To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors N Airey, Carol and Targowska.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest declared.

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 22 February 2018.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 22 February 2018 were approved.

None

To consider the Forward Plan for the period April 2018 to July 2018.

Cabinet considered the contents of the Forward Plan for the next four months and noted the changes that had been made to the plan since the last meeting.  In addition it was noted that the Joint Central and Eastern Berkshire Minerals and Waste Plan – authorisation for preferred option consultation be considered at Cabinet in May 2018.

The Lead Member for Finance presented the latest Financial Update report that sets out the Council’s financial performance to date in 2017-18.  The projected over spend was £543,000.  An in-year mitigation exercise had been undertaken prior to September Cabinet and £1,290,000 of savings were identified. These savings continue to offset the pressures in all directorates.

A significant adjustment to the Council’s net business rate income has been made by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government as detailed in paragraph 4.6.  A £120,000 grant has been received from the Department for Transport for pothole repairs, further details in paragraph 4.13.

The Council remained in a strong financial position; with General Fund Reserves of £7,243,000 in excess of the £5,780,000 recommended minimum level set at Council in February 2017.

Cabinet were informed that an additional recommendation was proposed that allowed a new discount for Advantage Card tariff in the Magnet and Windsor Leisure Centre car parks following the required consultation period. 

Members were informed that that a tariff had not been applied as there had been an existing £10 discount charge available to leisure centre user discounting parking charges. It was proposed to bring residents discounts to these car parks in line with the new policy approved when the 2018/19 budget was set.

The Lead Member for Culture and Communities informed that she supported the additional recommendation and felt it would encourage people to use the leisure centres.  

The Deputy Lead Member for Finance informed that Cabinet had previously discussed the £678,000 Government support for businesses.  Currently £476,971 had been awarded leaving £201,028 available, this was an updated figure from when the report was published.  Each Councillor had been provided with a list of businesses in their ward who may be eligible to the support and the Council had also written to the businesses encouraging them to apply.  There was one week left before the scheme closed and the money being returned to the Government.

Cabinet were informed that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had revised the business rate tariffs that had reduced the budgeted amount the Council was expected to pay by £1,622,000.  With the estimated change to the 2017/18 Levy and the S31 Grant the adjustments to the business rate income now stood at £2,021,000, with £500,000 being set aside for NNDR3 adjustment a total of £1,521,000 was to be transferred to the Capital Fund.

The Principal Member for Ascot Regeneration informed that he had contacted all the potentially eligible businesses in Ascot and was disappointed at the response.  Two businesses had been awarded support one receiving £17,000 for this year and the other receiving £12,000 for this year and next year.

The Lead Member for Environmental Services asked how confident the Lead Member for Finance was that borrowing was being managed.  Cabinet were informed that appendix D showed the Council’s cash balances for the next 12 months.  If the projected capital projects were all approved there would be £120,000,000 of debt, which included £50,000,000  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6a

The Lead Member for Environmental Services introduced the report that sought support to expand the current Community Warden Team from 18 full time equivalent posts to 25. This reflected the current needs of the Borough to provide more capacity to address and respond to a range of Anti-Social Behaviours that was causing increased concerns to residents, businesses and visitors in our towns, car parks and open spaces.  The proposal would reuse existing revenue funding rather than seeking new budget provision.

The Chairman said that there was anti-social behaviour in car parks in his ward and this proposal would help reduce this and support the work of Thames Valley Police.

The Opposition Leader informed that she supported the recommendations and the excellent work done by Community Wardens.  Cabinet were asked what the new powers would be, would the new wardens be a special unit and if successful would be scheme be extended. 

The Lead Member for Environmental Services replied that section 2.8 of the report showed the additional powers being able to issue fixed penalty notices for cycling on footpaths or in pedestrianised zones, graffiti, unauthorised busking, urination and defecation in public, vehicle compliance (taxis), substance misuse and drug taking.

Cabinet was informed that there was an issue of nitrous oxide misuse and work was being done with Thames Valley Police to address this and in Windsor concern had been raised about drugs being taken in the public conveniences along River Street.  The new wardens would be used as a task force to help address these types of issues.

The Chairman said that if the new wardens were successful then consideration would be given to providing more resources.

The Leader of the Opposition said that she was pleased that the new wardens would act as a task force as this would allow existing wardens to go back into the communities they had been so well serving.

The Lead Member for Finance said that this was an important recommendation to make the borough a safe place to live, work and play.  He reported that in Maidenhead there had been an increase in young people taking low grade drugs at a number of well-known locations. It was important to tackle these types of issues.

The Chairman asked when the new wardens would be active and was informed that it was expected to be June 2018 when accreditation had been received.

Resolved unanimously: that  Cabinet notes the report, and:

      I.        Delegates authority to the Executive Director, together with the Lead Member for Environmental Services (including Parking & Flooding) to undertake the development of detailed plans and the required recruitment and appointment of a team of six additional Community Wardens and a Community Warden Lead.

The Lead Member for Maidenhead Regeneration and Maidenhead including School Improvement introduced the report that provided an update on progress being made against the outcomes set by Cabinet in March 2017 and the performance of pupils for the academic year 2016 / 17.

Cabinet were informed that appendix C contained the detailed data and that he would encourage parents considering schools to read the report.

Overall performance of all pupils in academic year 2016-17 improved year on year resulting the royal borough being a top 20% local authority in all age groups.  Ofsted judgements of schools in the Royal Borough had increased to 86% being Good or Outstanding, with one third Outstanding.

Cabinet were informed that section 2.5 of the report and chart 1 showed attainment benchmarked against the 150 education authorities in England.  The high level of educational achievement of pupils attending schools within the Royal Borough continued with pupils once again achieving significantly above the national averages in Key Stages 1, 2 and 4. With regards to early year provision the Royal Borough were ranked 8^th nationally.

With regards to Key Stage 4 Cabinet were informed that 50% of pupils achieved English and Maths GCSE at grade 5 or above compared to 42% nationally. For Key Stage 5 A Level performance remained strong with the Royal Borough being above the national average.

The attainment of disadvantaged pupils saw year on year improvements in almost all attainment measures, apart from reading at Key Stage 1, however the Royal Borough was still below national averages for this cohort and this remained a top priority focus area.  Section 2.23 of the report showed plans to improve performance and learning from best practice.  Disadvantaged children were spread across the school estate and not focused in one area as found in other parts of the country.

The Chairman thanked all schools in the Royal Borough for their excellent work and mentioned that about 10% of our students attended grammar schools outside the borough which was a significant proportion of talented pupils not being included in the statistics. 

The Principal Member for Ascot Regeneration mentioned that with such high performance it would be expected that such a report would celebrate success, however it was pleasing to see that instead the report continued to focus on continued improvement and seeking excellence for our pupils.

The Lead Member for Finance informed that although reading at Key Stage 1 was down by 2% there had been a decline nationally by 1%.

The Director of Children’s Services informed that work had been done to improve the Key Stage 1 results and this would be reflected in the performance of the current co-hort.

The Leader of the Opposition said that she would like to see monitoring of progress being made for SEND added to the report.  She also mentioned that performance at Key Stages 1 and 2 in the Windsor three tier system was down when compared to areas with a two tier system and it would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6c

To consider passing the following resolution:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on items 8 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local

Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on item 8 on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.