To receive any apologies for absence

There were no apologies received.  It was noted that the Managing Director could not attend.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest received.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 30 April 2020.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 21 May 2020 (To Follow).

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meetings held on 30 April 2020 and 21 May 2020 were approved.

Lead Member responsibility for Revenue and Benefits was passed from the Leader to the Lead Member for Finance and Ascot.

The Lead Member for Public Protection and Parking informed that Cabinet that he had initiated an investigation into residents parking permits following information from Cllr Tisi this week regarding the planned introduction of charges for residents parking permits that were currently free.  Legal advice had said that the Council had been in error and he therefore he apologies for the confusion caused to residents.  Current parking permits would remain in force until they expire.  Anyone who had already paid for a permit before their expiry date would be reimbursed and all effected residents would be contacted. The new fees would only apply for renewals or new applications.  The revenue predictions will now be for two years rather than just 2020.

To consider the Forward Plan for the period June 2020 to September 2020.

Cabinet considered the contents of the Forward Plan for the next four months and noted the changes made since last published including the following amendments:

·         Borough Wide Design Guide being added to June 2020 Cabinet.

·         Arborcultural Contract award will be delayed pending the tender process.

·         New Provision for Children and Young People with Special Education Needs to move to August 2020 Cabinet.

Cabinet considered the report seeking approval to the draft Climate Strategy and action plan to be taken forward to Full Council.

The Lead Member for Environmental Services, Climate Change, Sustainability, Parks and Countryside informed Cabinet that in June 2019 the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead declared an Environment and Climate Emergency.   It was brought about through the urging of the RBWM’s Climate Emergency Coalition, a group formed to convince the council to declare this emergency.  A motion was passed at Council, and it was agreed to establish a cross party working group, undertake a review of our own carbon footprint, and together with local stakeholders and partners, to bring about a draft strategy before full council within the year.

Cabinet were informed that Theresa May, who, as Prime Minister, that same month, pledged to introduce a legally binding target forcing the UK to end its contribution to climate change by 2050.  Hitting net zero, a 100% cut in emissions.  This would mean an end to heating of homes with traditional gas boilers, more green electricity, and a switch from petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles, and more provision for walking and cycling.  This legislation would also create legally binding targets on biodiversity, air quality, water, resource and waste efficiency.

During the course of the past twelve months, our environment had continued to suffer and emissions had continued to rise.  We recognise the possibility that, within a few decades at most, our planet could warm to an extent that would make life difficult for many and impossible for some and that could drive the life of many species up to and beyond the point of extinction. 

Over the last 12 month we had sought out best practice, looked at ways of reducing our own emissions, and with four stakeholder workshops, developed a vision of a future borough to actionable next steps, and then to the groupings that led to the strategic framework of the four key themes. 

The vision was to be a borough where the community collectively worked together to achieve a sustainable future, protecting and enhancing our natural environment, and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

We had structured our strategy around four key themes:

·         Circular Economy, how to reduce waste, and increase repair, re-use and recycling in the borough. 

·         Renewable Energy, how to reduce energy consumption and decarbonise supply.

·         Natural Capital, how to improve the natural environment and establish the principle of biodiversity net gain.

·         Sustainable Mobility, enabling sustainable transport choices.

Against each of these areas were 44 actions and measures for the next five years. 

This action plan needed to be worked into a prioritised delivery plan, with carbon reduction targets, timelines and accountabilities. It needed to be taken from the cabinet paper and turned into a document that speaks to our residents about its intent and encouraged actions such as ‘provide opportunities for people to grow their own food’ or ‘remove barriers to walking and cycling through delivery of cycle action plan’.

It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6a

Cabinet considered the report that set out the final outturn position for revenue and capital expenditure against budget for the financial year 2019/20.

The Lead Member for Finance and Ascot informed Cabinet that the report  before them asked Cabinet to:

i)          Note the council’s projected outturn position for 2019-20.

ii)         Note the budget movements since the January 2020 reported as part of the          budget setting process in February 2020.;

iii)         Approves Capital programme slippage and variances as detailed in Appendix       D.

The Lead Member highlighted errors on page 73 of the report. It was planned to bring the Treasury Management paper to Cabinet in May but this is delayed to June and in the text in para 13.0 Tables 4 and 5 should read 17 and 18 respectively.

Cabinet were informed that the costs associated with C-19 were shown separately for all services so there was transparency between the outturn and the impact of the crisis.  This was additional work for the Finance team but 2020/21 Finance update reports would continue with this methodology.

MHCLG required a monthly return on C-19 costs and It was important to the Administration that we delivered the budget set earlier this year and therefore considered the impact of COVID 19 separately. 

He informed that as mentioned since he had become the Lead Member transparency within the reports was important and thus there were 40 pages or appendices that contain considerable detail.

The Lead Member made reference to appendix G which presented variances for services.  Before he considered these he asked Cabinet to note that the approved revenue budget was overspent by £4,224,000 but £1,827,000 of this is directly related to C-19 and is paid for by the first £2,753,000 of funding from MHCLG. The balance of this and a further £4,149,000 of funding had been placed into earmarked reserves.

The budget papers presented at Council in February forecasted reserves of £6.521,000 but reserves have increase by £1.71 M and now stand at £8.231M

In January Adult Social Care forecast an overspend of just over £1M but this had been turned round and there would have been a modest surplus had we not to taken a COVID related provision of £157K for bad debt. In a challenging year this would have been a pleasing result for the Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning.

In Children’s services an overspend of £1,94 M was reported some £325K higher than in January. However, Achieving for Children had recently been rated as Good by OFSTED so they are now in exactly the right place to drive their transformational programme forward.

With regards to the Managing Directors portfolio parking, the biggest income generator, saw revenues down £900K before the impact of C-19 which further reduced income by £422K. Highways declared an overspend of £617K which was made up of licensing income, subsidised bus routes, street lighting energy and planning. The impact of COVID was £140K.  These costs were offset by considerable savings on Waste collection and disposal of £579K  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6b

Cabinet considered the report that recommends the implementation of the highways capital works programme.

The Lead Member for Transport and Infrastructure informed Cabinet that the budget for 2020 / 2021 was £5.5 million, £400k for one off schemes and £1.3 million for bridge works.  £3.22 million was set aside for the annual works programme contained within the report.  The local transport plan set out our objectives and this was supported by the works programme that had been development by taking into account comments from residents, local businesses and parish councils.  £2.697 million had been secured from the Department of Transport and £1.076 million from corporate commitments.  It was anticipated that there would be £1.5 million being awarded for pot hole repairs. 

The Deputy Chairman of Cabinet, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health welcomed the excellent resurfacing work that had been undertaken within his ward.

The Deputy Leader of the Council, Resident and Leisure Services, HR, IT, Legal, Performance Management and Windsor reported that she disappointed that there were no works scheduled for her ward in Windsor, especially given the importance of tourism.  She also asked what would be done regarding cycling and walking.  In response the Lead Member reported that here were works planned for Old Windsor and technical assessments help determine what areas were on the list. He acknowledged the importance of cycling and walking and was awaiting details from government on additional support in this area.  Funds would be used to support the cycling action plan.

The Lead Member for Housing, Communications and Youth Engagement informed of the need to resurface Cox Green lane.

Cllr Knowles raised the poor legacy of some road treatments in the past and that there had been mention of a trial of a new surface in Bray but he had not heard anything about this progressing. He was also concerned about the practice of continuing to add new road surfaces upon one another rather than dealing with the underlying problem with the road.  This also impacted on the safety for cyclists. The Lead Member informed that we did tell our contractors not to do quick fixes and that the level of work matched requirements.  Temporary resurfacing can be put in place pending more comprehensive works.

Cllr Hill requested that that Fane Way and Larchfield Road be looked at as they were on a main bus route and residents had reported damage to their cars. The Lead Member requested that Cllr Hill send him the locations so he can get them inspected.

Cllr Jones reported that she was pleased to see that the report’s recommendations had been based on robust technical information and supported adopted policy.

Resolved unanimously: that Cabinet notes the report and:

i.          Endorses the implementation of the programme of work set out in Appendix A and Appendix B

ii.         Delegates authority to the Director of Adults, Health and Commissioning, (in consultation with the Lead Member for Transport and Infrastructure) to agree amendments to the approved schemes.(within approved  ...  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 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"

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) od the Local Government Act 1972, the public were excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion took place on the grounds that they involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 3 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.