Agenda and minutes
Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex, RM17 6SL. View directions
Contact: Lucy Tricker, Democratic Services Officer Email: Direct.Democracy@thurrock.gov.uk
Media
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To approve as a correct record the minutes of Cabinet held on 22 July 2020. Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 22 July 2020 were approved as a true and correct record. |
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Items of Urgent Business To receive additional items that the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency, in accordance with Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972. Additional documents: Minutes: There were no items of urgent business. |
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Declaration of Interests Additional documents: Minutes: There were no interests declared. |
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Statements by the Leader Additional documents: Minutes: The Deputy Leader explained that the Leader’s statement would be discussed at the upcoming meeting of Full Council. |
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Briefings on Policy, Budget and Other Issues Additional documents: Minutes: The Deputy Leader stated that an initial investment committee scoping meeting had taken place earlier in the week, and had been attended by a number of Members including himself, the Leader, Councillors John Kent, Fraser Massy and Gary Byrne; as well as senior officers including the Section 151 Officer and the Monitoring Officer. He felt this had been a good session where they had discussed the work undertaken by external advisors since July, and what potential democratic oversight of investments could look like, including an investment briefing. He commented that a shadow investment board would be set up to cover the remaining municipal year and would discuss the Terms of Reference for the committee to ensure it had the right aims and targets. He stated that any Members who sat on the investment committee would receive appropriate training and briefings, so the committee could move forward knowing how to handle investments and the governance surrounding this process. |
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Petitions submitted by Members of the Public Additional documents: Minutes: No petitions had been submitted by members of the public. |
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Questions from Non-Executive Members Additional documents: Minutes: No questions had been submitted from non-Executive Members. |
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Matters Referred to the Cabinet for Consideration by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee Additional documents: Minutes: No matters had been referred to Cabinet for consideration by an overview and scrutiny committee. |
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Stanford-le-Hope Station Redevelopment (Decision: 110527) PDF 242 KB Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Coxshall introduced
the report and stated that the project was now moving forward after
a brief pause and reflect period, which had made the scheme more
deliverable. He explained that the project was now looking to go to
market to tender main works contractors, which would be at a fixed
price to stop ‘mission creep’ within the project. He
added that as the scheme had changed, new planning permission would
need to be sought but felt that this would be worthwhile as the new
scheme had more improvements for local residents and commuters. He
summarised and stated that the project should begin work sometime
in 2021. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Halden introduced
the report and stated that this was the first step in helping to
stabilise the adult social care budget for the long-term,
particularly in a post-COVID world, to ensure the most vulnerable
residents were protected. He explained that it currently cost users
£13 per hour for domiciliary care, but this service actually
cost the Council £17.06 per hour, which meant that the
service was not recovering costs. Councillor Halden added that
there were currently 1200 service users, of which almost 1000 users
only paid a portion of the costs or nothing at all. He added that
the adult social care market was experiencing increased financial
pressures because of COVID, which included the added expense of
appropriate PPE. He mentioned that Thurrock also had to remain in
parity with Essex County Council, which currently paid 90p per hour
more than Thurrock, which could leave Thurrock uncompetitive.
Councillor Halden stated there were three options going to
consultation, which were being presented to Cabinet, which included
taking no action; increasing to the maximum charges immediately; or
increasing the charges over a period of three years. He mentioned
that increasing the charges gradually was the proposed course of
action so residents had time to adjust to the changes whilst
ensuring that the service was stable and reliable in the future. He
stated that this report recommended the Council go out to
consultation on these three options to ensure residents could have
their say. He explained that the Council would listen to any
feedback carefully and was keen to hear views from those using the
service and those on the edge of care, for example family and
friends of care users. He stated that Cabinet had listened to
overview and scrutiny and had extended the consultation from 30
days to 8 weeks to ensure that as many residents could take part as
possible. |
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Procurement to Provide Autism Specialist Support - Medina Road (Decision: 110529) PDF 382 KB Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Halden introduced
the report and stated that this was a good report that would
provide specialist autism support in the borough. He felt proud of
Thurrock’s special schools which were both rated as
outstanding, and led to a higher proportion of people with disabled
children moving to the borough. He stated that in 17 years Thurrock
would see an increase of 30% of people in the borough with autism,
and therefore the Council were looking at supported accommodation
to ensure those people received the care they needed. Councillor
Halden stated that this was both a housing and a pastoral offer, as
it would also provide help with training, jobs and education. He
explained that the centre contained six specialist units, a garden,
and a common room and services provided would be weighted towards
increasing independent living. He summarised and stated that
whoever was tendered would need to work with Thurrock and other
agencies such as Aspire to ensure the highest level of care and
support was provided. |
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Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Mayes introduced the
report and thanked the Director of Public Health and his team for
their excellent report, which focussed on youth violence and
vulnerability. He stated that from a public health perspective this
included surveillance, identifying risks, intervening to reduce
those risk factors and implementation. He outlined that the report
covered the first three stages and worked to move to the
implementation stage. He stated that the report outlined youth
violence as a communicable disease which could infect a community
and needed a whole system approach, including multiple agencies, to
tackle. He described that the report considered trends in youth
violence which had been increasing since 2013, but Thurrock’s
work with Essex Police and the C17 gang injunction had helped to
keep figures down. He felt it was disappointing to see high levels
of youth violence with weapons, but on a ward basis only six wards
within Thurrock had higher than average youth violence, and these
were wards where there was easy access to the C2C train line, which
led to criminal migration. He commented that the public health team
were working with the British Transport Police to tackle the
problem of criminal migration. Councillor Mayes moved on to
describe how deprivation was a poor predictor of youth violence and
explained the crime paradox, which meant that young people who were
convicted of crimes and sent to juvenile detention centres were
more likely to come from a deprived background, but those from a
deprived background were not any more likely to commit crimes. He
explained the casual variables which could also affect increased
youth violence such as exposure to criminal activity; time spent
unsupervised in town centres; low morality; and low self-control.
He felt that Thurrock were good at working with some external
agencies such as Aspire as well as promoting good family outcomes
and quality primary education; but needed to work better with NHS
services and other agencies to improve upon the good work already
being undertaken. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: The Deputy Leader introduced
the report and explained that it outlined the economic impact of
COVID-19, as Thurrock moved away from a balanced MTFS budget, which
had been in place since 2018, and towards a deficit. He stated that
some local authorities were having to bring an in-year emergency
budget to Council due to their deficits, but Thurrock were not in
that position as the Council were better equipped due to reserves
and other income sources. He stated that at the beginning of the
2020/21 municipal year, Thurrock had been in a £4million
surplus, but due to COVID, that would be used to reduce the new
in-year deficit down to £2million. He stated that central
government had given Thurrock £10.8million in support, but
the Council would experience £6.3million of pressure above
this government support, due to a reduction in fees and charges,
the cessation of some capital strategy activity, a reduction in
council tax and business rate income, and other COVID-related
pressures. He added that last municipal year the Council had
reversed deficits of £1.5million, and felt that the Council
could do it again this municipal year. |
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Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Coxshall introduced
the report and stated that Thurrock had excellent business links
and a business community, as the borough was adjacent to London,
and had good transport links to the rest of the country and the
world. He added that the private sector wanted to invest in the
borough over the next twenty years, but highlighted that
infrastructure would come first in order to ensure benefits for
residents and businesses. He outlined the draft plan, which
recognised the strength of local communities, whilst highlighting
the impact COVID would have on jobs and prosperity within Thurrock.
He commented that Thurrock needed to work collaboratively with
other communities and external organisations to deliver the scheme,
which would start to be implemented at the same time as
consultation to deliver a start time of 2021. He summarised and
stated that members, officers and residents should endeavour to buy
locally to support local businesses and boost the economy. |
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Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Huelin introduced
the report and stated that although Council’s planned for
emergencies, no one had been able to predict the global COVID
pandemic and subsequent lockdown. She highlighted that quarter one
began a week into lockdown, but despite the pandemic, 2000 council
staff and continued to work hard to deliver services. She stated
that some services had had to reconfigure their entire way of
working, for example bin collections which needed to maintain a 2m
social distance for three people in a lorry cab, whilst also
training and recruiting new staff in a socially distanced way. She
stated that council staff and volunteers had worked hard to help
residents, for example care homes received daily check-ins from the
council and food packages and prescriptions were delivered to those
that needed it. She felt proud that 500 council staff became
Thurrock Coronavirus Community Action volunteers within one week of
lockdown starting. Councillor Huelin stated that in 2019/20 74% of
key performance indicators had met their targets, and although this
had decreased to 65.5% in the first quarter of 2020/21, ten out of
eleven missed targets were due to COVID. She highlighted some
missed targets, such as percentage of waste recycled which had
decreased because Household Waste and Recycling Centres (HWRCs) had
been shut during the pandemic. She stated that the baseline for key
performance indicators in 2020/21 would remain at 2019/20 levels,
to be able to determine the impact of COVID on council services.
She summarised and stated that she felt proud that Thurrock Council
had persevered during the pandemic and that overview and scrutiny
had no additional recommendations on the report.
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