Agenda, decisions and minutes
PDF 366 KBVenue: Ashcombe Suite, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2DN
Contact: Vicky Hibbert or Anne Gowing 020 8541 9938 Email: anne.gowing@surreycc.gov.uk
Media
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Apologies for Absence
Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies were received from Mr Mel Few and Mr Tim Oliver. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting: 27 April 2017
The minutes will be available in the meeting room half an hour before the start of the meeting. Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 27 April 2017 were agreed as a true record of the meeting. |
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Declarations of Interest
All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter (i) Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or (ii) Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting NOTES: · Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest · As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner) · Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial. Additional documents: Minutes: There were none. |
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Procedural Matters
Additional documents: |
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The deadline for Member’s questions is 12pm four working days before the meeting (23 May 2017).
Additional documents: Decision: Two questions were received from Mrs Hazel Watson and responses are attached at Appendix 1. Minutes: Two questions were received from Mrs Hazel Watson and responses are attached at Appendix 1.
Mrs Watson asked a supplementary question regarding her second question asking the Leader to confirm whether the County Council will be submitting evidence to the Government on any adverse impacts of a ‘dementia tax’ on Surrey residents. The Leader stated that the Council will respond to any consultations on this matter in the best interests of the residents of Surrey. |
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Public Questions
The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (23 May 2017).
Additional documents: Minutes: There were none. |
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Petitions
The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received.
Additional documents: Minutes: No petitions were received. |
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Representations received on reports to be considered in private
To consider any representations received in relation why part of the meeting relating to a report circulated in Part 2 of the agenda should be open to the public. Additional documents: Minutes: None received. |
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Reports from Select Committees, Task Groups, Local Committees and other Committees of the Council
None Additional documents: Minutes: No reports were received. |
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Proposed De-commissioning of Externally Commissioned Young People's Early Help Services
Surrey County Council and its partners are delivering an Early Help Transformation Programme, to radically reshape the early help offer for children, young people and families. We will develop and implement a cohesive, collaborative approach with partners to provide a continuum of help and support to respond to the different levels of need and risk for children and families, whilst securing the best possible value for money for residents. We will do this to achieve better outcomes for children, young people and families, and this is also a key part of the County Council’s Children’s Services improvement journey, following the Ofsted inspection in 2015. As well as transforming the offer, the Council also needs to achieve savings in early help of £2.9 million in 2017-18, rising to a cumulative total of £7.5 million in 2018/19. The proposals in this paper are the first stage in addressing the savings and seek to realise £0.25 million during 2017/18, rising to a cumulative total of £0.45 million in 2018/19. A subsequent report on Early Help will set out the approach for the remaining savings. On 28 February 2017, Cabinet approved an eight-week public consultation, from 9 March to 3 May 2017, about proposals to change some of the Council’s externally commissioned young people’s early help services to deliver these first stage savings. The services in scope for this consultation were: Neighbourhood Local Prevention; 1-to-1 Local Prevention; and Year 11/12 Transition. This report sets out a final recommendation in relation to these proposals for a Cabinet decision, informed by the findings of the consultation period.
[The decision on this item may be called in] Additional documents: Decision: RESOLVED:
The Cabinet agreed to de-commission Neighbourhood Local Prevention Grants so funding ceases on 31 August 2017.
Reasons for decisions
This is recommended so that the Council delivers the change to grants necessary for the required savings in the Medium Term Financial plan for 2017/18 and 2018/19, whilst protecting investment in the most strategically critical services, and preparing for the wider transformation of early help.
[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children and Education Select Committee.] Minutes: The Cabinet Member for Children introduced the report and informed the Cabinet that this was a difficult paper to present but it was necessary due to the difficult financial circumstances. She explained that the Council and its partners were currently working together to look at how Early Help was provided and the outcomes being delivered. She stated that there was a need to provide value for money services that met the needs of children and that it was with regret that this paper sought approval to de-commission the Early Help services that were currently commissioned through the Local Committees.
Members were informed that this would achieve a £250,000 saving in the current year and more over the longer term. It was also confirmed that this would not impact on the 1-1 Local Prevention support or the Year 11/12 Transition.
Mrs Kay Hammond, Chairman of the Overview and Budget Scrutiny Committee was in attendance and asked a question regarding the consultation period and whether this was in line with the Surrey Compact agreement and the Monitoring Officer confirmed that the work undertaken was Compact compliant.
The Equalities Impact Assessment was discussed in depth and Members queried what support that would be provided to vulnerable children. It was confirmed that this was only one part of the range of services provided and that Looked After Children and disadvantaged children were a particular group that would be targeted as a priority. Members were also told that signposting to other services would take place.
Members expressed concern as to whether the named organisations set out within the submitted report would be able to continue to deliver services with the de-commission occurring. They were informed that the Council owed a great deal of thanks to these providers for the work they had done to date and it had been confirmed that they would continue to run as businesses if this decision was implemented.
RESOLVED:
The Cabinet agreed to de-commission Neighbourhood Local Prevention Grants so funding ceases on 31 August 2017.
Reasons for decisions
This is recommended so that the Council delivers the change to grants necessary for the required savings in the Medium Term Financial plan for 2017/18 and 2018/19, whilst protecting investment in the most strategically critical services, and preparing for the wider transformation of early help.
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Part Night Street Lighting - Alternative Funding Model
In October 2016, to generate an estimated £210k of annual savings, Cabinet approved the implementation of Part Night Street Lighting with approximately 44,000 lights estimated to be turned off between midnight and 0500 each night. The lights selected focussed on non-traffic routes and were risk assessed against a number of “Avoidance Criteria” which if present would mean the lights would be left on. The Avoidance Criteria include:
a. Traffic Routes – this will predominantly be A, B and C classified roads. However, some lower trafficked roads in this group may be included and equally some higher trafficked unclassified roads may be excluded by this criteria. b. Town centres where this is a night time economy. c. Where traffic calming measures (speed cushions or humps, chicanes etc) or formal pedestrian crossings such as zebra crossings are present and they require illumination. d. Locations where Council or Police CCTV is in operation to reduce crime. e. Locations where the Council’s Road Safety Team or Surrey Police believe that implementing part-night lighting could have an adverse effect on either crime or road safety. f. In cases where buses or trains run beyond the proposed switch off time, roads will be assessed and may either be excluded from part- night lighting or have a later switch off time. In addition as described in (e) above, where Part Night Lighting has been proposed and implemented, all locations were assessed in conjunction with colleagues in the Council’s Road Safety Team and Surrey Police and any road where there were concerns that switching off lights could have an adverse effect on either road safety or crime were excluded. This amounted to approximately 4,000 lights across the County.
Using the above avoidance criteria, the County Council has implemented Part Night lighting where it is considered safe to do so. Since the implementation of Part Night Lighting, some partner councils have expressed an interest in covering the cost of keeping the lights on that are currently included in Part Night Lighting thereby enhancing the level of service due to differing local priorities.
There have also been a number of comments made by residents (often via social media) who are in support of having the lights turned off. Reasons include being able to see the night sky, improved sleep as the streetlight near a bedroom window and the environmental effect of the CO2 savings made.
It is proposed to implement a mechanism that will allow District or Borough Councils to request an enhanced level of service by excluding the street lighting in their area from Part Night lighting subject to their agreement to reimburse the County Council all costs that would have otherwise been saved.
[The decision on this item may be called in] Additional documents: Decision: RESOLVED:
1. That the Cabinet approved the implementation of a mechanism (as detailed in paragraphs 16-19 of the submitted report) to allow District/Borough Councils to enhance the level of service and request all lights in their area be excluded from Part Night Lighting and to reimburse the County Council the full value of savings that would be realised by switching them off. 2. That authority be delegated to the Head of Highways and Transport, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Highways, to enter into specific agreements with requesting District or Borough Councils.
Reasons for Decisions
District and Borough Councils have their own budgets and across the County will have differing local priorities. Enabling them to request lights be excluded from Part Night lighting allows them to respond to those differing priorities by enhancing the level of service provided over and above that delivered by the County Council. [The decisions on this item can be called in by the Environment and Infrastructure Select Committee.] Minutes: The Cabinet Member for Highways reminded Members that the Cabinet had approved the implementation of Part Night Street Lighting in October 2016. He said that many other authorities had also taken similar action and all of the lights selected had focussed on non-traffic routes and had been risk assessed against a number of “Avoidance Criteria” which if present would mean the lights would be left on.
He went on to explain that there was a process in place to ask for roads to be reassessed and stated that there was currently a delay with processing these and he requested that residents note that this was due to Surrey Police and the Council’s Road Safety Team needing to examine each situation on a case by case basis.
He highlighted that the £210,000 saving would pay for 1 kilometre of major repair on the highway or 5 kilometres of surface dressing.
He explained that since the implementation of Part Night Lighting, some partner councils had expressed an interest in covering the cost of keeping the lights were currently included in Part Night Lighting programme on. He stated that the report sought authority to start conversations with those interested in this with a view to drawing up five year agreements with invoices to be issued twice a year.
The environmental effect of CO2 was discussed and it was confirmed that this would equate to a 2% reduction in carbon taxes.
Members agreed that it was important to listen to residents views however there was a need to ensure that the full cost of officer time involved in the programme needed to be incorporated into the overall charges. It was also reflected that there have been a number of comments made by residents who are in support of having the lights turned off with reasons including being able to see the night sky, improved sleep as the streetlight near a bedroom window and a positive impact on wildlife.
The Cabinet Member for Highways stated that to date, only one borough had expressed a wish to take this approach forward and that was largely due to its vicinity to Heathrow Airport and having a large number of shift workers living in this area.
RESOLVED:
1. That the Cabinet approved the implementation of a mechanism (as detailed in paragraphs 16-19 of the submitted report) to allow District/Borough Councils to enhance the level of service and request all lights in their area be excluded from Part Night Lighting and to reimburse the County Council the full value of savings that would be realised by switching them off. 2. That authority be delegated to the Head of Highways and Transport, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Highways, to enter into specific agreements with requesting District or Borough Councils.
Reasons for Decisions
District and Borough Councils have their own budgets and across the County will have differing local priorities. Enabling them to request lights be excluded from Part Night lighting allows them to respond to those differing priorities ... view the full minutes text for item 91/17 |
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To note any delegated decisions taken by the Leader, Deputy Leader, Cabinet Members and the Investment Board since the last meeting of the Cabinet. Additional documents: Decision: RESOLVED:
That the Cabinet noted the decisions taken by Cabinet Members / Investment Board since the last meeting as set out in Annex 1 of the submitted report.
Reasons for Decision
To inform the Cabinet of decisions taken by Cabinet Members / Investment Board under delegated authority. Minutes: RESOLVED:
That the Cabinet noted the decisions taken by Cabinet Members / Investment Board since the last meeting as set out in Annex 1 of the submitted report.
Reasons for Decision
To inform the Cabinet of decisions taken by Cabinet Members / Investment Board under delegated authority. |