Good evening, everyone.
It's turned 6.30, so if everyone's sitting comfortably, I will begin.
Item one is apologies for absence.
I've had apologies from Councilor Chapman and Councillor Dallymore.
I don't know anymore.
I think we're all here.
Councillor Reeves is en route.
Item two, then, is declarations of interest.
Are there any declarations?
No, if members stumble on an interest, perhaps they could catch my eye and declare it at the time.
Number three is petitions and requests to address the meeting.
There are none.
Item four is to confirm the correct record the minutes of the meeting held on the 5th of February last.
Members agreed.
Thank you.
[ Pause ]
Getting married last Thursday, best wishes from the committee.
Item six urgent business there is not any.
Item seven, then, is the air quality update.
I think we have Tim Hughes on the line ready for this.
I think the summary here, Mr. Hughes, is that there are a couple of places now that can drop out of constant monitoring because they don't need to be constantly monitored anymore.
I summarise.
I got that about right.
It's about right, thank you, Councillor Wood.
They will still be monitored, but they no longer need to be declared as air quality management action areas.
The report that's been circulated just outlines that the two of the four areas that we've had have been consistently measuring below the levels required for them to remain as air quality management action areas.
So the recommendation is that they drop out of it and that is over the last five years that that's been the case.
So the ask of exec is that they approve that to be the case and to go forward on that basis and in addition to that to approve the plan that's associated as part of that report as well.
Understood, thank you very much. Any member comments or questions on this item?
No, in that case, the recommendations as set out in the agenda moved by me, seconded by Councillor Nell.
Are we agreed?
Thank you. Item 8 is the fixed penalty notices and we're asked to review and agree the fixed penalty finds that can be charged for various environmental crimes.
Mr Hughes, would you like to expand on this?
Yeah, so it's just a new updated regulations from central government that are allowing us to update our fine levels and the hope is that by increasing the fine levels in the short term, we may see an uptick in some fees were covered.
But in the longer term, obviously the hope is that they act as a greater deterrent and we'll see a longer term trend of these types of offences being reduced.
So the ask of executives to make sure is to approve the uplift in the fine levels to those set out in the report.
Thank you. It does seem to me a case of, well, why would you not do that then?
Any member comments or questions?
In that case, the recommendations as set out moved by me, seconded by Councillor Nell. Are members agreed?
Thank you. The next one then is extending temporary accommodation lease arrangements, Councillor Moore.
All right.
So, as members will no doubt to be aware, we are suffering with increased pressure on temporary accommodation.
This is part of a national picture with both people who are homeless and reporting as needing advice.
The musketeer is an option that we have used before.
We have an opportunity to extend the lease for a year.
Some members will be aware that there were concerns about the flexibility of the cleanliness, should we say, of the musketeer.
But a new management regime put in place has seen several months go by without any complaints.
And the musketeer is in a good situation within Banbury. It is flexible for us.
And essentially it's a good thing to do to renew the lease for a further year or to exercise the option of extending the lease.
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Sorry, Sean. Anyway, number nine, we've agreed.
And we're going on to number 10.
And that is the food action plan. And we're following the adoption of the county wide food strategy by the executive on June the 6th last.
There have been a series of meetings and consultations led by good food, including community food network members and local food businesses to agree an action plan for Charwell that is presented for approval.
So essentially, it's our own action plan that fits our geography sitting inside a larger one.
Ms Riley, is there anything you want to add?
Thank you, Leader. No, I don't think so. I think the big point is that this is an action plan for the district.
It's not a district council action plan. So it's not just us delivering actions.
It will be us as partners to a wider network.
Okay, so clear distinction. Any member comments or questions?
In that case, the recommendations as set out moved by me.
Seconded by Council, now, our members agreed. Thank you.
The next one is period poverty, which stems from the motion that came through the full council.
And you'll see there that we've been recommended to provide free sanitary products at Boddick House.
Furthermore, to provide an opportunity for community partners from the warm spaces network, community food network and community centers to opt in to providing female hygiene products at no cost to the customers.
And in order to enable that, there's a recommendation three, which is a grant of £150 up to 80 community locations in opt in on this.
Councillor Ford.
Thank you. And do we know have we liaised with the Oxfordshire County Council as to what their plan is?
It seems like an age ago that the same item came there.
And I think my concern before was in case we doubled up anything, but I don't think anything has come forward at Oxfordshire County Council.
Yeah, so it's great to see this has come forward really quickly from when it was proposed at full council.
So just wondering if we know what they're doing as well. Thank you.
Leader, I think the intention is that they will be providing products in libraries.
But I don't think it started yet. Whereas I think we'd like to get going relatively quickly.
And I found quite a simple straightforward mechanism to do that and to get these products into places where people who need them are already going.
Thank you. I'd like to thank officers for acting so swiftly upon this.
Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Councillor Woodcock, please.
Thank you, Councillor. Just partners in the warm spaces network. We're like to parish and town councils.
If they've got, if they're operating a warm space currently, if they're on our list of 48 warm spaces, they'll be invited to join.
I can't see why we couldn't extend it once we've done all the warm spaces.
All the places where we know people are already going, Councillor, that's where I'd like to start.
And then if we don't get the take up of 80 places, we could then start thinking about above and beyond.
Sure. No, the only way I ask.
There are some luggage like Bambi Town or, for example, that I often visited by members of the public, which I'm not sure are within the warm spaces network, but that would be.
It would seem very much appropriate for them to be invited to take part in this initiative. That's why I mentioned it.
So I'm very happy to speak to the clerk at Bambi Town, Council and Bister and Kidlington, as well, our larger parishes and see what plans they've got.
I don't want to duplicate anything that they'd like to do at a town level or still their thunder, but if we can work together to do that, then I can't see any reason why we wouldn't.
Sure. Thank you.
Okay. In that case, then, recommendations as set out moved by me, seconded by Councillor Ford. Our members agreed.
Thank you. The next one is item 12, the property asset management strategy, Councillor Reeves.
The report you've all been waiting for, Peter, page 101 to 116 of our packs. We have a single recommendation that is to review and approve the property asset management strategy.
This is the kind of strategy that all prudent Council should have. And we are, of course, one such Council.
The strategy itself does several things, but I suppose chief among them is to make best use of the property and assets that we do hold as a Council.
And to that end, we've taken quite a prudent and precautionary approach, lead a commensurate with our place shaping ambitions as a Council.
And all of that is contained in the detail of the report that you'll see towards the end, i.e. page 116 of our packs.
All in all, it's a sensible, moderate and prudent asset management strategy. It does not plunge the Council or expose the Council, I should say, to access risk.
It's one that I can happily endorse, and I hope that committee colleagues will do likewise.
Thank you. Any member comments or questions on this one? It's another agenda item, really. Why would you not do this, I think, really?
So, the recommendation has set out, moved by Councillor Rives, seconded by me, our members agreed.
Thank you. Item 12, no, 13, is the monthly finance performance and risk report in respect of performance and risk update.
I can highlight for members in this that the Council has performed well against its targets for January.
Of the seven measures for January, five were either achieved or within their agreed tolerance.
Two were slightly behind target, but I have achieved their year-to-date targets.
These targets were the number of homeless households living in temporary accommodation.
January was an exceptionally busy month with 20 new placements into temporary accommodation and a 50% increase in calls and visits to the duty office.
However, despite this additional pressure, the service managed to keep the impact on the overall numbers of households in temporary accommodation to a minimum, just 9 above the target of 40 for a month.
The other one was in the number of visits to our sports facilities. All our sports facilities except Spiceball saw an increase in visitors in January.
These increases were unfortunately not able to offset the decrease in use at Spiceball leisure centre.
The officers are looking into the factors that may have led to this, and I think when officers know if it's possible to know what the factors are that led to that, an information note to executive members would be helpful.
There were no changes to the leadership risk register.
In respect of our moving to quarterly reporting, I would like to propose that we move to quarterly reporting as performance generally does not fluctuate very much on a monthly basis.
I think we all kind of know that.
On the rare occasion, it does happen. It's usually down to an anomaly that has easily been rectified within the month.
Moving to quarterly reporting will shift our focus from reacting to anomalies towards identifying and addressing escalating trends and significant emerging issues.
This change will also align our reporting with national benchmarking requirements, in particular those coming from the much-vaunted new off-log.
Councillor Nell.
Thank you, Leader. The financial part of this report covers the revenue forecast and capital budget forecast as at the end of January 2024.
The forecast relates to the position at the end of this financial year.
The recommendations before members are to note the contents of the report, to approve the user-revert reserves as set out in Appendix 5, and to note the approval by the Section 151 officer under his delegated powers of expenditure of £11,000 relating to Section 106 monies for the refurbishment works to steeple Aston Village Hall.
Turning to revenue, the Council's forecast out-to-turn position, as at the end of the financial year 2023-2024, is an underspend of £59,000.
This figure is achieved after an underspend within the policy contingency item, which will offset the lower-than-budgeted in-year income from the Section 31 grant.
I should remind members that Section 31 grant is a grant paid to local councils under Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 under such conditions as the minister-made attorney.
That sounds a little bit mysterious, but in fact it's intended to compensate us for various matters to do with business rates and business rates reliefs, which result in us receiving less money than we otherwise would have.
The overall forecast position, as at the end of the financial year, is an improvement of £59,000 over the previous month's forecast.
The main reasons for the changes in the forecast this month are staffing efficiencies within the Chief Executives Department,
an increase in legal agency costs within the Resources Directorate, an increase in forecast IT consultancy costs of £45,000, again within the Resources Directorate,
and then in the communities, an improvement in planning performance agreements income of £77,000, and an improvement in recycling income within the environmental account of £27,000.
The major variances within the forecast out turn from our original budget for this financial year are set out at Table 4.
Turning to the capital budget, the capital budget for the year for the financial year was £29 million.
There is a forecast in year underspend of £14 million, of which £13.9 million is to be re-profiled into future years.
Explaining this to members, this is expenditure which has been deferred and not abandoned.
There is therefore an overall forecast underspend of £283,000.
The main variations from the intended expenditure set out in our budget for the financial year are set out in Table 9 within the report,
and members will see that these all relate to matters which are not directly under the Council's control.
For example, item 40028, the vehicle replacement program, had a budget total of £1.731 million, and £1.162 million of this has had to be re-profiled into future years.
This is because the vehicles which the Council intended to purchase have not been available.
Turning to aged debt, the Council continues to monitor its aged debt on a quarterly basis, and any significant developments in this will be reported to the Committee, but there are none this month.
Turning to reserves, the Council's reserves are set out in the report in the relevant section, an amount to £36.828 million as at the first April last year, and we expect them to rise to £37.947 million as at 31st March 2024.
I should stress that reserves are not money which is simply available to be spent or waiting to be spent.
There are a number of different categories of reserves. There is a general balance which we hold against unforeseen future events, which is calculated according to a precise formula by the section 141 officer.
The earmarked reserves which we have devoted towards specific future projects should not yet come about, and there are ring-fenced reserves which are ring-fenced in a sense that some other body has given that money to us for expenditure on a specific project.
Leader, I beg leave to move the recommendations are set out in the report, and I have a seconder in Councillor Reeves.
Thank you very much. Any member comments or questions on both those sections of this report?
In which case the recommendations are set out, including the change of frequency of reporting have been moved by Councillor Nail, seconded by Councillor Reeves.
Members agreed. Item 14, Silverstone report. I'll call Councillor Nail. Before doing so, I should just draw members attention to paragraph 2.1 on page 163.
The typographical change says here unsecured loan should read secured loan. Councillor Nail.
Thank you, Leader. This matter relates to a loan which the Council gave to the museum at the Silverstone Formula 1 racetrack in the shape of a company called Silverstone Heritage Limited.
In July 2018. And the long and short of it is that the loan is to be slightly renegotiated on terms which are very slightly advantageous to the Council.
But the details of that are, I think, not something that we can discuss in the public forum.
Okay, thank you. Any member comments or questions on what I refer to as the white papers on this?
No, in that case we are recommended to agree the extension of the payment term of the loan as set out.
We have moved by Councillor Nail, seconded by mail. Members agreed.
Thank you. Next item is the exclusion of the...
I'll ask them. Next item is the exclusion of the public and press. But I don't need to move it and vote on it.
If you don't have any questions on the pink papers, if you do have questions on the pink papers, I will exclude the public and press.
There are no. There are no.
In that case, then, I do not need to exclude the public and press.
I do.
Yes, I've been given a duff steer. We do, even though you don't have any comments or questions, we still need to exclude the public and press.
The public and press to finish off the agenda. So I move the words set out on the agenda for the exclusion of the public and press for the reasons set out on the agenda.
I have a seconder in Councillor Nail. Our members agreed.
Thank you. In that case, I'll wait a short time for the system to close.
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