Cabinet - Thursday 26 October 2023, 6:30pm - Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Webcasting

Cabinet
Thursday, 26th October 2023 at 6:30pm 

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Seat 3 - 0:00:00
good evening. My name is Councillor Ben Shukla and I'm the leader of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council. I will be cheering this meeting of Cabinet on Thursday, the 26th of October, and I'd like to welcome everybody before we start. Can I ask you to please give your full attention to the following safety and broadcasting announcements? Thank you Chair. In the event of the fire alarm ringing continuously, he must immediately evacuate the building at walking pace officers will escort you via the most direct available route. This is a public meeting and proceedings are being webcast live online.
recording will also be available for playback on the Council's website shortly afterwards, you should all be aware that any third party is able to record or film Council meetings unless exempt or confidential information is being considered, the Council will not accept liability for any third party recordings, it is very important that the outcomes of the meeting are clear at the end of each item the Chair will ask whether the matter is agreed.
in the absence of a clear majority, or if the Chair decides a full vote, is desirable, a vote will be taken by a show of hands, Members should raise their hand to indicate their vote when called and keep their hand up until the count has been announced. Members requesting a recorded vote must do so before the vote is taken. Thank you Chair. Thank you, Caroline, for the benefit of the recording. The following members of cabinet are present Councillor Christopher Hall, Councillor Elin level, Councillor Hugo pound Councillor Justin Rutland Councillor Jane Sharratt, Councillor Pamela Wilkinson, Councillor Nancy Waun and Councillor Ben Chappelow
also present this evening are the following members of staff from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council we have a
Lee Collier, Claudette vulnerable, David Conlin, Gary Stevenson, present for the benefit of any members of the public who may be watching. I would like to explain a few things. Each report on the agenda today has previously been considered by the relevant Cabinet Advisory Board, and the views expressed by that Cabinet Advisory Board have been taken into consideration. Members of the cabinet have had their agendas for over a week and we've had the opportunity to study the papers and ask any factual questions of the staff ahead of the meeting. When each agenda item is being considered. The cabinet member responsible for the item will provide an overview of the report. Members of staff who have written a report will be available to answer questions, will then move into Cabinet discussion, and I will first ask for questions before opening the floor to debate. At the end of the debate, I will ask Cabinet Members to confirm they are fully understood the matter and are content that any proposals and or actions have been fully captured. We will then proceed to the recommendations and vote

1 Leaders Introduction and Announcements

agenda. Item 1 are at Leader's announcements and Cabinet's announcements. I don't have any announcements who would like to make some announcements. Councillor Justin Rutland, thank you Chair. We are delighted by this week's news that the Council has signed the lease with co-working and small business experts Town Square to create new modern work spaces with business and start-up support right here at the Town Hall. This is a new chapter for the Council and an exciting opportunity for local businesses existing you and those that may yet be only a twinkle in the eye. Tunbridge Wells is already a great place to live and work and this co-working hub will build on that success and create additional economic prosperity and vibrancy Cabinet would like to thank everyone from the finance, property and legal teams who have worked so hard to bring this project to fruition
thank you, Justin Councillor Jane Sharratt.
I am happy to report that the
Tom the solar together scheme.
group-buying system scheme for battery storage systems and solar PV, and which the current round of which closes tomorrow, has had 522 registrations in via Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.
which are by represents 504 solar PV and 18 battery storage registrations, which the last time I saw was the second highest in Kent, and I think this reflects a healthy interest in the wider Borough.
in green energy.
say?
yes, I just like to congratulate all the officers involved. Thank you, if I could join us sounds like really good news, would anybody else like to make an announcement at Councillor Pamela Wilkinson smile flowers following on from the success at SE in Bloom? I'm happy to confirm that the parks team and their amazing volunteers won gold in small city category as well as being awarded a special category for young people participation award at the national Britain in Bloom awards, the award was given out by, or presented by, Rachel de Tame and Taison Hayden Smith for gardeners among us can I also take the opportunity to mention that Donal and Calverley grounds Grove St John's Grosvenor and Hilbert and Woodbury Park cemetery all retain Green Flag status and and Hollande and Grosvenor are to retain the green heritage status. Thank you

2 Apologies

3 Declarations of Interest

thank you Palmer, Basquiat and Wogan to Peter Avery and his team in the parks team good to know that the judges had a worthwhile visit down from the North to Walton draws, thank you very much OK, item number 2 are apologies for absence and I can confirm that we've had none item number 3 declarations of interest.
does anybody have any declarations to make on any of the items this evening, no, there are none.

4 Notification of Visiting Members wishing to speak

5 Minutes of the meeting dated 21 September 2023

item number for notification of visiting persons registered to speak, I can confirm that we have known thank you, so we'll move on to 5 item 5 minutes of the meeting dated the 21 of September 2023.
to approve the minutes of that Cabinet meeting held on the 21 of September, are there any amendments to these minutes at all?
no, I care, so therefore, are we agreed, thank you very much.

6 Questions from Members of the Council

7 Questions from Members of the Public

8 Consideration of the Forward Plan as at 18 October 2023

we're gonna move on to Item 6, which are questions from Members of the Council, and I can confirm that no Councillors on the Council have registered to ask any questions, which means that we will then move on to Item 7, which are questions from members of the public and I can confirm that we have had none either so we move on to Item 8 at pretty quick speeds considerations of the forward plan as at the 18th of October do any members of cabinet have any
comments on the forward plan at all.

9 Budget Update Report 2024/25

no okay, therefore, are we agreed, thank you very much, OK, so we'll slow down now, item number 9, it is the budget update report for 2024 to 2025, and I'm going to ask Councillor Chris Hall, Cabinet Member for Finance and performance to introduce the item please.
thank you, thank you very much Chair, so we are now working through some of the key decisions in the annual cycle of setting the budget for 2024 25, the budget needs to be ready in draft to go out to public consultation by the end of the year.
finance and governance Cabinet Advisory Board.
Lee Collier, a chief financial officer, gave an update on the current position regarding the 2024 25 budget deficit, which is improving and an update on the medium term budget projections for the next five years, and pleased that progress is being made with the savings plan which is nearing completion and which fulfils one of our key objectives of putting the revenue budget on a more sustainable footing to protect services as a whole.
the report was approved unanimously in finance and governance, with no further recommendations to Cabinet, I'll now hand over to Lee.
thank you, Councillor Hall, this is the second report in the process of setting the 24 25 budgets, the budget deficit for next year is currently projected to still be 900,000 pounds, however this reduces to 300,000 if the updated savings plan is fully implemented there are risks that have yet to be quantified, including the level of new homes, bonus planning applications are now declining and contractors and suppliers are looking to put up their prices.
projections in this report are a high level forecast using the current year's base budget, a clear picture will be available next month when the detailed estimates from service managers have been entered into the Council's financial management system, and whilst there is no news on the local government finance settlement, the government's Autumn Statement is scheduled for the 22 of November.
this report also sets out the national and local economic data high inflationary pressures continue across the economy, particularly on contracts and energy costs, which are rising again, but the Council is limited to only been able to increase council tax by 3%, which will further widen the gap between the cost of providing local services and the income received. No organisation can absorb these levels of inflation and continue to cover its operating costs. The budget setting approach will be the subject of an Overview and Scrutiny meeting on the 27th of November, and then the draft budget will then be subject to four weeks of public consultation before the final report goes through the decision-making process in January and February and arrives at full Council happy taking questions
thankfully, does anybody have any questions for Lee?
MANCEY.
it's not really a question, it's just I spotted what I presume is a typing error.
at 2.00.3 point 2.3 1 the preceding.
pre savings plan deficit forecast is think is missing and 0.
sorry on page 48, paragraph 2.3 1
I think there's a missing 0 on the figure for the pre savings plan deficit forecast, Woodham spot, thank you apologies.
Good spot does anybody else wish to comment on the report?
I would just like to say that'd be the deficit for the 24 25 last May, 2022, when the Borough Partnership came into being, was 3.8 million pounds for that year, and I think if we look at the savings plan on Appendix be,
on page, there is some significant drop, so, as Lee said it, it's about 900,000 at the moment, dropping to 300,000, potentially so we are making progress on safeguarding the finances from 3.8 million to 889,000 so well done everybody, thank you OK so if nobody wishes to.
speak or ask any questions, can we proceed to the recommendations, so recommendation 1 is that officers continue to work towards reducing the projected budget deficit, in line with the budget strategy and report back in December, with draft proposals prior to public consultation, are we agreed?
thank you very much.

10 *Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2024/25

item number 10, which is a council tax reduction scheme for 2024 to 2025, I'm going to ask Chris Hall, cabinet member for finance and performance to introduce the item, thank you.
thank you very much Chair, so the year the council tax reduction scheme has now been in place in its current form for a couple of years, and the proposal before you is to continue for a further year, subject to agreement at Full Council.
there was discussion over this at the finance and governance Cabinet Advisory Board, and a recommendation was put forward which was accepted.
that?
a recommendation to Cabinet to look at the costs to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council of potentially offering additional support to Band 1 for residents on the maximum of UN universal credit, which currently stands at 8%, and, subsequent to that committee meeting, those costs have now been circulated to Cabinet.
there were no no further points to raise, so I believe that Lee will be standing in for Zoe's than the correct this evening.
in that case, it's as though he's not here yeah.
go over to any questions, OK, does anybody have any any questions on the council tax reduction scheme or wish to comment on it?
Sugar.
thank you Chair.
I just make the comment that every year, the discussion around the community sorry, the council tax reduction scheme arises both in full council and in a number of our cabinet advisory boards, and even here at Cabinet, it is an incredibly difficult tax to unravel in relation to our relationships to other agencies in Kent KCC fire.
the police and crime, commissioner, and so on.
and the fact that KCC provides us with funding to administer the scheme it is still, I think, the intent of certainly some groups in the Council that we should address the council tax reduction scheme, but it needs a much longer run-in than we have ever been able to consider before so this year I and others will clearly support it, but I'm not entirely convinced that that will always be the case, thank you.
thank you, can you go, does anybody else wish to comment on the item?
so just to explain what you go said, basically we are the billing authority for Kent County Council, Kent, police and the fire brigade, and if we decide to change the scheme, it has an impact on their tax rate and that the money they collect, so we have to do it in partnership with those councils, which is why the running time is longer than we previously thought, but it remains an ambition to try and support those who are least well-off in the borough, or possibly through other means, and there is work in progress behind the scenes to do that if we can't do it through the CTS, OK so there are two recommendations on the paper that the CAB cabinet sorry recommendation 1, that the Cabinet notes the progress of the income band council tax reduction scheme
recommendation to the Cabinet recommends that no changes are made to the council tax reduction scheme for 2024 2025, except for a percentage increase to the income bands in line with the GWP annual percentage, uprating increase following what Chris said, Members of finance and governance Cabinet Advisory Board have also requested an additional recommendation which reads as follows, so recommendation 3 reads that Cabinet fully costs out the financial impacts.
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council of a full range of council tax reduction schemes are we agreed.

11 Disposal of Surplus Land at Mount Pleasant Car Park

thank you very much, that's unanimous, so item number 11, which is disposal of surplus land at Mount Pleasant car park, Mount Pleasant Avenue car park.
Councillor Chris Hall introduced this report. But before I pass to him, I would first now like to note that this item mate contains an exempt appendix which is set out in the restricted papers at agenda item 16. The report may be discussed and decided upon in public session, provided that no exempt information is disclosed and Members are happy to take the exempt information as read. Alternatively, if members of Cabinet wish to discuss anything which appears in the exempt appendix please indicate during the discussion and the decision will then be held over and discuss in a private session later and just for anybody listening in the reason why there is an appendix which is exempt is because it contains commercial information that we need to withhold from the public domain for the time being. So over to you, Chris, thank you, thank you very much. Chair
so the disposal of surplus assets is one of the three points I laid out in my budget speech to full Council in March this year in setting the 2023 to 24 budget, and we now have an opportunity to look at the disposal of Mount Pleasant car park car park that was principally used by access for employees Monday to Saturday when they occupied the office buildings on Crescent Road until early July this year so as the site of the office and its adjacent car park are now vacant, it's an opportune moment to review that and to potentially realise the value of the car park which is owned by the Council.
at the finance and governance Cabinet Advisory Board meeting, we had an update from Peter Benfield and there was some discussion on the asset where a recorded vote was taken, with only one member voting against the recommendation to proceed with delegated authority to negotiate and agree the terms of the disposal it was recommended.
to Cabinet, with a with an amendment to the the recommendations to ensure that we realise best of all value from any potential buyer.
with the option to retain the asset, if our evaluation of the asset is not met.
so.
I now sort of am looking to who might be re commenting on this report and as Peter's not here as David standing of Peter, thank you very much, David.
thank you, portfolio holder.
as outlined, the site is used by AXA Monday to Friday to a total of 60 spaces it is identified and the or or as one of the sites listed in the Asset Management Plan, this Management Plan contains a list of the assets that to be considered for disposal.
we have been marketing the site via agents, Lambert Smith, Hampton, and in terms of the market assessment that has been carried out, Lambert Smith Hampton by Lambert, Smith Hampton, we've actually included that within the exempt appendix A, and that's item 16 on the on the agenda.
as outlined, actually you utilise the site, the there has been agreement reached with AXA to relocate their current space requirements from this site to Crescent Road car park and just to confirm, as outlined by the portfolio holder, that the the recommendation to add to the recommendation 2 on the report has been made and that can be clearly seen on page 70 it had been against ref recommendation to.
over to you, Mr. Chairman, thank you, David, does anybody have any questions for David Justin?
thank you, this might be the David Osterley really, and for clarity, I wonder if an officer could explain what we mean when we say a capital receipt and one of the kinds of things that are capital receipts would be spent on, thank you.
thank you, so the local government Housing Act 1989 sets out how councils need to treat and account for capital expenditure and capital receipts, so capital receipts are the proceeds from the disposal of capital assets and they can only be spent on capital expenditure so this Council will first use any capital receipts to fund its own capital programme and that would include work such as on the multi-storey car parks, the town hall assembly all I its major assets and the reason for spending capital receipts.
to fund the capital programme is because it avoid dipping into the Council's reserves, so capital receipts are protected under the Local government Act and we can only spend them on capital expenditure.
thankfully, does anybody else have any questions more questions?
Alan
thank you Chair.
the lease with Axa, I'm asking you Lisa, is that a directly transferable so that we haven't lost any lost out on anything there?
we we've negotiated with Axa in terms, and they want to retain the existing level of access that they have, so that would be transferring to Crescent Road car park, it would be the additional or not additional spaces, but it would be transferring this 60 spaces they require into into a lease within them with the in Crescent Road car park.
thank you.
thank you, and my question is, as it's essentially a private car park when it was under AXA because it was leased entirely to them at the weekend, Saturdays and Sundays it was open to members of the public.
do we know what the occupancy rate of the car park is for public lie, are you able to answer that one, please?
year. So public usage only accounted for 4% of total utilisation of that car park.
thank you, and we we've got that 4% capacity elsewhere.
in the car parks to to to be able to transfer people across is my understanding we certainly do in summer and off-street car parks, yes, thank you, does anybody else have any questions, does anybody else wish to comment?
on it, no okay, so I'll move to the four recommendations recommendation 1, that Cabinet approves the disposal of the land referred to in this report and the appendices that recommendation 2, that delegated authority is granted to the Head of economic development and property in consultation with the Director of Finance Policy and Development, the monitoring officer and the Cabinet Member for Finance and performance to negotiate and agree the terms of a disposal provided, this satisfies the Council's best value requirements which should,
satisfied the Cabinet Advisory Board recommendation 3 that the head of Mid Kent legal Services is authorised to negotiate and complete all necessary and ancillary legal documentation and formalities, to give effect to these recommendations and the disposal of the land, and recommendation 4, that the Director of Finance Policy and Development, in consultation with the portfolio holder for finance and performance, is given delegated authority to negotiate and complete all necessary future leases and other formalities as a consequence of this disposal. Are we agreed? Thank you very much. We're going to move on to
item number 12

12 New Lease on Asset - Royal Victoria Place, Royal Tunbridge Wells

which is at the new lease on assets for Royal Victoria Place and Royal Tunbridge Wells before I ask David Conlin
the Head of economic development to, and property, to introduce this report, there is an exempt item in the appendices at agenda item 17 and again,
because that information is commercially sensitive. We cannot put that out in the domain, so if we wish to discuss anything, then we will have to hold the decision over until later on in private session.
thank you, David.
sorry, Christian me to come to you first.
you can check, I mean, it'd be probably for the benefit of it.
a particular item that didn't come before the finance and governance cabinet advisory board, but it is something that has come forward to Cabinet due to the urgent nature of the decision that we need to take, that's probably all I need to say on it before handing over to David,
thank you.
thank you portfolio holder, as outlined in the report, in October 2023, the Council completed the acquisition of a long leasehold of Royal Victoria Place, as outlined we have put in place a full professional team to advise us on managing and running the centre.
in preparing for the acquisition, our professional team have prepared a draft business plan for the operation of the centre, and that provides an analysis of the current income position, short term business plan and the cashflow sensitivity, sensitivities of that cashflow and the medium term plans for footfall the centre in terms of acquisition we are now going through that draft business plan and making sure it's thoroughly reviewed against the actual position at the point of acquisition.
we had a number of leases in the centre that were being completed between exchange and completion.
and we are, we have engaged fully with with the salary in terms of that process, but unfortunately the lies identified in the exempt report could not be completed prior to completion, however, all the terms have been agreed.
with the tenant for a five-year lease, and we are seeking to avoid any further delay to the tenant, we are seeking authority to complete the lease that has already been negotiated and agreed apologies that they said that this one missed out in terms of going to finance and governance, it was just the timing in terms of the the the the Cabinet process so we have sought and,
sought approval from the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to with
procedures due to J due to the urgency of the matter,
the details are outlined in the
in the exempt report, but we are seeking with a cabinet approval to move and enter into a lease which is beneficial to the Council in terms of its management and ownership of the Royal Victoria Place shopping centre, Mr. Chairman,
thank you, David, does anybody have any questions of David or wish to comment on the item, thank you Chair just a couple of comments, first one is, I think, that the council and cabinet are probably grateful, I are grateful to the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny for waiving the requirement of the call-in.
because this is an urgent matter and I think that we should recognise that, as is described in the papers and also just to assuage other people's concerns, that they have been expressed a little in the public domain, that there is not enough scrutiny and understanding of this acquisition, we do have that investment advisory panel which is across a cross-party panel which is looking at the management and the restructuring and the repurposing of the asset and I think that officers and we as Cabinet will clearly be working with them as they scrutinise every action that is undertaken in relation to this new acquisition thanks.
thank you, Hugo, does anybody else wish to comment on it?
now the
the leasing of that unit in RVP is good news for Tunbridge Wells, but my lips are sealed, so we'll move on to the recommendations on Item 12, there are three of them recommendation 1 is that we have the Cabinet approves the grant of the new lease based on the key terms set out in the appendix which is exempt.
recommendation to that Cabinet delegate authority to the Head of economic development and property, in consultation with the Director of Finance Policy and Development, and the Cabinet Member for Finance and performance, to agree the final terms of the lease and that 3 Cabinet delegate authority to the Head of legal services to complete all legal formalities as are necessary and incidental to the recommendations in this report and to negotiate, execute and complete the lease and all necessary agreements and deeds arising from any ancillary or incidental to the decision are we agreed.

13 Empty Homes Policy 2023-2028

thank you very much Item number 13 is a lucky one, Councillor pounds is the empty homes policy for 2023 through to 2028, and I'm going to ask Councillor Hugo Pound Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning to introduce the item. Thank you. Thank you Chair. This is an update on an existing policy slightly modified to represent this administration's desire to address empty homes across the borough by a more proactive management of data and engagement and interventions. As you can read in appendix 1 of the papers
the PA policy wording that is before you has been debated and supported by both the cross-party Housing Advisory Panel and by the cross-party communities and economic development Cabinet Advisory Board, two of whose members actually sit in cabinet, and there were questions asked at that cab, all of which have been responded to other than one outstanding item.
which is to explore whether our housing services team can approach owners of empty homes, to ask whether they might consider a short term lets to ease our housing waiting list, and that is a debate that I'm still having with the Housing Services team, and I will report back when we have progress on that.
but this item has been discussed outside this meeting in two other fora, and I think that everyone on Cabinet is fully aware of what it's trying to achieve, as I say, it is simply about the Council being more proactive and anticipating the potential of using empty homes, of which we have quite a significant number across the borough to both bring them back into use and perhaps to ease our housing crisis ourselves. I ask, therefore that you support the two recommendations before you and that this be endorsed by Cabinet, thank you.
our Gary's here, if we need any questions, does anybody have any questions of Hugo or Gary?
on this one.
does anybody wish to comment?
now I am going to say Hugo well done, because I know this has been something I remember our first away day in the Amelia Scott that this is something that you wanted to do and it's actually being delivered by you and your team so Gary can you pass on my thanks and Cabinet's thanks for what I think will be a policy which will make a difference in Bruno's empty homes back into use, so we'll move to the recommendations that Hugo is mentioned.
recommendation 1 is that the Cabinet adopts the empty homes policy for 2023 2028 at Appendix A of this report, brackets the policy and to the following any review of the policy power to amend it, and the action plan is delegated to the Head of Housing, Health and Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning.

14 Urgent Business

15 Date of Next Meeting

we agreed agreed. Thank you very much item number 14 is urgent business and I can confirm that we've had none apart from the one we've just dealt with, so there's no other bit and before I move on to Item 15 we have dealt with items 16 and 17 in public session so we might need to do them in exempt, so therefore we go back to Item 15, which is the date of the next meeting which is Thursday the 23 of November at 20.23 at 6.30 and,
just wish everybody a happy Halloween if you're celebrating and stay safe, thank you very much. The meeting is closed,