Venue: Committee Room A - County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys. View directions
Contact: Stephen Boyd 01597 826374
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Apologies To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors SM Hayes and EA York and from County Councillor DR Jones, Chair of the People Scrutiny Committee, County Councillor MC Mackenzie, Vice-Chair of the Scrutiny Committee, County Councillor AW Davies, leader of the Conservative group and the Chief Executive. |
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To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the meetings held on 27th September and 4th October as correct records. Additional documents: Minutes: The Leader was authorised to sign the minutes of the meetings held on 27th September and 4th October 2016 as correct records. |
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Declarations of Interest To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda. Minutes: There were no declarations of interest reported. |
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Application to suspend the Right to Buy and related rights across Powys PDF 92 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Rosemarie Harris, Portfolio Holder for Property, Buildings and Housing. Minutes: Cabinet was advised that the Council’s application to Welsh Government in 2015 to suspend the right to buy council houses had not included all social housing in Powys. As a consequence another consultation exercise involving the tenants of Housing Associations in Powys was required. The Housing Associations were happy with this approach. In answer to members’ questions the Portfolio Holder for Property, Buildings and Housing advised that as well as maintaining the current level of housing stock this would allow the stock to be increased. Although the service had not put a figure on the number of new homes that might be provided, it had conducted an exercise to identify land in the Council’s ownership that could be developed.
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Outcome of condition surveys of the Farm Estate - impact and consequences PDF 108 KB To consider a report by County Councillor John Powell, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability. Minutes: Cabinet received details of the County Farms Estate condition survey report which had identified works totalling £7.65m, including urgent electrical works costed at £384,483 and other critical non-electrical building maintenance work costed at £538,582. Cabinet was asked to consider the establishment of an annual maintenance revenue budget of at least £500,000 per annum in addition to the existing capital allocations of £100,000 to enable these dangerous maintenance backlogs to be tackled within a reasonable timeframe.
The Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability reminded Cabinet that the Estate had delivered £6.28M from sales of property whilst increasing its revenue income during the same period. The strategy for sales was to sell off farmhouses when they became available whilst retaining land unless it had had development potential. He advised Cabinet that the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs had written to local authorities urging them to retain their estates as a means of getting new entrants into farming. He would be meeting the Cabinet Secretary to discuss this.
The Portfolio Holder for Finance cautioned that it would be very difficult to find this amount from the revenue budget at a time when other services were facing severe cuts. He asked for a further report to identify revenue and capital works so the Cabinet could look at other ways of funding the maintenance backlog. This might include allowing the service keep a larger proportion of the proceeds from sales or borrowing to fund capital works. This information was urgently needed to inform the budget process.
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Powys Safeguarding Children and Adults Quarterly update PDF 253 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Graham Brown, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and County Councillor Stephen Hayes, Portfolio Holder for Adult Services. Minutes: Cabinet received the safeguarding report for Children’s and Adult Services. Members noted the increase in the number of child protection referrals and the Strategic Director People explained the factors that may account for this. She also explained that the Powys Local Operational Group, chaired by the Head of Children’s Services, met quarterly to look in detail at the referrals. In answer to Members’ questions she agreed to provide details of the reporting and accountability lines in both Adults and Children’s Services in the next report in December. She acknowledged that the service had recruitment challenges but advised that she had just conducted a detailed review of the staffing model and was confident that it would support effective service delivery.
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Joint Partnership Board Minutes PDF 77 KB To receive for information minutes of the Joint Partnership Board meetings held on 25th July and 19th September 2016. Additional documents: Minutes: Cabinet received the minutes of the meetings of the Joint Partnership Board held on 25th July and 19th September 2016. |
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Delegated Decisions Taken Since the Last Meeting PDF 41 KB To note the delegated decisions taken since the last meeting. Minutes: Cabinet received details of delegated decisions taken by Portfolio Holders since the last meeting. |
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Forward Work Programme PDF 74 KB To consider the Cabinet forward work programme. Minutes: Cabinet received the forward work programme. The Leader reminded Portfolio Holders of their responsibility to keep it up to date. |
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To receive such correspondence as in the opinion of the Leader is of such urgency as to warrant consideration. Minutes: There were no items of correspondence. |
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Exempt Items The Monitoring Officer has determined that category 1 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules applies to the following item. His view on the public interest test (having taken account of the provisions of Rule 11.8 of the Council’s Access to Information Rules) was that to make this information public would disclose personal data relating to an individual in contravention of the principles of the Data Protection Act. Because of this and since there did not appear to be an overwhelming public interest requiring the disclosure of personal data he felt that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. Members are asked to consider these factors when determining the public interest test, which they must decide when considering excluding the public from this part of the meeting.
Minutes: RESOLVED to exclude the public for the following items of business on the grounds that there would be disclosure to them of exempt information under category 1 of The Local Authorities (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007).
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HTR Commissioning Project Outline Business Case To consider a report by County Councillor Graham Brown Portfolio Holder for Commissioning and Procurement, County Councillor John Brunt, Highways and County Councillor John Powell Environment & Sustainability. Minutes: Cabinet considered proposals for a new model for the Highways, Transport and Refuse Service that would enable it to meet its savings target whilst still delivering services. The recommended model was a Wholly Owned Company as it was the quicker option to implement and could meet the timescale set for efficiency savings. The set up costs would be less, it would help to retain staff as it provides some stability of employment, and it provides opportunities to incentivise and motivate staff. In progressing to the establishment of a Wholly Owned Company, the service would initially move to a Modified In-house Service. This would ensure that all current opportunities to improve productivity and increase income are realized as early as possible.
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Creation of Director of Education Role To consider a report by the Chief Executive. Minutes: Cabinet considered proposals for the creation of a Director of Education post. Members welcomed the proposal as it would create additional management capacity for the service. It was confirmed that the post would go out to open advert. Cabinet put on record its thanks to the Chief Executive for taking on the post from 2012 and to Ceredigion County Council for the support provided by their Director of Education.
Councillor Brown abstained having missed part of the debate. Cabinet went back into open session.
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Provisional Settlement Briefing Note Minutes: Cabinet received details of the provisional settlement. The settlement was slightly better than anticipated with the funding for Powys decreasing by 0.5% or £0.771m. The Wales average was an increase of 0.1%. The Portfolio Holder for Finance reminded Cabinet that the actuary’s report on the Pension Fund was due shortly.
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