Transcript

Good morning and welcome to this meeting of Kent County Council. The meeting is being webcast so may be viewed by the public during and after the meeting. Please note that the meeting may also be filmed, I think I'll give up with this last part, may also be filmed by any of the press or the public here today. If anyone is not willing to be shown on any webcast or to be filmed, please could you indicate now and let the clerk know. Absolutely nobody would say, it's fine. Moving on, can I just welcome everybody here today and particularly those who it's their first visit to County Hall. You're very welcome and can I wish you every luck going forward. Thank you. Agenda item number one, the election of chairman. Can I have nominations please? Yes. Good morning everybody. I'm Paul Webb from City Morn South. I would like to formally nominate Mr. Richard Palmer to be council chairman. I've known Richard for a while now. He is a former soldier who has served his country with pride and he is a conscientious and very principled man who will serve this chamber and the people of Kent with dedication and diligence. I'm confident that Richard will be instrumental in guiding our organisation's future success and urge you to join me in nominating Mr. Palmer as our next chairman. Thank you. Thank you very much. Is there a seconder? Yes, please. Richard has shown tireless dedication to the people of Kent, particularly for his leadership as chair of the community committee inspired by our council. There he championed causes that really matter, most notably the household support fund. He has stood up for families under pressure, ensuring those in need were never overlooked and that local government remained responsive and compassionate. Richard understands what is at stake. He listens to residents and the real issues our community face, be it the cost of living, public safety or access to essential services. With Richard at the helm, I have every confidence that this council will be driven by practical solutions. But colleagues, we must also acknowledge the political change sweeping through our country. There is a turquoise tide rising. The reform movement is growing and this is growing fast. The people of Kent are speaking with clarity. They want change. They want people at the helm who are bold, principled and unafraid to say what needs to be said. We are not here to preserve the status quo. We are here to challenge it and make Kent great again. Appointing Richard Palmer as chair is more than a vote of competence. It is a vote for fresh thinking, honesty and a future where Kent is not just managed but transformed. Thank you very much. Members, are there any other nominations? As there are no other nominations, I declare Mr Palmer duly elected to be the 43rd Chairman of Kent County Council. Thank you. Thank you. I, Richard Palmer, of Kent County Council, having been elected to the Office of Chairman of Kent County Council for the County of Kent, declare that I take the said office upon myself and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties thereof according to the best of my judgement and ability. Congratulations, Chief Attorney. Richard, many congratulations. Thank you. I'd like to present you with this, which is an honour of your term of office, which I think you've carried out in an exemplary manner, beholden to what Kent would expect, and I think you've given me a hard act to follow, but I would also like to thank you for the advice and support that you've given me. That's a pleasure. Thank you very much, Richard. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'd like to do this call for nominations for the place of Vice-Chair. Do I have anyone who would like to nominate? Mr. Paul Chamberlain. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to propose Councillor Peter Evans for the role of Vice-Chair. He's a professional man. He's worked at the NHS for 25 years and more. He's a father, a grandfather, and he's got a degree from Canterbury. I know him, and I know him to be a kind and a fair man, and I think that fairness will resonate across all members. On top of that, he brings with him a wealth of experience, quite a lot of common sense, so for those reasons, I'd like to nominate him for Councillor Peter Evans. Thank you. Thank you for those words. Do we have a seconder? Ms. Pauline Williams. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, colleagues. It gives me great pleasure to second the nomination of Peter Evans for the position of Vice-Chair of this County Council. Over the years, Peter has demonstrated not only the commitment to public service, but also integrity, wisdom and fairness. Peter has previously held a position of Chairman of Planning in Sanit, as well as other high positions and committees he has been appointed. Since being elected, I have over the last few weeks had the pleasure of working closely with Peter, and I can say with confidence that he brings to this role a calm authority, thoughtful approach and a genuine passion for public service. In every interaction, Peter has shown himself to be approachable, measured and deeply committed to the responsibilities we hold as councillors. His ability to listen carefully, engage respectively and lead decisively makes him an excellent choice to serve as Vice-Chair. For these reasons, and with great respect, I am proud to second Peter's nomination, and I am confident he will serve with integrity, impartiality and distinction. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Williams. Are there any other nominations? As there's no other nominations, then I will declare that Mr. Peter Evans is duly elected as Vice-Chairman of the Council. Thank you. Declaration of acceptance of office. I, Peter Evans of Kent County Council, having been elected to the office of Vice-Chairman of the County Council for the County of Kent, declare that I take the said office upon myself and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties thereof according to the best of my judgement and ability. Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed colleagues and honoured officers, I stand before you today with profound gratitude, humility and accept the role of Vice-Chairman of the Council. This moment is not just a personal achievement, but a collective one for all of us gathered here. I am deeply aware of the responsibilities that come with this esteemed position, and I embrace them wholeheartedly. First and foremost, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my predecessors. The dedication and vision laid a strong foundation which we can continue to build on. I am inspired by their commitment to our communities and their tireless efforts to enhance our collective values and welfare. As your Vice-Chairman, I pledge to uphold the values that have guided this Council. Collaboration and transparency will be at the forefront of our work. Together, we will engage in meaningful dialogue and foster an atmosphere where all voices are heard and valued. I believe that every idea, no matter how small, can spark a challenge that we need to see, and the change. We face many challenges ahead, however, I am confident our ability to navigate them as a united front is unwavering. Our strength lies in our diversity and our unwavering commitment to progress. Let us harness the strength and drive initiatives that will benefit our communities and enrich the lives of those who we serve. In closing, I invite each of you to join me on this journey. Together, we can create a future that reflects our shared values and aspirations. I am excited about what lies ahead, and I look forward to working alongside each of you in the months and years to come. Thank you again for your trust and support. Let us move forward together. Thank you. Before the former chairman and the vice chairman depart, I would like to ask Mr Sweetland, before you depart and Mr Rogers leave, if you could, I think it would be fitting, if you could present to the vice chairman with his former vice chairman's badge of office. So if you could present to the former vice chairman the former vice chairman's badge of office. Thank you very much, chairman. Oh, Mr Past, vice chairman. It's been great having you as my vice chairman. We've been friends for many, many years, and I think that's helped. And as the new chairman and vice chairman will soon realise, it is very much a team. We've shared the work this year, and you've done a fantastic job, Alan. I've enjoyed the year. I hope you have. Very much. And I hope, well, there's not that many of our members left anymore, but I'm sure that other members, past members, would have also enjoyed working with you. This is the first time we've actually presented this to a past vice chairman, and it was a great pleasure to award you with this particular badge, together with my thanks and my very best wishes to you in the future. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much, chairman. As Mr Ridgers sits down, he is actually going to say a few words as well. Thank you. A very few. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Rogers, if you want to say a few words. Thank you. Thank you. It is just a few words, because you've got a very busy day ahead of you. So I just want to say it's been a great honour to serve the County of Kent, both as a politician and as an advocate for our county. The last year has been a particular privilege to represent this County Council at our civic and ceremonial events. Thanks to Brian, who's been a great mentor and a great achiever for the County. Our staff, our officers and colleagues of all groups during my last eight years. May I wish you all good luck and, more importantly, good decision-making. It's thank you and goodbye. Thank you. And on behalf of the Council, I'd like to thank you both for your year of service. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Chairman. Mr Chairman, as we are no longer Kent County Councillors, do we have your permission to leave the Chamber? Certainly. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. Good luck. Thank you. Right, we can now move on to Agenda Item 3, which is apologies for absence, and if I could ask Mr Cook on my right to read them out. Thank you, Chairman. For today's meeting, we have apologies from Mr Trudor, Mr Waters, Ms Nolan and Mr Kennedy. I'm not aware of any other apologies as yet. If we can move on to item number four, declarations of disposal of peculiar interest or other significant interest in the agenda items. Before I move on to ask members to declare any interest, I will ask the General Counsel to clarify a few points, if Mr Watson, if Mr Watson, if Mr Watson could do so, if Mr Watson could do so. Thank you, Chairman. Members, at the start of every meeting that you come into into the Council Chamber or in any of our other meeting rooms, you'll be asked whether you wish to disclose any pecuniary or other interests. As part of the induction process for the new Council term, you've recorded a range of details with colleagues from my service, and those are recorded in the register of interest, which is being published on the Council's website in due course. Unless an interest is significant and relates directly to an agenda item for discussion at today's meeting, or indeed at any meeting that you're attending, and may represent a potential conflict, or you feel it is in the public interest to make a particular declaration, all interests on your register of interest that you've already completed are taken as read, so they don't need to be read out at each and every meeting. If during later items you feel it necessary, you can also declare at that point, so if a conversation takes place that you hadn't anticipated, and you feel that one of your interests is engaged, you can raise your hand and speak at that point. But the Chairman will ask you at the start of every meeting, and it's just to reassure you that anything you've declared already is taken as read. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Mr Watson. Now, does any member wish to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest in items on today's agenda, and if so, please state which item the interest relates to. Okay, we move on to Agenda Item 5, minutes of the meeting held on 13th March. I'll ask Joel, sitting next to me, there might be a slight error, which was raised before via an email by the Lib Dem group, and if I could ask him to clarify the error. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman. Yes, subject to any other views of members, there was a clerical error identified by members prior to the meeting in relation to the voting records on the item relating to governance matters. My service will update and correct that, as it has been checked against the records. So, providing you're happy with that amendment, the meeting can consider any other required changes. Do members agree that the minutes of the County Council meeting held on 13th March 2025, subject to the correction outlined by the Clerk, are approved as a correct record, and if so, may I sign as such. Thank you, Chairman, and congratulations on your election job new post. I would just, with regard to Item 9 on the minutes from the last meeting, I would like to request that Councillor Baldock be added to the minutes as having voted against the motion on Seashells and Millmead. My name's been added after pointing out that I would have raised at the meeting the fact that I would like to be recorded as voting against it had I known that the voting system in the Chamber wasn't working at that time, and Mike has confirmed to me the same, and I'd politely request that that be added to the minutes. Thank you. Yep, we will arrange that update. Thank you. Thank you. So, with the additions, our members are all quite happy with the minutes as they were stated. Thank you. We can move on to it. Agenda Item 6, the returning officers to submit the returns of the persons elected to the County Council. Mr. Watts, as the County Returning Officer, could you please introduce the report and provide any relevant information before I ask members to note the report? Thank you. Thank you, Chairman, and good morning, members. This is the formal return from me and my capacity as the County Returning Officer to indicate the return of all the 81 results in the elections held. The paper explains itself and speaks for itself, so I won't go any further in relation to that technocratic detail. It does, however, provide me with an opportunity as County Returning Officer to say thank you to a number of people, and I think it's important. I'm a County Returning Officer. You all have been involved in the democratic process across the county, and there is a significant number of people across the county who have been involved, and some of them are touched on in the papers and mentioned, and I'm incredibly grateful, particularly to colleagues in the districts, borough and city council, for their help, assistance and support in the delivery of the election. I also briefly just wanted to mention a few names that won't be known to many members, but the election and member induction team here at County Hall have done a tremendous job, supported by colleagues across the council. I particularly wanted to mention in my service Anna, Linda and Isabella, who supported me during the delivery of the election, Joel, Tristan and Katie during the pre-election period, and Kay, Ollie and our former colleague Jill Kennedy-Smith for the development and delivery of the member induction programme alongside our colleagues in learning and development, and as I say across the whole council, many of you have met my colleagues who have delivered a number of sessions to you over the course of recent weeks, and I'm grateful to both colleagues and members for the way in which those sessions have gone. I'd like to thank Callum Farmer for coordinating the use of KCC buildings as polling stations, and to the officers who help facilitate the use of family hubs, libraries, schools and youth centres on polling day, to the MRX project team, and to Christina Start, Liddle Lapid for the results map that many of you will have spent the day refreshing and finding out the outcomes of the day, to Christy Lawton for the KCC election webpages, Andrew Bowes for leading the social media and campaign messaging, Lucy Mayer and Joe Godden for media liaison and for their teams. I'd also like to thank the local media who covered the election extensively, and a key part of a functioning democracy is making sure that residents are aware and receive information, so I'm grateful to the local media for that. To Fiona Dawson within the council for enforcement activity relating to campaign material on the highway, Jeanette Foster and Jodie Foster for support with KCC boundaries and mapping, and Lee Manser for insurance queries relating to the election. I'd like to finally thank Sian Connolly and Lizzie Adam, who act supporting me directly as a returning officer. Sian created a range of spreadsheets, the like of which I have never ever seen, and tools that help make sure that as returning officer, at any moment I had all of the information that I needed, and Lizzie constantly supported me throughout with a range of technocratic and technical questions. As I say, as a returning officer, you cannot function without the team, and the County of Kent is blessed to have so many people who work together so hard to bring this election together, and for which I'm forever grateful. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you very much for that. Don't forget all, make sure your phones are turned off. If you haven't done so, you can check them now. Thank you very much, Chairman. I wonder if I can rise just to express our thanks to Ben and his team at County Hall and throughout the county for the very competent and efficient administration of the election. I know that the preparation of that starts well over a year in advance. The Elections and Boundary Review Committee received papers that reflect the preparation that is underway, but that just indicates the tip of the iceberg of the work that's been done. And, of course, in this year, there was the added feature that until a fairly late stage, it was unclear for Ben and his team whether they'd be administering an election or not. It was down for about three months in advance. So, they did a fantastic job. And, Chairman, while I'm on my feet, may I congratulate you on your becoming the chairman. I have known eight chairs of County Council, one for each year I've been here. They have all been excellent. They have all conducted themselves with the quorum and an even-handedness and understood that the chair and the vice-chair are strictly politically neutral positions. I know with your experience in local government, you will follow in that mould. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hook. And thank you for the incurring words. And I would like to echo, and I think on all behalf of all in the Council, that running an election, it's very hard being a candidate, but I think running an election and making sure that a free and fair election takes place, in Kent, I think all the districts and the county did an extremely well run an oiled election. And I think the people of Kent were very fortunate that they had the opportunity to vote on May the 1st. But thank you for your team. I think this is a report for noting, and if members can note the report, we can move on to the next agenda item. Agenda item 7, Chairman's Announcements. I'd like to thank you all for voting me into this position as Chair. I think Mr Hook is correct in what he said. It is a neutral position. I will try to be as fair as possible that I can. I probably have some hard acts to follow. I will try to do that with the utmost dedication and ability to serve County Council and the people of Kent. It's a great honour and thank you for putting me in this position. I'll let you know how it goes in 12 months' time. As part of the role of the Chairman, I'm able to select and support two charities. And this year, I've asked two charities to support and are Satida and the Young Lives Foundation. Satida is an award-winning specialist domestic abuse charity exclusively for women and children in Kent. They support families to end the cycle of domestic abuse and build safer, healthier futures through specialist support, education, advocacy, prevention work while campaigning to end violence against women and girls. I think, unfortunately, in the economic climate that we're in at the moment, their services are going to be needed more than ever. I wish it was one charity that we never needed. But, unfortunately, it is a charity that does some sterling work but is unfortunately needed even more. And I'm quite pleased that I can give my support to them. Young Lifesavers Foundation, YLF, is an award-winning children's charity dedicated to offering guidance, support and opportunities to individuals facing significant challenges, including those in care, transitioning out of care and dealing with the trauma and educational difficulties. By taking a holistic approach, YLF empowers those its support, fostering resilience and creating positive, lasting impacts within local communities. I look forward to updating the Council further on their activities at future meetings. Thank you. If I can move on, at the last Council meeting in March, members agreed a formal motion of condolence for, among others, Mr. Roy Bullock, MBE, who previously served as a member of the Council. It was not possible to take tributes at that time, so these will be taken today. As many of you members will be unfamiliar with Mr. Bullock, I will provide a little background before we move on to the tributes. During his time at KCC, Mr. Bullock served as the Corporate Policy Overview Committee, Electoral Boundary and Review Committee, Environment, Highways and Waste and Policy Overview Committee, Regeneration and Economic Development Policy Overview Committee, Education and Libraries Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Policy and Resources Committee, where he was the Vice Chairman, Property Subcommittee and the Tunbridge Wells Board. He was appointed as Ordinary Alderman in 2016 for his service to the Council. Mr. Bullock also served as leader of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council from 2007 to 2012. So, if I could call on the leader of the leader of the reform group, sorry, the leader of the reform group, Mr. Kankaran, to say a few words on Mr. Bullock. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Naturally, here at reform, we didn't have a chance to work with Mr. Bullock, but from the tribute you've just read out, he sounds like a very hard-working and well-respected member. And I would like to pay tribute to Mr. Bullock on behalf of myself and all my fellow members and councillors in reform. Thank you. I'll come to you in a minute, Mr. Rayner, if I could go to Mr. Cook first as the leader of the Libden group. Thank you very much, Chairman. Chairman, no one in my group knew Mr. Bullock a well, but as you've read his record, it's clearly a record, a very dedicated public servant and we send our condolences to his friends and family and loved ones. Thank you. Thank you. If I could call on Mr. Lehman, the leader of the Green group. Thank you, Chairman. As with Mr. Hook, none of our group had the opportunity to know or work alongside Roy Bullock, but it's clear from the tributes to him in the press and here in the chamber today that he was a dedicated councillor. On behalf of our group, I would like to send our condolences to Roy's family and friends. Mr. Rayner, leader of the Conservative group. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Roy Bullock was not known to me, but I am aware that he was a county member for Tunbridge Wells North and served for six years from 2007 until 2013. He was very active both in Kent and Tunbridge Wells local politics. including serving as leader of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. I understand that Mr. Bullock was well known as a character within the KCC Conservative group and, as you've mentioned earlier, was made an honorary alderman of KCC in 2016. On behalf of the Kent County Council Conservative group, I wish to express our condolences to Mr. Bullock, his family and friends on his passing. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Rayner. And thank you, members, for your kind tributes. And if I can call upon Mr. Brady, the leader of the Labour group. Thank you, Chairman. On behalf of the Labour group, I would also like to express to express my heartfelt condolences to Mr. Bullock's family during this difficult time. Thank you. Thank you all for your kind words and tributes. We now turn to the formal items as part of the annual meeting of the Council. Agenda item 8, appointment of the leader of the Council. So, do I have a nomination? Well, Mr. Harrison, you're going to propose a leader, yeah? Thank you. Well, good morning, everyone. And might I say, what a pleasure it is to see so much turquoise here today. I predicted, I predicted last September that we would win the Kent County Council elections and a lot of people laughed at us. Well, emulating the words of the member for Clacton, they're not laughing now, are they? It is very clear that something remarkable is happening out there. That's why, on the 1st of May, there was a total and utter rejection of a two-party political system that's woefully led not only this county but this country into decline. That's why we received nationally with the most share of the votes, the highest proportion of councillors and in 12 months ago, when we talk about leaps and bounds, 12 months ago we had zero members in this very building, now we have 57, only 24 to go. And I'm very proud to be able to present and to be able to put forward Lyndon Kim-Karron as the leader of this council. I've known Lyndon now for a very, very short period of time but in that time, mark my words, she has more tenacity, more bravery and fortitude than any individual I have ever met in my entire life. She is an incredible woman, I speak for the entire party when I say we are completely and utterly behind her. She's going to lead a massive mission to make sure that Kent services are once again great, to put the interests of the people of Kent first and to ensure that we will play our part in 2029 to win multiple constituencies and to put Nigel Farage into number 10. Mark my words, we are going to fix this broken council and Lyndon Kim-Karron and Reform UK are going to fix it. Thank you. Linda Kim-Karron and Lyndon Kim-Karron Thank you, Chairman. I am very proud to second the nomination of Lyndon Kim-Karron as leader of this council. She brings experience, determination and a clear reform-driven vision to deliver real results for the people of Kent. I support the nomination with absolute confidence. Thank you. Are there any other nominations for leader? As there are no other nominations for leader? As there are no other nominations, I declare that Ms. Kim-Karron is duly elected as leader of the council. Congratulations to you. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Kim-Karron or leader, would you like to give a brief thanks for your appointment? I would, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much and I will keep this brief because I know we have a lot to get through but I just would like to say thank you to my team and we are a team and we've got here together and we will lead together. So thank you for your support. It is a huge honour, probably the honour of my life to be standing here as leader of Kent County Council. I'm a Kentish girl through and through and to say I never dreamed that this would happen would be the understatement of the year but I'm very, very pleased and proud to be here and I pledge to you all that I will do my absolute best to honour this role and to do it to the best of my ability for as long as I am here. Thank you very much. Move on to the election of the leader of the opposition and I've been informed that the opposition has nominated Mr. Hook, Mr. Anthony Hook. Can the council please confirm this nomination? Congratulations Mr. Hook. Thank you. That brings us on to agenda item 10 which are questions from members. there are 14 valid questions have been received and 14 questions are to be put today. I will ask each questioner to stand and ask their question then I will ask the responder to stand and reply. I should remind all members that supplementary questions should only be asked in order to clarify a point given in the answer. they may not be used to make speeches or introduce new topics of additional substantive questions. For the whole time period there are 30 minutes allowed allocated for the consideration of this item. The full written responses to all valid questions will be published on the council's website alongside the agenda papers. So if I could ask Mr. Mike Soule who has a question on flag flying policy. Thank you Mr. Chairman and may I congratulate you on your appointment as chairman. I understand from democratic services that this question is addressed to you rather than the leader. Is that correct? Yes, thank you. So at the last term of this council the LGBTQ pride flag flew above County Hall during the month of June to mark Pride Month. Many members of this council and residents of the county were dismayed to hear that the chairman of Reform UK say that reform controlled English councils will move at speed to resolve that the only flags permitted to be flown on its buildings will be the union flag and the St. George's flag and that no other flags will be permitted to be flown on its flagpoles, balconies, reception desks or council chamber walls. So please can you chairman confirm whether this council will fly the pride flag this June and not seek to change the flag flying policy of this council that has seen not only the pride flag but also amongst others the Kenting Victor flag, the Ukrainian flag and the armed forces flag fly from KCC property. Thank you for your question Mr. Sowell. Under the Kent County Council's existing governance the decision on which flags are flown is at the discretion of the chairman of the council. I can confirm that the pride flag will not be flown on or in Kent County Council buildings. As the newly appointed chairman I have reviewed the flag flying policy and can confirm that the only flags that will be displayed on or in this council buildings or on in the council buildings are as follows. The union flag, the flag of St. George, the flag of Kent. Flags to celebrate or commemorate to celebrate or commemorate the monarch and the royal family or the armed forces and I include in that the merchant navy. Thank you. Well I seek a clarification from you Mr. Chairman. With respect as you've only been in place for a very short time and Pride Month starts in a week's time may I ask that you consider using that next week to engage with council staff and representatives of the LGBTQ plus community to understand what flying that flag means for residents and for staff of this council and that flying that flag sends a powerful message that everyone regardless of their sexual orientation gender identity is welcomed valued and safe whereas to stop flying that flag will be interpreted as a retreat from these principles signalling that this council is indifferent to the continued struggles faced by those in the LGBTQ plus community including discrimination mental health struggles and underrepresentation damaging trust morale and the perception that this council serves all of its constituents equally. thank you for your supplementary question but I will confirm that the Pride flag will not be thrown I don't think anyone should be discriminated against for any reason there should not be a hierarchy of flags there should not be a hierarchy of flags and members of staff members here other people throughout Kent can show their support in many other ways and have that opportunity to do so but I think being a council our concern are for to support our families within Kent to support our communities within Kent across all communities and to support the county of Kent so you could say family communities county thank you question number two is from Mr. Lehman thank you chair against the backdrop of a 144 million pound budget deficit a crisis in SEN continuing increases in the costs of adults and social care and a 1.3 billion pound backlog of highways works the new leader of the council chose her first press contact after being selected as leader to focus on the removal of Ukraine flags and symbols from county hall does the leader of the council agree that the 80th anniversary of VE day was the insensitive time to row back on support for a European nation defending themselves from a foreign invasion a call upon the leader to respond to the question thank you Mr. Chair thank you to my friend opposite for the question gosh there are a lot of elements to that question but I would just like to point out if my friend opposite had been paying attention to my first media round after becoming leader he would have noticed that I was merely answering the questions put to me by journalists as is the custom when being interviewed I'd just like to add there is nothing insensitive about wishing to focus the attention of this chamber on the people of Kent after all it is they who put us here and it is they that we are all here to serve do you have a supplementary yes I do thank you Chairman thank you for that answer does the leader agree that identity politics is still identity politics even when the identity being championed i.e. the Union Jack is the dominant ideology thank you for your question if I had more time I would love to extrapolate all the elements of your question sadly we don't have all day so I will just say this the Union Jack the flag of Kent and the flag of St. George they are the identity that we all share and it is that identity that we all need to focus on thank you thank you for that move on to question number three which is from Mr Alistair Brady to the leader of the council would you like to ask your question on the 13th of February 2025 the previous administration all voted for the 25-26 budget opposition members voted against it the budget included proposals to increase the charges given to disabled people in Kent meaning they will pay more for support further cut the community warden program meaning residents are less supported in communities cut family hub services in Mealmead and Seashell children's centres and only offer 27,000 pounds worth of support reducing the provision in Sheppie and Thanet increase the Kent 16 plus travel saver above inflation and continue to charge for post 16 SEN home school transport which will create barriers to access education for this cohort all these decisions negatively impact the most vulnerable people in Kent can the leader say whether their administration will reverse these decisions made by the previous conservative administration and develop a new budget thank you Mr Chairman thank you for your question well speaking about negatively impacting the most vulnerable people in Kent I would argue that it is my friend opposite government that knows all about that with their sudden cancellation of the winter fuel allowance just before last Christmas members sorry to interrupt can I just remind you we're conducting business in the county council chambers and from going forward I've given a bit of leeway but I don't think we should be clapping after every answer to a question thank you thank you Mr Chair if I may carry on the previous administration had four years to work out their budget and opposition members had the same time to come up with alternatives we've been in power for just a few weeks we are still working our way through understanding the current budget we do not believe that it currently reflects all of our priorities and there are efficiencies to be made that is why I'm looking to create a department for local government efficiency that work will take time and we will not be making any knee-jerk financial decisions we realise for example that for all the areas identified in Mr Brady's question we would need to understand where the balancing savings were going to come from so we will develop our new budget strategy and this will be primarily for 2026 and 2027 we may make some relatively small changes to this year's budget where we can if so we will present this to a subsequent county council meeting meanwhile we look forward to working with all political groups to deliver the best possible services at the least cost to all Kent residents I do have supplementary so the books have been open and transparent for everybody to see everybody who now sits in this chamber you could have had a look look at those books over the last couple of years if you were interested so I'm hearing that you are going to stick with the previous administration's budget but now you're struggling to and scampering to see where these savings can be made I'm going to repeat again if you keep most of the things in the administration's budget people in Kent can rightly say that you are continuing the Tory administration's cuts to vulnerable people in Kent thank you as I think I've made very clear we will not be making any knee jerk reactions until we've had time to consider all the options because the last thing my team and I want to do is disadvantage anybody in Kent question number four is from Mr Stuart Heaver thank you chair residents of my division Wichstable West repeatedly raise the issue of marine pollution as the major threat to their local environment public health and the coastal economy there are a range of issues contributing to marine pollution such as the 6300 sewage discharges reported last year for the environment agency to manage and KCC responsibility areas such as drainage issues and development activity the negative economic impact undermines the economic development investment made by the council in various coastal areas marine pollution threatens the future of Kent's magnificent 350 miles of coastline many parents in my division tell me they no longer allow their children to swim in local bathing waters and one fisherman told me recently that the local Dover sole fishery is almost completely depleted can this administration explain what they will do to prioritize tackling marine pollution within the Kent environment strategy and how they will work with key partners to deliver improvements for the residents of Kent Thank you for the question Thank you Mr Chair So while KCC is committed to improving the marine environment as already mentioned in the question the responsibility of regulation enforcement and monitoring of water quality remains within the environment agency however concerns about the impact of sewage discharges and other pollution events on our coastal and marine waters are shared by the authority KCC through its role as responsible authority in the development of local nature recovery strategy has spent the last 12 months working with a huge range of stakeholders in order to understand the nature recovery priorities for the county and to develop a comprehensive strategy for a better, bigger and more joined up natural environment water quality water quality and its impact on marine life and the economies and activities that rely on this were a concern that was regularly raised during the work as the wider issue of water quality is a regulatory matter it's not something within the scope of the local nature recovery strategy to address however where poor water quality is impacting coastal habitats and species measures have been identified to minimise mitigate and reverse the impacts on coastal habitats and species the more far-reaching impacts of water quality on the wider marine environment does not fall within the remit of the local nature recovery recovery strategy however KCC is in the process of developing a framework and strategy for joint action that will take advantage of the strong partnerships developed with coastal and marine stakeholders to tackle this and other challenges facing our marine environment strategy known as Plan C C as in marine not the letter C will look to fill the gap left by the local nature recovery strategy and ensure that our marine environment receives the same attention as our land based habitats and benefits from the same collaborative and joined up approach to deliver that the local nature recovery strategy supports the draft of Plan C is scheduled to be ready by spring 2026 do you have a supplementary I do have a supplementary question chair that sounded rather vague and woolly if you don't mind me saying so for a new administration with such high ambitions so I'd like to ask something specific while we wait for the future date for Plan C or indeed Plan D or Plan E or whichever plan we might eventually see will this administration consider adding marine pollution and water quality to its public health agenda because there are people in my division that are unsure whether it's safe for them to swim in their local bathing waters thank you well Mr. Chair I was grateful to have that supplementary question because it gives me a chance to be incredibly focused in my reply this is the action I'll be taking in the interim between now and this report coming out I will be talking to all Kent MPs whose constituencies are on the coast and I would like them to follow the model set by the former MP for Southend on sea Anna Firth who to improve water quality convened regular clean water summits where she summoned water bosses local stakeholders and campaigners to very good effect thank you so we move on to question number five and that's by that's by Mr. Richard Streetfield and it's to the leader of the council and in fact all the remaining questions are to the leader of the council so to speed things up but Mr. Richard Streetfield if you could proceed with your question thank you thank you Mr. Chairman and congratulations on your appointment and congratulations to you leader on yours Sevenoaks Town has gone some way to improving road safety through the use of targeted 20 mile an hour areas so far it has brought an average saving of £161 per resident in their car insurance premiums and a projected £70,000 reduction to the cost to the public purse per year in serious accidents does the leader support 20 mile an hour zones 300 metres around schools thank you Kent County Council does not have a one-size-fits-all policy for 20 mile an hour zones instead we use the Department for Transport Circular 01-2013 setting local speed limits as a guide we established this approach in 2013 and it was last reviewed in 2019 at the Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee we adopt a targeted approach to implementing 20 mile an hour speed limit schemes focusing on areas where there is clear evidence of safety benefits and community support KCC evaluates the feasibility of 20 mile an hour zones based on several factors existing traffic speeds areas where average speeds are already close to 20 miles an hour are more likely to be considered suitable road design new housing developments are encouraged to incorporate self-enforcing road designs that naturally limit speeds to 20 miles an hour reducing the need for additional signage or enforcement community support public backing is essential for these schemes schemes generally only proceed following consultations that demonstrate local approval KCC also considers the economic aspects of implementing 20 mile an hour zones while such schemes can be relatively low cost enforcement remains a challenge we often rely on self-enforcing designs and community initiatives like community speedwatch to monitor compliance thank you I was aware of all of that the question I asked was do you support 20 miles an hour 300 metres around schools thank you KCC neither supports or opposes I think we have to make that clear we do we do not believe in one size fits all and we will continue to take a location specific approach where evidence and clear public support leads out intervention choices next question next question number six from Mr Stuart Jeffrey to the leader again thank you thank you Mr Chairman given that Kent's reception centres for young asylum seekers lost vulnerable children more than 160 times between 2022 and 2024 and given that reforms election leaflets criticised the provision of driving tests for refugee care leavers but failed to criticise the same provision for British born care leavers can the new leader of the council tell us how the new administration will prioritise improvements conditions and support for all of these vulnerable children while meeting the requirements of the Equalities Act i.e. improvements delivered in an equitable and non-discriminatory way whilst KCC experienced 177 missing episodes of unaccompanied asylum seekers children between 2022 and 2024 the number of episodes per year has fallen substantially since 2023 almost a third lasted less than one day and most episodes are now closed with the child safely located as a proportion of all children in KCC KCC experienced the lowest levels of missing activity for unaccompanied asylum seeking children compared to the national rates of them going missing as far as the free driving lessons are concerned as I'm sure my friend opposite is aware the law currently states that all care leavers in Kent regardless of their country of origin must be treated equally do you have a supplementary yes certainly so if you can clarify then the message in your election leaflets that you would stop those driving lessons and tests for asylum seeking refugee children you're not going to follow that through and therefore break your promise thank you thank you I'd like to think that here in reform UK we are law makers and not law breakers so we will definitely not be breaking the law however we are looking at all aspects of the current policy next question from Mr. Paul Stepto yeah I like the television program Mr. Chairman thank you but not spelt the same so congratulations to you and the vice chair and the leader on your elevation so can the leader tell us briefly the internal and external audit processes that are in place for the council and provide the dates and the costs of the most recent audits thank you thank you thank you Mr. Chair the county council's external auditors are Grant Thornton the organisation responsible for appointing external auditors to local government is called public sector audit appointments the external auditors are responsible for providing assurance that the council's annual accounts present a true and fair view of the council's financial position they are also responsible for conducting a value for money assessment as part of their annual audit this is designed to ensure that local authorities make proper arrangements to secure economy efficiency and effectiveness in their resource use for the last audited accounts which were 2023 2024 there was a basic fee of £447,000 for these external audit services with a further £15,000 payable in respect of other services provided such as the teachers pensions end of year certificate the external auditors are starting their preparatory work for 2024 and 2025 right now can a leader tell us if she plans a new audit outside of the existing structure and if so how could she justify spending what will be a six figure sub of council taxpayers money on such an exercise because it's already been done effectively already thank you thank you well I think assuming that something has already been done effectively already is probably the first mistake that most of this chamber have made in the past we will not make any such assumptions we will be looking at everything in great detail to find out whether things can be done a little bit better in the future next question is from mr john moorland to the leader of the council again thank you thank you mr chairman and congratulations to all newly elected members of this council in tunbridge wells there is a village ashurst which has had its only bus service cut forcing parents to drive their children to school and lose valuable working hours please can the executive confirm that the bsip funding due to be received in summer will be used to re-establish and promote bus routes between rural villages and larger towns thank you the bsip due to be received in june is already committed to maintaining a significant number of services across kent many supporting a school route supporting the cost of the kent travel saver for 25 and 2026 and funding a small number of service improvement initiatives in line with the published program agreed with partners and the department of transport do you have a sub for me i do thank you and noting your response to question three you said the last thing we would want to do is disadvantage anybody in kent without re-establishing rural routes this administration would be abandoning many families i note the response to my question but i didn't actually hear an answer so i'll repeat will the funding be used to re-establish and promote bus routes between rural villages and larger towns thank you i can assure you there was an answer in my answer to you however just to add the signing of the mou the memorandum of understanding that accompanies the funding commits kcc to strict rules on how bsip can be allocated and used the service can provide a deep dive session to all interested members where more detail can be provided this will explain bsip and how up to 62 services are being supported and i'd just like to reassure my friend opposite i have a member of my team looking specifically at rural bus service with bus services because i do agree that they are absolutely vital to our rural communities thank you so i call upon now mr tim prater good morning chair congratulations and it's with enormous pride that i return to this chamber after some period of work the folkestone road of remembrance is a key link between the harbour and main town of folkestone and a key part of our world war heritage its closure following a landslip has now lasted over 18 months and has been disrupted to residents and businesses it's clear due to the lack of activity on site at this moment that it will not be open soon and the ongoing closure through this summer's folkestone triennial is disappointing in the extreme as the road is a kent highways responsibility can the council confirm the timetable for the required remedial works to reopen the road of remembrance including the expected start date of works and a reopening date thank you thank you just to give a bit of background to what happened in folkestone on the 27th of january 2024 a landslip occurred on private land north of the road of remembrance blocking the road with trees and soil kcc immediately closed the road on safety grounds and to protect the public from future landslips before commencing removal of the trees and soil since then geotechnical investigations ecological assessments geospatial mapping and an unexploded ordnance survey have been conducted to support the design of a permanent solution progress on this work has been interrupted by further landslips and although the design and planning of such a major engineering scheme typically take several years this work is largely complete technical approvals and costing are underway in anticipation of securing of a specialist contractor to undertake remedial work as such it is not yet possible to commit to a start date for the stabilization work or to confirm when the road will be will reopen do you have a supplemental thank you so with that i'll move on to mr hook to ask his question to the leader thank you thank you very much chairman chairman there are 22 locations in kent where air quality is so poor it has legally to be monitored and there are more locations where air quality is a concern to local residents air pollution is estimated to cause 40,000 early deaths per year in our country and cost the economy 20 billion this leader or the cabinet member agree that every person in kent deserves to breathe clean air and will the new administration commit to take new action to improve air quality whether that be kcc acting itself or to do so in concert with other councils and agencies thank you there is strong evidence associating air pollution with adverse health effects including the development of coronary heart disease strokes respiratory disease lung cancer and the exacerbation of asthma that's according to a public health england report in 2019 which i'm sure you're aware of through the environment act of 1995 and 2021 as a county council we are required to proactively engage as soon as an air quality issue is identified with district councils district councils are responsible for assessing local air quality including annual status reports as ours designating air quality management areas and preparation of air quality action plans so to answer your question further the environment act of 1995 requires kent county council to provide district councils with proposals for particular measures that we will take to contribute to the achievement and maintenance of air quality objectives including a date by which each measure will be carried out it requires us to deliver the actions we are responsible for as set out in the air quality action plans to the time scales defined and we have to provide assistances to the district council to coordinate action across neighboring local authorities and with public bodies do you have a supplementary that's fine we're actually near enough out of time i will take one more question because i know he's probably been waiting thinking he's going to be next so mr hood if you could ask your question please to the leader thank you very much chair the council has been very successful in attracting external funding for renewable energy infrastructure thanks to the hard work of our offices notably for the bowerhouse 2 and kings hill solar farms which provide the energy for every streetlight in kent and they deliver funding for other services in addition does the administration agree that the council should continue to ask officers to bid for additional funding for renewable energy projects as appropriate where it makes economic sense for the council and not to allow political dogma to stand in the way of delivering further economic benefit for our council taxpayers thank you economic sense makes perfect sense to us let me assure you of that the two kcc owned solar farms which were funded with over 16 million pounds of grant funding through the public sector decarbonization fund are examples of how environmental benefit is being driven through economically sound projects with the result of delivering significant benefit to both kcc and the residents of kent the kings hill solar farm generates enough electricity to power 750 homes as well as providing an annual net revenue for the council of around 135 000 pounds the kings hill site was a previously disused pig farm with significant land contamination that not only provides clean energy supply but also significant biodiversity improvement the site provided jobs and skills development to the local community during its construction and continues to do so through its ongoing management please if you have a supplementary thank you very much yeah um with that in mind does the administration commit itself to implementing the 12 million pounds of funding we have through the levi um fund for implementing on-street um ev charging to enable our residents in kent to transition to um to electric vehicles with their knowledge that diesel and petrol cars are currently going to be faced out thank you well as with every decision we make um we will be looking at the cost and the benefit to the residents of kent well that brings the question session to an end i just remind everyone that uh any questions not answered will receive a written answer and that will be published alongside with the minutes so if we can move on now to agenda item 11 which is the port report report by the leader of the council so i call upon the leader of the council to update the council on events since the last meeting your speech will be limited to 10 minutes thank you thank you mr chairman well what an honor it is to be standing here in this chamber not only as an elected official but as leader of this council being elected to any public office is a privilege and i'm focused on setting the course of this council over the next few years i would like to thank my fellow reform members for putting their trust in me to lead all of us forward in what can only be described as rather uncertain waters i'd like to pay tribute to my predecessor roger gough who was an incredibly hard-working and well-respected leader of kcc for six years taking over the reins as he did just before the covid pandemic and steering the county through those turbulent unprecedented and sometimes frightening times took a great deal of courage and perseverance so i hope you'll all join me in thanking roger for his years of service not just as leader but also as a distinguished councillor of some 20 years too thank you thank you i'm on a time i'm on a timer since i arrived at kcc i've had the pleasure of learning about the roles of the dedicated and incredibly professional men and women who do their important jobs inside and out of this building providing key services to the residents of kent as leader i will work positively with all the staff all members of this chamber alongside all memps mps and district leaders to serve the people of kent i will encourage you all to ignore the many distractions and simply put the people of kent at the heart of everything we do we have the spectre of local government reorganization hurtling down the tracks at quite an incredible speed while i appreciate we are obliged to give it and all the options our full consideration i'm not entirely convinced it's the right thing for kent my primary concern is that lgr is designed to carve up our county and essentially remove our unique identity by splitting up kent we could lose that sense of being one county one people where the wealthy areas essentially help support those that are not so wealthy i also fear that unitary authorities take a degree of power away from the individual resident and give it to central government this is not what reform uk is about we are proud to directly represent the people knowing that if they don't like us locally they can vote us out i'll be making it my priority to find out as much as i can over the coming weeks a month to help formulate our response to lgr now we all know from residents feedback and our own daily experiences of using our county's roads that one of the biggest issues is their potholes they're annoying dangerous and sadly all too numerous one of our first tasks as a new administration is to work closely with the highways department to find new solutions that deliver better faster outcomes so that roads are disrupted for the shortest period of time my team is looking at every single possible income stream for highways with all money raised ring fenced for fixing roads this could bring about a real improvement for the whole of kent adult social care is also a priority so my team will be examining in detail how we as a county can address the impacts of an aging population successive governments have failed repeatedly to come up with an overarching plan for how best to care for our most elderly and frail citizens we'll be looking across adult social care to improve communication and have a joined up approach between agencies so that our most vulnerable people do not fall between the gaps it is a measure of a civilized society how it treats its elderly and i will be putting pressure on central government to come good on its promises improving education and skills for our young people is absolutely crucial to the future of our nation to that end we'll be putting greater emphasis on apprenticeships and training so that kent can lead the way in equipping our young people in the practical trades so that we can wean ourselves off importing labor from abroad i will be supporting the initiative of our police and crime commissioner to ban smartphones from our schools protecting children for as long as we can from the inherent dangers of too much time online is fundamental to their future mental health and well-being parents in kent are crying out for help on this and we must act fast special educational needs provision will also come under the microscope at reform uk we do not shy away from asking awkward or difficult questions if we can begin to understand why the sen diagnoses are rising exponentially year on year then perhaps we can help children better every child deserves to have a quality education in kent and for many a good education is the passport out of poverty on the environment we will be looking at all of the so-called net zero initiatives and if we're not convinced that they offer residents tangible benefits or true value for money they will be scrapped we will push back on all attempts by central government to pave over our precious agricultural land with new banks and solar panels and will resist the overdevelopment of our towns and villages we believe that new housing should primarily be built for local people to occupy preserving our communities is vital for a sense of belonging and my members will support that throughout their divisions and it almost goes without saying that reform uk is firmly on the side of our farmers and fruit growers the garden of england will flourish under our stewardship there will be a renewed focus on coastal regeneration with a cabinet member taking special responsibility for our seaside towns and villages we will also support our kentish fishing industry which has been once more let down by yet another government selling out our precious waters to the eu new and to oversee everything and to pinpoint potential savings and efficiencies throughout kcc i am creating a cabinet post for local government efficiency with a slightly unwieldy acronym of dolge my new dolge will look at every single thing we do as a council their role will be vital in spotting working practices that could be streamlined budgets that could be cut or any errors in the current system as we made clear on the election trail our primary role is to save the taxpayers money and make sure that we reduce wastage across kcc at reform we lead by example so my members have agreed to support a motion to cut immediately five percent from all councillor allowances taking this pay cut will generate a saving of over 100 000 pounds which will be redirected into member community grant funding that money will be spent directly in our communities to support local projects and community initiatives on may the first the people of kent voted overwhelmingly for change by voting for reform uk they spoke loud and clear wanting a different approach to how kcc is run politically they do not want the same people doing the same things and achieving the same results politics is a brutal game and it takes a great deal of courage to put yourself up for election especially if you've never done anything like it before my fellow reform councillors and i have received a degree of criticism but not having had much previous political experience or even knowledge of local government before winning our landslide here in kent and to those critics i say this each and every one of us took the decision to stand not because we wanted to achieve political office for its own ends and not because we necessarily needed anything to fill up our time no we stood because we believe that this great country of ours is in grave trouble and time is running out to save it every single one of my 57 strong team felt utterly compelled to stand for election locally to try and bring about change nationally we simply could not stand by and watch as the country that we love that many of our forefathers and grandfathers fought for slid inexorably into decline not just economic decline but social and cultural decline we have essentially forgotten who we are as a nation and what we stand for and it's time to bring it back a few months ago my son left home to join the armed forces he's currently training for an elite frontline regiment and spent his 21st birthday last week face down soaking wet in a muddy ditch alongside his new brothers in arms don't believe what you read in the press about the younger generation it has grit and let me just say this if my own flesh and blood my precious firstborn child is prepared to serve his country potentially to lose his life in some corner of a foreign field then i have a duty to do whatever i can to make sure that this country is worth fighting for once more that is why i am here that is why we are here thank you thank you i call upon mr hook the leader of the opposition to respond to the leaders report mr hook you have a limited speech time of six minutes thank you very much chairman chairman i'd like to welcome all of the new members to kcc serving as a kcc member is fascinating and rewarding for anyone who wants to help and serve their local area i'd like to also pay tribute to roger gough and the outgoing administration we in my group disagreed with many of their decisions but they worked hard and i believe they always acted in good faith the liberal democrat group has doubled in size i have a skilled and experienced group serious about the role of scrutiny and opposition and being local champions for the areas we represent i want particularly to mention mrs dean as she celebrates now 40 years as a kcc member elected 11 times and that represents chairman exceptional public service that the whole council will benefit from through her knowledge and wisdom i'd like to take a moment chairman to outline in broad terms what kind of opposition we will be as liberal democrats we believe in a society that is fair free and open we believe in everyone enjoying opportunities to make the most of their life in particular for people to be free from poverty ignorance or conformity we recognize that protecting the environment is essential to protect freedom in any meaningful sense we care about the welfare of all our people their health their education their income the cost of living their safety and their personal national civil liberties we believe in equality of opportunity and services adapting to meet people's differences whether that is their age their disability status their religion or their lgbtq status we believe in factual factual accuracy and cool calm-headed appraisal of evidence we believe that empathy is always a strength and we oppose populism the prescription of simplistic answers to complex problems we oppose chauvinism and nationalism the idea that national identity trumps all others we oppose oligarchy giving undue influence and power to the wealthiest interest at the expense of the wider public interest these are the broad principles that will guide the liberal democrat group as we lead the scrutiny of this reform-run council i invite the administration to be cautious about leaning on its claims to have a mandate the party opposite won 37 percent of the popular vote so almost twice as many votes against it than for it in the 135 year history of kcc no administration has ever been formed with such a small share of the popular vote and one key thing that roger's administration did was to take decisions themselves that they did not as far as i could ever see take instructions from their national party nor have we as an opposition group or any of the other opposition groups whatever your policy is it should be made only in kent only by kent county councillors and i hope the new administration will commit to never taking instructions from london or its national party we move on to the important issue of adult social care just this week the cqc rated kcc services as requiring improvement in seven out of nine areas this must be a high priority for the council the adult social care committee is not scheduled to meet until the 8th of july can the leader in her response assure us that by then at the very latest the cabinet member will have a detailed plan to fix these issues relation to lgr my group opposes a mayor for kent it's too much power to be concentrated in the hands of one person with fewer checks and balances than we have against the council leader we support power coming down from whitehall to more local levels but new powers with resources could come to councils and if lgr does happen we say it must be a public-led process the public not counselors should be the key voice in deciding what the shape of any new councils should be on special educational needs two years ago my group put in a motion calling for better understanding of what's driving increasing numbers of diagnoses of scnd so we welcome the commitment to that work now being done children with scnd have been badly let down in this county it's a frequent concern of residents will reach members in boxes and in february the kent scn trust had to threaten judicial review against the council over the redesignation of seven special schools on the 27th of march the previous administration rightly capitulated but i would invite the leader if she's able to at this early stage to confirm that that is a permanent position but with regard to net zero we regard the transition to renewable energy as extremely important and if plans are brought forward to do less environmental work we will scrutinize that extremely carefully we too support farmers and fruit goers the nfu and every organization representing farmers has expressed demand at the grave impact brexit has had on farmers they are now getting less financial support they have to do more and meet more requirements to get it and face greater difficulty in exporting their produce i'd also urge the cabinet to seek scientific briefing on the impact that climate change is having on the ability of farmers to produce long grown crops like soft fruit in kent german time is against me we return to more issues in committee thank you thank you mr hook i now call upon mr lehman leader of the green group to respond to the leader's report and mr lehman your speech is limited to five minutes thank you thank you chairman in line with mr hook i'd like to first of all congratulate all those here in the chamber today who uh won their elections obviously um standing for election for any party takes a great deal of fortitude and resilience and um doing it a second time when you're already in is i found quite a lot harder because it's easier to get something than it is to lose it um i'd like to echo the leader's praise for the former leader of the council roger goff i think it's safe to say whilst no one knew what the outcome of the elections was going to be those of us here who were at the last full council meeting in march would have expected roger to be returning to the chamber again even if not as leader of the council at that meeting in march i paid tribute to robert roger's approach and demeanor he was always very level-headed in council meetings which i believe led to a more far more constructive environment than it might otherwise have been i hope that this direction is one which can be continued for the next four years or however many we have before local government reorganization occurs moving on to that topic our group has varying views on whether unitarization could be a positive step for kent or not although all of us are against any changes which would further erode democratic accountability green party policy is for government and council decisions to be made at the lowest practical level which ensures that as far as possible decisions are made by members of the communities which will be affected by those decisions the the majority of decisions in key areas such as planning are currently made in 13 council chambers across kent i feel it would be impossible to reduce that number to just three or four without also seeing a greater number of bad decisions being made by councillors who are far too removed from the towns and villages their decisions will affect there is an argument that combining the county council with the districts would help reduce the confusion experience by many members of the public who simply have no idea which council is responsible for which services i feel this problem has become worse over time as fewer and fewer people take an interest in local politics it's become so bad now that even some candidates standing in the recent elections were unsure of what the county council's responsibilities were with some even appearing to suggest on their election leaflets that if they were elected to kcc they would be they would be able to stop the boats finally moving on to net zero whilst i've often included in the speeches uh mention of the continuing effects of climate change i feel it's a little too easy for those invested both figuratively and literally in narratives which support the fossil fuel industry to discount political rhetoric so i'm going to do something slightly different in this speech which is just to share a few short factual statements which i would be happy to share after the meeting the sources of if anyone would like them number one the pricing of oil and gas in the uk is set by global markets meaning that even domestically produced resources are sold at international prices domestic production does not shield uk consumers from global price fluctuations number two the vast majority of the increase in domestic fuel bill costs over the past 10 to 15 years has been as a result of global energy price shocks driven initially by covid and then by the invasion of ukraine three when gas prices surged in 2022 and 23 domestic renewable energy production shielded uk consumers from even higher electricity price increases four with heavy uk investment to bring more renewables online gas will set the price less often leading to more stable and predictable energy bills the move by reform uk to shift from climate change denial to anti net zero is in line with a number of authoritarian and far-right political groups across europe i sincerely hope that the members of this council responsible for decision-making in this area can engage with the facts here and resist any pressure from their central party to make objectively poor decisions driven purely by political dogma nigel farage is as heavily invested in anti-net-zero as many of reform's key donors are in fossil fuels although to give credit to nigel he's doing his bit personally to prop up the fossil fuel market his commitment to international travel taking at least nine international trips since the general election and clocking up an impressive 55 000 air miles that's enough to go around the world two and a bit times or alternatively to travel between westminster and clacton 743 times although why would you ever need to go to either of those places um and i've only got 10 seconds left to say i'm broadly supportive of apprenticeships and a smartphone ban thank you thank you mr lehman i now call upon mr rayner the leader of the conservative group to respond to the leaders report and mr rayner again you have time limited of five minutes thank you thank you chairman firstly congratulations to you uh on your election as chairman uh and also to the new leader uh upon your election uh both this morning thank you now my my party look forward to cooperating with the new administration we will do all that we can to work with you to deliver best value uh for money to the kent county council taxpayers we look forward to scrutinizing such proposals as reform bring forward and we'll consider them carefully before responding on local government reform my party seek to encourage the new administration to follow through on the undertaking of the previous administration to form a local government reform and morality cabinet committee this to allow all members to carefully consider in public the costs and consequences of local government reform in particular the potentially very high costs of disaggregation of kcc services to up to four new unitary councils until now the public have had very little access to local government reform proposals made by kent county by kent councils to the local government minister it's time that the kent taxpayer had the opportunity to consider local government reform proposals and hear members debate proposals with applicable checks and balances on adult services uh i have the scars on my back in connection with uh with this and uh this uh and my group uh wish the new administration well but we are experienced in the knowledge of budget overruns which i have to say occupied much of management time in the previous administration whilst adult services are mandatory greater effort is required to ensure that once a budget is set that all possible efforts are made to avoid cost overruns every pound of budget overrun of any mandatory services has to be found either from reserves or from uh discretionary services and all too often the squeeze comes on discretionary services such as highway repairs and potholes and i look forward to uh anything that uh that my party can offer by way of help and assistance uh rather than uh plowing the same old furrow uh that that we did uh and and so uh uh from with that uh mr chairman i'm going to uh uh welcome uh the new administration uh but uh carefully uh and uh give notice that we will we will uh scrutinize carefully uh proposals that are brought forward thank you for that i now call upon uh mr brady the leader of the labor group to respond to the leader's report and mr brady your speech is limited to four minutes thank you i welcome existing members back to this place and i extend a welcome to all new members it must be said some candidates put questionable assertions and statements on leaflets covering a lot of things that kcc cannot do but the electorate has put their trust in you so now you need to deliver for them it is disappointing to hear that the ukrainian flag will be taken from its position in the chamber i do not support putin i support ukraine and i oppose the illegal invasion of ukraine by russia i can hold these views and also focus on doing the best for kent's residents we should all have that ability as kent county councillors and decision makers onto the bit where i focus on kent and this council i'm going to start by giving you the benefit of the doubt but i will be looking for and challenging you to be different so what are you going to do differently today i was hoping to hear more words on local policy but considering your answer to my previous question on the budget i suspect you'll be keep keeping the conservatives budget and their terrible decisions instead of reversing the ones i mentioned so what are you going to do differently there are concerns from residents who think you are conservatives who have just changed your tie color many of you have been conservative party members so it's up to you to prove to kent residents that you are different otherwise this argument will come back again and again you said you'll open up the books they have always been open and public so it'll be interesting to see how you will be spending the kent taxpayers money differently you originally said you get the auditors in well i hope you now know that the internal auditors won awards for their work and the external auditors are there and they are watching like hawks this is giving me this is me giving you the benefit of the doubt because the roles we hold in this council are incredibly important as opposition members it is our part to robustly challenge and to all members of the administration it is your role to also question decision making this place will not function if that does not happen it is early days so obviously it'll be unfair to for me to attack you on performance but we now know we now and we know the council is managing a declining road network what are you going to do differently adult social care is overspending but the important thing must be to give kent residents the best possible service what are you going to do differently i welcome a focus on education and skills including apprenticeships i'd like to see this aspirational and outcome driven i welcome a focus on regeneration and this should be done in partnership with districts who know their local areas the best it is interesting to hear that you have now been told from above what to think on devolution and lgr moving forward i hope decisions are going to be made in this place instead of dictated from above by elected individuals in your party the last thing i will add is when you've chosen your cabinet members please come back with more policies and decisions otherwise you'll rightly be challenged as being an extension of the last 27 years under the tories thank you thank you i'll now call upon the leader to give a reply and you have up to six minutes thank you thank you mr chair so i can assure my friend opposite that we cannot wait to get started my cabinet members which will be announced um any minute now i imagine it's been a job to hold them back to be honest we've only been here two weeks and already many members of my team have started their investigations into the areas uh on which they are now responsible so i can assure you we are very very eager to start coming up with proper policies and plans um as far as reforms uh performance is concerned i think that winning so many seats across kent is actually quite a good reflection on that and as far as awards being given to auditors i think we all know by looking at places like the house of lords that awards are no guarantee of quality nowadays so that is um something we won't take much notice of my friend's view on the flag is interesting i too can hold two different views in my mind about the flag flag i can believe that the flag of kent should be in the chamber that holds the people who are governing kent and making decisions about the people of kent and i can also support the people of ukraine who are living in a desperately war-torn country i can hold those two views it is not problematic for me about the leaflets that we distributed during our campaign i would just say this i think labour know all about putting things on leaflets that don't necessarily come to pass here at reform we are here to unite not divide and that is why we don't have much time for special interest groups and flags that represent special interest groups because we are one people as elected councillors we represent everybody in kent regardless of skin color of religion of race or sexual orientation we don't actually care are you here legally do you speak the language are you abiding by our laws and customs are you working and paying your taxes in that case you are very very welcome here that is our policy with regards to you calling us a populist party i would like to say i think we are just popular not populist the people of kent voted for us in overwhelming numbers and it troubles me slightly that there was an assertion that that makes people far right do you realize you've just insulted over 170 000 people in this county by making that assertion didn't go very well for hillary clinton in 2016 did it i'm glad that we can work together on many areas like special educational needs local government reorganization i think mr rayner's view of forming a committee is well worth considering i listened to your views the other day and i've had time to consider and i think that is possibly a very good way forward because this subject is huge and it presents uh the opportunity for us to waste an awful lot of time and money neither of which we have so anything that streamlines streamlines our response to central government i think should be examined and possibly welcome so i look forward to having more conversations with you outside of this chamber the jibe about stopping the boats about uh you wanted to get a laugh for that do you know what it would be funny if it wasn't so serious the number of people arriving on our shores that was the number one thing that came up on the doorstep when myself and my fellow reformers were out campaigning and meeting hundreds and thousands of people people are desperately worried that we are being invaded day after day kent has the motto of invicta that means unconquerable unavailable that's been made a laughing stock if people came up to you and said we want you to stop the boats you really should not be laughing it is not a laughing matter i'm glad that we can work together to support our farmers and fruit growers it's incredibly important and i'm also glad that you're willing to work with us on adult social care having such an aging population is a huge issue and i think we can see how difficult it is because successive governments have just kicked the can down the road and local councils like us are left to pick up the pieces with what little money we have it's a massive problem i've got a fantastic cabinet member who has already started their work looking at it in detail so i look forward to working very collaboratively with everybody because of course this is all of our problem this is going to be a problem for all of us if it's not already many of us care for elderly relatives already we will all become that elderly relative in years to come so we should all be very concerned about this as far as nigel farage's air miles well what can i say at least he got elected but i'd just like to finish by saying we will look at all streams of income to try and fill our empty coffers that is something we're thinking very widely about very creatively about cooperation is everything we're all here to serve the same people regardless of who they voted for they all deserve to be absolutely at the focus the heart the center of everything we do so to that end that will be reform uk's way forward thank you okay that brings us to the end of that the chairman's report is noted does everyone agree with that we now move on to agenda item 12 which is a the report on proportionality of council committees and that the information is going to be put up on the screens that you can see um i call upon the leader to move them to the recommendations and mr collins to second of the recommendation you've probably seen the recommendations on page seven one to one and one one and seven in the supplementary agenda pack thank you thank you mr chair the council is required to agree the proportionality arrangements after an election the paper before members has been prepared by democratic services in line with the legal requirements as detailed in the report this includes setting out how many committees will be in place how many seats are on each committee and how many of these will be held by the different political groups the main committee arrangements are presented for approval by full council and various outside body appointments will be made by the selection and member services committee or the leader of the council in due course confirmation of which members will be sitting on which committee will be managed between the group leaders and democratic services the recommendations are set out in the papers and adoption of these arrangements will allow the council to conduct its formal committee business i am happy to propose this to the council mr collins you're going to second the the report yep i would like to second that motion nice and simple we've all had an opportunity and hopefully have all read the uh the report is everyone agreed with the report and and the conclusions in it thank you because i think working out the proportionality rule is an absolutely audious task for the officer and thank you for doing that and you and the monitoring officer will make any adjustments that are required for committee places as necessary and that yeah well look before the meeting is concluded because we've come to the end of it but don't jump up and leave the room too quick leave leave the chamber too quick being a bit lenient with some of the clapping and applauding we don't expect the public they've behaved extremely well we wouldn't tolerate such behavior i think in future meetings please bear in mind it's a council chamber conducting council business so if we can reduce that clapping and appalling also when people have a limited time to speak the interruptions of clapping and appalling only limits their time even further speaking so it's not helping the the speaker so just bear that in mind for future meetings but thank you members that concludes the annual general meeting however before you