Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Archibald and Cllr Jarvis.

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.

There were no disclosures of interest made on this occasion.

To consider whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any items of business on the agenda.

RESOLVED,     that the press and public be not excluded during consideration of any items on the agenda today.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting held on 24 April 2023 (copy enclosed).

RESOLVED,   that the minutes of the previous meeting held on 24 April2023 be agreed as a true and accurate record.

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).

Mr Jonathan Davies, Chair of Clifton Community Council attended to ask the following question:

‘Clifton Community Council have over the last 4 years worked with the former Eden District Council to progress devolution of assets in the Clifton Community.

This includes various small parcels of land and Clifton Children’s Play area.

The only actual devolution to have occurred is that of streetlighting forced on many parish councils in the Eden area with threats of losing streetlighting in areas if the assets were not taken on by parish councils.

Eden Council had agreed to devolution of the assets in 2021 however days before the agreed date to make the transfer Clifton Community council was informed that the transfer would not take place due to staff having left the council.  Eden Council then placed a hold on asset transfer as it reviewed its policy this was then further stalled by the LGR process.

Clifton Community council and we know other town and parish councils are keen to see devolution of assets important to our respective communities take place.

Clifton has plans to redevelop the playpark into a space that if fit for purpose and can also enhance the offer and usage by the village school and others in the community including a running track and new play equipment along with measures to level up the land and create off road parking around the perimeter with electric charge points to address parking issues in the community especially around school pick up and drop of times that creates dangerous road conditions for all in the area.

Clifton Community council has in the last 3 weeks been informed by an officer of this council that at this time Westmorland and Furness Council has no devolution policy in place and as result devolution will likely not take place for some time.

Can the leader address the reasons for no devolution policy given that in other areas of the council business and policy the former councils policies have been mirrored and used to enable Westmorland and Furness council to function. And does the leader agree that devolution is an important issue that needs addressed with those town and parish councils like Clifton community council who wish to take on assets to deliver beneficial improvements for our communities.’

The Leader of the Council responded to say that Westmorland and Furness Council was keen to work collaboratively with town and parish councils and he was in regular contact with Cumbria Association of Local Councils (CALC).   He then went on to give the following response:

‘Thank you for attending today to ask your question Cllr Davies on behalf of Clifton Community Council.  I acknowledge that the Community Council have been seeking a response to this question for some time, whilst we were going through the local government reform process.

I would like to provide assurance that Westmorland and Furness Council is committed to supporting communities, and this is reflected in our Council Plan where we highlight having confident, empowered resilient  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

To receive statements by the Leader of the Council and Cabinet Members.

Councillor Sanderson made an announcement about Foster Care Fortnight which was launched on 15 May 2023.

Cumbria Fostering service had launched an appeal for more foster carers to help keep children in their local communities. 

Despite already supporting a community of more than 275 foster carers across the county, with more than 725 children in care, Cumbria Fostering urgently needed more local people to come forward as foster carers to prevent vulnerable children being placed with families away from their local area or separated from siblings.

The Council wanted to make sure that children could stay with foster families local to the communities that they were familiar with, which helped to minimise further disruption to their lives by helping them stay in their school, close to their friends, and maintaining connections with other family members.

She encouraged anyone that might be interested in this to get in touch.

None for this meeting.

None for this meeting.

This item gives Councillors an opportunity to put questions to Cabinet Members.

Questions must relate to the powers, duties or responsibilities of the Cabinet and must relate to their portfolio responsibilities.  Questions should be brief, clear and focussed. 

This item will last for a maximum of 20 minutes.

There were no questions to Cabinet Members on this occasion.

To consider a report from the Cabinet Member for Finance (copy enclosed).

The Leader presented a report from the Director of Resources, which stated that Council approved the 2023/24 revenue budget and 2023/4-2027/8 MTFP and capital programme at its meeting on the 7 March 2023.

The budget set out the financial considerations and estimates on the different elements of Local Government funding (including the Council Tax requirement for 2023/24), national and local financial pressures and proposed savings as well as plans for the future to invest and transform the Council to achieve its Council Plan priorities.

Included in the 2023/24 revenue budget was a one off net £5m investment to start immediate activities to deliver on the Council Plan priorities. Council approved that Cabinet approve the details of the investments.

Work had been ongoing with Corporate Management Team (CMT) and Cabinet to review the immediate activities for 2023/24 and the purpose of this report was for Cabinet to approve allocation of £4.450m of the one off £5m priority investment fund to support delivery of immediate priorities.

Cabinet would approve the use of the remaining unallocated element of £0.550m when business cases were identified and approved.

It was recognised that a number of the proposed activities would require funding in 2024/25 due to the nature of the activity e.g. travel bursary scheme. These future financial commitments would be funded from contingency in 2024/25 to ensure that commitments could be fully funded. Any decisions to continue activities on a permanent basis would need to be fully funded within the permanent budget financial envelope.

Cabinet was also asked to confirm the continuation of the individual members’ £1k allocations for 2023/24. Councillors could use the funding to support community groups in their wards to help purchase equipment, hold events, or run services that would benefit local residents. The funding could also be used in combination with money from other organisations, to contribute to larger projects

Following initial discussions with portfolio holders regarding where investment would be required to effectively deliver the Council Plan priorities in 2023/24, it was agreed that proposals would be developed using a business case template in order to assess strategic fit with Council Plan priorities, deliverability, benefit realisation, investment required and risk.

A total of 24 proposals were received which all had good strategic fit.  Further assessment was undertaken on deliverability in order to identify schemes which could be delivered this financial year recognising that the funding was one off. Following that assessment 14 proposals had been identified for Cabinet to approve.      The total investment value was £3.250m.

To consider a report from the Leader of the Council (copy enclosed).

Members had before them a report from the Director of Thriving Places, As a non-domestic ratepayer within the Penrith Business Improvement District (BID) area, the Council is entitled to vote in the upcoming ballot on 28 June 2023. This report provides information to support members in their decision on the use of the Council’s voting entitlement in the renewal ballot.

A Business Improvement District, or BID, was a defined area in which businesses and the local authority agreed to work in partnership to develop projects and services that would benefit the trading environment. BIDs were based on the principle of charging an additional levy (typically 1% to 2% of rateable value) on business ratepayers in a defined area following a positive majority vote by those ratepayers. These funds were used to carry out projects and initiatives within the defined BID area.

Each term of a BID was 5 years and a ballot must be undertaken to renew a BID for a further 5 year term. For the BID to be renewed, two threshold tests had to be met in the ballot:

·           More than 50% of votes cast (turnout) must be in favour of the BID; and

·           The positive vote must represent more than 50% of the Rateable Value (RV) of the votes cast.

The Business Improvement District was originally established in Penrith in 2013, and ran for a 5 year period until 2017.  A renewal ballot took place in November 2017 confirming a second term of 5 years running until 31 March 2023.

A renewal ballot for a third term took place on 30 November 2022. Eden District Council’s cabinet members voted yes in respect of the Council’s properties. The ballot was not successful as although the majority of businesses voted yes, the positive votes did not represent more than 50% on the rateable value of the votes cast.

Penrith Business Improvement District had proposed another ballot on 28 June 2023, if this was not successful then they were not proposing any future ballots.

The BID had notified the Local Authority and Secretary of State of this proposal in the timescales required by the BID regulations. As the Council’s duly appointed Returning Officer and therefore the Ballot Holder for this ballot, the Chief Executive had outsourced the ballot process to Civica Election Services.

The BID had prepared a business plan to address the top priorities identified through consultations with businesses in the town. It was considered that the proposals as set out in the renewal bid were in compliance with statutory requirements and not in conflict with formally adopted and published Council policy.

The business plan built on the work undertaken by Penrith BID over its 10 year term.  Responsibility for the delivery of the BID over the last 10 years had rested with a small BID management board made up of local business owners.

There were 13 Council owned properties/land holdings at present with a rateable value over £4,000 which would be subject to the BID levy with a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

To consider a joint report from the Deputy Leader of the Council and the Cabinet Member for Finance (copy enclosed).

Cabinet had before it a report which provided a summary of the health and social care pooled Better Care Fund. The report asked Cabinet to approve the priority areas identified in the report and sought delegations to be put in place to enable the Better Care Fund to be submitted to the Westmorland and Furness Health and Wellbeing Board for sign off to allow the final submission to NHS – England/Better Care Fund Team on the due date of 28 June 2023.

Since 2015 The Better Care Fund had been a pooled fund arrangement by NHS and Local Authority partners that was designed to incentivise integrated delivery of health and social care.  The Better Care Fund had evolved over that period and was now a collection of different grants to achieve core objectives.

The current grant components for 2023/24 that made up the totality of the Better Care Fund for Westmorland and Furness that were currently under discussion with the relevant Integrated Care Boards are:

·           Minimum NHS Contribution - £19.504m. This is funding made up from the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Commissioning Board and the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Commissioning Board. This is split into two parts; the Adult Social Care services spend £13.167m and the NHS Commissioned Out of Hospital Spend £6.337m.

·           The improved Better Care Fund which is a grant directly paid to the local authority £9.304m. The rebased improved Better Care Fund allocation for Westmorland and Furness is less than the proposed allocation to schemes and therefore creates a £770k funding pressure.  The Disabled Facilities Grant, directly paid to the local authority of £2.786m

·           The Additional Discharge Fund. This is in two parts, a grant that is directly paid to the local authority (£1.304m) and a contribution from the two relevant Integrated Commissioning Boards which at the time of writing remains under discussion.

On 4 April 2023 the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities released the 2023-2025 Better Care Fund policy framework which confirmed the conditions and planning requirements for the for the Better Care Fund for 2023 to 2025. The vision for this policy framework was underpinned by two core objectives:

·           Enable people to stay well, safe and independent at home for longer

·           Provide people with the right care, at the right place at the right time

The policy framework was designed to support the key priorities of the NHS Long Term Plan by joining up the plan for recovering urgent and emergency care (UEC) services and the delivery of the next steps to put people at the heart of care. The policy framework confirmed that systems must make their submissions to NHS England/Better Care Fund Team by 28 June 2023.

The recommendations were moved by Cllr Bell, seconded by Cllr Derbyshire and put to a vote, which was unanimous.

RESOLVED,     that Cabinet

(1)      agrees to delegate to the Director of Adult Social Care and the Director of Resources (S151) in consultation with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

To consider any urgent items of business.

The Leader presented a report from the Chief Legal and Monitoring Officer which requested that the Leader signs the Armed Forces Covenant.

The report explained the background to the Armed Forces Covenant, the implications for the Council and the proposed next steps. The report also provides an update on legal duty under the Armed Forces Act 2021.

The Leader reminded Cabinet that at the Shadow Council Meeting in January 2023 there was a question raised about whether this Council would sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant.  His response to this was positive and he fully supported the signing of this covenant.  All Cabinet members agreed with this.

The aims of the Community Covenant were to:

·           Encourage local communities to support the Armed Forces Community in their areas;

·           Nurture public understanding and awareness amongst the public of issues affecting the Armed Forces Community;

·           Recognise and remember the sacrifices faced by the Armed Forces Community;

·           Encourage activities which help to integrate the Armed Forces Community into local life;

·           Encourage the Armed Forces Community to help and support the wider community, whether through participation in events and joint projects, or other forms of engagement.

Former Cumbria County Council and former District Councils all signed up the Armed Forces Covenant in 2013.  At the same time across Cumbria a Cumbria Armed Forces Covenant Partnership was also established. The membership included District Councils and Cumbria County Council Armed Forces Champions, officers working in community development, businesses, charities, public sector partners and housing associations who provide support to the armed forces community.

Following on from Local Government Reorganisation the Council was working with colleagues in Cumberland to agree the governance arrangements and appointments required for the Cumbria Armed Forces Partnership.

Cabinet Members noted that a report would be presented to the Council meeting on the 15 June 2023 to expand in more detail on the work proposed relating to the Armed Forces covenant and our legal duties, and that the Ministry of Defence would be in attendance to sign the covenant with the Leader of the Council.

The recommendations were moved by Cllr Brook and seconded by Cllr Bell and then put to a vote which was unanimous.

RESOLVED,     that Cabinet

(1)     agrees the Leader of the Council signs the Westmorland and Furness Armed Covenant on behalf of the Council;

(2)     notes the appointment of Cllr M Eyles (Eden), Cllr V Hughes (South Lakes) and Cllr B McEwan (Furness) as the Armed Forces Champions for their area;

(3)     notes Linda Jones is the Lead officer for the Armed Forces for Westmorland and Furness;

(4)     agrees that Westmorland and Furness Council establish a Westmorland and Furness Armed Forces Board, the Board to include key stakeholders, Local Armed Forces Champions, the Portfolio Holder and/ or representative and the Lead Officer;

(5)     agrees that the Board will set its own Terms of Reference these to include but not be limited to acting as the responsible body for collaboration with partners, monitoring funding opportunities linked to the Councils  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.