Venue: Council Chamber, County Hall, Kendal
Contact: Jackie Currie
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Cllr J Brook and Cllr S Sanderson.
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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST/DISPENSATIONS To receive declarations of interest by Members of interests in respect of items on this Agenda, and to consider any dispensations.
Members may however, also decide, in the interests of clarity and transparency, to declare at this point in the meeting, any such disclosable pecuniary interests which they have already declared in the Register, as well as any other registrable or other interests. Minutes: There were no disclosures of interest made on this occasion.
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EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC Minutes: RESOLVED, that the press and public be not excluded during discussion of any items on the agenda today.
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MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING To receive the minutes of the previous meeting held on 12 August 2022 (copy enclosed) Minutes: RESOLVED, that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 12 August 2022 be agreed as a true and accurate record.
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PUBLIC PARTICIPATION To receive any questions or representations which have been received from members of the public and to receive any petitions.
(note any member of the public who wishes to ask a question or make representations or present a petition at the meeting should apply to do so no later than two working days before the day of the meeting. Information on how to apply can be obtained from the person named on the front of the agenda). Minutes: There were no questions, representations or petitions submitted on this occasion.
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SERVICE BASELINE BLUEPRINTS - HOSTED SERVICES To consider a report from the Leader of the Council (copy enclosed) Minutes: Members considered a report from the Leader of the Council which provided a summary of the activity that was underway to review service areas, to be inherited from the seven sovereign councils, which had been identified in Service Baseline Blueprints (July 2022 Shadow Authority Cabinet) with the potential to be hosted. The Shadow Authority Cabinet adopted an Implementation Plan at its meeting on 10 June 2022 to deliver the requirements of the Structural Changes Order. This Plan included the development of draft Service Baseline Blueprints. The priority was to ensure that two sustainable Councils were delivered from vesting day in an economic, efficient, effective, safe, legal, and seamless fashion, delivering both benefits from vesting day along with the foundation for further future transformation. The draft Service Baseline Blueprints had been developed during the design phase of the programme since October 2021 and were presented to, and agreed in principle by, the Westmorland Shadow Authority Cabinet/Cumberland Shadow Executive in July 2022. The working assumption for the programme was that two new unitary Councils would be created, each with their own services. Several services were identified as having the potential to be hosted. These were services that would need to be hosted by one unitary Council, and will either be provided to the other for a time until any dependencies are resolved to support a future split, or hosted in the medium-longer term, (under a Service Level Agreement or similar mechanism), because splitting them was impractical or undesirable from a cost or service delivery perspective. All services identified with the potential to be hosted were undergoing a process of review. This was being managed through the Member Implementation Board (MIB) (formerly the Member Liaison Group). The MIB was made up of the Leader and Deputy Leader, plus relevant portfolio holders, of both Westmorland & Furness Shadow Authority and Cumberland Shadow Authority alongside the Programmes Senior Responsible Officer and the Interim Heads of Paid Service for each Shadow Authority. Following the review of each service MIB had made informed proposals, on the need to host the service, the intended period of hosting and which unitary Council would be the host Authority. MIB would continue to meet on a weekly basis, and review the remaining services where hosting was considered as an option alongside others where the service delivery option was identified as still to be determined in the Service Baseline Blueprints agreed in principle by the Shadow Authority Cabinet in July. Further recommendations would be made to the Shadow Authority Cabinet at its meeting in October 2022. Cabinet members thanked the officers working on the Local Government Reorganisation Programme for all the time and effort they had given to the Service Baseline Blueprints. It had been a great deal of work and the members were very grateful for this. The Cabinet Member for Finance was pleased to note that the service specific agreements (or similar) would be coming back to Cabinet at a later date. These would allow members to consider and agree ... view the full minutes text for item 35. |
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WESTMORLAND AND FURNESS UNITARY AUTHORITY HEADQUARTER ARRANGEMENTS To consider a report from the Cabinet Member for Highways and Assets (copy enclosed)
Additional documents: Minutes: A report from the Cabinet Member for Highways and Assets was considered which asked members to consider the options, and agree to establish a new, headquarter function for the Westmorland and Furness Unitary Authority as a successor authority to Cumbria County Council, Eden District Council, South Lakeland District Council and Barrow Borough Council. Shadow Cabinet was also asked to note the options set out in the report and agree the new head quarter arrangement with effect from 1 April 2023.
Westmorland and Furness was a largely rural region with a substantial land area being the green space of the Lake District National Park. Barrow town, Penrith and Kendal were the three largest settlements. These three towns would need to serve as key service centres where a significant proportion of residents would access a range of services. The challenges in transport connectivity meant that the unitary authority would need a decentralised approach to governance that would enable it to be close to the geographically dispersed communities and ensure that services were accessible to all residents even in the remotest parts of Westmorland and Furness. The four councils comprising Cumbria County Council, Eden District Council, South Lakeland District Council and Barrow Borough Council commissioned an independent assessment of options for the Unitary Authority’s establishment of a new headquarter function.
A conventional HQ performed multiple critical roles., however, the adoption of hybrid and remote working models, and an increasing adoption of technology for collaboration and service delivery in the post-Covid era meant that the traditional priorities for a HQ could be reassessed. A significant shift to agile and flexible working had resulted in the council moving away from an asset-based workforce and service delivery model.
Cabinet members considered a number of different options, including:
· A single site solution · A dual site solution · A distributed model supporting ‘anchor’ buildings in key service areas The Cabinet Member said he supported the distributed model in the first instance but that over time the new Council would need to look at rationalising all its buildings in order to ensure efficiency and sustainability. All of the Cabinet Members supported the distributed model supporting anchor buildings.
Cllr Taylor said she was delighted to support this option and felt this would be an encouraging move for the residents of Eden who were starting to feel a bit excluded from the shadow council process.
Cllr Hughes said the Council needed to ensure that Westmorland and Furness Shadow Council had rooms big enough to hold the larger meetings as well as the smaller ones. He also hoped that in future it might be possible to open up the buildings to the voluntary sector to use.
Cllr Archibald said it would be important to consider the efficiency and sustainability of the buildings in the longer term.
The recommendations were moved and seconded and put to a unanimous vote.
RESOLVED, that Shadow Authority Cabinet (1) agrees the headquarter arrangement in line with the appended report recommendation; (2) agrees a distributed model supporting ‘anchor’ ... view the full minutes text for item 36. |
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LOGO/VISUAL IDENTITY APPROVAL To consider a report from the Leader of the Council (copy enclosed)
Additional documents:
Minutes: The Shadow Authority Cabinet considered a report from the Leader of the Council which recommended a final logo for approval by Westmorland and Furness Council, following stakeholder engagement/conversation.
Once the logo was agreed there would be extensive communications of the new brand both internally and externally to ensure the future effective implementation of the brand.
A vote was then taken on the recommendations, which was unanimous.
RESOLVED, that the Shadow Authority Cabinet approve the final logo, as shown in Appendix 1 of the report, following stakeholder feedback, ready for rebranding the new Westmorland and Furness Council for 1 April 2023.
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LGR PROGRAMME UPDATE DASHBOARD To consider a report from the Leader of the Council (copy enclosed) Additional documents:
Minutes: Members had before them a report from the Leader of the Council which provided them with an update on the programme in place to support Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in Cumbria.
The report consisted of a programme dashboard, and a summary of the Day 1 board report.
The format of the report had recently been developed to reflect the shift of the programme into the implementation stage.
Members thanked officers for the updated format which was much more informative than the previous one.
RESOLVED, that the Shadow Authority Cabinet
(1) notes the report details and key priorities included in section 3 of the report; (2) agrees that a programme update report, in the new format, be presented to each Shadow Authority Cabinet meeting until April 2023.
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URGENT ITEMS To consider any urgent items of business.
Minutes: None for this meeting.
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