Agenda item

Statements by the Leader of the Council, Executive Members and Deputy Executive Members

To receive any statements by the Leader of the Council, Executive Members and Deputy Executive Members.

 

In accordance with Procedure Rule 4.2.23 the total time allocated to this item shall not exceed 20 minutes, and no Member shall speak for more than 5 minutes.

Minutes:

 

Councillor Keith Baker, Leader of the Council:

Before I get into what I have prepared, I would like to comment on Councillor Jerrome’s petition to the Council regarding public toilets in Woodley.  Fundamentally she has provided a petition to the wrong Council.   Wokingham Borough Council has already passed on the funds for development of the toilets and Woodley Town Council were looking at the running costs. So actually that petition should have gone to Woodley Town Council.  Clearly Woodley Labour Party are absolutely on the ball here. 

 

Can I welcome all Councillors back from their break.  I hope that you are all suitably refreshed and ready for council business.  Speaking personally, I had a very interesting break which I will talk about further later. 

 

For nearly a year the Conservative Group has been acting without a Political Assistant which has been a strain on a number of people.  I would like to welcome Ellis Wiggins to the Council in the role of Political Assistant to the Conservative Group.  Ellis joins us from Bromsgrove and brings a wealth of experience.  On behalf of the Conservative Group, I would like to thank Anne Hunter and her team for the assistance provided during the nine month period before Ellis was appointed.

 

I continue to progress governance improvements with our companies.  The latest step forward is to have a defined job description for Councillor Non-Executive Directors.  This is likely to be finalised in the next few months.

 

Finally, I want to provide more details on the resident engagement project for the fiscal year 2016/2017 which I have talked about at previous meetings.  To put this in context, over the last five years this Council has made a total of £31.3 million of savings.  For 2016/2017, a further £8.1 million of savings out of a total budget of £113million need to be added. This will be extremely difficult.  For the first time, possibly for any council within Berkshire, this Council is going out on the road to engage with residents on the difficulties the Council will face over the coming years.  At least five drop in sessions are planned in Charvil, Earley, Finchampstead, Wokingham and Woodley.  We will also be using the full power of social media to enhance the reach of this engagement.  More details will follow shortly. 

 

Councillor Philip Mirfin, Executive Member for Regeneration and Communities

I would like to cover two areas of my portfolio this evening. 

 

First of all regeneration.  Work on the delivery of the town centre regeneration continues to move forward with the plans for the remaining three phases falling into place.  It is an exciting time for the town as we will be addressing many of the issues that Wokingham currently suffers from such as the poor variety of shops and a lack of leisure facilities within the town.  In March 2015 we were granted planning consent for moving ahead with the redeveloping Peach Place.  It is an important project for the town which will see us building new shops and a pedestrianised square.  On 2 September 2015, the Council took a major step forward with our programme for the delivering Peach Place scheme when we made the compulsory purchase order for the site. This will enable us to secure the remaining land interests we require for developing the proposals.  All being well, we are looking to start on site in early 2017 and to be completed by the end of 2018.  In July 2015 we were granted planning consent to move forward with our proposals for the Carnival Pool.  The first phase of this is expected to start on site in spring 2016 when we build a new 529 space multi-storey carpark and new bowling alley.  We aim to have it completed by the end of 2016, ready for when the work starts on the other phases of regeneration.  Over the next year we will working up designs for the remainder of the Carnival Pool site which will include a large extension to the leisure centre along with other leisure provision and apartments.  Alongside this design work we will also continue the proposals for Elms Field and in response to the consultation comments, feedback from interested tenants and market testing we continue to see positive interest from prospective tenants and are working to submit a planning application by the end of this year.  Subject to planning approval and in coordination with other projects in the town, we expect to start work again in 2017.

 

Moving on now to the Community Development Service and some of their summer highlights.  The summer has been a busy period for the team this year and the priority for us across the summer months has been to provide positive activities for families in our target areas to support them across the long summer break, particularly when school is out and many other activities pause.  In addition to the regular community events and outings, we have either organised or supported Borough wide summer play schemes, first with referrals and then biweekly spot checks to ensure their quality. 

 

Two further pieces of work that we have been particularly proud of are the community arts projects with the library service.  At Rainbow Park children were involved in exciting musical rainforest arts projects, from the creation of costumes and props to rehearsals and final performance.  As a result the children will qualify for an arts award which will be presented at a ceremony at Winnersh Library.  In the Norrey’s area we have used the arts project as a way of supporting children transitioning between primary and secondary school and we worked closely with local schools and youth workers.  The project was hosted by St Crispins School and the children’s art work has been displayed in the school for the new parents open evening in September in addition to Wokingham Library.  The second item is the National Citizen Service, (NCS) Project.  This is a national initiative encouraging personal and social development for 16-17 year olds.  This year our team hosted a group of NCS participants in three areas across the Borough.  They joined into community groups ranging from kids clubs to bowls to Zumba.  As well as broadening their awareness of local communities and the variety of experiences and challenges people face they also created a short film they collected on their  visits to promote the value of community development.  We felt it particularly for the young people we already work in our deprived communities to meet and work with these motivated NCS participants to raise their aspirations and increase their opportunities for the future.

 

Councillor Pauline Jorgensen, Executive Member for Resident Services

We are passionate about customer service.  We are rolling out a Council wide programme to improve our customer service and as part of this we are driving digital services.  61% of garden waste renewals are now on-line, saving costs and improving efficiency.  We have seen an increase in web-chat and on-line service requests and a consequent decrease in email traffic to the service centre of 20%.  We are also working to improve customer experience and now send on-request email and text updates to inform customers of their service requests.  This has reduced complaints and chasing from customers and call waiting time has reduced to 33 seconds due to the reduction in call volumes.  We have improved links to our contractors; reducing re-keying and increasing first hand fix rate and customer satisfaction.  In all these efficiency improvements have saved Council Tax payers £150,000 this year and as Councillor Baker said this Council is very short of money being the lowest funded authority in the country and therefore every little bit of saving we can find helps both the tax payers and the Council. 

 

Secondly, Wokingham libraries are bucking the national trends.  Customer satisfaction for our libraries stands at an amazing 99%.  We have been tweaking library opening hours to respond to customer feedback and currently have 24,400 active users, an increase of 4% over last year.  We have working closely with residents’ groups and parish councils in Twyford and Charvil.  Expected shortly is a planning application submitted to the Twyford Community Hub.  This will show a potential location of a local library and many other facilities. 

 

Councillor Haitham Taylor – Executive Member for Children’s Services

2015 not only marks the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, but also the 750th anniversary of the mother of all Parliaments. 

 

In recognition of how Parliament’s work has touched all aspects of life, society, the economy, culture and beliefs, the Parliament Trust embarked on drawing together an exemplary collection to illustrate different themes in one celebration volume.  It is with great pride that I am standing here today to announce that this Council’s Adoption Services have been included in this book as an example of Good Practice and effective service in Local Government. This is quite an achievement.

 

It is important that we celebrate our successes, and I was privileged to accompany the team who have been instrumental in this work to the book launch in Westminster.  I am also proud that our then Children in Care Council Chair came with us to enjoy this evening of recognition.  She is an inspirational young woman, who has given so much time and energy to our Corporate Parenting Board.   She has been incredibly generous and influenced lots of our decisions.  She is fully employed in a caring role in our Borough and has future plans to study to gain vocational qualifications.

 

Over the summer the DfE have issued new guidance for Adoption Services. The Government expects Councils and independent adoption agencies to join together in order to achieve more for children.  This Council is ahead of the curve, and Adopt Berkshire, which is our commissioned and shared service, has been cited in the new guidance as good practice.

 

Children’s Services constantly strive to improve our services and this week we have welcomed a peer review team into the Borough.  The team was made up of a Director of Children’s Services and other senior staff from the region, with the aim to test how we will deliver on our aspirations for children in care and care leavers. It is really pleasing that the feedback validated our approach and said when the front line workers described their work with children their passion and child-centeredness' had shone through.

 

Lastly, I wanted to talk about the success of our Young Commissioners programme. This is an initiative to bring young people into local government and not only give them an understanding of how it works, but also to get a young person’s view on the current issues within the Borough.   The programme started with two young people and now has a total of four, with three working full-time and one working part-time on a summer placement before they go to university.  The Young Commissioners have been involved in a number of key projects. But just to highlight a few: they have undertaken a service review of what our young carers in our Borough can access and looked at where we can help them further.  They are developing Shuters café as a social enterprise, and they are also testing out what our Homelessness and Supported Lodging services are like on behalf of young people.  Be warned they have been honing their mystery shopping skills in the latter area and will no doubt be moving on to other services soon.

 

Councillor Angus Ross, Executive Member for Environment

Although the summer has not been one of England's best, we still had very good attendance at Dinton and California Country parks and at various sports and activity events which we put on for the youth.  We successfully engaged with many of them and looking forward to the added contact we have established with many disadvantaged and hard to reach groups. 

 

We are actively preparing for wider use of our country parks for future years and I plan to be consulting on these later this year.

 

We are progressing with plans for our new Sports Hubs and detailed work on Ryeish Green is underway, as is initial planning for Grays Farm in Wokingham, which continues as a working Pick-Your-Own Farm until 2017.   In parallel with this, we are investigating re-opening the small Sports Centre at Ryeish Green and await Business Plans from 5 interested groups which we hope to have by the end of November.

 

Together with our leisure provider 1Life and the C-Salt Trust, we have organised a Family Fun Day on Sunday week - 27th September from 10am to 4pm at Bulmershe Playing Fields and Leisure Centre.  A wide range of taster sessions and contact with sports and activities clubs will be laid on. I do hope many councillors will visit to see the activities being put on, you will all be most welcome and the details are on the website.

 

Lastly congratulations to Wokingham Town Council and the help that the Borough gave in gaining another award for Wokingham in Bloom. They gained a silver gilt award this time as well as being best in the Thames and Chiltern Region.  It is a very good and continuous success that the Town Council has had.  

 

Also last weekend we had a very successful open day at Wokingham Fire Station and I know some councillors made it there.  There was also the Heritage Day that Wokingham Town Council put on at Wokingham Town Hall.  I was interested to see the new room to celebrate the fact that we had the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, (REME) in our Borough for so many years.  Unfortunately, they have left taking away the main parts of their exhibition, but we have some bits left over. 

 

Councillor Anthony Pollock, Executive Member for Economic Development and Finance.

My portfolio includes Economic Development which I do normally speak about. Last year the Council set up “Elevate Wokingham” which has just celebrated its first year in operation.

 

The team have engaged with unemployed young people on projects, which included obtaining work experience and the provision of interview practice for jobseekers.  Elevate is now producing a comprehensive job vacancy list that is available on their website which is updated every week.  The Elevate hub has been able to offer support to many of Wokingham Borough’s residents who are looking for work or training.  The project was set up with the younger generation in mind but has also benefited older people who have been able to receive support from Elevate.

 

Future projects include the careers fair on 7 October 2015 and continuing work with young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) to support them with work experience, internships, apprenticeships and placements.  Last year, the government set a number of challenging targets for Elevate Wokingham to reach. With hard work from partners and Elevate staff, these targets were achieved.

 

Turning to finance.  Unfortunately Councillor Pauline Jorgsensen has taken my thunder, but we are the lowest funded local authority and there is nothing in the next five years that is likely to change that.

 

However, the good news is that we are very good at collecting Council Tax and Business Rates.  Considering that something like 80% of our funding comes from these areas it just shows that we collect everything that we possibly can.

 

For Council Tax we came 1st in the country and collected 99.5% of what was due and we will collect the other half a percent over the next seven years. In connection to Business Rates, we unfortunately came third with 99.8%, Canterbury actually collected 100% so we will try better next year, but we are the best in Berkshire.

 

Councillor John Kaiser, Executive Member for Planning and Highways

I would like to make a statement. I like Park and Rides! Park and Rides, 50 people on a bus equals half a km of congestion removed from our roads.  The Council has been working with Reading Borough Council delivering two Park and Rides for the Borough both funded by the Department for Transport’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund.  The first new site is situated adjacent to the A33, South of Junction 11 of the M4 at Mereoak. This site was opened on the 17 August 2015 and is now fully operational.  The second site is an alternative location for the existing Loddon Bridge Park and Ride.  The new site is located adjacent to Winnersh Triangle Railway Station and is nearing completion.  The site is due to open at the end of September 2015.

 

The Council is also working on the provision of new site at the end of A3290 near Thames Valley Park to be located on an area of land behind the Waterside Centre.  A business case is currently being prepared as part of the funding requirement from the funding from the Department for Transport’s Local Growth Deal.  A planning application will be submitted to Wokingham Borough Council in spring 2016 which potential construction starts date towards the end of 2016.