Agenda, decisions and minutes

To confirm as a true record the Record of Decision of the meeting held on 11 March 2021.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 March 2021 were noted by the Cabinet as a true record as they were not Cabinet Members at the time of the last meeting.

To invite Members to declare any interest they might have in the matters on the agenda.

Councillor Fuller declared a non-pecuniary interest in item 5 on the agenda as he was the Chairman of the Local Access Forum (LAF), although the LAF had had no input into this matter.

Councillor Stephens declared an interest also in Item 5. As a bus user he owned a bus pass.

Questions may be asked without notice but to guarantee a full reply at the meeting, a question must be put including the name and address of the questioner by delivery in writing or by electronic mail to Democratic Services at democratic.services@iow.gov.uk, no later than two clear working days before the start of the meeting. Normally, Cabinet is held on Thursday, therefore the deadline for written questions will be Friday 11 June 2021.

The procedure for asking questions without notice is provided below:

Arrangements for Submitting Oral Questions at Meetings of Council and Cabinet:

The front desk “opens” for public wishing to attend the meeting half an hour before the meeting.

When signing in at the front desk as attending a Council or Cabinet meeting each member of the public is asked whether they wish to ask an oral question at the meeting AND/OR if the member of the public indicates themselves that they wish to ask an oral question.

In the circumstances that a member of the public wishes to ask an oral question, they will be given a form to complete which details their name, town/village of residence, email address and the topic of the question (not the question in full, unless they wish to provide this).

These forms will be numbered in the order they are handed back.

The time for registering questions will be for a 20 minute period (up to 10 minutes prior to the start of the meeting). After that time expires the forms will be collected and given to the Chairman of the meeting.

If time allows after dealing with any written questions, the Chairman will then ask those who have submitted a form to put their question.  These will be in the order they were received.  As the subject matter is known, the Chairman should be able to indicate which member will reply.  If time permits the Chairman may accept further questions.

The option to ask a supplementary question will be at the Chairman’s discretion.

Once the defined period of time allowed for questions has passed (and assuming the Chairman has not extended this) then all remaining oral questions are left unanswered.

No oral question will receive a guaranteed written response, unless the member responding indicates as such.

A written question was received from Paul Coueslant (PQ 30-21). The Leader read out the question and provided a response.

An oral question was asked by Cameron Palin, who asked whether the Council could give an update on Ryde Arena. The Chief Executive confirmed that a written update would be provided.

The Chairman reported that over the last few weeks she had been in back to back meetings and reading through many documents from many organisations.

There had been some success with the Welcome Back Fund which was to help with  such things as the cleaning of public toilets and the emptying of bins to help the island get back to normal business. Town and Parish Councils would shortly be notified of the funds available.

A letter regarding the Levelling Up Fund was going in to government later in the week, which was giving support to the MP to try and obtain funding for projects on the island.

The Chairman had been informed that symptoms of the new ‘delta’ variant of COVID were a sore throat and runny nose. People should be aware of this and self-test if they had symptoms.

Thanks were expressed to council staff pre- and post-election for their hard work. The Chairman was very pleased with her new Cabinet.

Option 2 – To approve establishing an Enhanced Partnership advising the Department for Transport of the council’s intention and publish the required formal notice by the end of June 2021.

This was the first piece of policy being brought forward by the new administration. It was a positive policy which was being directed by government and for which there were tight timescales. The requirement was to enter into an Enhanced Partnership with the local bus provider and to notify DfT of this by 30 June 2021. Following this, a Bus Strategy improvement plan must be delivered by the end of October 2021 and an enhancement plan put in place by March 2022. Funding of £100,000 had been received to help with the project. Liaison was taking place with Hampshire County Council for joint commissioning to help deliver the island’s plan.

The Local Outbreak Engagement Board had been set up as a result of the COVID pandemic. The Chairman indicated her intention to continue with the Board and the Cabinet members responsible would be Cllrs Peacey-Wilcox, I Stephens, D Andre and K Love. The meeting planned for 29 June would be cancelled unless there was any urgent decision needed.

(Option A): That the Cabinet adopts the report from the Director of Children’s Services as the Cabinet’s section 5A (8) report, and endorses the response from Children’s Services in that report to address the findings and to implement all the recommendations of the LGSCO.

That the Cabinet notes that all members of the local authority and the Monitoring Officer will be provided with a copy of the Cabinet’s prepared section 5A (8) report as soon as practicable if not already given a copy.

That Cabinet considers the LGSCO report and the Council’s response with regard to the actions undertaken and planned actions to be completed within the timescales stipulated.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Skills had recently become aware of the matter when taking on her new portfolio and had discussed the matter fully with the Director of Children’s Services. The report would be circulated. All the recommendations from the LGSCO had been actioned, including relevant staff training within the timescales stipulated. The Cabinet Member would be keeping a watchful eye on the matter. The Director confirmed that the matter related to a complex finding at a Special Needs tribunal, where the Council had erred. The findings had been accepted and lessons learnt. Members could be reassured that there had been a recent Ofsted report of the SEN service which was very positive. The findings of the report however had been accepted.

The matter had been published in the media and it was hoped that the Ombudsman case would bring about change. JB had concerns as had been approached by 2 residents raising concerns not dissimilar to this. He had raised with officers and that DA would pick it up. Would need to ensure that all was as it should be.

The media would also get a copy of the report if they had not already to enable good reporting and an understanding of the subject matter. It was confirmed that the report was widely available in the public domain but copies could be supplied if necessary.

To invite Cabinet Members to provide a brief update on matters concerning their portfolio.

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Business Development had spent a busy few weeks familiarising herself with the detail of her new portfolio. She had been working with officers, Visit Isle of Wight and training providers to address the shortage of staff in the tourism and hospitality sector. In the short term, actions would be job fairs, free short courses for upskilling and the promotion of opportunities for older people. In the medium to longer term there was to be an Island Skills Plan coming to Cabinet for consideration shortly. Later in the week a bid was to be submitted to the Levelling Up Fund for a £7 million package of projects in the East Cowes area, including the improvement of marine-side infrastructure and to transform the public realm, including a harbour viewing platform at East Cowes Esplanade.

The Cabinet member for Children’s Services, Education and Skills reported on the decision to halt the closure of Chillerton and Rookley school and expressed disappointment that the news had been leaked to the media before parents could be informed. Work was taking place with staff to draw up a paper with a range of options to go out for prior consultation with parents, before coming to Cabinet. Due to the Queen’s Jubilee in 2022 the school term times for 2021/22 would have to be slightly amended, however this should not prejudice any arrangements that parents may already have made. The Cabinet Member had asked staff to revisit term dates for 2022/23 and this would be considered at the next meeting of Cabinet in July.

The Cabinet Member for Environment, Heritage and Waste Management reported that with regard to Dinosaur Isle, he and Councillor Jones-Evans were addressing the situation as a matter of urgency. With regard to waste, a fly tipping task and finish group had been mentioned prior to the election and this group would now be brought together to deal with fly tipping issues. Officers had been tasked with a programme to deal with litter in the island’s tourist areas this summer. He was conscious that litter would be an issue and wanted to do everything possible to minimise problems. The Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan would be coming forward for decisions on adoption fairly soon.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, Public Health and Housing Needs expressed thanks to The Director of Adult Social Care and her team for work in bringing him up to speed in recent weeks. The work done by carers in the voluntary sector and in-house throughout the pandemic was recognised. The Cabinet member issued a plea to people visiting the island to take a COVID test before arriving to avoid bringing the virus to the island.

Cllr Stephens would be assisting with the portfolio in taking on the social care housing element. The portfolio was too big for one person to do a really good job, and Cllr Stephens long experience as a Councillor was welcomed. It was still early days in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Cabinet Members to identify decisions which need to be amended, added or to be removed from the Forward Plan.

Cllr Fuller reported that in the last few weeks he had been talking to officers the MP and other councillors regarding the acceleration of the Island Plan. The government white paper on Planning was currently in process. A paper would be brought to Cabinet on 15 July and it was hoped to start a consultation period afterwards, if approved. It would affect all residents and would be made high profile so that residents would feel very much included.

To guarantee a reply to a question, a question  must be submitted in writing or by electronic mail to democratic.services@iow.gov.uk no later than 5pm on Monday 14 June 2021. A question may be asked at the meeting without prior notice but in these circumstances there is no guarantee that a full reply will be given at the meeting.

Cllr Stephens asked whether more information could be included in the Forward Plan as it had been previously, to make it readable for residents, media and others and give a sense or purpose and value.