Policy and Resources Committee - 2 November 2020

POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE

NOTICE AND AGENDA

For a virtual/remote meeting to be held on Monday 2 November 2020 at 7.30pm

Members of the Policy and Resources Committee:-

Councillors

Sarah Nelmes (Chair) (Local Plan)      Chris Lloyd (Leisure)

Matthew Bedford (Vice-Chair) (Resources & Shared Services)      Andrew Scarth (Housing)

Reena Ranger

Stephen Cox

Steve Drury (Infrastructure & Planning Policy)      Roger Seabourne (Community Safety & Partnerships)

Stephen Giles-Medhurst (Transport & Economic Development)

Alex Hayward      Alison Wall

Phil Williams (Environmental Services & Sustainability)

Paula Hiscocks

Joanne Wagstaffe Chief Executive

26 October 2020

(The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 made under the Coronavirus Act 2020 enable Council/Committee meetings to be held in a virtual format and enables remote attendance.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm and will be virtual/remote meeting in that it will be conducted at no specific location and all participants are at various locations, communicating via audio and online.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public to its discussion on Part I agenda items at Committee meetings.  Contributions will be limited to one person speaking for and one against each item for not more than three minutes. Please note that in the event of registering your interest to speak on an agenda item but not taking up that right because the item is deferred, you will automatically be given the right to speak on that item at the next meeting of the Committee.  Details of the procedure are provided below:

Members of the public wishing to speak will be entitled to register and identify which Part I report they wish to speak on from the published agenda for the remote meeting.  Those who wish to register to speak must do so by notifying the Committee Team by e-mail 48 hours at committeeteam@threerivers.gov.uk  before the meeting. The first 2 people to register (1 for and 1 against) will be sent a link so that they can join the meeting to exercise that right.  This will also allow the Committee Team to prepare the speaker sheet in advance of the remote meeting to forward to the Chair of the meeting.

In accordance with The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 any matters considered under Part 1 business only of the meeting may be filmed, recorded, photographed, broadcast or reported via social media by any person.

Recording and reporting the Council's meetings is subject to the law and it is the responsibility of those doing the recording and reporting to ensure compliance.  This will include the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Act and the laws of libel and defamation.

Please note that the meeting is being held virtually. The business of the meeting will be live streamed at – (link archived)

The virtual meeting protocol can be found below:

1.         APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2.         MINUTES

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 7 September 2020 and the Extraordinary Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 30 September 2020.

3.         NOTICE OF OTHER BUSINESS

Items of other business notified under Council Procedure Rule 30 to be announced, together with the special circumstances that justify their consideration as a matter of urgency. The Chairman to rule on the admission of such items.

4.         DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

To receive any declarations of interest.

POLICY

5.          LOCAL DEVELOPMENT SCHEME

This report seeks Member’s approval of a revised Local Development Scheme.

6.          MEMBERSHIP OF THE SUB-COMMITTEES OF POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE

To consider the membership of the four sub-committees of this Committee.

RESOURCES

7.          BUDGET MONITORING – MONTH 6 (SEPTEMBER)

Budget monitoring report is a key tool in scrutinising the Council’s financial performance. It is designed to provide an overview to all relevant stakeholders. It is essential that the council monitors its budgets throughout the year to ensure that it is meeting its strategic objectives and that corrective action is taken where necessary.

This report seeks approval to a change in the Committee’s 2020-23 medium-term revenue financial plan. The report shows the Council’s overall consolidated medium term financial plan for both revenue and capital.

8.     WORK PROGRAMME

To receive the Committee’s work programme.

9.     MOTIONS UNDER PROCEDURE RULE 11

At the Council meeting on 20 October 2020 it was agreed that the following motions would be referred to the Policy and Resources Committee.  The following motions will be taken individually in the order provided.  All the proposers and seconders of the motions have been invited to the meeting to present their motion under new Rule 11(11).

Motion 3 - Councillor Peter Getkahn, seconded by Councillor Dominic Sokalski to move under Notice duly given as follows:

Metropolitan Line Extension

Council notes that the UK Government has pledged a ‘New Deal for Britain’ to deliver vital infrastructure. In his speech on June 30th the Prime Minister set out plans to ‘build back better’ in the wake of coronavirus and has pledged £5bn to accelerate infrastructure projects.

Council also notes the community frustration that the plan to extend the Metropolitan Railway was effectively shelved in 2019 after initial works had been completed. The MLX project has already utilised funds from Hertfordshire County Council and Council believes the current situation effectively wastes this public money.

The project has previously been supported by this Council, and some of the benefits would be:

1. Improving access to public transport for local residents (more than 2,500 households would be within 10 minutes’ walk of the two new stations);
2. Creating better connections between Watford and Croxley Green, with new routes to Watford General Hospital, Croxley Green Business Park and other employment areas, which would increase access to employment opportunities for local people;
3. Providing access for Metropolitan line passengers to central Watford and to West Coast mainline National Rail links from Watford Junction station;
4. Contributes to this Council's on-going commitment to battle climate change by providing a viable alternative to car-travel.

Council therefore resolves to write to local MP Gagan Mohindra (Private Parliamentary Secretary to the Department of Transport), Grant Shapps the Secretary of State for Transport, and Dean Russell, MP for Watford, and ask them to petition the Government to allocate sufficient funds to restart and complete the Metropolitan Line Extension project and realise the planned benefits to the area.

Motion 4 - Councillor Sara Bedford, seconded by Councillor Matthew Bedford to move under Notice duly given as follows:

Paying the real living wage

1. Council notes its decision in 2013 to pay the Real Living Wage (RLW) to all employees.
2. Council further notes that this decision was not extended to staff employed on a casual basis and believes that this was incorrect.
3. Council understands that only the Real Living Wage is independently calculated each year and is based on the minimum that employees and their families need to live.
4. Council believes that as a responsible employer this wage should be extended to all employees, regardless of their contract type, and to contracted staff, such as cleaners and security officers.
5. Council therefore requests that all employees of contractors and Council staff employed on a casual basis should be paid the RLW as soon as practically possible, and that discussions take place with SLM regarding the pay of employees at our leisure facilities.
6. Council also commits to becoming an accredited Living Wage Employer.

Note: the cost of this has been estimated by TRDC to be around £10,500pa.

Motion 6 - Councillor Sara Bedford and seconded by Councillor Matthew Bedford to move under Notice duly given as follows:

Ending food poverty and holiday hunger amongst our children

1. Council notes:

1. The increasing level of hunger amongst children in lower income families and the effect of malnutrition on children’s physical, social, educational and emotional development.
2. The continuing increase in the use of foodbanks by families, especially during school holidays.
3. The ‘temporary’ use of vouchers to feed children during school holidays, who would otherwise receive free school meals.
4. A group of supermarkets, businesses and charities have formed a taskforce and backed proposals from the National Food Strategy with an independent review of UK food policy to reduce food poverty and holiday hunger.

2. Council believes that a wealthy and civilised country should ensure its most vulnerable citizens are properly housed and fed.

3. Council supports the campaign to improve the nutrition and lower the hunger of children in lower income families by:

a. Expanding free school meals to every child from a household on Universal Credit or equivalent, reaching an additional 1.5m children aged seven to 16.

b. Expanding an existing school holiday food and activities programme to support all children on free school meals in all areas of England.

1. Increasing the value of the Healthy Start vouchers - which help parents with children under the age of four and pregnant women buy some basic foods - from £3.10 to £4.25 per week, and expanding it to all those on Universal Credit or equivalent, reaching an additional 290,000 people.

4.  Council resolves to write to all three MPs representing the Three Rivers area, and the appropriate Ministers at both the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions, asking them to comment on and take up the points raised above.

Motion 8 - Councillor Dominic Sokalski to propose, seconded by Councillor Sarah Nelmes to move under Notice duly given as follows:

This Council wishes to praise and thank all the dedicated staff of Three Rivers District Council, the staff of the NHS, the key workers who carried on working throughout the lockdown and all the local volunteers who stepped forward to help those in need in our District.

In a time of crisis, the hard work and resilience shown by so many is something we are all truly grateful for and we want to thank you most sincerely.

10.  OTHER BUSINESS – If approved under Item 3 above

11.  EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

If the Committee wishes to consider the remaining item in private, it will be appropriate for a resolution to be passed in the following terms:-

“that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined under paragraphs 1 to 7 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act. It has been decided by the Council that in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.”

Note:  If other confidential business is approved under item 3, it will also be necessary to specify the class of exempt or confidential information in the additional items.)

1.   OTHER BUSINESS – If approved under item 3 above.

Any enquiries please contact the Committee Team by email at committeeteam@threerivers.gov.uk