Agenda item

Statements from the Leader of Council, Executive Members and Leader of the Opposition

The Leader of Council will notify Council of any changes to the Executive and their respective portfolios, Deputy Executive Members and if applicable the terms of delegation to them and Officers. 

 

The Leader of Council/Executive Members will be allowed to speak for up to 10 minutes in total.

 

The Leader of the Opposition will be allowed to speak for up to 5 minutes.

Minutes:

John Halsall, Leader of the Council:

The tragic death of George Floyd has once again raised the inequality and injustice that exists in society.  Wokingham Borough Council’s DNA is hard wired to treat everyone equitably, fairly and without discrimination. We and the BME Forum recognise that we can do better; we are committed to doing so.

 

I am not making any changes to my Executive nor their portfolios.  You, Mr Mayor, can no longer be a Deputy Executive Member.  I will not fill the vacant Deputy Executive Member roles for Highways and Transport and Planning and Enforcement; I will deputise for these areas myself, and that will be included within my specific areas of responsibility within the Constitution together with responsibility for personnel, equalities and diversity.

 

During the emergency, Susan and I have led the Council with great pride - All the Borough Councillors, the Executive, Directors, officers, charities, partners, volunteers and residents have excelled.  I am grateful to all of you. You have made this Borough an exemplar of good practise.  We will build on this fantastic work to develop our communities and neighbourhoods, and to pursue our Council Plan published earlier this year.

 

Charles Margetts, Executive Member for Health, Wellbeing and Adult Services:

Coronavirus has caused significant problems in our care homes.  In February, this year central government advised all Councils that it required us to implement a discharge from hospital to care homes 7 days a week, within 2 hours.  It became clear to us in April that we had a developing problem with suspected outbreaks in our care homes.  Almost every outbreak was shown to be linked to discharges from the Royal Berkshire Hospital.  We lobbied our MP’s to help resolve the situation.  However, it became clear that their efforts were not bringing success.  Therefore, we took the unprecedented step of refusing discharges from the Royal Berkshire Hospital until we could be certain that our care homes were safe.  Our infection control teams have now visited all of the relevant care homes and all of the required testing is in place.  I am pleased to report that deaths in care homes in Wokingham are now at pre Covid levels.  We can say with confidence that our care homes are as safe as they possibly could be.  I would like to thank care home staff, our officers and the inspection control team who have worked so hard on this.

 

The next step for us is to set up track and trace.  Responsibility for this process will lie with WBC.  We will manage this with a sub group of the Health and Wellbeing Board, which will be chaired by the Leader.  More details will be announced publicly, shortly. 

 

I would also like to thank the many officers and volunteers who worked so hard on the community response in the Borough.  I would finally like to reassure all of our residents that we will continue to support all of those who need our help as long as this crisis lasts.

 

UllaKarin Clark, Executive Member for Children’s Services:

This has been an important year for Children’s Services.  Under our new leadership team with Carol Cammiss at the helm, robust self evaluation of services was undertaken and later the formal inspections helped us to confirm that our self evaluation was right.  We have approved a funding package for Children’s Services which will enable continuation of the improvement programme at pace.  We are a Council which is ambitious for children and young people in the Borough and we are clear that our intention is for our social care and early help services to be judged a minimum of ‘Good’ in Ofsted terms.  Last year Ofsted told us that we require improvement to be ‘Good’.  Now we are well on the way to being firmly ‘Good.’   I am proud to say that our children who are supported through Education, Health and Care Plans, are receiving a better service with 95% of needs assessments now completed within statutory timescales.  In conclusion, we understand the challenges.  We know what we need to do and we are optimistic for the future of Children’s Services in Wokingham.

 

Parry Batth, Executive Member for Environment and Leisure:

During these unprecedented times, we have maintained 100% weekly waste collection where others have failed.  We have reopened our car parks in our country parks allowing our residents to enjoy their health and wellbeing and the fresh air.  We have reopened our home waste recycling centres to combat fly tipping, whilst maintaining social distancing and to protect our residents and our staff.  We have maintained our grass cutting and street cleaning schedules.  We have been providing an online library service to all our residents.  Finally, we are preparing ourselves to open our leisure centres as soon as possible, as soon as we get the green light from central government.  Mr Mayor, all of these achievements would not have been possible without the fantastic dedication of our contractors and officers, so a big thank you to all our contractors and officers.  I would like to extend my thanks to our residents for behaving so responsibly in coping with the social distancing that the pandemic has imposed on us all.

 

Charlotte Haitham Taylor, Executive Member for Regeneration:

This week it gives me great pleasure to announce that Wokingham Borough is once again open for business.  These past weeks and months have been incredibly difficult for our businesses, restaurants and residents all over the Borough, so I am delighted that yesterday we were at last able to open our non-essential shops.  We want to see people back in town, staying safe and shopping locally, helping our Borough’s businesses get back on their feet.  Businesses are not the only ones on their feet.  We have made it easier for pedestrians to navigate our pavements more safely, by narrowing roadways and installing temporary crossings. 

 

During lockdown, the old Carnival Pool has also been demolished and it is full steam ahead for delivering the brand new leisure centre, pool and library that our residents demand and deserve.  Our regeneration is regenerating.  Builders are building again at Elms Field, with social distancing, and it is very near to completion.  Many new retailers are on the cusp of opening.  Another tenant exchanged just this week and more are queuing up around the block.  This demonstrates the continued confidence in the town and in our Borough.

 

Stuart Munro, Executive Member Business and Economic Development:

We have one of the first discretionary grants schemes under the Covid, formally approved, which I think is really good.  That picks up the bits that fell through and we have established stronger links and relationships with our businesses throughout the payment of grants and welfare contacts.  We will build on this to do what we can do to help with the recovery of our local economy.  In summary 1,329 businesses have been paid a government support grant under these schemes.  85% of the government grant money has been distributed.  153 businesses have applied for the discretionary grant and a large proportion of those have been processed.  The investment portfolio is holding up well, with some deals under review.

 

Gregor Murray, Executive Member for Climate Emergency:

We have spent the last 12 months consulting, considering, and devising our Climate Emergency Action Plan.  Over the next 12 months, we will begin the delivery of an ambitious programme, focused on significantly reducing our carbon footprint.  During the next year, I expect to present to the Executive, a plan that will make the new Dinton Pastures activity centre 130% carbon neutral.  I will also be presenting plans to establish a community energy fund, a Borough wide electric vehicle charging strategy and a plan to create a Wokingham Borough Council electric car club.  For our schools we will be rescheduling the postponed Climate Conference and aim to trial an innovative green behaviours initiative.  We will be supporting our Town and Parish Council initiatives, having circulated and published their carbon footprint.  We will be re-proposing the Motion to eliminate non-essential single use plastics from Council operation, presenting a plan to improve our customer services operation and work to increase the distribution of our recently relaunched Wokingham Connect communications.

 

John Kaiser, Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Finance and Housing:

On the financial front, there is no doubt we have and continue to supply the money which has oiled the machine which has allowed excellent work by the volunteers and staff of the Council, and far beyond into care homes, schools, paying for PPE, food and all manner of care and support for residents across the Borough.  We went in to the pandemic with excellent cash reserves, due to years of excellent Conservative cash management and we will no doubt come out still with reserves, but much depleted.  That said reserves are there to support the Borough in times of need and hardship.  I would suggest that if any Member here looks at the havoc wrecked by the pandemic, not just in Wokingham, or even the UK, but worldwide, and not just the economic damage but the personal sorrow, and think about those who have died before their time and their families facing uncertain times.  So, yes, we have spent the money, but only the money we could afford and was necessary to ease the suffering and uncertainty of our residents.  Would I do it again?  Yes, 100%.

 

Lindsay Ferris, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group:

We would like to start on a positive note by thanking all the officers, fellow councillors of all persuasions, local residents, schools, businesses, and other organisations, who have helped with the Community Hub based at St Crispin’s School.  This has been invaluable work by all involved.  Another achievement that the Council deserves praise for is the work done in developing a social services protocol to prevent patients from being discharged from our local hospitals into care homes, until it was clear that they did not have this dreadful virus.  This action, in our view, saved many lives and should be applauded.  We understand that other councils across the country have now followed suit, but Wokingham Borough Council took a lead on this and action was taken nearly a fortnight before the Government acted.  We would also like to thank senior officers and the Leader of the Council for providing detailed briefings over the last 12 weeks.

 

We now turn to the functions of the Council.  The Liberal Democrat Group has had concerns about the lack of democracy these last few weeks and it has taken a lot of lobbying to get where we are tonight, as initially this, and another Full Council meeting had just been cancelled.  Also, if we were in control of this Council all Committees would have had the ability to vote for their own Chairs and Vice Chairs. 

 

I now turn to my Group’s greatest concern, namely the financial position that the Council will find itself within the next 6 to 12 months.  We appreciate that the Council will be experiencing a significant drop in revenue together with increasing costs in other areas as a result of the pandemic.  However, we have been warning the ruling Conservative group since 2017 about the levels of borrowing and debt that this Council has been racking up.  Back then, the debt was around £350million, but now 3 years later this figure has risen to close to £700million .  The Council has signed contracts committing it to paying out irrespectively even in the circumstances which have now transpired, where the projected income to cover the cost committed to, may either be delayed or significantly reduced, leaving the Council short of money.  This foolhardy action is likely to have exposed the Council to some very serious, future financial problems.  As a result of our warnings about this financial mismanagement, having been totally ignored, the Council now has a lot less resilience to bounce back from the challenges presented by this pandemic.  We are concerned that cuts in services may have to be made just at a time when they are needed more than ever.  We can see the finances of this Council being stretched week by week as this crisis continues.  We on this side will at the same time as giving credit where credit is due, will continue holding this Conservative administration to account.