Agenda

Venue: Council Chamber - County Hall. View directions

Contact: Karon Hadfield 

Items
No. Item

1.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2.

MINUTES pdf icon PDF 139 KB

Minutes of the following meetings of Cabinet, as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair:-

 

(a) Tuesday 26 April 2022

 

(b) Tuesday 10 May 2022

Additional documents:

3.

DISCLOSURE OF MEMBERS' INTERESTS

Unless already entered in the Council’s Register of Members’ interests, members are required where a matter arises at a meeting;

 

a.         Which directly relates to Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (‘DPI’) as set out in Appendix B, Table 1 of the Code of Conduct, to disclose the interest, not participate in any discussion or vote and not to remain in room. Where members have a DPI or if the matter concerns an executive function and is being considered by a Cabinet Member with a DPI they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with the matter.

 

b.         Which directly relates to the financial interest or well being of a Other Registrable Interest as set out in Appendix B, Table 2 of the Code of Conduct to disclose the interest and only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak at the meeting but otherwise must not take part in any discussion  or vote on the matter and must not remain the room.

 

c.         Which directly relates to their financial interest or well-being  (and is not  DPI) or the financial well being of a relative or close associate, to declare the interest and members may only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak. Otherwise, the member must not take part in discussion or vote on the matter and must leave the room.

 

d.         Which affects the financial well-being of the member, a relative or close associate or a body included under the Other Registrable Interests column in Table 2, to disclose the interest and apply the test set out at paragraph 9 of Appendix B before deciding whether they may remain in the meeting.

 

e.         Where Members have or a Cabinet Member has an Other Registerable Interest or Non Registerable Interest in a matter being considered in exercise of their executive function, they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with it.

 

NB Any member needing clarification must contact monitoringofficer@northumberland.gov.uk.  Members are referred to the Code of Conduct which contains the matters above in full. Please refer to the guidance on disclosures at the rear of this agenda letter.

 

 

4.

REPORT OF THE LEADER AND DEPUTY LEADER (PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE AND CORPORATE SERVICES) pdf icon PDF 132 KB

Statutory Report of the Chief Finance Officer – S.114a Local Government Finance Act 1988

 

The Chief Finance Officer of the Council, appointed under S.151 of the Local Government Act 1972, issued a formal report to members of the Council on 23 May 2022. The report identified two related areas of unlawful expenditure. The first, relating to participation in the Northumbria International Alliance consultancy business, is an executive function. The other, relating to an allowance paid to the Chief Executive, is a non-executive matter as it relates to staff.

 

Where the unlawful expenditure relates to an executive function of the Council, a report under S114A is addressed to and must be considered by the Cabinet. In accordance with the relevant legislation, the Cabinet must meet and consider the report within 21 days of it being sent to members. We should note that these types of statutory reports are very unusual and plainly reveal a very concerning lack of governance and compliance.

 

The purpose of this report is to formally place the Chief Finance Officer’s report before the Cabinet and to invite the Cabinet to accept both the contents and the recommendations made in the report, which is attached to this report as Appendix 1 (Appendix A).

 

 

Additional documents:

5.

REPORT OF THE INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF PLANNING AND LOCAL SERVICES pdf icon PDF 973 KB

Northumberland Waste Management Strategy – Proposed Food Waste Recycling Pilot Schemes

 

To advise Cabinet of future obligations to offer food waste collections to households arising from the Environment Act 2021 and to seek approval for a weekly household food waste collection pilot scheme to assess the viability of collections across Northumberland, together with a home food waste composting pilot scheme to consider potential options in rural areas where weekly food waste collections may not be practicable or affordable.

 

The report will highlight the importance of the Council gaining an understanding of the financial, social, human resource and environmental implications of delivering a new food waste recycling service across the whole County when Government funding becomes available around 2024/25 (Appendix B).

 

 

6.

JOINT REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND CORPORATE PERFORMANCE AND THE SERVICE DIRECTOR FOR LOCAL SERVICES pdf icon PDF 275 KB

Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy 2022-25

 

The report proposes a strategy for funding, siting, installing and maintaining electric vehicle charge points for the next three years starting in the financial year 2022/23 (Appendix C).     

7.

REPORT OF THE INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND S151 OFFICER pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Financial Performance 2021-22 – Provisional Outturn 2021-22

 

The purpose of the report is to provide members of the Cabinet with the Council’s 2021-22 provisional outturn position for the Revenue and Capital budgets, and the Housing Revenue Account, and details of the movement in reserves and provisions (Appendix D).

8.

REPORT OF THE INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND S151 OFFICER pdf icon PDF 202 KB

Summary of New Capital Proposals considered by Officer Capital Strategy Group

 

The report summarises proposed amendments to the Capital Programme considered by the officer Capital Strategy Group via email on 6 May 2022 (Appendix E).

9.

URGENT BUSINESS

To consider such other business as, in the opinion of the Chair, should, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

PART II

It is expected that matters included in this part of the agenda will be dealt with in private. Reports referred to are enclosed for members and officers only, coloured pink and marked “Not for Publication”.

10.

EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

The Committee is invited to consider passing the following resolution:

 

(a)    That under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item on the Agenda as it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the 1972 Act, and

 

(b)    That the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure for the following reasons:-

 

Agenda Items - 11-12      

Paragraph of Part I of Schedule 12A - 3

Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the Authority holding that information).

 

The public interest in maintaining this exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure because disclosure could adversely affect the business reputation or confidence in the person/organisation and could adversely affect commercial revenue (item 11), and disclosure would have an adverse effect on the ability of the purchaser to negotiate leases (item 12).

11.

REPORT OF THE INTERIM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND S151 OFFICER

Trading Companies’ Financial Performance 2021-22 - Position at the end of March 2022

 

The purpose of the report is to ensure that the Cabinet is informed of the current financial positions of its trading companies and of any relevant issues arising (Appendix F).

12.

REPORT OF THE ACTING DEPUTY CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Arrangements for Future Disposals of Land at East Sleekburn

 

To update Members on the progress of the British Volt project, and to seek approval for proposed arrangements for the future disposed of land required for the development of the British Volt Supplier Park (Appendix G).