To receive any announcements from the Leader.
Minutes:
The Leader made the following announcements:
“Firstly let me express our best wishes to our Mayor who has recently had an operation and is continuing to recover at home. I’m sure all Members will join me in wishing Madam Mayor a continued and speedy full recovery.
Please let me spend a couple of minutes mentioning last week’s events.
Congratulations to our excellent MP, and good friend to many of us, Kwasi Kwarteng on his resounding victory with an increased majority, and also for Conservatives nationally in last week’s General Election. We can now get on and fulfil the will of the people, not hamstrung by undemocratic parties and indeed individual former MPs who thought they knew better than the electorate. For those who demanded a “People’s Vote”, well they have had it and the electorate has spoken. Now we can safely say that nationally, as well as in Spelthorne, Conservative administrations mean business.
Many will be aware that Kwasi is finally taking the marital plunge, and I am sure all Members will join me in wishing Kwasi and Harriet all best wishes on their wedding on Saturday.
In the words of Boris, we were hoping to be Corbyn neutral by Christmas. Well it seems we will have to wait a little longer. Talking of such matters, Members will recall that at the October Council meeting Councillors Siva, Doerfel and Nichols all stated that the target we adopted for being carbon neutral by 2050, the same as central government, was “unambitious” and “we should instead adopt 2030 to be carbon neutral”. You will recall that I responded by inviting them to jointly present their plan tonight as to how we may achieve this in an economically viable manner. Given that, as I understand it, even the Labour party, or what’s left of them, have recently abandoned 2030 as being unrealistic, it is unsurprising that they have not produced this, unless they are saving it as a surprise for us later tonight.
Members will also recall that we undertook to form a Leader’s Climate Change Task Group and I am happy to confirm that this has been formed and will shortly be meeting for the first time. It will consist of four Conservatives, and one each from Liberal Democrats, Labour and Greens. It will be chaired by Councillor Noble.
Members will recall that we launched the Local Plan consultation on 5 November. By statute these consultations need to be open for a minimum of six weeks, and in recognition of the interruption of the Election, which was not known when we set the dates, has now been extended until 21 January, a total of 11 weeks. Many residents will understandably have concerns and I urge everyone to submit their responses by 21 January. There is a lot of misinformation being promulgated by what I have come to think of as the “traffic light alliance” of Reds Amber and Green, and a statement of repudiation has just been published.
Unfortunately we may ultimately have to make some tough decisions and I want everyone to understand officers have already put very significant time and effort into the emerging Plan. We will of course fully consider all feedback in the continued development of the Plan. This is an ongoing process and we are not expecting it to be finalised for about another 18 months.
Seven public events have been held to provide further information to residents and interested parties and a further event has been planned in January
The Council met with senior officials from the Ministry of Homes, Communities and Local Government to express the deep concerns over the very high housing figure calculated for the Borough using the Government’s standard method for calculating ‘need’. Using this method, the figure for Spelthorne is 603 homes per year. Like many local authorities in Surrey, it is incredibly challenging to find sites to meet that need. Spelthorne is 65% Green Belt and 17% is water. In fact, 26% of our Green Belt is made up of the reservoirs. The Council will continue to push the Government to bring this housing figure down so we can deliver a Local Housing Plan that is acceptable to our communities.
On Monday 11 November a Remembrance Ceremony was held here at the Council offices and we were joined by veteran Bill Sykes who helped plant a Red Oak Tree outside on the Green in readiness for commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of VE Day on 8 May 2020.
The Council has announced that it will be offering Council Tax exemptions from April 2020 to young people leaving care aged between 18 and 25. Care leavers have often had their childhoods affected by instability and trauma and they leave home earlier and have less support than other young people, which leads them to have some of the worst life chances in the County. I’m very proud that we have taken this practical step to help some of our most vulnerable residents in the Borough.
The Council has produced a written response and local impact report for The Southampton to London Pipeline Project. The proposed pipeline will pass through the Borough and while we understand the national need for the infrastructure project, our primary objective must be to ensure that sufficient protection is provided for our community and environment. The Council is looking for Esso to engage with us and our residents constructively to put in place the specific protections we seek.
Spelthorne Borough Council has launched a public consultation over the draft framework of our new Homelessness Strategy, which will address homelessness and rough sleeping in Spelthorne for 2020 to 2025. The consultation opened Monday 2 December and runs up to midday Monday 6 January. The overall aims of the strategy are to ensure nobody sleeps rough in Spelthorne, ending the use of bed and breakfast accommodation, reducing the length of time people stay in temporary accommodation, increasing the use of the private sector for homelessness prevention and investing in staff training and development to improve the Housing Options service.
Spelthorne’s food banks provide support to those really in need to ensure they don’t go hungry and the Council is keen to show our appreciation of their work and try to ease the burden during the festive season. In order to help those in need further, Spelthorne Borough Council has donated £2,000 to each of the four food banks in the Borough ahead of the Christmas period.
As Leader of Spelthorne Borough Council, I attended a Council meeting at Grand Port Mauritius on Friday 15th November to formally mark the 10th anniversary of our Twinning Charter. The visit was entirely self-funded and reflects my personal desire to reaffirm the decade long twinning. Taking time out from his annual vacation visiting family on the island, the Chief Executive - in his own time and at his own expense - also joined me on 15 November to mark this occasion. We both participated in a working session in the Grand Port Council Chamber with District Councillors and Heads of Department. The Chairman and Chief Executive of Grand Port then publically reaffirmed the relationship between the two boroughs in signing a 10th anniversary Charter declaration which is displayed in our public vestibule outside the Council Chamber. The Chairman and Chief Executive of Grand Port will be visiting Spelthorne early in 2020.
The Council have committed to their long standing plans to invest in zero emission electric powered vehicles for Council staff here at Knowle Green and at the depot. These include two electric pool cars, two electric vans for the operations team and two electric pool bicycles. The vehicles are expected to be in operation in February and underline our corporate priority to provide a clean and safe environment and develop a sustainable community for residents to live work and enjoy.
Can I thank all staff that were involved with running the General Election. At an already busy time of year for a lot of people this is a big team effort, so thank you for your ongoing support.
Many will be aware that our Head of Corporate Governance, Michael Graham is leaving us at the start of February to take up a new challenge at Reading. I am sure all members will join me in thanking Michael for his hard work and invaluable support and guidance to us in particular when we were new Councillors. I would like to welcome Karen Limmer who is here tonight and who will be joining us in the short term, subject to Council agreement later this evening, until a permanent replacement is found. Karen has recently retired from this role at Surrey Heath so is well qualified to keep us in order.
Finally may I wish everyone a very blessed Christmas and look forward to a prosperous 2020.
Thank you Mr Deputy Mayor”