Agenda and minutes

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 22 December 2020 (to follow)

The minutes of the meeting held on 22 December 2020 were approved as a correct record and authorised to be signed at the earliest convenience.

None.

None.

None.

To note forthcoming decisions anticipated to be made by the Executive over the next 12 months. The Forward plan can be found here.

The Executive Forward Plan was noted.

The Committee Work Programme as circulated with the agenda was noted.

To conisder the report attached.

The Committee welcomed Superintendent Davison to the meeting, and

referred to the agenda report which provided Members with the opportunity to scrutinise the work of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) as defined by Sections 19 and 20 of the Police and Justice Act 2006 and the Crime and Disorder (Overview & Scrutiny) Regulations 2009.

The Executive Member, Councillor Wrigley presented the report, advising that the intelligence led CSP worked across Devon and the Peninsula to tackle issues such as child sexual exploitation, modern slavery, drug misuse, prejudice related crime, preventing violent extremism and domestic violence and abuse. It had focused on vulnerability as a key area of work for the last few years.

Priorities were set annually. Performance was monitored through the Local Delivery Plan (LDP) and annually by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC).

Achievements of the Partnership across Devon and specifically to Teignbridge were set out in the report, which included the Turning Corners Programme,

a multi-agency project in Teignbridge, Torbay and South Hams that identified and worked with young people being drawn into crime, violence and exploitation.

Regarding funding, it was noted that the Partnership funding for 2020/21 had been agreed and was due shortly however, there was uncertainty around funding for 21/22 onwards, which is currently under consultation. In addition, whilst the Turning Corners project bid had been successful, the Partnership was awaiting further details of the grant conditions.

In response to questions Superintendent Davison and the Community Safety and Safeguarding Manager advised that: Covid has increased concerns for safeguarding issues, domestic violence and child abuse,  and partnership working and campaigns were enhanced to tackle this issue; toolkits were available to parents to address the increase in parent abuse by children; anti-social behaviours incidents had increase and the public were generally less tolerant; mental health was a concern and was being tackled  through partnership working; Police response was in accordance with threat, risk, harm and vulnerability; statistics regarding lockdown trends were available on the Police website; lockdown offences were being addressed. Dartmoor was being patrolled and a Haldon Christmas rave was dealt with swiftly; toolkits were available to parents to address the increase in parent abuse by children; the partnership Turning Corners and Moving Up Together projects were supporting the vulnerable and assisting in the transition of the vulnerable from primary to secondary schools; and a pilot project being run involving an ex professional footballer, was proving successful.  

The committee commended the work of the Partnership.

It was unanimously

RESOLVED

The work of the Partnership is noted.

The Executive Member for Recycling, Household Waste and Environmental Health, Cllr Dewhirst gave his biannual update presentation. (Cllr Dewhirst’s presentation is appended for ease of reference).

The services under the auspices of the portfolio were: recycling and household waste; Environmental Health, Emergency Planning and Licensing;

In his update the Executive Member advised on challenges and successes for the service areas.

Challenges included: COVID-19 in relation to staff resource implications with additional work and reduced income from fees and charges; reducing waste and increasing recycling; reducing littering and fly tipping; and adapting to life outside of the European Union. 

Successes included: waste & cleansing have been at the forefront of the One

Teignbridge digitisation project; in-cab devices help efficiently manage collections and provide live information to supervisors and customer services teams; ReFurnish, a local charity providing bulky waste collections using spare capacity on their collection vehicles maximising reuse through their network of repair and resale outlets; joint contracts in place for the sale and haulage of materials collected; the Clean Devon Partnership of public and private sector to tackle fly tipping across Devon; leading the strategic response to COVID-19; leading the tactical response Business Compliance with COVID regulations; preparing for leaving the European Union; and working in partnership with other Councils and government agencies.

The full presentation can be found at the following link:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7YQiZbHX4Y

 At this juncture the Committee adjourned for a short break.

Councillors Gribble, Hocking and Patch left the meeting at this juncture.

The Executive Member for Corporate Resources presented the report on the initial financial plan proposals 2021/22 to 2023/24 to be published for comments over the next six weeks. The Executive had considered the council tax base as set out in appendix 2 to the report on 5 January 2021 and had referred to Council on 14 January 2021 for approval.  He thanked officers for their work to produce a balanced budget.

The Chief Finance Officer outlined the current budget position and the savings

that would need to be found in future years, to deal with budget gaps of £1.1m and £2.6m expected for 2022/23 and 2023/24.  He confirmed that the New Homes Bonus would continue for another year but there was no details of what could replace it going forward.

The proposals included draft revenue and capital budgets for the three years 2021/22 to 2023/24, as detailed in the circulated Executive report for the Executive meeting on 5 January 2021. The main issues taken into account were:

·       The level of council tax and the proposal to increase it by £5 or 2.85%.

·        Reducing central funding and the need to make ongoing efficiencies using invest to save where possible.

·        The ongoing impact of Covid 19 on income streams and potential Government funding.

·        Reacting to the climate change emergency by maintaining ongoing budgets for a climate change officer and associated spending in revenue and increased provision in the capital programme as set out in paragraph 5.5 of the Executive report.

·        Increased support for housing including the Teignbridge 100 as set out in paragraph 5.3 of the Executive report, whilst backing business and bringing people and organisations together for local neighbourhood planning.  

·       Infrastructure delivery plan investment funded by community infrastructure levy (CIL) and external sources where available; continuation of grant-funded South West Regional Coastal Monitoring Programme as per paragraph 5.6 of the Executive report.

·       Town centre investment in infrastructure and employment.

·       Continued Enhanced Planning Enforcement funding        

·        The level of reserves necessary for the council.

·        Estimated revenue budget gaps of £1.1 million in 2022/23 and £2.6 million in 2023/24 and action required to address this including further government funding/savings/investment/income generation.

It was unanimously

RECOMMENDED

That Council approves the council tax base of 48,410 for 2021/22 as detailed in appendix 2 of the Executive agenda report for the Executive meeting on 5 January 2021.

To consider the report attached.

Councillor Parker-Khan presented the agenda report which set out recommendations from the Review Group following consideration of the Notice of Motion submitted by Executive Member Councillor Jefferies to Council 28 July 2020.

Points 1, 5 and 7 of the Notice of Motion were considered by a review group of the Audit Committee. The remainder of the issues fell within the auspices of the OS Committees.

The Committee thanked Councillor Parker-Khan and the other members of the Joint OS1 and 2 Committee Review Group for their work.

It was unanimously

RECOMMEDED

The Committee supports the following proposals and recommends the Executive to refer them to Full Council for approval.

Motion Nos (2) and (4)

[The Council to] Work with Devon County Council (DCC) to explore the prospect of making changes to the curriculum to include BAME experiences, contributions, and the FACTs of History, throughout the year. Lobby Government to invest and resource changes to the curriculum across the UK through the support of organisations such as The Black Curriculum and via associated campaigns.

Proposal 

The Leader of the Council write to the Secretary of State for Education urging him to:

·       Review the primary school, GCSE and A Level national curriculum with a view to ensuring that the historical record of the British Empire is treated in a way which fully takes account of slavery, the actions and views of historical figures and other oppressive experiences of BAME people, many of whose descendants are now part of our community.

·       Show compassion and understanding by starting a national debate led by the BAME community, which seeks to define racism, the impacts of it in today’s society - and demonstrate how we can all help people of colour feel fully included and welcomed in the UK (this could be part of the current government review).

·       Identify a Cabinet minister champion for the BAME community.

Motion No (3)

[The Council to] Explore the possibility of an education transformation project in conjunction with schools that creates a suite of curriculum resources specific to Teignbridge’s History.

Proposal

Councillors to promote the pilot educational project being undertaken in partnership with Teignmouth Community School by raising awareness of the project through their formal and informal networks and encouraging other schools in the District to utilise the curriculum resources developed through the project and/or undertake similar projects in local schools.

Motion No (6)

[The Council to] In partnership with DCC, [to] conduct a review of street names and monuments within Teignbridge to assess where information plaques relevant to uncovering the history of Imperialism and links to slavery can be put in place as soon as possible.

Proposal

Recommend that the Council encourages local historic societies to identify street names of particular historic significance and develop signage to explain the history behind the street’s name.

Review the street naming and numbering procedure to reflect the recent LGA advice note relating to requests from the public to change the public realm.

To consider the report attached.

Consideration was given to the agenda report, presented by the Executive Member for Recycling, Household Waste and Environmental Health 

The draft Resource and Waste Management Strategy for Devon and Torbay described how the Devon local authorities would manage Local Authority Collected Waste (household waste, litter, flytipped, street sweepings and some trade waste) from 2020-2030. The delivery of this Strategy would be overseen by the Devon Authorities Strategic Waste Committee. The Strategy reflected the direction of travel and changes in national waste policy, following the publication of the Government’s Resource and Waste Strategy in 2018, and the Environment Bill which was progressing through Parliament although somewhat delayed due to COVID19.

The Waste and Cleansing Manager advised that all but one of the partnerships had approved the draft for public consultation. The remaining authority was due to consider the document in the coming days.

In response to questions the Waste and Cleansing Manager advised that: the waste per household was 443kg compared with 416kg in the Strategy; the current recycling rate for Teignbridge was 56%. The Strategy strived for 70% by 2025; there was still many items in general waste, including food waste, which needed to be reduced; and that increased participation in the current recycling products should be achieved before extending the recycling scheme to include additional packaging such as tetra packs and cellophanes. 

It was unanimously

RECOMMENDED

The Committee recommends to Executive that the content of the draft Resource and Waste Management Strategy for Devon and Torbay is approved for public consultation.