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.

The following declarations of interest were made in accordance with the Code of Conduct -

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 16 January 2018.

The minutes of 16 January 2018 were agreed.

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 questions from members of the public.

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

There were two items of Chair’s Urgent business.

The Leader provided an update following a discussion at Full Council regarding the impact of the collapse of Carillion.  The full statement has been published with the minutes.

The Leader also reported that following Full Council debate on a Plastic Free Plymouth, the Leader undertook to appoint an elected Green Champion and was pleased to announce that Councillor Nick Kelly had accepted to take up the post.  Councillor Kelly would be leading a Council led Plastic Free Plymouth Taskforce working with local businesses and for this taskforce to be in place by June 2018.  Also a plan would be published to demonstrate how the Council would be reducing the use of single use plastics across the wider city by 2020.

The Leader welcomed Councillor Mrs Aspinall, Chair of the Budget Scrutiny Select Committee to the meeting.  Councillor Mrs Aspinall thanked Councillor Darcy and Officers for engaging with scrutiny over the last year and reported that the committee would be pleased that most of the recommendations had been agreed by the Cabinet.  It was highlighted that the first time for many years that the committee had not made recommendations specific to social care and as discussed at length at the last council meeting, the crisis within the Health and Social Care sector cannot be solved in isolation.

With regard to the recommendation rejected by Cabinet in relation to the use of bailiffs for the collection of Council Tax, would ask that you consider carefully how bailiffs were used and the temptation to turn quickly to bailiff action would risk pushing people into problem debt.

The use of Section 106 funding to support the revenue budget was subject of debate amongst members of the committee but we came to a cross party agreement.  Some members of the committee were concerned that the use of this money would result in additional borrowing costs and if being used to support discretionary services, which in the long term were unsustainable, this should be reconsidered.

Councillor Mrs Aspinall highlighted that the information provided to the committee was consistent and provided an indication of the challenges that were faced across the departments and looked forward from April to be able to scrutinise the Business Plans of individual Service Directors.  This would enable Councillors to have a clear view of the services and would help us to provide recommendations to future administrations as a critical friend.

The Leader thanked the Chair and the Committee involved in the scrutiny of the budget.

The Leader introduced the Delivering a Balanced Budget 2018/19 report and asked Andrew Hardingham, Interim Joint Strategic Director for Transformation and Change to provide a response to the Budget Scrutiny Select Committee over the misunderstanding of the proposal to use Section 106 money and the perception that this was being used to support the revenue budget.  Andrew Hardingham gave a comprehensive response which included that the local authority does not have any power in other words it is ‘ultra vires’ to borrow to fund revenue services.  Those services were essentially funded through council tax, revenue support grant, other grants and the raising of fees and charges of services provided by the local authority.   This council was not proposing to borrow to fund the services we provide to citizens within the city.

The Leader noted that proposals for use of the Neighbourhood Initiative Fund in 2018/19 would be brought forward later in the year, following a full evaluation of the current Winter Works pilot initiative which made use of the fund during 2017/18.

Following questions and a debate, it was agreed that –

1.         Cabinet recommends the 2018/19 Budget to Council.

2.         Cabinet recommends the 2018/19 Flexible Use of Capital Receipts Strategy to Council.

3.         Cabinet recommends the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

The Leader introduced the report and following a short debate and questions from Cabinet, it was agreed that –

1.         Cabinet note the current monitoring position.

2.         Cabinet approve the non-delegated virements which have occurred since 1 October 2017.

3.         Cabinet recommends Council approve that the Capital Budget 2017 – 2022 is revised to £674.7m (as shown in Table 6).

Councillor Nicholson, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Transport, Housing and Planning introduced the report.  It was agreed that Cabinet recommends the TBTFJC’s 2018/19 Revenue Estimates and Capital Programme to Full Council for approval.

Councillor Ricketts, Cabinet Member for Transport and Housing Delivery introduced the report.  Following questions from Cabinet it was agreed to –

1.         Approve changes to the Councils Controlled Parking Zone Policy.

2.         Approve changes to Essential Visitor Permits.

The Cabinet also agreed a further two recommendations -

3.         To thank the Place and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their input into this process.

4.         That all Members are briefed on the content and the rationale of the Controlled Parking Zone Policy.

The Leader welcomed Peter Honeywell, Transformation Architecture Manager and Andrew Hardingham, Interim Joint Director for Transformation and Change to the meeting and asked them to introduce the report.

Following a presentation and questions from Cabinet, the Leader made a slight amendment to recommendation two and it was therefore agreed that -

1.         Approve the Business Case for the migration of Payroll and Pension Services to Delt.

2.         Delegate authority to the Programme Manager for the Future of Shared Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and IT, to negotiate and agree the detailed terms of the contract with Delt.

3.         Delegate approval of the Business Case to migrate Systems Support teams within the Service Centre and Print and Document Services (PADS) to Delt to the Programme Manager for the Future of Shared Services in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and IT.

The Leader welcomed Caroline Cozens, Strategic Commercial Manager and Andrew Hardingham, Interim Joint Strategic Director for Transformation and Change to the meeting and asked them to introduce the report.

Following a short debate and questions from Cabinet, it was agreed –

1.         To endorse the options appraisal for Facilities Management and its conclusions.

2.         To authorise the procurement of a Framework Agreement for the provision of repairs, maintenance and statutory compliance in accordance with contract standing orders.  Indicative total value of the framework estimated to be £11 million over 4 years.

3.         To delegate authority for the award of call-off contracts under the Framework Agreement to the Strategic Director for Customer and Corporate.

The Leader welcomed Jonney Steven, Head of Commercial Enterprise and Andrew Hardingham, Interim Joint Strategic Director for Transformation and Change and asked them to introduce the report.  It was agreed to –

1.         Approve the transfer of the seven members of the PCC Corporate Fraud Team (CFT) to Devon Audit Partnership, with a contract put in place for DAP to continue to deliver these services.

            The reasons for this recommendation are that this transfer will:

·           Enable the ongoing work at the same service level of the CFT to investigate and prosecute fraud against PCC

·           Enable the generation of income which will result in an annual saving to the PCC budget

·           Increase the resilience of the CFT

·           Strengthen a shared-services partnership of which PCC are a key partner also increasing PCC’s share of the partnership from 38% to almost 50%)

2.         Delegate the negotiation and signing of the aforementioned contract to the Joint Interim Strategic Director for Transformation and Change in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and IT.

The Leader introduced and highlighted that this report had gone before the Place and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The Committee made two recommendations which included the prohibition of e-cigarettes and training on the lifting and securing of wheelchairs for drivers.

Following a debate and questions, it was recommended that the use of e-cigarettes would be prohibited whilst driving with a fare paying passenger and to propose that safeguarding refresher training would be required to be undertaken every 5 years.

It was therefore agreed that Cabinet -

1.         Adopt the new Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy, including the amendment to prohibit the use of e-cigarettes or similar devices whilst fare paying passengers are on board and include refresher training for safeguarding every five years. 

2.         Adopt the conditions and guidance documents as attached at Appendix B, including the amendment to the penalty point scheme guidance document required in respect of use of e-cigarettes or similar devices.

3.         Delegate to the Taxi Licensing Committee the authority to review and where necessary amend the said conditions and guidance documents.