag that you're going to pick up and safety. So I'll be pleased that that's happened. But also in your report, Councillor, you said about a 40 week turnaround for these vehicles. Well, with it being something which is going to be a compulsory on us anyway, I can't see why we cannot do this because if anybody is going to oppose this, then it's got to happen anyway. So if we miss our spot ordering these vehicles, we're going to be too far behind. So I'm fully supportive of this. Thank you, Councillor Broughton. Councillor Gouche. Thanks, I absolutely support this and it's not a rocket science to understand why we support this. I just have one question about the modelling. So obviously the modelling is being done for seeing the present pressures to cope up with. So is there any parameters that if the pressure increases we can cope up with that much of pressures? Because you considered 14 vehicles. So do you understand my question? Okay, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, so in the modelling, what we've done is used the borough's tonnages. So all the data we can possibly feed into the modelling that was Boston data. That's what's happened. So it's gone in and they model on the capacity of the different vehicles. They model on what we think the growth is going to be in terms of both households, but waste and the different types of waste. Because obviously what we're now doing is collecting food waste, but we're going to be moving it out of the green bin into a separate caddy. So providing more capacity in the green bin for residual waste, but moving that food waste out so that the waste is moving about a bit. We've got all the tonnages, projected tonnages for that as we think the housing, numbers of housing are going to grow. So that's all been fed into the actual capacity of the vehicles. So yeah, we were as close to it as we possibly can be. Yeah. Just a quick one. And the conclusion 3.1 is 14 vehicles. Thank you. Sorry, I missed that. See you again. Conclusion on the report, page 33. It's 14 vehicles. So it's 14 vehicles, it's 13 of the integrated pod and then one of the dedicated one. In Boston, it's a little bit different. That's what we try and flex what we do. So we meet the needs of the town. There are some areas of the town that we just can't get the big vehicles down now. So what we've made sure we do is have capacity in there so we're still able to actually get down the roads where we know that we need to collect from. So now what we do is we have a little vehicle that collects refuse and recycling. So what we're doing is the same for food. And it just means that we can maintain the level of collections that we do now. So that's what that's what that covers. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Chair. Thank you. Councillor Mountain, Chris. We'll try this one. Thank you very much, Chair. Going through the report, it's a really in-depth report. I like the idea behind it. My only real question, I guess, from sort of putting the other hat on from the member of the public, getting rid of the sideways is good most of the year round. What about Christmas periods? Has any thought been put into that where obviously the bin collections are upskittled due to the Christmas period and obviously with the sideways obviously people tend to generate a bit more rubbish around the Christmas period. Would that be considered or is it something to look at further down the line? I think you've got any thoughts on that. Yeah. I mean, I mean, you're certainly right. There is, there is definitely more waste that comes through over the Christmas period. And that's something I think that's a policy decision that we would, we'll go back and have a look at, but certainly it's something we can, we can consider. Yeah. I know we've discussed it in several meetings, so it's not, we've not decided one way or another yet. So yeah. Thank you very much. I mean, that's my only major concern is the Christmas period of, you know, that extra help that people need just to get rid of that waste. I just wanted to make a few comments. Yeah, I think you've worked really, really hard on this and I've had great feedback about your own personal contribution to the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership meetings, Callum. So well done in the way that you've represented us at those countywide meetings. Thank you. I want to say that if families are still regularly putting out four bags of sideways, I would suggest they're not recycling properly. And I know there are occasions when it happens, we have a big family gathering or it's Christmas or, you know, something goes awry. You end up with loads of sideways and you've got a real perk in being able to do that. But in general, you should be recycling properly all your waste from your household. And if you're putting out four sideways bin bags, something's gone wrong. And so what I'd say to members of the public is if you're finding that you're doing that on a regular basis, I think we'd be able to provide an officer to give some support to those families that perhaps just need a little bit of guidance and understanding as to how to reduce their sideways. Did you, are you wanting to answer that, Callum? Yeah, come back. I just wanted to come back on that and say I agree in the majority of cases that will probably be the case that residents just are not recycling properly for whatever reason. In some cases it may highlight the fact that we've got, as I've said in here, we might have an overcrowded property or we may have a large family who may not necessarily know that they can apply for another bin and if they meet our criteria that we will provide them with another bin anyway. So there is scope and as you've said and as Vic said about officers going out and helping that will help flush some of those issues out. But I would encourage residents to come forward to ask for help. We're not, we're not, we don't want to penalise anybody. We want to help you. So help, help you help us sort of to a certain extent. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So and the other point I was going to make was actually around the collection of food waste. I know that parents can be really busy. Single people can be really busy as well. And since working on this as part of the cabinet work programme, I've been making a conscious effort to look at how much food I'm throwing away. And actually it's quite embarrassing sometimes because we buy stuff, we often buy too much, well I'll speak for myself, I often buy too much at the supermarket thinking I'm going to eat it or the family's going to eat it and then they don't and it ends up in the bin, it's gone out of date and I'm a princess, I won't eat stuff that's out of date. And it does really make you stop and think because you're losing money. It's made me take a far more considered approach to freezing stuff. Instead of throwing away the last remnants of a loaf of bread, I'm now wrapping it up and putting it in the deep freeze. So I just wanted to offer that as reassurance to people that might think, oh god we've got another bin coming, is that it's all been done for the right reasons. This particular decision isn't ours, it's national government legislation and policy that we are simply enacting. And I think actually the rollout of the purple bin was brilliant. If it's anything like that then I have every confidence in the team and I love my purple bin because it's so clean. So anyway, if everybody's finished, Callum, you want to come back? Callum, just to come back and say that I think we appreciate that there will be some hiccups and some headaches along the way in terms of probably with us learning the new systems as well as residents getting used to the new systems. But the fact that we're giving ourselves 10 months to get used to the sideways policy as well, it's given us time to learn and not punish people because that's not what we're here for as I've said. And then just coming back to the food waste, the waste of food, and I think it also shows that as you've said Councillor Dorian, you're buying the food and then you're not eating the food and it's going in the bin. Well it sort of, it makes me question is the three for two offer actually good value or am I just wasting it? So it's hopefully residents will start, as you say, start to see how much food they're actually wasting and go, crikey, let's cut down a bit, which in turn will save them money. Yeah, and I think you're right. The leading time is awesome to have 10 months leading time. I think the whole thing will hinge on comms now and I'm glad our senior comms officers here tonight because it's that messaging that the public will now start to hear from now and get themselves ready, discuss it at work, discuss it with your friends, chat about it at the football or at the school gate or wherever. And as long as we get the message out and keep repeating the same message, then I think that will help the public understand how the process is going to work and why we're doing it. Well one last point I think is really important that we have also committed to funding the waste sacks because I know some people really don't like having food waste inside their kitchens for very long. I think it's worth highlighting that unlike our blue bins, I believe the food caddies can take any kind of bin bag because they are separated at the disposal site. So if anybody runs out of food sacks they can use any bin liner because it's far cleaner with a liner, isn't it, than just chucking it in a plastic bin. So yeah, Callum, come back. Yeah, just regarding the comms really just to say that through the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership and LCC we'll be doing uniform comms across the county and I know that the comms office, one of the comms officers there will be fantastic at what she does. So yeah. Yes, what is obviously alluding to our trusted comms officer Emma Staff who we've just seconded to the partnership. She's a huge loss to our team but she is absolutely the right person for that job and I think she'll succeed really well there. Okay, if the debate's finished, everybody happy? It's been moved and seconded and we'll go to the vote. All those in favour? That's clearly carried. Thank you. Well done, Callum. That was good. Right. Do you want to go home, Vic? Do you want to get off? You get used to go. I'm not talking you out, but go home. You've had a long day. Right. The last item is item five sponsorship generation in Boston and that starts on page 43 of the supplementary agenda pack and it's going to be introduced by Councillor Baxter who will propose the recommendation. Oh, sorry. I tell a lie. Councillor Broughton. Thank you, Madam Chair. Like many authorities across the country, Boston Borough Council is always seeking opportunities to deliver impactful activity to support businesses, residents and places within the context of a challenging wider fiscal context. The report presented this evening seeks Cabinet approval to progress an exciting and innovative initiative focusing on how Boston Borough Council might proactively raise sponsorship income to support us to deliver more for our residents, businesses and our area as a whole. The report is a product of recent discussions between members and officers exploring how through working with both local, regional and national sponsors, the authority might be able to generate income to support Council led activity. This report sets out a way forward for the Council if there is support from members to pursue such an approach. In terms of the report itself, section 2.1 of the report focuses on the strategic outcomes that pursuing a sponsorship initiative could deliver for Boston. These include accessing new funding streams. Sponsorship has the potential to enable the Council to access a more diverse set of funding streams to support Council activity. Additionality and added value. Using sponsorship to supplement Council funds presents the opportunity for the Council to do more and add value to existing programmes of work, for example the Council's event calendar. Commercial approach. Sponsorship has the potential to allow Boston Borough Council to create commercial opportunities and be seen to be proactive, embracing, involved and engaging even more with local businesses, forming meaningful community partnerships. Section 2.5 of the report sets out the principles that should guide any initiative. These principles are framed around developing good relationships with businesses and sponsors, providing a good service to those providing sponsorship, the need for commercial insight and having a focus on raising sponsorship funds far beyond the boundaries of the Borough Council area itself. Section 2.6 sets out a recommended way forward in terms of how such an initiative would be resourced, with a suggested way forward of seeking to partner with a freelance individual who can build relationships with potential sponsors, be tasked with generating income and working with teams across the Council to develop a commercial approach to how we raise revenue. Our aim is to develop an approach which enables this initiative to become self-funding as it develops in maturity over the longer term. If members are minded to approve this proposal, the next step would be to launch a process of securing a freelance individual to work with the Council on this innovative and exciting initiative. This process will enable us to test the market in terms of the availability of a suitable freelancer, coupled with finalising the overarching business plan for the initiative. I, as portfolio holder, will work closely with officers on the next steps of the process from here, if members are in agreement with the strategy presented within this report. I ask Cabinet to recommend the following recommendations, that members consider and give approval to a programme of pursuing the generation of sponsorship to support Council activity. This is with a view to seek to deliver the expected benefits as articulated within this report. The members give consideration to the recommended resourcing strategy for such a programme, i.e. the procurement of a contractor as articulated within the report, and that authority is delegated to the Assistant Director of Strategic Growth and Development in conjunction with the Deputy Leader of the Council to conclude contractual matters associated with the report recommendations. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councillor Broughton-London. Is there a seconder? Councillor Sharpe is seconded. Thank you. Are there any questions? No, Council Baxter. I can't stay quiet. Not when you read a report like this. It goes to show really that we're not prepared to take risks, but I don't think there's a risk with this that we look at new initiatives and sort of like in a way we're going to be a trailblazer because I think no other councils have tried this. We're very lucky as well. I was thinking about, I know the people who have been involved in this have been involved in sponsorship at big football clubs and with them from the experience and also within our team we have business owners and marketing sponsorship is a big part of that. So as I read through as well, I raised this question before, does this affect any other funding? And the answer was no it doesn't. We can still look at sponsorship and also get funding as well. I think our residents have been pleased that we as a party have brought Christmas back to Boston. Wonderful events and this will give us the opportunity to put on more events for our residents as well, but also an opportunity for local companies, national companies to get their name known. As I read through as well, obviously we mentioned things like events, but I was thinking we've talked about getting new waste lorries. We could put advertising on the side maybe or a company might sponsor them because that lorry would be going miles round rural areas and everything. The only other thing of course it mentions about considerations, but having been involved in marketing myself, it's quite a specialist area. Not that our officers don't have the knowledge maybe, but I agree with the recommendation that we have an external contractor. It's a specialised job, but also we can then build into that initiative of well, target driven salaries, etc. So I'm in favour and agree with all the recommendations and exciting times. Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to come in there, Councillor Bracken? Yeah. As you pointed out, Councillor Bracken, this is not just solely for sponsorship for events. It is, like you've said about refuse vehicles, but there's no limits on what sponsorship could be used for. I don't know if, Matthew, you wanted to come in just to add any points to extend on that? No, I hope you can hear me okay. No, Councillor Bracken, I entirely agree with you. At the moment, there's plenty of scopes. You've put various different options around this, so no, I agree with the point you've just made. Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. Councillor Mounting, Chris. Thank you very much, Chair. I think this is a fantastic initiative that's been brought to the table, if I'm honest. Looking at what's already been delivered with like the Christmas markets and how that's been developed, this is something that we really need to try and need to move forward with. Like it's already been highlighted, we've got plenty of assets that could be looked at, such as bin lorries. It's not so much as a gimmick, but it's something that can highlight businesses around Boston, within Boston, and that we're here for other businesses other than just the council, I guess, which is fantastic. Absolutely. Yeah, and just come back on that. As it says in there, we're not just solely looking for local businesses. We're also looking for people who want to sponsor from out of the area as well, and hopefully this will bring in new businesses as well to come into the town. We do want local businesses to take it up, and as you've mentioned, and also Councillor Baxter, the first Christmas, the sponsorship was quite low because obviously after the fiasco of the year before, after the success of the first year, last year, we had a lot more businesses interested in sponsorship, which happened, and we're already getting people contacting us this year. But again, I just want to emphasize this is not solely for events. There's no limits to this, so it will benefit the council in so many ways, and I'm really passionate about this moving forward. Anyone else like to speak? Did you mention Councillor Peerpoint? No, no, I haven't mentioned. Yeah, obviously a lot of this was when we mentioned the members, it was obviously Councillor Peerpoint has been instrumental in this with his background in sponsorship and all his business acumen and everything that he's done. I know he's worked really hard with Matthew and myself and Councillor Sharpe in this, and he's more than happy to pass on his knowledge to whoever takes on the role, which would be invaluable. His knowledge is unbelievable. Yeah, and I extend my thanks to Councillor Peerpoint just for the minutes. Callum? Thank you Chair. Just to echo what the other guys have said regarding it being a really good idea. I know I've said this to you offline before, Dale, but I just want to emphasize the fact that I don't want us to end up getting to a point where we're going Central Park sponsored by or renaming the Central Park as, I don't know, Chatterton's Park or whatever other businesses are available. Right, thank you. If everybody's spoken and wants to speak, the proposal's been moved and seconded. All those in favour? That's clearly carried. Thank you very much, everyone. That concludes the evening's business, so I'll now close the meeting and thank you all for your attendance.