i) Chairman of Council
ii) Leader of the Council
iii) Chief Executive
Minutes:
Chairman
The Chairman took the opportunity to bring Members’ attention some up and coming events.
Once again WLDC were looking for nominations from Councillors for Parish Council of the Year. The shield, currently held by Great Limber Parish Council, was awarded each year to a Parish Council able to demonstrate a level of excellence and innovation throughout the past year. Councillors were encouraged to make nominations, to celebrate the good work that our town and parishes undertook. The winning council would be invited to a presentation at Full Council in May. Nomination forms were available at the back of the chamber but would also be e-mailed to all Members.
Tomorrow evening would see the launch of the Council’s Community Lottery at Hemswell Court, to which all Councillors were welcome to attend. The lottery would provide an opportunity to offer funding from the proceeds to the wonderful community groups who enriched the district by their hard work and dedication.
Since Council’s last meeting, the intervening weeks had been rather quiet on the civic front. However, the Chairman had attended several functions, among them: -
· a fund raiser for the air ambulance , commenting on his admiration for their work;
· an invitation from Nettleham Parish Council to perform the turf cutting ceremony of their new play area, partly funded by WLDC;.
· the opening of a new kitchen and toilet facility at Wickenby parish church, alongside the Acting Bishop of Lincoln. This had been a long held wish of the church, which again was in part made possible by some of the funding from West Lindsey;
· attending the opening of the superb new development by Lace Housing in Nettleham; and
· welcoming the former England rugby captain Dylan Hartley to Gainsborough Academy to promote “Invest Gainsborough”.
The Chairman concluded his announcements by advising Members that he would be hosting a concert on behalf of his charity, Food in School Holidays (fish) at St. Mary’s church Welton on 3 April. The Cabra singers and the band of the Gainsborough Salvation Army were freely giving their services. Tickets were priced at £8 and available from the Civic Officer
Leader
The Leader addressed Council and updated the Chamber in respect of the following matters: -
The Leader was very pleased with the positive comments from the LGA Peer Review team about the openness and honesty of both Officers and colleagues on the benches. He considered this a testament to the culture of transparency held by West Lindsey. The initial feedback had been shared with Members at the Strategic Forum at the end of January and was overall very positive about the strengths of West Lindsey District Council but robust enough to offer suggestions about opportunities that could make the Council even better. He was eager to see the full report in the coming weeks and remained fully committed to publishing this report in the public domain.
The Leader had attended APSE’s Association meeting in Edinburgh. One topic of particular interest was Dr. Peter Kenway’s discussion ‘Climate Change Emergency: from declaration to reality’. It was very pleasing to see colleagues from both North and South Kesteven district councils.
The Leader had been delighted to attend the opening of ‘The Burrows’ in Nettleham. Situated off Deepdale Lane in Nettleham, the development consisted of 22 two-bedroom apartments for rent and 14 two-bedroom bungalows for shared ownership. Members also noted, the access road – Frith Close – had been named by Nettleham Parish Council in recognition of the service of former district Councillor Alf Frith who had served 27 years as West Lindsey District Council.
The Chief Executive and Leader had attended the District Council’s Network Conference at Chesford Grange, Kenilworth. Attendance by a good number of colleague Leaders from across Greater Lincolnshire had provided an ideal opportunity to discuss some of the shared challenges all faced.
Leaders from across Greater Lincolnshire had gathered at County Hall in Lincoln to consider the emerging landscape of devolution and local government re-organisation; a white paper on that subject was expected to emerge in the summer. As a group the Leaders’ had agreed that they wished to be “ahead of the game” and had begun pulling together the information resources necessary so they could protect the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire and ensure that they were on the front-foot to respond to the Government’s proposals.
On Tuesday of the previous week, the Leader along with the Chairman had attended the Gainsborough Academy where he’d met pupils and former England Rugby Captain Dylan Hartley who had come at the invitation of the Gelder Group to talk to pupils interested in Rugby.
As at the end of February, the Authority had conducted 33 services at the new Lea Fields crematorium. For those who had not yet had chance to see the facility, the Leader shared with colleagues a video which had been prepared for the website and social media use.
Thursday through to Saturday last week, the Leader had attended the CCA Conference on behalf of APSE, where he had chaired two workshops, one on Local Government Finance and Future Structure and the second on Sustainability and the Local Environment.
The Leader had met with a number of ministers including: -
· The Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma MP – Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy; and discussed with him the Green Finance event attended the previous year and the Greater Lincolnshire Industrial Strategy;
· The Rt. Hon. Robert Jenrick MP – Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government; with whom he’d discussed devolution, the fair funding settlement and the housing projects currently on stream at the moment in Gainsborough.
· The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson MP and reiterated that RAF Scampton was the best place to keep as the base for the Red Arrows.
The Leader had held 1-2-1 meetings with the majority of the Council’s Committee Chairmen about how their committees had been performing over the past year. He hoped to have further such meetings where necessary in the next few weeks.
Since the last meeting of Full Council, the Leader had had numerous meetings with Councillors, Officers, stakeholders and the media. In addition to his duties in the Chamber, he undertook to have further such meetings prior to the next meeting of Council on Monday, 6 April.
Chief Executive
The Chief Executive addressed Council advising of the Council’s success in a recent Access Bid, providing up to £5m of funding for Social Enterprise Entrepreneurs. The Council would be working with a local partnership to develop a full proposal over the next twelve months supported by a development grant.
The Environmental and Sustainability Group had met three times since Members had asked for a plan to develop a response to Climate Change. The work was on track to report to Full Council in May 2020, as requested.
It was with pleasure the Chief Executive announced that the first service had been held at the Lea Fields Crematorium on the 3rd February. To-date 33 services had been held.
Members were thanked for their engagement with the recent Peer Challenge. The feedback had been really positive and highly praised the openness and honesty of West Lindsey employees and the self-awareness of the Authority as a whole. The Chief Executive undertook to share with members the full report when it had been finalised.
One of the issues raised by the Peer Challenge was the need for the restructure following the appointment of a Chief Executive. The Chief Executive went on to advise that he had discussed his proposed structure with all employees directly affected and would be providing a general briefing to all staff during the week. Formal consultation would commence in March with implementation of the structure from April.
Concluding his announcements with the Coronavirus, the Chief Executive advised he had issued guidance to all employees regarding the potential for self-isolation following annual leave. The Authority was following the Government guidance on those areas that would require self-isolation on return and those that did not.
That concluded announcements for the meeting.