Issue - meetings

That the Executive:

1)    approved the attached Business Case to undertake a joint procurement exercise of Berkshire Community Equipment Service for Wokingham in partnership with West Berkshire, Reading, Bracknell Forest, Slough, the Royal Borough Windsor and Maidenhead Local Authorities and the NHS CCGs in Berkshire East and Berkshire West. West Berkshire Council will be the lead authority.

Details of the current spend and available budget can be found in Part 2 of the Executive Report (Financial Information).

2)    delegated authority to the Directors of Adult Services and Children Services in consultation with the Lead Members for Adults and Children’s Services to utilise the budget for this service and to award the contract in conjunction with the other authorities to the preferred supplier.

The Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Services reported that it was key to keep people safe and to help them to stay safe.

RESOLVED that the Executive:

1)    approved the attached Business Case to undertake a joint procurement exercise of Berkshire Community Equipment Service for Wokingham in partnership with West Berkshire, Reading, Bracknell Forest, Slough, the Royal Borough Windsor and Maidenhead Local Authorities and the NHS CCGs in Berkshire East and Berkshire West. West Berkshire Council will be the lead authority.

Details of the current spend and available budget can be found in Part 2 of the Executive Report (Financial Information).

2)    delegated authority to the Directors of Adult Services and Children Services in consultation with the Lead Members for Adults and Children’s Services to utilise the budget for this service and to award the contract in conjunction with the other authorities to the preferred supplier.

Sarah Kerr, Executive Member for Climate Emergency and Resident Services made the following statement:

“I wanted to make a public statement in this meeting, when I left the meeting earlier as I had to be absent for an item on the agenda for which I had a conflict of interest. You may have heard a man shout some verbal abuse at me, which was actually quite nasty. I first want to thank publicly Councillor Jim Frewin for calling it out. The abusive man subsequently stormed off. It made me quite upset and the irony being that I had presented this evening a report about abuse. I think it is unacceptable, we are carrying out our role and we should be able to come to our place of work and do our job without abuse. It is completely unacceptable, we are making some very tough decisions and we do not take this lightly. If we only made populist, easy decisions, we would be bankrupt as a Council and we would not be able to deliver anything other than statutory services. I hope this Council takes action against members of the public who abuse officers and Members in this way, it is unacceptable.”

The Chair thanked Sarah Kerr and expressed his sadness that this had taken place this evening, it was wholly unacceptable for someone who had attended an open public meeting to abuse one of the councillors in this way, particularly a female councillor. It was disgraceful and action would be taken.

*************************************************************************************************