The Worcestershire Council meeting included discussion of the Malvern Hills Bill, the revised capital programme, and a summary of decisions taken by the Audit and Governance Committee, the Pensions Committee, and the Planning and Regulatory Committee. Councillors were also scheduled to discuss several notices of motion and answer questions.

Malvern Hills Bill

The council was scheduled to consider the impact on council functions of the Malvern Hills Bill. The Malvern Hills Trust (working name of the Malvern Hills Conservators) was established in 1884 by an Act of Parliament¹. The core duties, as set out in the Acts are to preserve the natural aspect of the Hills and Commons and to keep them unenclosed and unbuilt on as an open space for the enjoyment of the public. As the Trust is governed by statute, changes must be made by Parliament by way of promotion of a Private Bill. The Charity Commission has given consent for the Trust to proceed.

The Trust's proposals for a new Act will involve some consolidation of previous acts but also introduce change. The Trust's objectives are that certain core principles will remain the same: protecting and preserving the Hills as public open space, keeping all decision-making meetings open to the public and the right of those who pay the levy to elect trustees to the Board.

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways and Transport recommended that the Council:

• Endorse the work done to date on engaging with the Malvern Hills Bill and its promoters including the submission of the Petition and the grounds set out in the Petition.
• Resolve to oppose the Bill in its published draft form which is a validation requirement of S.239 Local Government Act 1972².
• Agree to the objective of seeking to ensure suitable checks, balances and protection are incorporated into the Bill to ensure the exercise of Worcestershire County Council's powers and duties particularly in respect of Public Rights of Way, Highways and Planning are not adversely affected.
• Authorise the Strategic Director of Economy and Infrastructure, in consultation with the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways and Transport, to continue to engage with the Parliamentary process to achieve the objective and withdraw the Petition if appropriate.
• Authorise engagement to include terms of negotiation, seeking amendments to the Bill, obtaining statements of clarification from Malvern Hills Trust and obtaining formal parliamentary undertakings from the Malvern Hills Trust in the form of a legal agreement governing how the Bill should be exercised by them.

Worcestershire County Council submitted a Petition on 6 February 2025 as a formal holding position. 50 formal objections/ points of representation (Petitions) have been raised. These cover a wide range of stakeholders and interests. The majority are from local residents, although there are also Petitions from Worcestershire County Council, Malvern Hills District Council, MHDC Conservative Group, Malvern Town Council, Guarlford Parish Council, West Malvern Parish Council, Malvern Environment Protection Group and Upper Welland Action Group.

Worcestershire County Council's Petition has been drawn narrowly to deal solely with WCC's functions as Highway Authority (including Public Rights of Way) and Planning. In essence, the Bill as drafted and if not further amended, will give the Trust extending powers affecting or restricting public access. Some of these powers are comparable to Highway Authority powers to temporarily close highways and public rights of way. WCC are responsible for approximately 66km of Public Rights of Way on the Malvern Hills in addition to the vehicular highway. Although the Trust already have powers from existing legislation, the extension of powers without the requirement to notify WCC is a cause for concern. As the Trust is not a highway authority, it would not operate under the same democratic accountability as WCC in exercising these powers.

The summary Minutes of Proceedings record amongst other matters that the [select] committee pays particular attention to the provisions which would impede or restrict public access.

Negotiations are ongoing, but outstanding issues include:

• Closure of Public rights of way – Extending in duration and additional reasons for closure. The Bill proposes an extension to closure powers without consultation to 42 days with other powers of closure remaining. However, the Bill introduces an ability to close paths for a wider variety of reasons. There is no requirement for WCC to be consulted or informed of closures. Also there is no clear procedure for on-site notification to inform the public.
• Fences and gating of Public rights of Way. The Trust are putting forward proposals to control and regulate Footpaths and Bridleways for more general reasons than in previous legislation (fire and danger only). This includes the installation of new gates on public rights of way representing increased restriction of access.
• Cattlegrids. The Trust are proposing new powers to install cattlegrids, only WCC can do this at present in the highway.

Revised Capital Programme

Cabinet recommended that Council approves the revised Capital Programme as detailed in Appendix 8 of the Cabinet report.

Since the approval of the Capital Programme in February 2025, additional external funding in the form of Section 106³, government grants and Other Local Authority Funding has been received, which has had the impact of increasing the 2024 - 2028 capital programme to £525 million. Worcestershire Council has been successful in receiving £7.5 million High Needs Children's Grants and £12 million Local Transport Grants. As agreed as part of the budget report to Council this funding has been used to replace borrowing related to schemes already contained in the approved programme. The Council has not been successful in receiving the annual Basic Need grant for schools for 2026/27 or 2027/28, therefore the future programme has been revised down accordingly.

The 2024/25 £97 million capital programme expenditure will be financed in the following ways: £42.2 million Government Grants, £32.2 million temporary and longterm borrowing, £2.7 million capital receipts, £17.6 million from third party contributions, and £2.3 million from the capital reserve / revenue budget contributions.

There remains £208.6 million currently approved within the Capital Programme for 2025/26, £102.3 million for 2026/27 and £117.3 million for 2027/28 onwards.

Given the significant financial challenges the council is facing the Chief Financial Officer has advised and Cabinet fully agree that there will be a full review of the Capital Programme to ensure future spend is sustainable and affordable.

Provisional Financial Results 2024/25

The Council position for 2024/25 is a net overspend of £6.2 million on a £433.4 million budget (1.4% of net revenue expenditure). This position is after the additional £7.9 million of planned use of reserves.

School balances have decreased from a net surplus of £9.5 million at 31 March 2024 to £6.5 million at 31 March 2025. The net position comprises 30 schools in deficit (£7.4 million) and 70 schools in surplus (£13.9 million).

The non-schools Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) will carry forward a deficit of £98.2 million (£44.1 million deficit at 31 March 2024); this increase is largely due to unfunded SEND and High Needs demand arising from statute changes in 2014.

The government has announced on the 20 June as part of the Fair Funding Review 2.0 consultation that they will commence a phased transition process which will include working with local authorities to manage their SEND deficits and an extension to the Dedicated Schools Grant Statutory Override until the end of 2027-28.

The Council's Earmarked Reserves have decreased by 11% from March 2024 to March 2025, mainly due to budgeted use and the requirement to fund the in-year overspend. Reserve balances, which are set aside for specific purposes, have decreased from £105.1 million as at 31 March 2024 to £93.7 million as at 31 March 2025. The Council's General Fund Balance has slightly increased to £19.2 million around 4.4% of the net budget.

In 2024/25, the Council spent £97.0 million of the £120.1 million Quarter 3 Capital Programme as approved by Council in February 2025, with the £23.1 million balance being carried forward for spend in future years.

Notices of Motion

The Assistant Director for Legal and Governance reported that she had received the following two Notices of Motion:

• Worcestershire on Demand Bus Service. This motion calls on the Cabinet Member with Responsibility to publish within 28 days the timetable for the expansion of the Worcestershire on Demand Service and to confirm that resources will be allocated to ensure that the service will be promoted and marketed to the residents of Worcestershire.
• Council Procedural Standing Orders. Council resolves that the Monitoring Officer establish a cross party councillor working group, to review the council procedural standing orders as set out in appendix two of the Council's constitution. The Monitoring Officer be allowed to set the terms of reference for the review and to prepare a report for the November Council meeting setting out the recommendations of the working group.

Question Time

Councillors were scheduled to answer questions. These included:

• Councillor Marcus Hart was scheduled to ask the Leader of the Council, Councillor Jo Monk: Can the Leader of the Council confirm whether or not she values the 6 District Councils across Worcestershire?
• Councillor Josh Robinson was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways and Transport about traffic issues on All Saints Road and Victoria Road, Bromsgrove.
• Councillor Alan Amos was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Environment and Communities to liaise with the County's Legal Services Team to begin the process to obtain Field in Trust status for Pitmaston Park.
• Councillor Richard Morris was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Health and Wellbeing how the 'We are Westlands' local community health initiative can continue to support other, similar, communities and what plans are in place.
• Councillor Dan Birch was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member whether they will establish a dedicated fund in the next budget to support the installation of footpaths and dropped curbs across the county.
• Councillor Richard Udall was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Business and Skills, consider what action could be taken to improve the skills base for traditional rural industries.
• Councillor Matt Jenkins was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Environment and Communities to confirm that he agrees with the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and is primarily caused by human activities.
• Councillor Natalie McVey was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Environment and Communities: Are libraries just about books?
• Councillor Tor Pingree was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care to clearly outline her vision for the future of adult social care in our county.
• Councillor Dan Boatright-Greene was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways and Transport how the administration will tackle issues with utility companies organising works on Worcestershire's Highways but leaving considerable amounts of time between setting up and actually conducting the work.
• Councillor Marcus Hart was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Business and Skills whether he agrees that all businesses and residents across Worcestershire including our rural communities should have access to Gigabit broadband and would he kindly explain what this administration is doing to support this.
• Councillor Josh Robinson was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways and Transport whether he agrees that a full review of the A38 works in Bromsgrove is needed urgently and we should scrap the plans for two lanes southbound in Lickey End and the closure of the right hand turn into School Lane.
• Councillor Richard Morris was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways and Transport to assure that a review and required changes will happen at the Copcut junction near Droitwich.
• Councillor Richard Udall was scheduled to ask the Leader of the Council: Can the Leader of the Council confirm what criteria she used when deciding who to appoint to her Cabinet?
• Councillor Sam Evans was scheduled to ask the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Highways support calls from residents and councillors from across Parish, District and County Councils, to reduce the speed limit on Copyholt Lane and Curr Lane to 40mph.

Reports of Committees

The council was scheduled to consider reports of committees. These included:

• Audit and Governance Committee. The Committee has noted the draft Final Accounts Pack, including the Statement of Accounts for the financial year ended 31 March 2025. The Committee has noted the progress on 2023-24 External Audit Recommendations. Representatives of Grant Thornton, the Council's external auditor presented the external audit plans for the County Council and Pension Fund accounts at the Committee meeting.
• Pensions Committee. The Committee noted the minutes of the PISC meetings on 11 and 12 June 2025 and the Board meeting on 19 June 2025. The Committee has approved the unaudited Pension Fund Annual Accounts 2024/25 and thanked the team for producing them prior to the statutory deadline of 30 June 2025. The Committee has noted the 2025 Stewardship Code application for the Fund submitted on the 29 April 2025 and the Worcestershire Pension Fund Business Plan as of May 2025.
• Planning and Regulatory Committee. The Committee approved the proposed extraction of sand and gravel with restoration to agriculture and nature conservation, including ponds, wetlands, hedgerows and lowland and mixed deciduous woodland and meadows on land at Ripple East, Bow Lane, Ripple.

Chair's Announcements

Councillor Louis Stephen, Chair of the Council, was scheduled to make announcements, including a list of functions attended by the Chair or Vice-Chair of the Council since the last meeting.

Councillor Louis Stephen was also scheduled to announce that ten Worcestershire residents have been recognised in HM The King's Birthday Honours List: Melanie Clarke, Hannah Sidaway, Shane Connolly, Stephen Davies, Geoffrey Sansome, Merleen Watson, Karen Blanchfield, Richard Hayhow, Patricia Neal and Jane Poynder.