Transcript

Thank you.

Thank you, Andrew. Good evening. Welcome to this meeting of the Cabinet. For the benefit of those watching our YouTube channel, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. Members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals. Please join me in thanking the members of the Cabinet for their support. Good evening, everyone. I'm very happy to be here. I'm sorry to be here. Good evening. Thank you. Thank you, Andrew. Good evening and welcome to this meeting of the Cabinet. For the benefit of those watching our YouTube channel, members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals this evening. Members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals this evening. Members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals this evening. Members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals this evening. Members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals this evening. Members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals this evening. Members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals this evening. Members of the Cabinet are present in the chamber and these members will be voting on proposals this evening. My name's Des Kears, I'm the Cabinet member for Community Services. Good evening, everyone. I'm Kim Tanner and I'm the Cabinet member for Finance and Housing. Robin? Yeah, Robin Betts, Cabinet member for Climate Change, Property and Regeneration. Thank you. Mike? Mike Taylor, Cabinet member for Planning and the shortest portfolio name. And I'm Martin Coffin, Deputy Leader and deputising for Matt Borton who sent his apologies for this evening. And perhaps if I could turn to our Democratic Services Officer to introduce all the officers present, please. Let's start with Jeremy Whittaker. Good evening, everyone. I'm Jeremy Whittaker, I'm the Strategic Economic Regeneration Manager. Adrian Stanfield. Good evening, Chair. Adrian Stanfield, Central Services. Stuart Edwards. Stuart Edwards, Head of Administrative and Property Services. And I will now move to those officers attending online. Sharon Shelton. Good evening, everyone. I'm Sharon Shelton, the Director of Finance and Transformation. Robert Stiles. Good evening, everyone. Robert Stiles, Director of Street Seeing, Leisure and Technical Services. Eleanor Hoyle. Good evening. Eleanor Hoyle, Director of Planning, Housing and Environmental Health. And Darren Lanes. Good evening. Darren Lanes, Head of Street Seeing and Leisure. Thank you very much. Those who are not in attendance on MS Teams are not members of the Cabinet. If they wish to speak, I will hold the same ground rules as Matt normally holds, and that is that they can speak first and then the Cabinet members will speak. They would need to introduce themselves before they speak. I only see two members on the screen, so I guess that might be quite short tonight. So, any apologies for absence. We've had Matt Borton. And declarations of interest. Any declarations of interest? Nope. And can I sign the minutes of the ordinary and the extraordinary meeting the Cabinet held on the 2nd and the 30th of April? Thank you. Turning to minutes of the panels, boards and other groups, we have the Tunbridge Community Forum, which is marked as being to follow, pages 29 on your agenda. Can we note those please? Excuse me, Chair. They're better published as a supplement. Thank you very much. Published as a supplement. Can we take those as noted, please? Thank you. And moving now to decisions taken by Cabinet members on page 33. I will go through those and ask you to say anything about those. So, Finance and Housing, we had a decision note on the 7th to the 5th, 24. We had a mobile prostate screening unit that was using the Angel East car park and it was very well attended and really a pleasure to assist and allow them to use that space. Thank you, Kim. And the next one is theirs. Thanks, Chair. Not much to add to the title, really. This was to appoint Bloomfield's Chartered Town Planners to undertake work on the master plan for Tunbridge Farm. And back to you, Kim. It's been imperative that we've taken on a new financial system. So, it's called Integra Centros Financial Management System and it's an updated version of our current system, which will no longer be supported from March 25. So, it was absolutely imperative that we agree to bring in the new system. Thank you. Thank you, Kim. And I guess the hardship relief is fairly simplistic. Thank you. Safety partnership? Yeah, just very quickly. We are driven and governed by a community safety partnership, which drives our very successful community safety partnership team and all of our partners, which are involved in that too. So, I welcome that. Thank you, Des. And it looks like, Robin, you have the last one to add any notes to. Yes, it was mainly consisting of revocation of a number of air quality management areas, but just to add, they will continue to be monitored. Thank you. Moving over the page to page 34, I think we're back with you, Robin, which is the climate reserve to make up the difference between the planned replacement cost, et cetera. Nothing to add. Thank you, Kim. And the rest look like they were cabinet decisions down to green retrofit skills, taken on the 11th, 10th of the 4th 24. Again, by you, Robin. Yeah, it's a good initiative on the skills side of things, but nothing further to add. Thank you. And finally, Des, the item on the approval to extend memorandum of agreement with Medway Valley Country Partnership. Yeah, not much to add to that. It's an agreement. We've extended it because it's such a success story. Thank you very much indeed. Right, so we now move on to Executive Non-Key Decisions, page 35, which is the housing association performance framework. Eleanor, do you wish to say anything to this? Nothing to add to this report. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Can I take it that we are in agreement on this by general affirmation? Thank you very much. We now move on to risk assessment. Again, referred to us from the Audit Committee on the 15th of April. Anything anyone wishes to say to this? Can we take that by general affirmation? Agenda item 9, the tree enforcement and tree preservation order. Again, it's referred to us from the Housing and Planning Security Select Committee. I think there was quite a good debate on this actually when we had this item. I believe that what's before us now is the right answer. Anything anyone wishes to add? Mike? Just to say it would have been good to get more member involvement in the protocol and to pay more heed to settings, but we're bound by the law, so I'm happy with the protocol. Thank you, Mike. Can we take that by general affirmation? Thank you very much. Right. Next item, agenda item 10, is the local plan duty to cooperate update. Again, it's referred from the Housing and Planning Security Select Committee on the 21st of May, 2024. Eleanor, do you wish to add anything? Only to commend the report to Cabinet. Given we know how important the issues of legal compliance are around the local plan, we're making sure that we're making every effort and documenting every effort to ensure that we've met our duty to cooperate requirements. Thank you, Eleanor. Mike? Just to say we learnt the hard way last time how not to do it, and people have been very cautious this time. Thank you, Eleanor. Thank you very much. Can we take that by general affirmation? Thank you very much. Right. The transfer of incentives scheme, referred from the Housing and Planning Security Select Committee of the 21st of May. Anything you wish to add to this, Eleanor? Nothing to add to this one either. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Anything to add? I will just say that hopefully this will be a successful initiative that we put forward. It's trying to make better use of the housing stock within the borough and encouraging people to move from larger homes to smaller with financial incentives, and I would hope that it will free up some family homes for us. Thank you. Excellent. As you say, let's hope that is a successful state scheme. Can we take that by general affirmation? Thank you. Ah, item 12. General item 12. Graffiti update. Again, I think the lack of evidence of effective graffiti rules to reduce illegal tagging can be acknowledged is the key line in there for me. Les, do you want to add anything? No, the policy is an excellent, well thought out written policy. It covers all the bases, it covers all the risks, and I think you've just touched on the fact that the only anomaly in all of this was a graffiti wall where we went out to almost like consultation. It was very sort of like 50/50, and as Alison spoke to the Communities and Environment Screwingly Select Committee, Alison Binch, she pretty much said that there's no evidence at all to suggest that we do need one or that there should be one, so I would support that entirely. Les, anybody else? In which case can we take that by general affirmation as well? Right, we're on to the Corporate Strategy Action Plan, pages 143 and onwards. Who would like to speak to this? That'll be me, Chair. Thank you very much. Yeah, I do want to say a few words, really. The main headline is that there's been a number of achievements during the last financial year, which are set out in the report and in more detail in Appendix 1. Some key highlights include the adoption of a new digital strategy, increased reach of our social media and take up of apps and newsletters, solid progress on our Climate Change Strategy Action Plan, the 1.5 million being secured for decarbonisation of Larkfield Leisure Centre, successful rollout of dry recycling services to communal bin stores and good progress on the first two years of our UK Shared Prosperity Fund programme. Just a couple of points. You'll note that the number of actions are AMBA-rated in Appendix 1, and that's really just reflecting that progress is being made, but we are in year one of the strategy, so there's still progress to be made. The Proposed Action Plan for 24/25, as set out in Appendix 2, is not hugely dissimilar to that of the previous year, which is really to be expected, given that we are sticking to our existing vision and priorities of our corporate strategy. It is worth noting that a number of additional actions have been added, and these relate to our procurement performance management, biodiversity net gain, green infrastructure strategy and our Angel Centre plans. Subject to the 24/25 Action Plan being approved, the aim will be to report progress on it on a six-month basis. I'd welcome any questions. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Jeremy. A huge amount of work has been successfully worked through there. Any questions from members of the Cabinet, please? Any observations? I'd just like to reiterate what you just said. A huge amount of work, and we should thank the team for their efforts in that, because we really have achieved so much. Thank you. Any further questions? Any observations? Yes, Robin, thank you. Now, it's only to say thank you to the team for a tremendous effort in getting the enormous grant for the decarbonisation of the leisure centres. I mean, that's a massive achievement for this borough, so my thanks goes to that team. Thank you. I certainly second that. It's an amazing achievement. In that case, if I can take you to the recommendations on page 146. That the report be noted, and that the Corporate Strategy Action Plan 23/24, as set out in Appendix 1, also be noted. And that the Corporate Strategy Action Plan 24/25, set out in Appendix 2, be approved. Thank you very much indeed. So we now move to the Tunbridge Town Centre Programme Board. In terms of reference? Yeah. Thank you, Chair. So Cabinet, at its meeting on the 2nd of April, approved the creation of the Tunbridge Town Centre Programme Board in order to support the delivery of the wide piece of work members would like to see progressed in Tunbridge. And it was agreed that we would return to the next meeting of Cabinet with proposed terms of reference, which, as drafted, can be found at Annex A. Yeah, the terms of reference set out, you know, what the board's responsibilities will be. It sets out the membership of that board, and remember the previous cabinet, it was agreed in terms of, you know, council membership of that board, who they would be from the respective parties. And the list of offices that would make up that board. The terms of reference go on to describe how the meetings will run, how voting would work if required, and confidentiality associated with the information the board will be receiving and determining. Just to make the point that it will be a non-decision-making board, and it would report either to a cabinet, potentially via Finance Regeneration and Property Scrutiny Select Committee, or to individual cabinet members if the recommendation comes under their portfolio and they can make it under their decision-making powers. The recommendation is that the terms of reference be approved by cabinet, but happy to take any questions. Thank you, Stuart. Robin, this obviously is very much yours as chairman. It certainly is. No, I'm looking, I'm feeling excited about this programme board. It's nicely politically balanced. We've got some really exciting decisions, well, not decisions, but recommendations to make. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to chairing alongside my colleague here who's going to be vice chair, and it should be a really, really well thought, well, well managed board. What's really going to be useful is that we've got a dedicated programme board manager for this Down Centre improvement, so that will help steer us as well, having that knowledge and dedication. Thank you, Stuart. Yeah, Robin. Des, do you want to add anything? Just to share and echo those comments, I think it's a really exciting time for Tunbridge, a really exciting time across party to get stuck in and get involved in the future. So, it is very exciting, and I totally agree with what Robin's just said. Brilliant, thank you very much. Mike? Just to say it's great that we've got to this point. I'm glad to see the confidentiality issue is highlighted. It's so important that members of these boards have the opportunity to talk about everything and anything without fear of it getting out into the media. Thank you. Mike, a really valid point. Thank you. Anything else anyone wishes to add? In which case, I'll take you to the recommendation, page 162, that we're recommended to approve the Tunbridge Town Centre programme board terms of reference as set out in the annex. Thank you very much. Moving on to executive non-G decisions, and that's the adoption of the Highweald National Landscape Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Management Plan 2429. Anyone wish to add anything to that? Mike? Thank you. It's a good report, and I'd like to use it to highlight the importance of AOMB, both Highweald and North Downs, and the changes in the law that increase the protection of these. The local plan is going to be encroached on Greenbelt, it's going to be encroached on AOMB, but it must be handled sensitively. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Any other comments? No? In which case, I take you to the recommendations as written on page 172. Do you want me to read them out, or are you happy to take them by affirmation as you read them? Thank you very much. I have no urgent items, therefore not important. I now need to exclude the press and the public. I move to exclude the press and public from the meeting, as this now contains exempt information. Are we agreed on that? Andrew, if you can stop the huge.