i) Chairman of Council
ii) Leader of the Council
iii) Head of Paid Service
Minutes:
Chairman
The Chairman addressed the Council, referencing briefly some of the events in which he had been involved and attended since Council last met, in what had been a busy period.
These had included attending a variety of different Christmas, New Year's events, carol services, concerts, craft fairs and general fundraisers. The outstanding events being the Trinity Arts pantomime, Snow White, Seven Dwarfs and Basil Brush, the Market Rasen community event at the Festival Hall where the opening of the new banking hub amongst other things had been celebrated and Christmas lunch at the Blues Club at Gainsborough on
Christmas Day.
In mid -December the Chairman had been privileged to deliver a gift of chocolates or fruit to various departments at West Lindsey, providing opportunity to thank all the staff for their work during the year. It had also given the Chairman an opportunity to congratulate the crematorium and street cleaning teams on their successes in various national awards.
On 9 December along with the Crematorium Manager a cheque for £11,600 was presented to the Lincolnshire Air Ambulance at their Bracebridge Heath depot. The money raised was contributions from being part of a national metal recycling scheme run by crematoriums, since January 2020, the Chairman was pleased to advise that Lea Fields had contributed nearly £85,000 to local charities, something he considered a tremendous effort over four years.
Members were reminded of the forthcoming open day at the Crematorium which would also mark the fifth anniversary of the crematorium and invited to attend.
On Thursday 16 January along with some other Members and stakeholders, the Chairman had attended a meeting of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority's STEP nuclear fusion programme, centred on the West Burton power station. It had been both a fascinating and illuminating evening and had learnt a lot about the potential growth opportunities for Gainsborough and the Greater West Lindsey which would arise from project. Thanks were expressed to Councillor Rollings and Officers for staging that event.
And finally, the Chairman concluded his announcements by congratulating Emma Foy, Section 151 Officer, who was attending her last Council meeting before starting new employment. Members joined the Chairman in wishing Emma all the best in the new chapter of her life.
Leader
The Leader made the following address to Council: -
“Welcome to tonight's meeting
The Local Government Financial Settlement 25/26 - After years of this Labour government telling us that more financial support was desperately needed to support public services, it was extremely disappointing that in the first settlement announcement for West Lindsey we received no increase in the core spending, adding yet more pressure on our ability to deliver services.
In real terms with the cost increasing, this creates a significant shortfall for the authority. The promise of protection to public sector employers regarding the increase of national insurance was also not put in place, and we received only 50% of what was promised.
Providing services in a very large geographical area like West Lindsey is very challenging, and it was extremely disappointing that the Labour government took away the £644,000 Rural Services Development Delivery Grant. The message is clear, Chairman, this Government simply doesn't care about people living in rural areas, nor do they understand the challenges of our farming communities.
Devolution - Despite most people's view that they don't agree to having a Mayor for Greater Lincolnshire, the Government has forced this upon us. We constantly hear of the propaganda of the benefits of devolution, but seldom are we informed about the huge cost involved, such as the millions of pounds to hold the mayoral election.
Other areas employing over 100 staff to support the mayoral office. An additional mayoral precept which will be added to everybody's council tax bills.
Collaborative working is a driver in the newly agreed constitution for the MCCA and I recently attended a meeting with the seven Lincolnshire district councils where they agreed the four seats on the Combined Authority Committee. It was disappointing that in the attempt to keep some power, the Conservative-led district councils chose to play politics in picking the four seats instead of working collectively together with us to ensure that the districts were well presented on the board. There's been much speculation how the four district seats on the MCCA would be agreed and it was hoped in the spirit of joint working the Conservatives would work more collaboratively. Sadly, this was not a good start for the Mayoral County Combined Authority when one party is clearly desperately trying to hold power, and I'll provide further updates on that Chairman in the next coming meetings.
Local Government Reorganisation - So just days before Christmas this Labour Government announced that the two-tier councils will be forced down the route of reorganisation to form large unitary councils. A decision based on savings yet no consultation with the authorities was involved prior to the decision being announced and any financial analysis on the likely savings. We constantly hear the failed concept of not achieving savings from neighbouring authorities, no savings being materialised and if anything costs increasing. I believe residents value services being delivered locally and we will fight to protect that for our district council. Having services delivered and decisions made from a large mega-council based 60 miles away is totally unsatisfactory. The issue of West Lindsey District Council tax monies being used to plug the huge financial gaps in other authorities’ social care costs is simply not good enough. And more information will be shared over the next few weeks on how this progresses.
The Peer Challenge Review - Last week we had a peer challenge review and despite the threat of LGR we decided to continue the exercise.
A big thank you, Chairman, to everybody involved during the week.
The peer team carried out 80 interviews with groups and various stakeholders and I was particularly pleased with the initial feedback. It demonstrated the excellent work being delivered by this Council and the Council was in a good position moving forward. Over the next few weeks Officers will be working on a number of key tasks as a result of the review. And finally, Chairman,
RAF Scampton - Our local communities are keen to know what's happening regarding the future of RAF Scampton and myself, the Chief Executive and the Deputy Leader recently met with the MP and he has agreed to try and arrange an urgent meeting with the Secretary of Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds to progress the matter and we will keep Members updated when we know more.”
Chief Executive
The Chief Executive addressed Council and opened with congratulations to the Operational Services team for the hat-trick win as they had won the award again for the Best Performer Award for Refuse Collection at the APSE Performance Network Awards in 2024 in December.
To win this award once was considered amazing, but to win three years in a row was an incredible achievement and recognition for a consistently excellent service over three years. The Chief Executive spoke of being proud of the whole team.
Congratulations were also paid to the street cleansing team who had also been shortlisted for the best performer in their category too.
The Chief Executive echoed the Leader’s comments around the LGA peer challenge, expressing thanks to all Members and Officers for their involvement during what had been quite an intense week. He looked forward to dealing with the recommendations that had arisen.
Opportunity was taken to remind Members of the open day at the Crematorium on Saturday, marking the fifth anniversary of its opening, with invitations to attend extended.
Particular thanks were expressed to Officers, Andy Gray, Grant White, Rob Gilliot, Julie Heath and Nova Roberts for supporting the recent flood response.
Sympathies were expressed go to those areas where people were having to be evacuated.
And again, echoing earlier comments made by the Chairman, the Chief Executive expressed his thanks to Emma Foy for her contributions with West Lindsey since May 2022 and wished her all the best for the future.