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.

There were no declarations of interest.

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2020.

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2020 were agreed 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 four questions from members of the public.

The following question was asked by Ms Holman:

Under the current state of Climate Emergency declared ten months ago, what progress has been made in effecting the public's involvement in determining the actions for this coming year most to be prioritised in the face of our unfolding  climate catastrophe and will this public involvement be in the form of a binding Citizen's Assembly?

Councillor Dann, Cabinet Member for Environment and Street Scene gave the following response:

In September 2019 after the Climate Emergency declaration we commenced a public consultation exercise to gain people’s views on climate change.  1100 responses were received and of those 92% of respondents said that were concerned about climate change and 75% did not feel well informed about climate change.  We also know that over 60% of interventions to tackle climate change need some form of behaviour change.  We are therefore very clear that we will all need to work together to solve this. 

In the Climate Emergency Action Plan we have included a whole section on engagement.  The first action listed in this section is to ‘organise a programme of ‘climate conversations’ and another is to ‘organise community and school events to harness grassroots enthusiasm to take action to tackle climate change’.  Now we have the CEAP adopted we will be looking to progress this actions so the second CEAP can be further influenced by others all across Plymouth.

With regards Citizens assembly’s, we are engaging with Devon as they have already started a citizens assembly process so we can see the outcomes that come out of that process.  We will keep under review whether we should conduct something similar in Plymouth once the Devon process has completed.

Mr Hill asked the following question:

When comparable sized cities such as Newcastle and Sunderland can declare their elections results before midnight why did it take until gone 5am in Plymouth and what steps does Plymouth intend to take to learn and implement the procedures these other cities employ to enable speedier declarations in future?

Tracey Lee, Chief Executive, gave the following response:

I would like to thank Mr Hill for his question about the 2019 General Election Count in Plymouth, and apologise that it was not dealt with in January in line with our procedures. Although the question relates to a function of the Acting Returning Officer rather than a function of the Cabinet, I am happy to answer it here.

While everyone is keen for the results of elections to be declared as soon as is practicable on the night of the count, I have a responsibility as Acting Returning Officer to ensure that the process of the count is accurate, transparent and robust.

Four out of the 650 declarations in the 2019 General Election were made by midnight on 12 December, including Newcastle and Sunderland. A third (220) of all declarations were made between 4 and 6am on 13 December, including Plymouth's three constituencies and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

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

The Leader, Councillor Evans OBE, had the following urgent business:

The future of local government finance is at a crucial stage and the changes that are due will have a fundamental impact upon Plymouth, the resources it receives and the impact upon local services.

The government has now said it will introduce Fair Funding from April 2021.  There will be a number of papers that will be released over the coming months that will provide an indication as to the impact of their review.  The first major concern is the timing of these papers and how much time we will have to assess the impact and more importantly set our budget and prepare a Medium Term Financial Plan.

Data released by the Government on the impact of proposed changes to the formula to distribute funding for Adult Social Care indicated a devastating impact upon Plymouth, with an estimated to loss in excess of £7m.  This is just for the Adult Social Care element of the funding formula.

In essence the Government’s proposed changes to local authority funding will dramatically downgrade the importance of deprivation in deciding the distribution of funding to local authorities and will have a devastating effect on local adult social care funding. It is likely that further proposed changes will cause even greater reductions in for children’s social care but no details has been released for this as of yet. Plymouth has suffered the impact of 10 years of austerity and cuts to our funding at a time of rising demand, particularly for adult social care and children’s services. 

The Leader concluded that there is little confidence in the government and future proposals for local government.  This will be compounded by the impact and uncertainty created by Fair Funding Proposals.

The Leader, Councillor Evans OBE made the following announcements:

·         The Box Opening date is confirmed for 16 May with a VIP reception on 14 May. A public ballot will give 6000 residents the opportunity to visit over the weekend of 02 and 03 May.

·         The Anthony Gormley statue – Look II which will be installed on the West Pier

·         The launch of a £2 coin recognising the importance of the Mayflower 400 anniversary

·         The New York Times – lists Plymouth as the 43^rd place globally to visit in 2020, specifically mentioning Mayflower 400 and the Box

·         CNN named Plymouth as the second top destination to visit in the world in 2020

·         The Box was the second recommendation by Will Gompertz (BBC Arts Editor) as his second “must see” arts in 2020

·         The Box has also been identified as one of the top 20 museums opening globally in 2020 in a variety of international trade publications.

·         Tom Jones is coming to town on Friday June 19 hosted by LHG events in partnership with PCC

·         The Lonely Rock yacht race which will run on alternate years to the Fastnet race staring on 16 August 2020.

·         First Board meeting of the National Marine Park has taken place

·         Planning is underway for the Mayflower trail which will consist of a series of 2m brass totems. Installation will commence immediately after planning and in time for the summer

·         Work is progressing well on the Elizabethan House

·         Progress continues towards completion of all legal arrangements relating to Brunel Plaza and the hope is to sign them by 14 February 2020

·         Oceansgate phase 2 – The frame is now up and we are hoping for completion in September. We are now 85% let including hosting the institute of technology. Phase 1 is fully let and we are working very hard now to unlock phase 3

·         The main construction has now started on the Forder Valley Link Road with completion scheduled for summer 2022

Councillor Dann, Cabinet Member for Environment and Street Scene made the following announcements:

We have been awarded £450k as part of the Urban Tree Challenge funding from the Forestry Commission to plant trees. Over 2800 new tree will be planted, over a thousand of which will be large trees.

Councillor Jon Taylor, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills made the following announcement:

Plymouth has been praised for its progress on improving education by the regional Director of Ofsted in his annual report, acknowledging the hard work and efforts being made to bring about improvements;

The Medifest event at the Guildhall on 30 Jan was a huge success and was well attended over two days, with 950 attendees. Congratulations were offered to the students that organised this great event.

Councillor Evans introduced an audio clip on behalf of Councillor Laing, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People on Care Journeys.

This item was considered under the Budget Scrutiny Recommendations.

Councillor Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the pledge update.

Following a discussion, Cabinet agreed:

·         To note the completion of pledge 84 in January 2020, bringing the total for completed pledges to 63.

Councillor Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the pledge update.

Following a discussion, Cabinet agreed:

·         To note the completion of pledge 84 in January 2020, bringing the total for completed pledges to 63.

Councillor Lowry introduced the Revenue and Capital Budget 2020/21.

Following a discussion, Cabinet agreed to:

1. Recommend the 2020/21 Budget to Council (as shown in appendix 2) to ensure the delivery of the Council’s Corporate Plan;

2. Recommendthe Capital Budget of £892.911m to Council to continue the investment within the City and Growth agenda.

Councillor Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the Capital and Revenue Monitoring Report Q3.

Following a discussion Cabinet agreed:

1. To note the current revenue monitoring position and action plans in place to reduce/mitigate shortfalls;

2. To note there are no virements that need approval since 1st October 2019;

3. Council approve the Capital Budget 2019-2024 is revised to £892.911 (as shown in Table 5)

Councillor Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the Capital and Revenue Monitoring Report Q3.

Following a discussion Cabinet agreed:

1. To note the current revenue monitoring position and action plans in place to reduce/mitigate shortfalls;

2. To note there are no virements that need approval since 1st October 2019;

3. Council approve the Capital Budget 2019-2024 is revised to £892.911 (as shown in Table 5)

Cabinet deferred consideration of this item to a later meeting.

Councillor Taylor, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Transformation introduced the report on School Attendance Consultation and Revised Code of Conduct on Penalty Notices.

Following a discussion, Cabinet agreed that Councillor Taylor be authorised to take a decision on the 10^th of March.

Councillor Taylor, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Transformation introduced the report on School Attendance Consultation and Revised Code of Conduct on Penalty Notices.

Following a discussion, Cabinet agreed that Councillor Taylor be authorised to take a decision on the 10^th of March.

This code of conduct policy has been reviewed to ensure that schools are supported to improve attendance at school. This consultation has clarified the policy and delivers pledge 42 of the Labour manifesto, this balances the views of schools and parents given in the consultation.

The option proposed in the paper changes the threshold for unauthorised absence from 8 to 11 sessions for unauthorised holiday absence only. There is a balance in trying to work in partnership to support regular attendance at school but acknowledging there may be times families need to take holidays outside of regular school holidays. Feedback for example included that from wives of military personnel whose husbands are often not home during school holidays. This change would therefore better support our armed forces community.

Councillor Mrs Aspinall introduced the report from Budget Scrutiny.

Following a discussion, Cabinet agreed:

·         To consider and respond to the fifteen recommendations made by Budget Scrutiny Select Committee. The response was as follows:

Councillor Mrs Aspinall introduced the report from Budget Scrutiny.

Following a discussion, Cabinet agreed:

·         To consider and respond to the fifteen recommendations made by Budget Scrutiny Select Committee. The response was as follows: