 Let's try again. That's very loud. OK. Good morning everybody, members, officers and any members in the public... I don't have anyone attending in person but there might well be somebody online. So this is a meeting of South Cambridge District Council Cabinet. We normally take decisions by affirmation here, If there is any disagreement then obviously we go to a vote. But only those members who are present in the chamber are able to vote. I will ask Cabinet Members to speak before non cabinet members and then we'll invite anybody, any other members. So can I begin by confirming the meeting's quorate.itous. Thank you very much. And we've got Councillor Anna Bradlam representing Scrutiny and ovarywe. OK. All righty Ho. So let's just start with item one which is apologies for absence, Pippa, please. Thank you Chair, We have our body from Councillor Peter MacDonald. Thank you very much. 3. ¿Ytem two, do anyone have an interest that they need to declare pertaining to today's gender? No. So no declarations of interest. Os wnaeth rym ni'n amlwg sydd wedi ddim mas, rydyn ni'n mynd i'n bwysig. Wrth ddweud yn dweud yn adroddiadol i'r ddigon i'r ddweud y dyfodol. Wrth ddweud yn ystafel o'r ddweud y gwnnod o'r ddweud y cyfrifio gwahanol? Mae'n gyngor i'r defnyddio i'r ddweud eich ddweud, rydyn ni'n ddweud? A roedd yn gynnig ar y ffordd o'r ddweud? Wel, os y gallwn gwneud ar y ddweud? Wel, os y gallwn gwneud arredig? y cadwuniaeth yw'r ymddangos ymgyrch yn ymgyrch ar gyfer y dyn nhw, yn ymgyrch â'r cyffredinol. Mae anon mwyaf. Felly mae gennym eu anon mwyaf. Mae'r ymddangos, mae'n byw ddweud yng Nghymru o'r Ffraith Llywol Llywol Llywol, o'r ymddangos yma'r ymddangos yma'r 4-day-week model. Mae anon mwyaf o'r ddweud yn ei ffordd o'r ddweud yw'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud o'r ddweud, Felly maen nhw'n gofyniad i'n deall. Mae hyn yn oedd y clywed o'r cyffredig. Mae'n rhaid gwneud o ddechrau. Mae'n rhaid. Mae'n rhaid o ddweud o ddweud, writher dydw i你好ledau. A fyddwn i'r cyfleu o gweithio. Mae'r cyfleu o dydw i ddweud ond hefyd. Mae'n rhaid o ddweud o ddechrau. Mae'n ddechrau o ddweud i'r cyfleu o ddweud. Mae'n ddweud o ddweud o ddweud. Mae'n ddweud o ddweud o ddweud. support update. Catzabraddon, do you want to speak now or do you want to take it within the bulk of the meeting? Thank you, Chair, leader. Scrutiny and Overview welcomed the report from North Stoke community, looking at North Stoke community facilities and the cost of living update. We welcomed the work that the officers had done and felt it was so important that the learnings that we've acquired from developing these new communities should be captured and used in future and hence the recommendations to A of this paper. On the cost of living update, one of the other things that we recognised was the enormous amount of work over and above that which you might have expected a district council to do that has been done and which has enormously benefited our residents and the questions that we asked as a committee are recorded in the paper for A, B and C and so I just commend that to the cabinet. Thank you. Thank you very much and we'll be discussing that report later on. So thank you for the contribution of Scrutiny and Overview of highlighting the impact on local businesses, particularly things like cafes and how social value can be assessed, which actually we do assess that. It would be interesting to know more about it. So thank you very much. Any questions relating to Scrutiny's work? No? So thank you. So members are asked to note that report. Item seven is the local impact report from Cambridge waste water treatment plant relocation development consent order and Councillor Mills is going to introduce this and I'm happy to second it. Thank you, leader. So this is an impact report on the waste water treatment movement application and in summary this looks at giving the district council's principal, in principle, support of the DCO but there's a very comprehensive report before us that we've considered previously at cabinet meetings and we have two recommendations before us today. One to agree the report and the second to delegate to the director of planning and economic development, the authority to take all associated actions necessary in the interests of the efficient and timely conduct of the council's compliance with the DCO procedures for this move of the waste treatment plant. So I'm quite with Stephen Kelly to speak and give us some more details of that if we need to. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, as has been outlined, the purpose of this report is to provide the council's position in respect of the impacts and the benefits of the development, which is the waste water treatment plant proposed relocation. Our role in that process is not akin to the role as planning authority where we balance one thing against the other and draw a final determination but it is to submit this comprehensive report and response to what is called the examining body, examining authority, three planning inspectors effectively appointed by the sector of state who will hear representations not only from South Cambridgeshire District Council but also Council in City and third party representatives as well as the applicants. That process has begun and we're working to a statutory timetable that is set, which is why the second recommendation covers quite a range of matters that on your behalf I will be obliged to provide comment to at the examining process and indeed in response to written questions that the examining authority may give to us or other parties. I would just like to cover a couple of points. You will see through the report that there's been a fairly comprehensive assessment undertaken and whilst there are clear benefits to the scheme we've identified areas where further information is required or where the examining authority will need to form a view on the merits of the scheme. I would just draw your attention to one update that I would want to provide through the delegation given to me on page 66 which is to clarify we talk in depth about the planning policy context but to draw a conclusion after paragraph 6109 to draw a conclusion in the status of the evidence to the local plan. We cover the area of action plan in some depth and indeed the examining authority have asked the council about that but to provide some context for the examining authority I just need to add a little bit more narrative about the local plan the joint local plan sorry but with that with that as council members have highlighted the report is pretty comprehensive I hope it's clear to you the reasoning and the rationale that we have followed we are submitting the city council is considering the matter on Thursday and it is a different set of considerations for the city to south camershire because clearly city impact and benefits on the city will be different to the impacts and benefits on south camershire thank you chair and sorry just before you speak leader I'd like to thank the officers in involved in preparing this report which has been as we've said very comprehensive so Changi Claire and the other officers that have produced this report first thank you thank you very much indeed yes it's a it's a huge amount of work right are there any questions from cabinet any questions from anyone online okay right so this is obviously oh right council member thank you chair I can't remember where it was but I saw that the officers had addressed public rights of way at various locations around proposed works and I also sit on the in my I'm a nominee from the county council to the conservators of the cam so we've also looked at this paper and I'm mindful that there are some rights of way on the east side of the river right near where the outflow is proposed which have been mentioned briefly but what I'm concerned about and I'm asking whether you would be concerned as well about it is the actual height of the outflow pipe relative to the current level of the bound in other words will is it your impression that the works will actually expunge the right of way I know this is something for the county council to be looking at and addressing I haven't seen their representation yet but I wondered if he could just take take that bear that in mind because there are rights of way along the bank there and it would be it would break the connection between Horninsea and Fendit and if that right of way was stopped completely one hopes that after reinstatement the re the right of way could be restored across the bank I'd be I'd like to be reassured about that Stephen can we're certainly working very closely with the county council on on this they are the in fact the waste authority so it would normally be the planning authority for for an application of this type and certainly in terms of rights of way and the transport effects we are we're in fact jointly instructing the same barrister in this examination process and I'll certainly make sure that that concern is reflected in terms of the further questions that we ask of Angliaw water but also seeking to ensure satisfactory resolution so that it doesn't become an issue the severance point that you highlight thank you very much right thank you very much if there aren't any more questions we'll go to the recommendations I'm not going to read them out because they're quite long on page 19 and page 20 key thing is that there's we are delegating to the director of planning and economic development the authority to take all associated action necessary in the interest of the efficient and timely conduct of the council's compliance with the dco procedures so um do you members agree with the proposal agree anyone wish to vote against anyone wish to abstain thank you so cabinet therefore agrees the recommendations by affirmation thank you so item eight now is the damp mold and constant condensation policy which has been a very topical matter over the last sort of two years so councillor john bachelors going to introduce this thank you very much leader um yes this is a new policy in order to bring the council in line with the current government guidance and guidance from the housing ombudsman um there's been extensive work on this um and consultation with our tenant representatives of that input um we're ongoing with a stock condition survey over all our stock at the moment um and part of that is to establish um if there's any issues with damp um so it's a policy that we're required to have um we have it here so I'm happy to recommend it and I'd also like to thank Julie Fletcher and her team who have put a lot of work into this policy thank you thank you yes a very hardworking team um cut so Henry Bachelon I think you're going to second it do you want to speak on the item yeah please just a few words if that's okay so yeah happy to second um you may recall recently we updated our policy around damp and mould in the private rented sector which does fall within my portfolio so yeah more than happy to uh support the housing department in getting the policy up to standard um in within our own stock so yep it seems a sensible move and yeah as councillor John Bachelon said um you know well done to all the officers for getting us to this point thank you very much indeed right are there any questions from cabinet on this no any questions from anybody else councillor Bradlund thank you chair but leader sorry um I'm really pleased to hear um from councillor Henry Bachelon that we've also updated our policy with regard to the private rented sector because um we did have a property on our books at South Cams which was very damp and it was extremely difficult to work on it we after some time managed to move the tenant um but it when I asked about that property um I was advised that that property had been sold because we didn't want it to be our property but then I thought well somebody's going to rent it so I'm actually really pleased that we've got a a policy regarding the private rented sector as well uh and I'd be interested to see that if anybody could send me a link to it I'd really appreciate that thank you thank you I mean I think was it just a last cabinet meeting where we approved that council actually uh it was either the last one or the one previous so it's certainly one of the last people I can send it to councillor Bradlund that's the issue thank you yes it was it was very it was very recently okay right are there any questions from anyone else on this no okay so we'll move to the recommendation which is on page 157 which is that we approve the um the new the draft policy and we give councillor John bachelor delegation for any sort of minor amendments and so on to it so do members agree with the proposal thank you anyone wish to vote against anyone wish to abstain the cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation and continuing on housing themes item nine is the council tenants disabled adaptations policy and uh council john bachelor again right thank you very much leader um this is an update on policy in order to bring us in line with the uh current social housing regulation act and um a recent omerson determination uh of which required us to update our policy so this is the updated policy please to move recommendation thank you very much council mills i think you're second in do you want to say anything uh now it's uh another good piece of work from the housing team happy to support uh in recommendation thank you any questions from members of cabinet any questions from anybody else uh councillor williams uh thank you leader just a question about how this can be communicated um um i say this because i had a resident who suffered a stroke in his in accounts property and his family got in touch um with myself to try and get help to do some adaptations the information had been given directly to the tenant but obviously in that situation wasn't able to have the capacity to to deal with things himself and um i'm just wondering what are we doing to make sure that if people need adaptations we're sort of advertising it because it is an important part of what the council does thank you very much council bachelor would you like to pick that up well yeah the count the uh disabled adaption policy is there it's on our website um you know you would go through the normal process and there is a process clearly there um for everybody to do if there's an ongoing issue um with council williams um constituent i'll be happy to hear about it and progress matters thank you um i there's julie fletcher do you want to um add anything into that please yes thank you chair um just to add to that yes we have got that on our website but we will be reviewing the website following the approval of the policy but also to say we will um do some communications out to our tenants now that the policy has been approved or once it's approved through our newsletter but we also work very closely with the social care team so in that instance i would have thought you know they would have helped with that referral so i'm a bit surprised that that wasn't sort of the leading but we do certainly work very closely with social care thank you and i think this is very often where local members step in as as you've obviously done in order just to you know facilitate things if people aren't aware so thank you very much indeed um okay so if there's no more questions um the recommendation is on page 184 um hang on is it on 184 no it's not it's on 183 thank you recommended that the cabinet approve the draft council tenant disabled adaptations policy at dependix a and we believe member for housing has given delegator authority to improve any minor amendments et cetera so do members agree with the proposal anyone wish to vote against anyone wish to abstain so cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation and moving on to some more good news work um is the cost of living support update um and councillor bill handley is going to induce this um councillor john williams is going to second it so councillor handley no yes thank you leader this report provides an update on the cost of living schemes that we're currently running um those that was undertaken by the council in last winter and also a second phase the ongoing work coming into this this this coming winter you'll recall that council declared a cost of living crisis at its meeting in september 2022 and after this cabinet agreed a package of support based on heating and health such as warm hubs and low cost methods methods of heating and cooking at home the schemes had the financial support of the integrated care board and we're very grateful to them for doing so the first phase of the project was considered a great success and we as I say we've moved into a second phase which now focuses on uh creating self-sustaining projects which will hopefully continue well into the future the evolution of the warm hubs into community hubs um we've been working with chemistry acre and again funded by the uh the integrated care board these are spaces where people can socialise in a warm and comfortable environment and also uh get information and advice to help them through difficult times there are currently 13 of these operating um and we do have funding to support another seven we can support up to 20 so um we'll be talking with people who might wish to might wish to join join the scheme join the system um we've been providing again uh energy saving uh devices um 500 electric blankets or throws um are going to be provided to residents who are receiving certain benefits and you know who have long-term health and health conditions or disabilities um and we're also raising awareness of the support that's available through the hubs uh using road shows cost of living talks uh and a communication campaign which we're going to run until Christmas with a main focus on council tax support that's available officers are we're also working with food banks across the district to create a sustainable food network to share ideas and experiences one of the advantages um is that you know they can communicate with each other to minimise the chances of any food going to waste you know if one one hope has a surplus they can help other food uh food hubs and and it's interesting that they too now provide uh intend to provide help and advice to residents at the food hubs so again it's it's making sure people know uh what they they they what help is available to them finally on food we've been working with the charity Hope CIC uh to set up a new a mobile food hub scheme and that started back in June uh and has been visiting five locations each week and we hope to add more to that list but that's also been very well received of course there will be some people who can't travel to food banks or mobile hubs and for those people we are providing food parcels which contain a week's worth of food to people who are vulnerable and for emergencies um leader i'm going to leave it there it's a it's a huge piece of work it's a comprehensive report and I would draw cabinet's attention uh to ask them to note it and particularly the two appendices A and B which give more detail of what's what we're actually doing um I'd like to end by saying I'm I'm really proud of the work that we're doing to help residents and I was really happy to present the work to the scrutiny and overview committee as Anna Dr um councillor Bradman mentioned earlier and I was delighted with the reception that it received there that I received there um finally like to thank the officers who are involved in all of this especially to Chris Richards who's in the in the room today who's central to all of it and who prepared this comprehensive report thank you to everybody thank you very much indeed councillor Williams do you want to um add anything thank thank you leader just that I'd just like to um focus on a couple of um things in the report uh first of all that um it's very important that um residents are able to access their benefits the research suggests that only 25% of the benefits are actually claimed by people and one of the aims of this is to try and ensure that people are aware of the benefits that they are entitled to and certainly we have a dedicated page on our website to that and we also have money maximisation officers that can also help residents ensure that they are getting all the benefits that they are entitled to the other thing that I want to highlight is the role of the community chest gland scheme in this um this is an opportunity for communities to help us with this uh cost of living program and uh 20 000 pounds has been set aside from the community chest grant scheme for projects that help cost of living uh help us tackle the cost of living crisis and again I would if you if you a community group um wants to get support from this councill in work that they are doing then please again go to the council's website look at the community chest grant funding scheme and there you can find an application um to to um apply for um a grant from this council to help you in in in your work uh to help us with the cost of living crisis there are a couple of things there that I think I wanted to highlight but I'm very pleased to be able to second this I think the officers have done a tremendous amount of work thank you for Chris and the whole community team that put their hearts and minds to this and and like Bill I'm very proud of what we're doing thank you thank you very much and I think you know I think some of this has evolved out of the work we did during the pandemic so it's lovely to have something positive and a sort of lasting lasting legacy um this work was really well received by the corporate peer team review team we had in last week um I know for a fact that um they've gone back to their councils and they've done a sort of brain dump of what we're doing here because actually they there was lots of stuff which actually they wanted to implement in their own councils so I so I share your I share your pride in this councillor handily um I think it shows an incredible responsiveness to problems which continue to emerge um our victims are facing I think it's a really creative approach and I think it's demonstrating extraordinary value value for money and you know the social impact of it is significant and even the little things about you know how much money an electric throw saves you um and I know that Chief Executive had a lovely little letter from from a resident the other day just saying you know how lovely it was to sit wrapped up in this nice cozy throw speaking of somebody who sits in a kitchen working with a hot water bottle up my jumper and my feet on another hot water bottle but I think I'm going to have to invest in something a bit more high tech um so so yeah fantastic fantastic work so are there any questions from members of cabinet uh councillor Bradman thank you um I've said in my earlier response how much the scrutiny and overview committee recommended this uh this report and the good work that it identifies and summarizes um and I just wanted to say that at the screening and overview committee I did point out that there is also a warm hub in Milton that is evolving into a community hub it's also identified in the pendix b report and identified on the map so I was just a little bit um miffed that wasn't mentioned in the report but only only because I did mention it and screening have a few and it is one of the one of the uh hubs that is continuing thanks that's on um in your paragraph 12 when it says 13 hubs I'm thinking over 14 thanks councillor Bradman a councillor Williams thank you leader and um I think it's fair to say that all members of the council appreciate the efforts gone to from officers and the administration on the cost of living it's something that we don't always agree that on this one we have um just a few things to go through I recognize that there's been online donations which is a lovely thing that it shows people appreciate what's happening as well but just how we'll be accounting for that um and how that's dealt with the other thing um is that obviously we know that because we're so oil dependent particularly in wards like my own that fuel poverty is is a difficulty and I'm just wondering whether there is something through um in upgrading sort of going to air source heat pumps and things like that how the programme of work does that for the housing tenants from our council houses how is that sort of interlinking are we prioritising people on oil for example which is more expensive um and just a plea that great work on helping people keep warm reducing the electricity bills but one thing that probably doesn't get talked about enough is period poverty um and if on the next phase that could be reflected in the work that the council does to trying to support people with that because not um not everybody at the moment you know is in a good position financially thank you very very much um on that your second point about uh rural community off grid rural communities I think the hug to funding is specifically for um you know retrofit into uh property which is using bottle bottle gas or or oil isn't it um do you want to come in Peter on that one thank you yeah so we were looking at that looking behind you so for the for all council properties um as was laid out in erratic management strategy they're going through a um through a process um whereas um in the early days what we're doing is increase improving the insulation to properties and that would be backed up by information the stock condition survey which um a councillor bachelor referred to earlier um and once we are convict you have evidenced she's sure that the insulation is good enough to move to an air source heat pumps um then we'll come up that the second part of the plan but it makes it makes total um logical sense that properties that are currently reliant on or expensive parts of um forms of heating um are prioritised but it will be it will be ineffective unless we affect it will we impact on the insulation first thank you and if I could bring Chris in to address how we will we account for donations but also um on councillor Williams last point about um period poverty and and other sort of more hidden types of poverty which are becoming more more prevalent yeah so on the first point on the donations we we received over 2000 pounds and the money that we received was allowed us to expand our offer so it allowed us to um offer the electric blankets and slow cookers to more people than we would have been able to otherwise um and on the second point on period poverty um we've been working with um some officers in waste team who are providing some reusable menstrual products and we've been working to target these and hand these out uh in the areas that we have identified as most in need councillor Williams thank you and I appreciate that was a great explanation as to how the money was spent I was thinking more um of how it's actually processed as it come into the council's bank account and then spent I'm just thinking of when external audit you know come through this just how are we accounting for it um and appreciate that there's work being done on period poverty thank you yes yeah I'm just waiting for our finance officer to deal with that one yeah so when the money comes in it'll obviously come into our bank account and the reference that's provided will enable us to put the income against the cost of living cuts that we know but that's what it relates to okay so so it's ring ring easily identifiable ring ring ring fenced and yeah all income that comes in okay and and very attributable to what it's what it's delivered okay all right okay do you want it good any more questions no okay so um the recommendation is set out in page 205 which is just that we note the reports and appendices um thank you very much to uh all of the team um who've done you know it's outstanding but it works which is you know it's obviously just going to keep on keep on developing there's there's not a task in finish there's the problems continue and the responses have to continue um so do members agree with the proposal agree for anyone voting against anyone abstaining so cabinet therefore agrees their proposals by affirmation thank you very much indeed and item 11 is the provision general fund provisional general fund revenue and capital out turn um and council john williams is going to uh lead on this i will second it thank you thank you leader um well a very good um out turn um the actual out turn was better than the um the the out turn that we were forecasting um and it's obviously better than the original uh budget um in that um we ended up with a surplus um and that um most of that uh was down to um increasing taxations uh income but also um hope underspend on um on pensions um so a very good satisfactory outcome and it's meant that we can transfer three million uh across into the general fund um bringing the total general fund to 18 uh million and that um it actually puts this in a very good um sound financial situate position going forward so um congratulations to the finance team but also to the whole of council for um maintaining pretty pretty close to to the budget that we set but actually as i say um we were able to increase our income from taxation and grants to give us that bit of extra money that we weren't expecting that we've been able to transfer into into reserves thank you thank you very much um any comments from members of cabinet any comments from anyone else council williams probably a plea on the ict the note has been a delay in those projects i think a lot of us suffer from it problems quite regularly and would appreciate um efforts being stepped up to spend that money um quite quickly would be appreciated but i'm going to ask councillor millms just to make a comment because he's been working very hard on this well we've been um reviewing um on a continuous basis the ict support um and actually the um you'll you'll remember well uh when we first came into administration the ict performance was perhaps uh not what we would expect and it's improved significantly uh since since then uh and that say again stuff yeah chairs charity sorry i was mid flow councillor williams i'm sorry anyway it's a work in progress um and uh the performance of the ict service is improving but we clearly need to continue that move in the right direction there are still obvious examples where the performance is not what we'd expect it's it's in hand okay can we come back just a particular plea on emails um please as as always noted okay thank you right so moving on so it was very gratifying to get such um a clean bill of health from the corporate peer review on our finances uh last last week um i don't imagine there's many local authorities you know who can who can say what we what we can say um that you know wealthman actually sound we have healthy reserves and we have um very little exposure to risk from our our investment so it was very we you know we knew that but it was very nice to have a group of peers come and affirm it in the clearest terms to us so again my thanks uh added to councillor williams's thanks to all the all the finance team who've moved us moved us forward into this this enviable position so um the recommendations are set are quite long so i'm not going to read them on page 285 and 286 do members agree with proposals agree anyone we should vote against anyone we should abstain the cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation um so continuing on on finance item 10 is the provisional housing revenue account out turn um councillor john williams is going to introduce it and councillor john bachelor is going to second it councillor williams thank thank you leader um as you can see um the out term position there was an underspend um in the revenue position and um there was also um a decrease in the housing revenue account balances um as to the capital program um that we did need to carry forward we have needed to carry forward three million due to slippage to the house building uh program but i'll let councillor bachelor explain that in more detail thank you very much councillor bachelor thank you very much uh leader um um yes the carry forward i mean is a symptom of the times i'm afraid in the builders who slowed up this is specifically about north stone where the expectations on timings have not been fully met um this doesn't mean the oh that the housing has disappeared or anything it's just going to come back in as a the later date that was originally planned um other than that i think the whole account is very satisfactory and giving a budget out turn which is within less than one percent of the original budget uh given the times that we have uh i think was um jolly good out turn when we were done to all those involved thank you thank you very much um any questions from cabinet any questions from anyone else councillor bradlon thank you leader um i just wanted to say and it relates to these two papers that i just wanted to thank the council for being courageous because it's it's not been easy at all obviously and yet in these difficult times we've managed to manage our money and actually provide facilities where we needed to for example at north stone and people have taken steps to spend big amounts of money to provide necessary uh community facilities when we were left in a very difficult position by the developer and by the previous agreement so i just wanted to say thank you to our cabinet for making these courageous decisions because it it's public money we have to be accountable for it and uh i just wanted to say thank you much appreciate councillor bradlon thank you very much indeed um but thanks to um obviously to our officers officers as well who do all hard work um councillor williams thank you leader um just in relation to comments on north stone just wondering sort of we said it slowed up but have we got a rough scale of the delay and how many units it affects please um well i mean as far as i'm concerned you know some developers it hasn't slowed down it's ground to a halt in some in some places i think one of the developers there has stopped sort of work but yeah peter would you like to add some you know stuff way outside our control unfortunately um i don't have the figures to hand the let's be clear there's been delays on a lot of a lot of development and the specific overspend i'll say underspend this year has covered in paragraph 16 it's to do with the scheme at um new road over and ramps and road in in in cotton where the um well we're taking one of six properties from the developer but the developer's delivering the rest of the scheme to the market um demand as market demand has fallen therefore developer has slowed slowed down their delivery um what we can do outside this meeting is to produce a schedule of what we were expecting at this time um and and what's actually coming through um and and the other properties in each development yes had that i chaired well what was the housing committee at the combined authority again again you know we've seen it you know it's been a real struggle to get those some of those final houses um out yes out and out and delivered because there's been such market market pressures um okay there's no more questions then um right so the recommendations are quite a lot of them set out at 301 um do you members agree with the proposal agree anyone wish to vote again anyone wish to abstain so cabinet therefore agrees the proposals by affirmation and moving on to the final finance item and that's the general fund medium term financial strategy it's that time of year again um councillor williams um and i think councillor mills is going to second it doesn't he sorry i'm sorry yeah that's fine what do you come i'll second that all right totally good that's what we'll go with that councillor williams thank you leader um as you know we we knew the uh mid term financial strategy which covers the um financial position of the council um trying to forecast financial position of the council for the next five years and we do this every six months and obviously it's there to deliver the uh business plan of the council um and so obviously if the business plan is amended or adapted or changed in any way then obviously mcfs has changed to to um to deliver it um you'll see that um um the real problem um with uh local government as a whole is that um we have to rely on crystal balls the whole time to see what's going to happen not just in five years time but what's going to happen next year um and one of the interesting changes that um that happened uh fairly recently was the fact that the fair funding review which has um been um we've been threatened with now ever since we took uh control this council in 2018 it's been pushed back every year it's been pushed back again um but nevertheless we have to make allowance for the fact that we could face a fair funding review um and it's even more uncertain of course because there will be a general election um in next year and we will have a change of government so whether we will have a fair funding review and if we do if it will be the wonder we're expecting um who knows so um I have to say that although um it looks like um we have clawed back some um um over spend and um initially six months ago we were saying that we would over the at the end of the um we'll be looking for something like six and a half million deficit for the um for the five years we've clawed that back to um just over five uh well just under five and a half million um to be honest with you we really don't know beyond 25 26 no one really knows what is going to happen to local government finance and so um you know we we have to it's important that we do this we need to look ahead five years um but I have to say actually what is going to happen in five years time um no one can predict at the moment because of the fact that um we don't have any certainty from national government um so I'm very pleased that we've clawed it back to five and a half now but I have to say that is very much a uh an estimate as to what might happen but nevertheless we always look at the worst situation so we're very with a small c conservative in going forward in what we're likely to get in in in terms of income um so as I say at the moment we are forecasting that the end of the five year period would have a deficit of around just over five million and total for the five years the deficit of 5.4 which we must work to reduce either through improvements in productivity or or increases in income thank you thank you council Williams council mills yes thank you um I'd just like to reinforce what council Williams has just reported in terms of the uh levels levels of uncertainty that we have to deal with in this regard um which makes um these forecasts uh really quite awkward um and there's a high high difference between on those levels of sensitivity analysis uh in in this regard and it's uh an awful lot of work um that's um well done for us um you know the transformation um program that we have uh to reduce costs is uh is moving on um and uh I think one of the things that the corporate review reference was the minimum revenue provision uh but uh largely um we're uh not impacted I think by that council Williams uh is your report so um I'm happy to second the report thank you thank you very much indeed yes so you know in the 16 years I've been doing being a councillor it it's been a guessing it's been a guessing game and I think it's not just now the case and we don't know what's going to happen to local government finance over the next few years I don't think we know what's going to happen to local government um so anyway thank you thank you very much indeed this is a robust piece of work um thank you to the all the officers involved cabinet any questions from you no anybody else no no okay thank you very much so the recommendations are set out at 309 page 309 do members agree with the proposals anyone wish to vote against anyone wish to abstain thank you to cabinet therefore agree with the proposals by affirmation and moving on to item 14 which was the motion that was referred from from council thank you just a variety hope so so the motion is set out on page 339 um I'm sure you're all familiar with it um so this was referred to cabinet from from full council um it's because decisions about the four day week trial because it is a trial have have been an executive function and the the decision making has rested with cabinet and that's why it's come back to cabinet we agreed quite some time ago that the monitoring of this trial would be through the employment committee and I think they've gotten meeting this week so the papers are available through that um but if and if and when it comes to a final decision um it will be down to full council to to make that just make that decision about whether to make a four day week permanent should we get should we get to that point um so I'm therefore proposing that cabinet note the motion um and I think council John Williams is going to going to second that um but are there any comments from cabinet no from anybody else council Williams uh what guarantees do the rest of full council have that the cabinet won't just simply extend the trial um I can't I can't say I mean it will depend it will depend on how the trial goes whether you know cabinet makes a judgment as whether it needs to be extended or not so I can't give that guarantee it depends you know depends how the trial goes whether you know we deem it necessary necessary to extend it and whether it continues and yeah and yeah and whether we actually put a proposal to full council that's uh that a four day week working model be adopted but I can't I can't say that at this moment in time yep and is there any chance that you'll be stopping the trial and if you do so will you take that decision in public so we are looking we are obviously constantly reviewing the trial at the trial um I wait to see what um what comes out of the employment and staffing committee I've said all along that should there be a downturn in performance um that appears to result from the trial that we will stop the trial that's always been the case from day from day one so you know that we've never said this trial will just you know will just continue to its its conclusion come hell or high water it's always depended on you know this the constant monitoring which goes on on a weekly basis okay uh councillor bragan thank you leader um as a member of employment and staffing I've looked at the papers um and the report looks very positive uh and so I look forward to the discussion at employment and staffing um the only thing I wanted to ask was um are you confident that the we have sufficient KPIs to monitor all aspects of work um for for the purposes of ensuring that we that it's uh that we you know what are the undertakings was that it the service would be no worse and I just I my understanding is that KPIs are sufficient but I just wondered if there's anything that people are thinking that they might wish to have so if you're forgiving I think that's a question for employment for employment and staffing um you know the item here is around is around the motion so I'd like to keep us on you know on on track to talk you know to talk about the motion but I think that will be a very interesting question for you to put the employment staffing committee meeting and I look forward to hearing the outcome of it okay so moving on um the the the proposal is that uh we note uh we note the motion uh that's now come to cabinet um does anyone do do people agree with the proposal anyone wish to vote against anyone wish to abstain so cabinet therefore agrees the proposal by affirmation thank you very much indeed and that was seconded by council Williams I'm sorry I didn't invite you to speak is that all right I'm so I'm sorry okay so we're now coming to the uh point in the meeting where we need to discuss some stuff that's commercially sensitive um so we need to consider whether to exclude the press and public this is because the final three items contain information which is commercially sensitive members of the public advise that if cabinet agrees to exclude the press and public the video stream will end I therefore propose that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the remaining items of business in accordance with section 100a brackets 4 of the local government act 1972 on the grounds that if present if present there would be a disclosure of them of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of part 1 of schedule 12a of the act brackets as amended is that seconded I second that thank you do members agree with the proposal anyone anyone wish to vote against anyone wish to abstain so cabinet therefore agrees proposals by affirmation so for members the public watching the webcast the video stream will end now thank you have so much for joining us at today's meeting and the next meeting of cabinet scheduled to take place on thursday the 5th of december at 10 o'clock almost christmas oh joy