Communities and Economic Development Cabinet Advisory Board

Communities and Economic Development Cabinet Advisory Board
Wednesday, 24th January 2024 at 6:30pm

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Seat 3
Slide 1

1 Chair's Introduction

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1 Chairs Introduction

2 Apologies for Absence

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2 Apologies for Absence

3 Declarations of Interests

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3 Declarations of Interest

4 Notification of Persons Wishing to Speak

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4 Notification of Persons Wishing to Speak

5 Minutes of the meeting dated 15 November 2023

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Minutes , 15/11/2023 Communities and Economic Development Cabinet Advisory Board

6 Forward Plan as at 9 January 2024

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2024-01-11 Forward Plan as at 11 January 2024

7 Affordable Housing Commuted Sums - Land to East of Highgate Hill and South of Copthall Avenue, Hawkhurst

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8 Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Strategic Plan

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9 Award of Partnership Services Contracts

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Cabinet Report Better Care Funded partnership services

10 Urgent Business

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7 Urgent Business

11 Date of the Next Meeting

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8 Date of the Next Meeting

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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

Seat 3 - 0:00:00

when I chair thanks good evening, welcome to the meeting of the Cabinet communities and economic development Cabinet Advisory Board on Wednesday, the 24th of January 2024 welcome also to some members of the finance and governance and planning and transportation cabinet advisory boards and Councillor Wall Chair of the Committee before we start please give your full attention to the following announcements from our Clarke.

Mrs. Brown,

thank you, Chair and good evening everybody in the event of the fire alarm ringing continuously, you must immediately evacuate the building at walking, pace officers will direct you via the most direct available route, and no one is to use the lift.

we will make our way to the fire assembly point by the entrance to the Town Hall Yard, car park, on Munson, Way, and once outside a check would be made to ensure everyone has safely left and no one is to re-enter the building until advised that it is safe to do so.

this is a public meeting and proceedings are being webcast live online, a recording will also be available for playback on the Council's website shortly afterwards.

can I remind everyone to use the microphones when speaking the red light indicates, the microphone is on and any comments that are not recorded for the webcast will not be included in the minutes of the meeting, you should be aware that any third party is able to record or film Council meetings unless exempt or confidential information is being considered.

the Council would not accept liability for any third party recordings. It is very important that the outcome of the meeting is clear. At the end of each substantive item, the Chair will ask whether the matter is agreed in the absence of a clear majority of the Chair decides. A full vote is desirable. A vote will be taken by a show of hands. Members should raise their hands to indicate their vote and keep their hands up until the count has been announced. Members requesting a recorded vote must do so before the vote is taken. Thank you Chair,

1 Chair's Introduction

thank you, Mrs Mirren, but the benefit of the recording we're going to take a roll call.

thank you Chair.

expected Members here this evening, Councillor Lewis,

Britain Councillor Hill present Councillor March, present.

Councillor Munday,

present Councillor Palmer, present Councillor Webster, present Councillor Wilkinson, present Councillor Rutland Vice Chair.

Councillor won a Chair present for the benefit of the according, we don't have Councillor Morton here with us at the moment.

expected officers here this evening, Ian Hurst.

Sue Oliver present Donny, Philip Toby Philip prison, Gary Stevenson, present, Paul Taylor.

present and other Councillors here this evening for the benefit of the record, and we have Councillor Chappell, Lord Leader of the Council here and Councillor LB Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, we also have Councillor Robertson Councillor Dowling to joining us this evening, thank you Chair up that's everybody, thank you.

members of the Committee should be familiar with the process for, but for the benefit of members of the public, who may be watching? I'd like to explain a couple of things. Committee members have had their agenda packs a week ahead of this meeting and have had the opportunity to ask any factual questions of the officers. When we come to the substantive items on the agenda, the CV, the relevant officer who first set out their report, we will then move them into a Member questions and discussion at the end of the debate. I will try and summarise the Committee's view, and members should ensure that any proposals or actions are correctly captured and were aligned members that without prejudice to any other comments that may be raised, the Committee is asked to come to one of the following positions, 1, that the recommendations to Cabinet are supported by the board

2, that the recommendations to Cabinet would be supported, subject to a particular issue being addressed, or three, that the recommendations to Cabinet are not supported, and if this is the case reasons should be stated.

2 Apologies for Absence

3 Declarations of Interests

so we move to agenda item 2 apologies for absence, Mrs. Moran, do we have any apologies for absence, we have apologies from Councillor Fairweather this evening Chair, thank you agenda item 3 declarations of interest members of the committee should state at this point if they have any declarations of interest related to any item on this evening's agenda does any member have a declaration to make?

4 Notification of Persons Wishing to Speak

I see none, so we move to Item 4 notification of purchase persons wishing to speak at this time, we note whether any members of the public or visiting members of the Council have registered to speak this evening, do we have any such persons, we have no registered speakers this evening Chair.

5 Minutes of the meeting dated 15 November 2023

so we move on to Item 5 minutes of the meeting dated Wednesday, the 15th of November 2023 Members are asked to confirm that the minutes of the previous meeting are a true record of the proceedings, please, may I remind members that the only matter for discussion is their accuracy do Members have any comments Councillor Rutland?

thank you Chair, just to note that Councillor Warren was in attendance that evening and chaired the meeting.

yeah sorry, that was my apologies, Councillor wormwood was present, I'll pull out if they accepted Mrs. Rahm, I'm obviously very vulnerable,

and that'll be recorded in the minutes, thank you, thank you OK, so if there's nothing else.

6 Forward Plan as at 9 January 2024

the motion is to agree the minutes with the amendment are we agreed agreed, the motion is carried, thank you, so we move to Item 6, the Forward Plan as at the 9th of January 2024 you have in your agenda packs the Forward Plan on pages 13 to 29.

since publication of the agenda, a new forward plan has been published dated the 11th of January, do Members have any comments at this time?

I see now that the motion is to note the Forward Plan or we agreed.

the motion is carried, thank you.

7 Affordable Housing Commuted Sums - Land to East of Highgate Hill and South of Copthall Avenue, Hawkhurst

moving to agenda item 7, affordable housing, commuted sums, expenditure land to east of Highgate Hill and south of Cooktown, Avenue Hawkhurst.

this report starts on page 30 of our agenda. Councillor Pound will introduce the report the presenting officer Toby Phillips

thank you Chair.

the agenda item before you this evening, ha has two recommendations in relation to the section 1 0 6 funding of 28 affordable units and at a new development in Hawkhurst, 18 of which will be for social rent, 10 of which will be some form of shared ownership I have to say that Toby Phillips, who is our affordable housing and enabling Officer will introduce more detail in a minute, but this is a remarkably good opportunity I believe.

and comes out of a much better developing partnership with Town and Country Housing and than has been the case of late, I feel.

and both of the Council and town and country are leaning in to make this possible the opportunity of taking 18 social rent units

in Hawkhurst in a great development near the centre of town and is a hugely positive one. I would just like to share with the advisory board the numbers of applicants on the Housing Register for each of the sizes of accommodation that we have. You will see in the report that there are one bedroom flats, two bedroom flats, two bedroom houses, 3 bedroom houses and even a four bedroom house. Within the scope of this recommendation, currently we have 222 registrants at 4.00, one bed units 178 for two, 153 for three, 18 for four and five for five or more bedrooms, and therefore this does make a significant contribution to our housing stock, which will be at social rent in perpetuity. I'll hand over to Tony Phillips to talk through the report. Thank you

thank you, Councillor Pam. This report details the proposal to Cabinet in approving the release of the section 1 6 funding for 18 affordable housing provisions at the land of East to Highgate Hill, which already has planning permission in Hawkhurst, but commuted sums to be released is 1.140 million currently raise over 5 million and affordable housing commuted sums which can be used to facilitate affordable housing. In accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework, the approved, affordable housing, commuted sum spend policy and procedure highlights one of the potential uses of affordable housing commuter sums as subsidising alternative developments to allow for a greater provision of affordable housing at a social rent or to create a more favourable mix of social rented properties versus affordable rent. The use of commuted sums detailed in this report aligns with the Council's Housing objectives of providing more generally affordable housing in the form of social rent. This means for an example, converting the 4 bedroom unit from an affordable rent tenure cat at the Local Housing Allowance to a social rent tenure would lead to savings of 572 pounds for the household nominated towards a property from the council's has enriched up. The funding will be secured through a grant agreement facilitated by the Mid Kent legal services ensuring the homes remain at a social rent tenure for the perpetuity of his lifetime.

and this will be utilised in accordance with the nominations agreement from the Tunbridge Wells Borough Housing Register.

Even if the first initial left, if the property does become beacon again, Town and Country would only be permitted to let the property at a social rent level, in accordance with the government's rent standard.

so the recommendations from this report for this proposal would be for Cabinet to approve the release of the section 1 or 6 funding.

at the land of Highgate Hill, thank you very much, thank you, thank you Toby Members, do you have any questions at this time, Councillor Pa

in just a quick question will any of these houses be ring-fenced solely for people in Hooker, Sanders, Cranbrook and basically, in the rural areas?

yes, so will be fastness, roulette, there will be a local connection plan and therefore the people will focus the residential focus will have a priority towards the properties.

let all right, Councillor Palmer, to acquire anything, yes, very much, then thank you Toby and also thank you for your efforts on behalf of the people of hawkers to. I think this really good thing and I would very much support it. I think we do need more social rent houses for rent, yeah and there's that there's a huge need in notice in this area. So thank you very much on behalf of the people of Hawkhurst and

yes, I would support option 1,

thank you, Councillor Palmer, does anybody else have any other questions Councillor March?

thank you, Chair in.

0after what he said to to Councillor Palmer, I think you you said something rather at first it would be too hot coast what happens after that, when it if, if somebody wants to move out of from Hawker, store the property becomes vacant, how long would you anticipate that being just for somebody from Hawkhurst, thank you.

so for local commissioners, criteria are normally lost for three months initially, so that priority is normally given to be applicants on the Housing Register who have a local connection to caucus after the first initial lets. Then they go back onto the housing register for bidding and the local connections can continue to stipulate, depending on how long it lasts force will normally for the first five years of the affordable housing tenure then that local connections there, but if a void property then becomes vacant afterwards, then it will go out to everyone else in Tunbridge Wells, so it will be restricted to the household registers within Tunbridge Wells, but for the first year, but at first and initial tenure, for example, it would go to Hawkhurst for priority homeless applicants for property

OK, Councillor Mowat yeah, thank you for that, that's reassuring.

but I am after that after five years it is still Tunbridge Wells, but Tunbridge Wells residents, the borough residents it is not going to because you know, I've had so many people asking, is it going to go out to people from south London and that sort of thing and say no, it will be affordable. Housing within the borough is restricted to Tunbridge Wells applicants, so anybody who is accepted onto our housing register would have to have the local connections to Tunbridge Wells and then there would be only be allowed to permitted to bid on those properties for perpetuity so as long as as the properties exist as social housing

there will be delivered to residents within Tunbridge Wells. OK, I think Councillor Pam wanted to speak to it at that point,

yes, thank you,

just to say, Councillor Martin, I too have had the rumours that had been flying around about our housing stock and being taken by Croydon and other London boroughs, and it is simply untrue once a development has been approved and has had within it. Housing stock for these for Tunbridge Wells. It doesn't go anywhere else, I don't know where the myth arose from it may be that within some developments there is also private market sales, of course, and maybe some of those people are coming from particular locations in London, but it is not true

thank you as anybody else got any other questions, or would anybody like to kick off a debate or make any comments further than Councillor Palmer has to support it, I'd just like to say that I'm really pleased to see this come forward from my years on the Planning Committee when we have to look at cases where it is proposed to have commuted sums for affordable housing. I always find it really difficult to know whether

you know we could be assured of that actually being spent in them in the manner it's intended to, and that we're so reliant on good projects or schemes coming forward. So I'm really pleased to see this and especially as Councillor Palmer has alluded to in rural areas where it's absolutely desperately needed. So I will definitely be supporting this one, and I hope that Cabinet Advisory Board are able to do so as well, so if anybody's got anything else to say I'll move sorry Capco,

Councillor Lewis, he, I just think it's good to work to have some good news.

and especially with planning, I mean, we can be very negative about planning and the build process, but when you were in control of 0 of these outcomes, then it shows what you can do and and.

I am really pleased that the the people are from.

Hawkhurst end up with some 18 extra social rent properties, so it's a good result.

thank you, thank you, Councillor Lewis.

OK, so the recommendations to go forward to Cabinet are set out in the report, so members are now asked to confirm whether 1 that the recommendations to CA cabinet are supported by the board. I would suggest that that is the case are we agreed agreed? Thank you very much. The motion is carried.

8 Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Strategic Plan

so we move now to Item 8, which is the draft strategic plan.

2024 to 2029 the report starts on page 43 of the agenda, Councillor Chappell orders to introduce the report, and the presenting officer is Ian Hurst, thank you very much over to you Ben.

thank you Chair, our ambition for Thomas Rose Borough Council is to have a place where all generations can live forefinger, fulfilling and healthy lives in vibrant and connected communities.

and that's the ambition in the emerging Strategic Plan for Tunbridge Wells.

I believe that Thomas was Borough Council as a force for good. We've got amazing staff, talented staff, who really care about our local area, and the strategic plan aims to unleash that potential to do good in our borough. It's been a collaborative process, we've had the Councillor convention with three layers of local government councillors attending we've had 1,500 responses to the borough wide survey. We also did a feedback session on that survey in the Amelia Scott we've asked every councillor for ward specific projects and we had 54 projects put forward and we've also asked Cabinet for suggestions. What has come out of all of that are 5 priorities which are in the in your agenda, packs around climate action, our environment, sustainable growth, the vibrant economy and community wellbeing. What you've currently got is probably best described as a skeleton

of what the final corporate strategic plan is going to look like, Ian and I have looked at over 100 corporate plans from councils of every political colour in the country, we've seen some some good, some bad and some pretty ugly corporate plans, and I'm keen for it to look very different and our audiences, our residents. So if I can talk you through at the climate action page that you've got with Duncan fronting a an event at a local primary school

the priority climate action. You've got there the second bit underneath which says we will continue our work is what we want to do about this, and then below that there's a reasoning, so there's a very clear process of why we've chosen that priority from all the feedback and then across the page. Beyond the infographics, we got some strands about how we expect to tackle our climate action priority. There are two things currently missing in in in this document, the first one is specific projects

so we are going to go out to public consultation, should the Cabinet Advisory Board and Cabinet agree to ask residents whether those five priorities are the right things to do by our borough once we've established that with residents, we will then try and look at the specific projects that will sit in this document.

the second thing that's missing is we're going to ask residents what are their top tips, that every residents can do in their day-to-day life that will help us achieve that climate ambition, it's an idea that other councillors have done and I think it's a two way process with residents. So, as I said, we're going to go out to consultation about the skeleton and then once we review that data and that feedback we will then start looking at the projects from about 100 that we've got that we think what achieve the biggest impact for our for our borough, we've also that will take place after the May 2024 elections, we will have a new cohort of councillors and then everybody can feed into that process again, so it's a very much the skeleton so far. I just like to thank Ian who has worked very closely with me to put this together. I don't know if you want to add anything to that.

thank you, Councillor, no, not a great deal to add there, I think the diagram we have on page 45 of your agenda pack illustrates where we are in the process last year we did the evidence gathering for the residents survey, the councillors convention,

information from Councillors about particular projects in their wards, all of that was synthesised together and the five priorities were identified, as has been the areas where most of the feedback that we had received from those different initiatives.

was coming together where, at the stage of the first draft, now, so the consultation that we go out to will be checking the direction of travel are, we are we roughly on the right lines and the feedback we get from that will then go into amending this plan and added to the plan, as, as the Leader says, is the actual specifics? The the projects that will be resourced by the Council to achieve the priorities or any ambition outlined in the strategic plan, and then that will go out for a further consultation over the summer and the summer, aiming towards a final approval of the new strategic plan in September of this year,

thank you very much, do Members have any questions of at description of the plan or the process, our questions, anybody wants to make any Councillor Palmer.

so the ward project she won't be making a decision until when, after May, is that correct?

yes, so we we've we've got them, but we also looking at which way we which, through which lenses we want to look at those individual projects, so one of the things that came out from last week's corporate peer challenge is that I'm very keen for the council to start adding more social value in this ambition that Thomas Rose Borough Council is a force for good and I'd like those projects to be assessed about

financially, whether financial considerations should take precedence over what they deliver.

for answer a question to Councillor Palmer, any other questions from members to ask.

Simon anybody wants to make any comments on the plan, if not, then I'll move to the recommendations.

so the recommendations are set out in the report and read them again if you like, one that Cabinet note the draft Strategic Plan and to the Cabinet approve the draft Strategic Plan for public consultation.

do members of this Board support the recommendations to Cabinet?

agreed then the motion is carried, thank you very much.

9 Award of Partnership Services Contracts

so now we move to Item 9, a ward of the partnership services contract.

the report starts on page 59, our f off our agenda Sue Oliver private housing MA Manager will introduce this item, but at before I pass over to her like to first note that this item contains an exempt appendix which is set out in the restricted papers under agenda item 12 the report may be discussed and decided upon in public session provided that no exempt information is declared disclosed and Members are happy to take the exempt information as read alternatively if Members wish to discuss anything which appears in the exempt appendix please indicate during this discussion.

the decision will then be held over and discussed discussed in private session later.

Ms Oliver, your report, please, thank you, thank you Chair, so the Council receives an annual allocation from the government, funded better Care Fund, and that's what enables us to fund disabled facility grant, and also we can deliver our own programme of grants and financial assistance to meet local needs, so this is to help people have adaptations in their homes, keep their homes well at warm and keep their homes in good repair.

so this is the the the aim of the better Care Fund. The drive of the better Care Fund is to help people to manage their own health and wellbeing and to live independently, so this gives us the opportunity to deliver some partnership services to support these aims. And that's the subject of this report tonight. So it prison, along with Tonbridge and Malling Council and Sevenoaks. We've got some contracts in place with Town and Country Housing, and that's to provide three different services, one of which is a hospital discharge service. That's a service that runs across Mainstone and Pembury hospital, so it spans the three council areas and there are two coordinators, and so of course they're split across the three council areas as well, so that's why that's jointly funded

area of service in Tunbridge Wells, we also have a home straight service that's to help people with holding behaviors, but that's only in Tunbridge Wells and we have a handy person service which is also only in Tunbridge Wells, so those are our own contracts, whereas the first one I was talking about is a shared contract, those are the three contracts that are the subject of this report tonight.

these contracts expire on the 31st of March, so we have undertaken a procurement process to award the contract to a suitably experienced competent and qualified contractor, and we've led on the procurement because we have a procurement manager and we had the expertise and confidence to do this, so we led, on behalf of all three councils with a brief explanation of each service in the report, but I am happy to answer questions on that if you have any so looking at the term of the contract. It's just one year from the 1st of April with the option of for possible annual extensions, and that's because our better Care Fund allocation from government is only certain until the 31st of March 2025. We've got every reason to think it will continue. We've got no indications that it will end, but obviously this protects the Council and means that we can fund these services with this external funding without any impact on the Council's budget.

so all three Councils signed off on the procurement documentation and were involved in the evaluation process alongside, as I said earlier, our procurement manager.

I've already said the lots that are the subject of this report are only Lot 1, which is the shared service Lot 2, which is our handy person and not for which is our home straight service Tonbridge and Malling will award Lot 3, because that's for the handy person that works only in their area and Sevenoaks District Council will award Lot 5 and 6 because those are services that only run in their area. None of those lots have any implications for us. It was just we did the procurement jointly because it was far more efficient and effective to do that, so in terms of governance procedures, we've got confirmation. This is just about Lot 1, the hospital discharge service. We've got confirmation from the other two partners that Cabinet can ward, our Cabinet can award Lot 1 on behalf of all three councils

so, looking now at the procurement process, we've carried out a fully compliant tender process and we only received two submissions when we started to look at them, one of the suppliers did not submit a key document for each lot and because we had a minimum score that meant that they could not proceed in the process they weren't ever going to meet the minimum score because they admitted this very critical document from each of their applications each of their submissions.

so we then evaluated the submissions from supplier, a four or six lots, and they are our preferred provider.

they also offered a discount which worked out at an average of 4.6% across all of the lops if they were awarded or six lots, which is the case.

alongside the contract documentation, we will have an agreement with the other two councils and that will govern the percentage payments for Lot 1, so because we've got Pembury and Mainstone hospitals and we've got varying usage across three authorities, we need a way of making sure each council is paying for the services that it's using it's paying the right proportion we can't divide it in thirds because it's not as simple as that so that's why we're looking at this type part tripartite agreement so that's being worked on now.

tenderers were asked to submit a comprehensive service level agreement which includes how the service will be delivered and monitored and that has key performance indicators and management information.

we're gonna require quarterly monitoring reports and statistics, along with an annual report, and we will hold quarterly review meetings, and these will be alongside any more regular meetings that need to be held between staff and the provider to discuss any ongoing cases.

and finally, just to say, supply Ray has previous experience of delivering these services and they did meet all mandatory procurement provisions, thank you, thank you very much myself, Oliver.

if Members are satisfied with the report without discussing exempt information, that a decision can be made now on, or if anyone's got any questions, they want to ask, I thought that it was very full explanation, thank you, if you've got any questions without disclosing exempt information, Councillor Marsh,

I thank you very much Chair, thank you Sue for that I was quite disappointed to only see the One scoring table there from the one supplier and, and I think it's I would like to have obviously seen the comparison, but if they if the other supplier didn't actually fulfil all those the the the what was asked of them their obligations, then I do understand that but I suppose in a matter of transparency it's always good to have comparisons and,

I suppose the question really is, would it have been fair, had you?

I ask them, how much did you sort of push for this extra document that they didn't actually supply?

that that's sort of the the question I just would like to know that thank you.

no, of course, that's a good question, so with that particular supplier, our procurement manager had to chase a number of of pieces of mandatory information as part of the tender process which were returned the bit that we didn't get back from them was the comprehensive service level agreement. An extension had already been requested to provide additional information which we'd granted, and we decided that that action the submission they provided. It was no way that they would be able to deliver the services. The specification that we'd written. It was a very limited service that they were offering, and the key point was this missing critical piece of information and and obviously, as part of the procurement things are weighted. So this had, I can't remember, the exact figure of the waiting, so every document is an equal. This was one that had a big waiting on it because it related to what they were at their service level agreement, what they would offer, what were their performance measures, how would they monitor, how would they deliver? They didn't provide any of that, so we had a discussion between the three councils and our procurement manager, and our view was that, even if we gave them an extra week, there was no way they were going to be able to provide that information, and it wouldn't have been appropriate to score because that that the fact that they did not submit that took them out of the running completely, so that's why there were no scores. I mean we we would have preferred to. Obviously it's always better to have some competition and to benchmark, but it just wasn't possible in this situation.

thank you very much for that explanation that that is so much clearer I, but I wonder, is there anything that we could put in to the explanation that's going to Cabinet?

that is actually in a little more depth about the importance of that document and it your explanation now has answered all the questions and any of the potential questions that I would have had in any of my concerns.

it would just make it so much clearer, thank you, thank you Chair.

of course I will do that, thank you, Councillor Mowat, Councillor Lewis, thank you Chair.

can I?

Lord to ask about the book and an interest should say beforehand that I'm not a fan of tendering, and I think that this stuff should be done by the Council and by public services, to be honest myself, but we are where we are and we we we run with this this process that we've got, because that's what local government does and thank you for your work and doing an preparedness, but can I ask about the there's no interviews that seem to have taken place for the for the for the in the tender process

because it says not applicable, does that mean it didn't take place, or we didn't mark it, because I just feel if it didn't take place then often to see the whites of somebody's eyes when they're talking about a tender is is quite useful as well, not that I'm telling you how to do your job, but I'd just like some background on that as well. Thank you

of course, can I refer you to the exempt appendix, which is on page 67.

and there is some clarity there.

yeah

there is a counsellor, nurse of if we're gonna discuss things in the exempt pop box at the afternoon.

will have to move into, I think, I think.

let Councillor Lewis answer, I I don't think Councillor Lewis's to discuss that, but if you read Note 1, it explains why there was an interview, but as long as you don't say, what note one says in public, you'll be fine but I'm hoping Councillor Lewis is responding, as have you Rob my wife, Catherine is satisfied that he was satisfied with that or,

not particularly no right, would you like to go and to want to discuss it.

well, I'm unhappy to have a written answer as to why it didn't happen, to be honest, if that's possible I'm not, and that.

I say J, you're happy not to discuss it here, yes, okay, but you would like it noted that you'd like a written answer, yes please, yeah, OK.

with that, Mrs. Moran, yes, that's fine once nothing else has disclosed.

could I just ask you if it is a written answer, then would it not be open to a freedom of information if somebody wanted that, so therefore we would potentially no bout more about it?

as a very good point, Councillor Marc we can move into Executive Members are and officers are more comfortable to do that, Michelle Obama to answer the question, so I think in terms of if we were to write it down and send it to members and it's confidential, I think,

the the award of the contract will be made public once it's gone to Cabinet and the cooling off period as part, so you can click on public information before the FY deadline ran out, so it's a moot point, so I don't think there's any issue there, we're not discussing it, we're not releasing publicly any company, OK thanks for that clarification, but thank you for asking Councillor Mark just to check, I think we're alright with ACIS

if any other Members have got no further things they want to discuss, we can move to the recommendations which are.

in to go forward to Cabinet, as set out in the report that one gives the Head of Housing, Health and Environment delegated authority to award the better care funded partnership services contract, to supply a referred to in the exempt appendix A and to enter that contract with supply a for a period of one year from the 1st of April 2024 with the option of for annual extensions to to give delicate gated authority to the head of legal services in section 1 5 1 Officer to undertake all legal and financial requirements necessary to complete the contract and three give the Head of legal service since then delegated authority to negotiate and complete the contract and all ancillary documents as may be necessary

our members happy that these recommendations to Cabinet of are they supported by this board. Are we agreed

sorry.

sorry, Councillor Marsh, with the addition of some additional information in Ms Oliver's report on to clarify why the that the the service provide us which didn't go through to the next stage,

for failed that process. Okay, lovely, thank you very much, Councillor members, the motion is carried,

10 Urgent Business

11 Date of the Next Meeting

Item 10 is urgent business I can confirm that there is no such businesses CV, and item 11 is the date of the next meeting, the next meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Sep 2024.

the meeting is now closed, thank you very much for your attendance, thank you Chair.

Communities and Economic Development Cabinet Advisory Board - Wednesday 24 January 2024, 6:30pm - Feedback Tab - Start video at 0:39:43 - Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Webcasting