Cabinet Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.  A flowchart providing guidance on interests is attached to assist councillors.

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 11 January 2022.

The minutes from 11 January 2022 were signed as a true and accurate record.

To receive questions from the public in accordance with the Constitution.

Questions, of no longer than 50 words, can be submitted to the Democratic Support Unit, Plymouth City Council, Ballard House, Plymouth, PL1 3BJ, or email to democraticsupport@plymouth.gov.uk. Any questions must be received at least five clear working days before the date of the meeting.

There were no public questions received.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There had been one item of chairs urgent business in relation to the devolution deal for Plymouth Devon and Torbay.

(a)   As part of the levelling up white paper it had been announced that the government had been backing a devolution deal for Plymouth, Devon and Torbay. Discussions were at an early stage and nothing had been agreed, but work would continue with the Government over the following months on the detail of the deal.  

(b)  A devolution deal would see Plymouth given new powers and influence to improve the economic and social conditions for its communities. The Devolution deal would be an opportunity to gain more control on a local level over things that had impacted Plymouth daily.

(c)   It was seen to be an exciting step forward in ensuring a better deal for Plymouth on investment and development whilst obtaining more power and influence for funding and decision making. Locally the administration saw it as a journey that would help drive the local economy, create more jobs with skills and build more homes.

(d)  It would see better transport and infrastructure for Plymouth and unlock and accelerate ambitions around the city centre and could increase Plymouth’s potential in leading the way with marine autonomy and emerging sectors. Plymouth would be working with neighbouring councils to set up a combined authority.  

Members discussed:  

(e)   If Plymouth would opt to have a combined authority mayor, more money and powers would be made available. It was recognised that across Devon people had not been in favour of this, work would continue to understand governance arrangements with Plymouth’s neighbours. 

Cabinet agreed to: 

1.    Endorse the current approach to working with Devon and Torbay to negotiate a Devolution Deal with Government 

2.    An internal cross-party working group to be established to provide political leadership 

3.     Reports to be brought back to Cabinet and Full Council at key points for information and decision making  

Dr Ruth Harrell, Director of Public Health presented this item to members and highlighted the following key points:  

(a)   Rates had continued to be high within the city with 1,243 cases per 100,000 in a seven day period, there were signs that this had begun to reduce. The previous peak had been driven by children returning to school, but this appeared to be dropping;  

(b)  Plymouth rates had been higher than the South West average, with the South West region being higher than the England average which was 939 cases per 100,000;  

(c)   There had been over 100 hospitalisations due to COVID although there had been signs that this was also dropping;  

(d)  Vaccination rates had been good, but this had reduced due to much of the population already having both vaccinations and thus Plymouth had seen reduced demand;  

(e)   Outreach clinics and Home Park Vaccination sites had still been running and there continued to be plenty of opportunities for people to be vaccinated;  

(f)    Although the Omicron variant had been less severe and vaccination offered good protection, Plymouth needed to continue to take COVID seriously. Plymouth had still been under Plan a of the government COVID plan, so sensible measures were still required.  

Councillor Nick Kelly, Leader of Plymouth City Council made the following announcements:  

(a)   There had been 7,418 signatures of the Tamar Bridge Petition with the next milestone at 7,500 signatures;

(b)  Plymouth had not received any funding to maintain Tamar Bridge which provided a vital link in the South West, without the bridge many people would be cut off, unable to get to work, school or hospital. The administration did not think it was fair that local people had to fund the bridge, but Plymouth did not have a choice.  The Government had not helped Plymouth and it was the ask of the administration to support Tamar Bridge just like many other major strategic links in the UK. The Leader continued to urge people to sign the petition to stand with the administration to publicly ask the government for help;

(c)   Plymouth City Council would be opening the next round of additional restrictions grant of £1,500 of support. Applications would open on 14 February at 9am and would be dealt with on a first come first served basis. Grants would be available for Plymouth businesses that had been affected by the Omicron variant and eligible businesses would include leisure, hospitality and accommodation businesses, personal care services, travel and tourism, wedding and event businesses, English language schools, breweries and gyms. Plymouth City Council had limited funding to distribute and it would aim to make it as fair as possible for eligible businesses. The Leader had written to Government to highlight the need for additional funding to support local businesses.  

Councillor Mrs Pengelly (Cabinet Member for Homes and Communities) made the following announcements:

Councillor Drean (Cabinet Member for Transport) made the following announcements:

Councillor Deacon (Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Culture, Leisure and Sport) made the following announcement:

Councillor Nick Kelly, The Leader of the Council, introduced the Commitments report to Cabinet, and advised that 86 commitments were identified to build back better in Plymouth, and a further 5 commitments had been completed bringing the total to 48. Cabinet would continue to work hard towards delivering the remaining 38 commitments.

(a)   An update was provided on commitment 34 “we will promote the National Marine Park which showcases our world class marine engineering and research facilities, creating more jobs in these areas”. Approximately £9.5m had been awarded to the National Marine Park from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. 10% of this funding was made available for the next two years through the development phase of the project to test and trial initiatives and develop capital projects to the design stage, a delivery stage bid would be submitted in June 2023 to secure the remaining 90% of the funding.

(b)  A year of listening and engaging with communities would start in the spring of this year to enable residents to co-design the project and the Marine Park that they want. More details on the programme and how people could get involved would be announced in the coming weeks. Some £665,873 pounds of grant award from the Community Renewal Fund for business support activities to deliver innovative approaches to the green blue tourism decarbonisation of the waterfront and connect communities to the waterfront had been achieved. Leads and core structures for the Horizon project had been agreed and being established at the moment. This work would be delivered by June 2022.

(c)   Councillor Mrs Bridgeman provided an update on commitment 28 “we will actively promote positive lifestyle changes and improve our environment for all, including wildlife by improved soft and hard landscaping projects throughout the city”.

(d)  In terms of the preventing plastics project, within that project, there were 14 signatories for a plastic charter for local businesses, schools and communities and tenders issued for two innovative art installations using recycled plastics and waste.

(e)   Under the Mayflower improvements we've completed welcome sign, installations, hoe volunteering, a gardening group was established, general waterfront improvements had been continued. On the 2nd of November 2021, the plastic sculpture procurement was completed and as well as the waste shark procurement.

(f)    Engagement on the Green Minds Green Social prescribing project was launched at Central Park and greenspace access improvements initiated. In terms of the Urban Tree Challenge, the consultation was completed for the BLOSSOM'S together project at Devil's Point. With over 200 respondents and work should be started imminently.

(g)   Winter planting had now been completed, which was ahead of schedule.

(h)  Funding of £1.2m was secured from Defra for Plymouth National Grid Partnership Project which ran from October 21 to March 2023.

(i)    This was in line with the National Trust and real ideas to enhance 300 acres sold hectares of nature sites across the city and to run the Kickstart programme of 30 young people to build skills and employability in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 236.

Councillor Nick Kelly (Leader) and Brendan Arnold (Service Director for Finance) presented the Finance Monitoring Report December 2021 –

This was the 3rd quarter reporting for the financial year 2021/22. As this was a quarterly report, it covered both the revenue forecast and capital position, now as at the end of December 2021

We continued to see a fluctuation and report a further improvement from last month, and from the last quarter’s report at September.

The forecast revenue outturn after the application of Covid grants and council mitigating actions was currently estimated at £526,000 over budget. Last month it reported £744,000, an improvement of £218,000 in the month.

The movement this month was mainly within two Directorates:

Customer & Corporate Services Directorate had further improved from last month’s £618,000 over to a minimal £24,000 over. A favourable movement of £594,000. I was assured this would achieve a balanced position by the year end and we are already very close. This movement was attributed to further vacancy management and treasury savings plus training underspends and some Covid grant offsets.

Last month It was reported an adverse movement on Children’s to an over spend of £414,000. This month we are reporting an over spend of £1.091m an adverse movement of £677,000. 

Of this, £362,000 related to a shortfall against savings within Education, Participation and Skills; a £201,000 pressure within Children’s Social Work relating to increased assessment costs; and a further £114,000 due to increased interagency fees with the Regional Adoption Agency.

The Directorate were doing everything they could to mitigate as much as possible of this over spend, but time was running out in the current year.

This adverse movement was offset by the improving position within the Customer & Corporate Services Directorate and also by a £284,000 improvement from corporate items.  Please be assured, officers and Members would work closely to manage the overall finances towards a balanced position by the end of the year.

We would continue to show the position of the additional costs and income lost due to Covid, which was currently showing a drawdown against grants of £18.284m. The details are set out by directorate in Section B.

Full disclosure of our revenue savings targets and latest forecast of delivery was included in in Appendix A

It was worth noting that we were now reporting £8.016m of savings delivered with a further £3.416m nearing delivery – a total of £11.432m or 83% of the target.

At the quarterly position in the year, the Capital Programme haD been updated to reflect newly-approved schemes.

The five-year capital budget 2021-2026 was currently forecasted at £688.366m as at 31 December. The capital budget had been adjusted to take into account the addition of newly-approved schemes and to adjust the future funding assumptions shown in table 1 in the report

During the last quarter, we had added 2 major schemes. Derriford Business Park at £17.9m and the equally important Woolwell to the George scheme at £33.5m.

This report will proceed to Full Council to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 237.

Councillor Chris Penberthy (Chair of the Budget Scrutiny Select Committee) presented the report to Cabinet –

Councillor Penberthy made the following key points:

a)   Thanked each of the scrutiny panels, members of the Select Committee, officers who supported the budget scrutiny process and members of the executive who had met with both the scrutiny panels and the Select Committee.

Councillor Nick Kelly (Leader) and Brendan Arnold (Service Director for Finance) introduced the Proposed Budget 2022 – 2023 –

(a)     Summarised the impact of the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement on the 2022/23 budget;

(b)    Sets out revenue budget planning assumptions in respect of funding, approved savings plans and resource requirements for 2022/23 (see Section 1);

(c)     Sets out capital budget planning assumptions for 2022/23 (see Section 2)

(d)    Summarised cost pressures;

(e)    Highlighted the delivery of the Corporate Plan priorities (see Section 3)

(f)      set out the Capital Financing Strategy and the Treasury Management Strategy for 2022/23 (see Section 4)

(g)     Cabinet considered the Draft Budget for 2022/23 at its meeting on 21 December 2021 and the Budget Scrutiny Select Committee considered the budget proposals on 20 January 2022.

(h)    Under the Council’s Constitution, Cabinet is required to recommend the Budget to City Council, which would meet on 28 February 2022.

(i)      As is usual in local government there were constraints within which the City needs to plan, but this was an aspirational budget where:

·     There was a clear commitment to make the City Carbon Zero by 2030 and to continue this journey by establishing a £2m Climate Emergency Investment Fund where savings from investment in climate friendly projects and initiatives will be recycled to provide additional projects of this kind.

·     We had been able to invest in services to protect Children and £7.6m had been invested in Children’s social care.

·     Additional resources were also provided to care for the elderly and vulnerable in our society including investment of £7.6m in the services people need in Adult Social Care.

·     There was an extra £500,000 is for Homelessness.

·     Importantly we had provided funding (£0.050m) for the work of the VAWG Commission as it works to bring forward its recommendations and look forward to working closely with partners on that agenda when that Commission had concluded its work

·     We continued to invest in Street Services and in preserving service standards with an additional £0.8m for services that our very important to all of our residents.

·     There was investment in an ambitious and innovative Capital Programme to bring new investment to the City and to improve the maintenance of buildings the Council uses for service delivery. 

·     In addition, we had further ambitious plans that we were developing which include the creation of a Freeport with Devon County Council and South Hams which will generate jobs for the City and we would come forward with plans for the Fish Quay and the Airport.

·     We commit to a suite of efficiency savings worth £6.2m to ensure that every £1 spent in Plymouth is spent well.

(j)      We have had a detailed examination of the Council’s budget by the Budget Scrutiny Select Committee on 20 January.  I am grateful for all the hard work Members undertook in that meeting and for the range of questions raised and issues discussed which have helped us formulate the final budget proposals.  I also hope that we can be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 239.

Councillor David Downie (Cabinet Member for Education, Skills, Children and Young People) presented the Award of Contracts for Plymouth Adult Education 2022-2027 report -

(a)   PCC receives an annual allocation circa £1,700,000 from Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). This delivers a contract for a range of adult education courses and supports learning programmes for 16-19 aged students predominantly at risk of dis-engagement.

(b)  The adult education courses are currently delivered through internal provision via On Course South West (OCSW) and through external training providers, currently ODILS, Shekinah Mission, Trevi House, Mount Batten Centre, LiveWest and Greenlight Training.

(c)   The current contract period ends on 31st July 2022. The external provision will be re-tendered for delivery starting from 1st August 2022.

(d)  The contracted period covers a five year period, with contracts awarded for the first three years and options to extend year on year up to the 5 year period.

(e)   The wider impact and added value of this approach are:

(f)    Strategic alignment of services across PCC and wider stakeholders, to enable a skills journey for the city’s most disadvantaged and vulnerable residents to upskill, re-engage with the labour market, enter into and progress in work (so that they can become financially independent).

(g)   Reducing the claimant count 7,351 (those unemployed as of November 2021) and reducing an additional 19,000+ UC Claimants (individuals who were also claiming Universal Credit benefits due to a variety of other reasons and require financial support from government).

(h)  Maintain community learning for older citizens and those at most need of help, which in turn strengthens communities.

(i)    Adult and community learning was aligned to city priorities, meets local needs and the needs of vulnerable groups

(j)    Drives a stronger post 16 place shaping strategy

(k)   Directly influence the quantity and quality of the local offer

(l)    Better prepared to respond to the on-going changes to post 16 education, employment and training

(m)Able to deliver a quality provision in response to local and national priorities post-COVID-19 and post-Brexit toward economic recovery and improved productivity

(n)  Provides the ability to provide support for NEETs to help them re-engage in education and training that will lead to realistic employment opportunities and/or further learning, particularly those with disadvantaged backgrounds.

(o)  Provides the opportunity to directly enhance employability skills of young people through targeted support

Cabinet agreed to -

1.     Approve the procurement process for the provision of services for the Plymouth Adult Education service as set out in the business case;

2.     Delegate the contract award to the Service Director for Education, Participation and Skills.

Councillor John Riley (Cabinet Member for Governance, HR, IT and Community Safety), Andy Ralphs (Strategic Director for Customer and Corporate Services) and Polly Colville (Agency Project Manager) introduced the Procurement of the Contract for the Provision of Agency Workers report –

(a)   The report sought agreement of Cabinet to the recommendations in the Business Case for the Procurement of the Agency Worker Contract.

(b)  The Business Case sought approval to operate a mini-competition against the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation’s (YPO) framework for Temporary Agency Resourcing for Local Authorities, for a Vendor Neutral contract.

Cabinet agreed to –

1.     Approve the Business Case and in particular the procurement exercise being a mini-competition against the YPO framework for Temporary Agency Resources for Local Authorities to the value of £30 million over 4 years (3 + 1).

2.     Approve the change in model from the incumbent Master Vendor contract to a Vendor Neutral contract

3.     Approve the additions to the scope of the contract.

4.     Delegate the award of the contract to the Strategic Director of Customer and Corporate Services.

Councillor Nick Kelly (The Leader) and Matt Ward (Head of Strategic Development Projects) introduced the Compulsory Purchase Order Resolution at Bath Street West report –

The report sought approval to make a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) to complete the land assembly at Bath Street which would enable the development of the site to progress.

Cabinet agreed to:

1.     implement a Compulsory Purchase Order, if required,  pursuant to Section 226(1)(a) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 in respect of the Land to the West of Bath Street identified as PL30 in the Joint Local Plan (JLP) and shaded on Figure 1 below (“the Order Land”);

2.     delegate to the Service Director for Economic Development and Head of Legal Services the power to effect the making, confirmation and implementation of such a CPO and to take all necessary steps to give effect to the CPO in respect of the Order Land including, but not limited to, the following:

a)     finalise a Statement of Reasons to properly reflect the Council's position regarding the proposed CPO so as to properly present the Council's case;

b)    In making the CPO, the publication and service of any press, site and individual notices and other correspondence for such making;

c)     acquire for planning purposes all interests in land and new rights within the Order Land as may be necessary to facilitate the Scheme, either by agreement or compulsorily, including entering into negotiations with any third parties for the acquisition of their land interests and/or for new rights over their land (as appropriate), the payment of compensation and dealing with any blight notices served in connection with the CPO;

d)    approve agreements with land owners or statutory undertakers as applicable

e)     make any additions, deletions or amendments to the plan at Appendix 1 and to seek any requisite modifications to the CPO and maps;

f)      seek confirmation of the CPO by the Secretary of State (or, if permitted, by the Council pursuant to Section 14A of the Acquisition of Land Act 1981) (the 1981 Act), including the preparation and presentation of the Council's case at any public inquiry which may be necessary;

g)     publication and service of notices of confirmation of the CPO and thereafter to execute and serve any general vesting declarations and/or notices to treat and notices of entry, and any other notices or correspondence to acquire those interests within the area;

h)    referral and conduct of disputes, relating to compulsory purchase compensation, at the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber).

3.     Delegates authority to the Service Director for Economic Development and the Service Director for Finance to approve the financial terms of the compensation arising;

4.     Authorises in accordance with section 122 of the Local Government Act 1972, the appropriation of land owned by the Council within the Order Land, to planning purposes pursuant to section 203 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016, so development may proceed without obstruction in respect of any claimed third-party rights.

To consider passing a resolutionunder Section 100A(4) of the Local GovernmentAct 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meetingfor the following item of business on the groundsthat it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information asdefined inparagraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, asamended by the Freedom ofInformation Act 2000.

At the timethis agenda is published no representationshave been madethat thispart of the meetingshould be in public. (Members of the public tonote that, if agreed,you will be asked to leave the meeting).

The item was considered in the Part I (Public) meeting.