Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

2.

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.

3.

The Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019; implementation arrangements for Powys County Council and Rent Smart Wales pdf icon PDF 156 KB

To consider a report by County Councillor James Evans, Portfolio Holder for Economic Development, Housing and Regulatory Services.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a proposal to delegate authority for enforcing the provisions of the Renting of Homes (Fees etc) (Wales) Act 2019. The aim of the Act was to ensure any costs associated with renting in the private sector should be reasonable, affordable and transparent. The legislation placed the duty for enforcement on each local authority, with a power to share responsibility with Rent Smart Wales (RSW) and with Cardiff City Council appointed Licensing Authority for all local authorities in Wales.

 

 

RESOLVED

 

(i)            to delegate authority for enforcing provisions of the Renting of Homes (Fees etc) (Wales) Act 2019 to the Corporate Director (Economy and Environment), with appropriate powers of sub-delegation.

 

(ii)          To authorise Cardiff City Council, as the Single Licensing Authority for Wales (Rent Smart Wales), to exercise any function of an enforcement authority, in relation to Powys County Council’s area, for the purposes of the Renting Homes (Fees etc.) (Wales) Act 2019, including (but without limitation) taking enforcement activity and bringing criminal proceedings pursuant to section 19 of that Act.

 

4.

Car Parking Arrangements Summer 2020 pdf icon PDF 219 KB

To consider a report on car parking arrangements for Summer 2020.  

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a proposal to introduce two hours free parking in the Council’s off-street pay and display car parks during the school summer holidaysas part of the #SupportLocalPowys campaign to help boost the local town centre economy.

 

Cabinet was advised that the loss of irrecoverable income from providing 2 hours free parking would be approximately £85,000 for August. The Head of Finance (Section 151 Officer) confirmed that the financial loss as a result of the introduction of this  would not be recoverable from the Welsh Government due to it being a  change in policy, and therefore funding would be identified corporately to meet the loss so that it did not fall on the service budget.  

 

RESOLVED

 

(i)           To provide 2 hours free parking in all of the Council’s pay and display car parks for the period 26 July 2020 to 31 August 2020 inclusive.

 

(ii)          To maintain the 1 hour free parking for half the spaces lost on street as part of the social distancing measures put in place in the most appropriate pay and display car park from 1 September 2020 until such time as those measures are removed.

 

(iii)        That the loss of income due to this policy change, estimated at circa £85k, will be funded corporately to cover the lost income for August that cannot be reclaimed against Welsh Government funding.

 

5.

Welfare Call Monitoring pdf icon PDF 548 KB

To consider a report by County Councillor Graham Breeze, Portfolio Holder for Corporate Governance and Engagement.

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a report on the welfare call scheme. Since 25th March staff redeployed from other services had made over 18,000 calls to people who were shielding. Welsh Government had announced that “shielding” was to be extended until the 16th August 2020, therefore the calls would continue at least up until that date. There had been a very positive response from residents for the support that had been provided and the Portfolio Holder and the Leader thanked the staff and Councillors involved.

6.

Annual Information Governance Report 2019-2020 pdf icon PDF 497 KB

To consider a report by County Councillor Graham Breeze, Portfolio Holder for Corporate Governance and Engagement.

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a report on the Information Governance (IG) activities undertaken, practices implemented, and the standards of IG compliance achieved for the financial year 2019/2020.

 

The report gave details of the number of information security breaches and noted that the increase was likely attributable to greater staff awareness of the need to report breaches. The Information Commissioners Office had recognised that in most cases breaches been due to human error in failing to follow organisational measures, rather than the Council not having necessary measures in place.

 

The report also set out the number and cost of information requests, covering the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2000, Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) 2004, or the General Data Regulations Subject Access Request (SAR) information regimes. Cabinet noted that it was much cheaper and quicker to ask questions direct to them and asked for a breakdown of the numbers of requests that came from the media or political organisations.  

 

RESOLVED to note the assurance set out in 12. 6 of the report and the planned activity for 2020-2021 as set out in paragraph 13.