Agenda and minutes
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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillor Kath Pratt.
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Declarations of Interest and Dispensations Minutes: There were no reported declarations of interest or dispensations.
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To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 21st June 2023. (attached) Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held 21st June 2023 were submitted for approval as a correct record.
Councillor Aziz asked when the follow up report in respect of Bulky Waste (Minute 29(2)) would be available. He also asked about progress in reducing the backlog of collections that had built up and whether current data could be shared with all councillors. Councillor Smithson, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services indicated that he was working closely with officers to bring a report to the September Cabinet meeting. Good progress was being made on reducing the backlog of collections, but he did not have the precise details to hand. However, he would be happy to share the figures with all councillors when these were available.
(Note: As at 7/7/23 the backlog is now down to 3 to 4 weeks, which is dependent on the item being collected)
Resolved - That the Minutes be received and approved as a correct record.
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Reports of Cabinet Members To receive any verbal reports from each of the Portfolio Holders, as appropriate. Minutes: Councillor Marlene Haworth, Leader of the Council, made the following announcements:
· It was very pleasing to witness the completion of the Knudzen Recreation Ground. The Leader had been working closely with Councillor Britcliffe and other Oswaldtwistle councillors for some 12 years to achieve this goal. The play area was now open and being used. It was a fantastic facility. She thanked Councillor Smithson, relevant Portfolio Holder, for driving this project forward. The playground was a great asset to the area and its completion was an important milestone.
· The Leader’s Budget, which had been introduced at the last meeting, had already proved very useful, with lots of help being provided to community projects across Great Harwood, Accrington, Baxenden and at other locations. Around £6k had been committed so far, with some other requests currently being considered.
· The Leader had visited Accrington Stanley Community Trust yesterday. The charity was putting together a case for the extension of its lease of Higham Playing Fields and a very productive meeting had taken place. The Council’s officers were working with the Trust to put the necessary arrangements in place. It was hoped that an agreement could be reached that was acceptable and beneficial to all. The Leader had been very pleased to meet Martin Fearon, Chief Executive of the Trust.
· At the last Council meeting, the Leader had announced that there would be no future meetings scheduled on the date of the celebration of Eid. At that meeting Councillor Noordad Aziz had asked if consideration could also be given to the timing of meetings during Ramadan, so as not to clash with Iftar, the meal served at the breaking of the fast. The Leader had subsequently noted that the timetable of meetings for 2023/24 included a Council meeting at 7.00pm on 24th March 2024, which fell within Ramadan. Accordingly, the Leader had arranged with officers to change the date of the meeting to 7th March 2024, to enable Muslim councillors and members of the public attending the meeting to observe Ramadan unhindered.
· On Tuesday, the Leader had attended a meeting of the Task Group set up to consider proposals for the future of Mercer Hall and Bank Mill House, in Great Harwood. Sadly, circumstances had led her to give careful thought to her position on this group and had resulted in a statement being released, in which the following points were made. The Task Group had been set up by Hyndburn Leisure to consider the proposals for the two buildings and to facilitate open discussion about a viable future for both. Unfortunately, in the light of comments made at the meeting which were rather disingenuous, politically motivated and not within the spirit of constructive dialogue about the future of these facilities, the Leader had decided to stand down from this Task Group. The controlling administration wanted to achieve the best outcome for leisure facilities in Great Harwood and Hyndburn Leisure was actively seeking ideas. The Leader considered that her involvement in ... view the full minutes text for item 99. |
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Hyndburn Hub - Online Resource Report attached. Minutes: The Cabinet considered a report of Councillor Peter Britcliffe, Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Resources, informing Cabinet of the new Hyndburn Hub online resource.
Councillor Britcliffe outlined the background to the report, including the initial purpose of the Hyndburn Hub, the purple-heart branding, the successful development of partnership working and a list of the main partners, a one stop shop approach, the on-going need for the Hub and how the Hub would operate.
Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP, Leader of the Opposition, remarked on the success of the Hub during the pandemic and praised the efforts of volunteers and community based organisations which had helped people from all walks of life. Community groups would continue to publicise the new resource.
Councillor Melissa Fisher asked if Members knew whether First Call Hyndburn had lost some funding. Councillor Zak Khan reported that he was aware that EU European Social Fund (ESF) funding was due to end soon, but that the organisation was currently applying for other funding streams.
Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.
Reasons for Decision
The Hyndburn Hub had been set up in response to the Covid pandemic, at the initial lockdown in March 2020. It had evolved to provide support in a number of ways:
a) A team of people were tasked with delivering food and medicine to support those people who had been advised to shield. The team comprised HBC staff who were redeployed from their normal roles, staff seconded from Hyndburn Leisure, statutory and other partners, and many members of charities, community groups and individual volunteers. This purpose had been time-limited, as restrictions had ultimately been lifted.
b) A single point of contact – email or phone – with a message that whatever residents needed support with, the Hyndburn Hub could help. This utilised the Council’s main phone number and enquiries email, but was available for anything – queries about food banks, befriending, mental health support, as well as Council services such as housing benefit. These general enquiries were still continuing and the Council’s Customer Contact Centre would direct people to the most appropriate support. There were key organisations such as First Call Hyndburn who provided a comprehensive service, as well as more specialised support.
c) A network of the various groups from all sectors who were able to help people in various ways. Closer relationships had been formed, with partner bodies gaining a much richer picture of the range of support activity and talent within the Borough and the usual bureaucratic barriers had been set aside given the urgent needs. Financial resources had been made available to meet needs of residents and the Hub structure had enabled this to be swiftly passed to the groups or individuals best placed to achieve outcomes. This collaboration had continued via the Community Action Network.
It was clear that the single point of contact element of this support was still required and people were still reaching out to the Council ... view the full minutes text for item 100. |
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Draft Revised Complaints Procedure Report attached. Additional documents: Minutes: The Cabinet considered a report of Councillor Peter Britcliffe, Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Resources, presenting a proposed new Complaints Procedure.
Councillor Britcliffe outlined the main benefits of the updated procedure, which included speeding up response times and the provision of refresher training for support staff. The Council valued the submission of complaints, as these allowed it to learn and improve its systems and services and to provide more comprehensive information about policies to individual complainants. The new procedure had been shortened from three to two internal stages and would ensure that the customer was listened to and responded to promptly.
Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.
Reasons for Decision
Management Team had recommended a review of the existing Complaints Procedure to speed up the resolution of complaints, alongside proposed training to support staff to respond to customer concerns in a timely and appropriate way.
The proposed Procedure was based on guidance from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
The proposed Procedure contained a comprehensive list of what could be treated as a complaint and what could not, which would support customers to get to the right route earlier.
The proposed Procedure reduced the number of internal stages in the complaint process from three to two, ensuring a speedier conclusion internally, before a customer could take the matter further with the Ombudsman, if they so chose. Specifically, the new Procedure removed the current “internal appeal” stage, which allowed a dissatisfied customer to require their complaint to be reviewed by an unconnected chief officer or service manager if they did not agree with the response they had received from the service manager for the area covered by their complaint. This stage could be very time-consuming and delayed matters for a customer who ultimately wished to take their complaint to the Ombudsman. The new Procedure retained an option for the Council to ask an independent manager to consider a complaint where it was considered that this was the appropriate course of action.
There was a risk that the overall changes could lead to the number of complaints which were considered and upheld by the Ombudsman increasing. However, such Ombudsman complaints were currently extremely rare, averaging a mere 0.7 per year for Hyndburn Borough Council over the last 10 years. If this number did increase significantly, there would be an opportunity for the Council to again review the operation of its Complaints Procedure.
There was currently little data available on complaints and how they were dealt with in the early stages. The Council would monitor and report on how many stage 2 complaints were received by each service, how long it took to conclude each, and whether the complaint was partly or wholly upheld. This information would be presented to Corporate Management Team and Standards Committee, together with the statistical information provided annually by the Ombudsman.
Alternative Options considered and Reasons for Rejection
The Council could retain the existing procedure with 3 stages ... view the full minutes text for item 101. |
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Revenue Budget 2023/2024 Monitoring - Quarter 1 to end of June 2023 Report atached. Minutes: Members considered a report of Councillor Peter Britcliffe, Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Resources, informing Cabinet of the financial spending of the Council up to the end of June 2023 for the financial year 2023/2024 and the forecast impact on the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy for 2023/2024 to 2025/2026.
Councillor Britcliffe highlighted that this was a report containing good news and demonstrated that the Council was able to manage finances within its budget for the year and was on course to return a surplus of £151k at year end. This was being delivered notwithstanding a freeze in Council Tax for 2023/24. The annual pay award and other inflationary pressures would be contained within the budget and these would be offset by returns from higher interest rates on investments. Over the Medium Term an increase in costs of £103k was forecast. However, overall the information showed the Council in a good financial position.
Councillor Noordad Aziz commented that the revised reporting format was an improvement. He asked if the projected positive variance could potentially fund the return of free pest control visits. Notwithstanding the eligibility of some residents to claim from the Household Support Fund, he expressed a view that the cost of a visit put off residents from calling the Council. Councillor Britcliffe responded that the question was not within the scope of the report provided. However, Councillor Smithson, Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Environmental Services, indicated that the changes introduced to the service had achieved the objective of reducing waiting times. The successful reduction in waiting times was also noted by Councillor Loraine Cox. Councillor Britcliffe reiterated that residents who could not afford to pay could claim from the Household Support Fund.
Councillor Mohammed Younis thanked the Portfolio Holder and Council officers for their prudent financial management.
Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.
Reasons for Decision
Key financial details were set out as a table at the end of the report.
The current forecast spend to the end of the financial year in March 2024 was £14.231m compared to a Budget of £14.383m. This forecast produced a positive variance of £0.151m by the end of the financial year. Further analysis of these changes were shown in section 4 and Appendix A of the report.
Appendix A included a breakdown of the Forecast Outturn Variances between staffing costs, non-staffing costs and income. Some service areas showed large variances in the breakdown figures where grant funding was received and subsequently used to fund expenditure but budgets were not in place because the amounts were not known in advance. In these instances, although the breakdown figures might be large, they offset each other and the overall variance was much lower, or even nil. The largest instance of this was in the Customer Contact section under Resources. The breakdown of variances showed £1.276m for non-staffing costs and £1.428m for income, which related to forecast increases in Housing Benefit payments and ... view the full minutes text for item 102. |
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Capital Programme Monitoring 2023/24 - 1st Quarter Update to 30th June 2023 Report attached. Minutes: Members considered a report of Councillor Peter Britcliffe, Deputy Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Resources, providing an update for Cabinet of the Council’s Capital Programme Monitoring. It set out the latest phasing of the programme including the latest estimate of available resources and any additions or changes in forecast outturn since the last current position had been presented to the Council on 23rd February 2023.
Councillor Britcliffe commented that the report that had been circulated close to the meeting date so as to provide the most up to date information possible. He summarised the total amounts of new additions to the programme and slippages and approvals from 2022/23. He also noted that much of the programme would be funded by external grants and capital receipts, with a modest amount funded from reserves and balances. Overall, Hyndburn had the 4th lowest borrowing in Lancashire at 10.57% of the capital requirement. He named a number of authorities with a significantly higher proportion of borrowing.
Approval of the report was not deemed a key decision.
Reasons for Decision
The Council had authorised new additions to the capital programme of £8.374m at its meeting on the 23rd February 2023.
Since the Council meeting in February 2023 new schemes totalling £1.302m had been approved and added to the programme. The additional expenditure approved was to be fully funded from external grants and receipts that had been awarded and or / received.
In addition, the capital spend outturn from 2022/2023 had slipped £37.615m into 2023/2024, of which £35.294m related to the Levelling Up scheme for Accrington Town Centre, the Leisure Estate Investment and Housing Schemes including Disabled Facilities Grants.
The total approved Capital programme now totalled £47.291m and was shown in the table below:
The financing of the programme in 2023/2024 was illustrated in the report by way of a pie chart. The chart showed that there was approval to fund £5m of the capital programme through external borrowing, if required. The Council continued to maximise the use of its capital receipts, reserve balances and attempted to draw down additional external funding that would delay or potentially reduce its need for borrowing.
The current programme of £47.291m would not be capable of being delivered in the current financial year and it was proposed to now re-phase the programme into the years in which it was now expected to be spent. The phasing of the programme was now summarised as shown below.
1st Quarter Update Position
The Actual expenditure to 30th June 2023 was £0.818m against the latest re-phased budget for 2023/2024 of £14.479m. This equated to 5.65% spend.
As shown in the table above, there was expected to be £32.812m of budget to be re-phased into 2024/2025 of which £14.960m related to the ... view the full minutes text for item 103. |