Transcript

Thank you very much and welcome to the May 2025 Cabinet Meeting for the London Borough of Hammersfield and Fulham. My name is Stephen Cowan. I'm the leader of the borough and I'm going to begin by mentioning that this meeting is being live streamed. So if you're here, you'll make any points and you're agreeing to be live streamed. Secondly, if there is an emergency, which is highly unlikely, then please follow the directions this way and that way. I've been practicing that. So, so you can go to safety. Okay, right. Should we start by introducing everybody, starting off with Councillor Holder on my, on my left, and we'll work our way around the room. Good evening. I'm Councillor Sharon Holder. Thank you. Councillor Francis Umay, Cabinet Member for Housing and Housing and Housing. Good evening. Good evening, Councillor Andrew Jones, Cabinet Member for the Economy. Good evening, Councillor Alex Sanderson. I'm the deputy leader. I'm responsible for children and education and covering adults and health. Good evening, Councillor Rowan-Ree, Cabinet Member for Finance and Reform. Good evening, Councillor Rebecca Harvey, Cabinet Member for Social Inclusion and Community Safety. Good evening, Councillor Sarge Harvey. Good evening, Councillor Sarge Harvey, Cabinet Member for Enterprise and Skills. Great. That's good news. We are fortunate enough to be joined by Sharon Lee, our Chief Executive, Grant Degg, our Director of Legal Services, and is also the Monitoring Officer, Katya Neal, who's the Committee Coordinator. And, as ever, we're very lucky to have Councillor Droney Alford here, who is representing the Opposition. So, welcome. Welcome. Okay, I will move swiftly on, then, to the very first item, which is apologies for absence. Can I note that Councillor Boricom is unable to attend, and we wish her well. Any other apologies for absence? Okay. Declarations of interest? Not seeing any, so I'm saying that's none. And then move you straight on to item number three, the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on the 1st of April, 2025. Any comments from that? Are those agreed? Thank you. So, here we are. Item number four, policy options for the borough-wide prohibition of burning of domestic garden waste in the borough, London Borough of Hammersfield and Fulham. As I understand it, this is, makes us the first Council in the UK to do this. Is it the UK or is it England? Certainly the country. And I'll hand over to you to do the talking. Thank you, Lee. Documentation. Are there any questions on this? Thanks. Well, in that case, I would just say, well done, Wesley. It's, um, all of us have been sometimes in Hammersfield and Fulham and just one person has lit a fire and it's covered the whole of the neighbourhood. I remember once, uh, coming out of a shop on Fulham Broadway and as I walked closer and closer down the Fulham Road, uh, came across more and more thick smoke and it was just one fire, uh, at the other end of Fulham. Um, so 14% is a staggering figure. All of us elected into office have a duty to leave things better than we found them. And this is one of those measures that will significantly make our, uh, more, uh, cleaner. So thank you very much. On that basis then, can I ask if that item is agreed? Agreed. Thank you, thank you, uh, home care charges, item number five, page 23. Thank you, Lee. Hopefully this is relatively. Sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, services. It's a Freudian slip, isn't it? That's fine. So, um, following an unsuccessful procurement exercise, this paper sets out a proposal to make a direct award. Okay. Are there any questions on that? Councilor Alford. Just a very brief one. Without, and I realise this politically, I'm not politically sensitive, financially sensitive information. So I'm trying to be as careful as I can. Is there a particular difficulty of sort of getting another provider? Was it costings or without being? I think given how, so there are a number of exempt items around this document, um, I think if it's all right, I might just talk to legal and we'll come back. Fine. Lovely. Thank you so much. Yeah, that would be a good way, but thank you very much for the question and I assure you, you'll get a full frank answer. Most of the. I do appreciate that, so I was trying to be careful how I worded what I was asking. That is much appreciated. Do you have any other questions? No, I. If I don't have something after I've been written to then, of course, I will come back. Thanks very much. Okay. Can I ask then, is item number five, home care services agreed? Thank you. I move straight on to item six, local electric vehicle infrastructure levy, procurement strategy, page 29. Over to you, Sharon. Thank you, leader, LBHF on under borough of homes of cross to the council. All right, so that's again a procurement strategy, are there any questions on it? No, no, any other comments from any cabinet members? No, I'm looking at you, Rowan. In which case, is that item agreed? Agreed. Agreed. Thanks very much. Item number seven, public realm and consultancy procurement strategy. Back to you. Are you bringing them in house or what are you doing with them? And you know my interest. Of course I do. Same as mine's. It's just to say that the burial is the case. Any other points or questions? Okay, is that item agreed? Agreed. Thanks very much. Item number eight, therefore, which is the appropriation of land at Hartop and Lannoy. Over to you, Councillor Jones. Thanks very much. We've had a cabinet many papers in relation to the housing development at Hartop and Lannoy. This was a housing site. We are redeveloping it with affordable housing. This is part of the technical process where we have now cleared the site and are transferring it legally. So it's really generally affordable homes on the site. Just to remind us, how many of them are passive house standard? It's passive house. The development is passive house standard. I should correct myself. It's 134 houses in the development, not 144. And it's, yes, a passive house development. Good. Councilor Alford. It's all right. This will be very brief. In fact, the office of illegal has actually clarified a few things for me. So basically, this has no impact on the local residents. Though you've got a chart in the exempt, which therefore I was to take it from redevelopment back into housing and the weather. That's right, yes. I mean, effectively, it had houses on it. They've been demolished through the technical legal process. This is a transfer back. They will then be, in my understanding, but legal can correct me as they eventually ends up back in the HRA after the development has taken place. And that the local residents in the neighbouring streets have, it has no impact on them whatsoever regarding their ownership or usage or? No, it doesn't have any impact in that respect. That's fine. Councilor Romney, you had something to do with this. It's going to be, they're being handed over to your department sooner or later. Do you want to have any, do you have any comments? So, thank you very much. In that case, can I ask? Sure. Yes. Just to say about the importance of this in terms of the standard is absolutely key in delivering our target for climate change. Again, another very good point. So, thank you to all three cabinet members for your insights on this. i will not therefore add anything because it's all being said other than to say thank you to all three of you for your contributions on this uh and to the officers involved it is something we are very proud of uh is item number eight agreed thank you very much the forward plan is next item name can i ask you to note it please you happy about grant monica's also very happy with that noted comment there uh right discussion of exempt items only required there's non-required local government act 1972 access to information stands as it always does that brings us to the end of the june meeting thank you have a lovely may it's going so well see my birthday's in june i'm a bit worried about that so all i can say is uh it's the main meeting and thank you if you tuned in good night