Agenda and draft minutes

To note that following the by-election in the Hexham East ward on 16 December 2021,Suzanne Holly Fairless-Aitken was elected and will become a member of the Local Area Council.

On 5 January 2022, the County Council will appoint a new Vice-Chair which will be reported at this meeting.

It was noted that following the byelection in the Hexham East ward on 16 December 2021, Suzanne Fairless-Aitken had been elected and had become a member of the Tynedale Local Area Council.

The Chair reported that a number of matters due to be considered by the County Council on 5 January 2022 had been deferred, including the item on the Local Area Council review and therefore no decision had been made regarding the future structure or number of Vice-Chairs.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Horncastle.

To reply to any questions received from members of the public which have been submitted in writing in advance of the meeting.  Questions can be asked about issues for which the Council has a responsibility.  (Public question times take place on a bimonthly basis at Local Area Council meetings: in January, March, May, July, September and November each year.)

As agreed by the County Council in February 2012, the management of local public question times is at the discretion of the Chair of the committee.

Please note however that a question may possibly be rejected if it requires the disclosure of any categories of confidential or exempt information, namely information:

1.      relating to any individual;

2.      which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual;

3.      relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person;

4.      relating to any labour relations matters/negotiations;

5.      restricted to legal proceedings;

6.      about enforcement/enacting legal orders;

7.      relating to the prevention, investigation of prosecution of crime.

And/or:

·        is defamatory, frivolous or offensive;

·        it is substantially the same as a question which has been put at a meeting of this or another County Council committee in the past six months;

·        the request repeats an identical or very similar question from the same person;

·        the cost of providing an answer is disproportionate;

·        it is being separately addressed through the Council's complaints process;

·        it is not about a matter for which the Council has a responsibility or which affects the county;

·        it relates to planning, licensing and/or other regulatory applications;

·        it is a question that town/parish councils would normally be expected to raise through other channels.

If the Chair is of the opinion that a question is one which, for whatever reason, cannot properly be asked in an area meeting, he/she will disallow it and inform the resident of his/her decision.

Copies of any written answers (without individuals' personal contact details) will be provided for members after the meeting and also be publicly available.

Democratic Services will confirm the status of the progress on any previously requested written answers and follow up any related actions requested by the Local Area Council.

There were no questions from members of the public.

This item is to:

a)      Receive any new petitions.  The lead petitioner is entitled to briefly introduce their petition by providing a statement in writing, and a response to any petitions received will then be organised for a future meeting;

b)      Consider reports on petitions previously received: none.

c)      Receive any updates on petitions for which a report was previously considered: any updates will be verbally reported at the meeting.

This item was to:

a)      Receive any new petitions:

There were none to consider.

b)     Consider reports on petitions previously received:

There were none to consider.

c)      To consider updates on petitions previously considered:

There were none to consider.

To receive a verbal update from the Area Managers from Technical Services and Neighbourhood Services in attendance about any key recent, ongoing and/or future planned Local Services work for the attention of members of the Local Area Council, who will also then have the opportunity to raise issues with the Area Managers.

The Area Managers have principal responsibility for highway services and environmental services, such as refuse collection, street cleansing and grounds maintenance, within the geographic boundaries of the Local Area Council.

Members received the following updates from the Area Managers from Neighbourhood Services and Technical Services:

Neighbourhood Services:

·        Following another challenging year, teams had emptied bins, kept streets clean and continued the recovery work following Storm Arwen, over the festive period.  Immediately after the storm, they had assisted with clearing the road network, before moving to parks, cemeteries and other public open areas with high footfall.  Plantations and urban woodlands would be cleared in due course and everyone was thanked for their patience as it would take time before a full recovery was made.

·        Essential services had not been disrupted by Covid although 3 staff were currently absent in the west area with 20 members of staff across the county in Neighbourhood Services.  Messages regarding good hand cleanliness, use of face coverings and social distancing were emphasised to ensure that front line services were not affected.

·        Approximately 250 additional properties had been added to the kerbside glass recycling trial in Hexham from 14 January 2022.  Extra collections continued at bring sites.

·        There had been some missed waste collections from higher ground the previous week due to wintry road conditions.

·        Normal grounds maintenance and street cleansing work had resumed following the storm.  Requests for areas requiring hedges and shrubs to be trimmed or leaves cleared should be emailed to officers.

·        Additional sweepers had been deployed to help remove the large volume of detritus generated by the storm.

·        The process to recruit seasonal summer staff had commenced.

He placed on record his thanks and appreciation for the huge efforts by the front-line teams over a continuing difficult period.  This was supported by the Chair and members of the Local Area Council.

Responses to issues raised by Councillors included:

·        Alerts regarding missed bins were placed on the Council’s website and circulated via social media channels.  It was agreed that ward members would also be sent an email notification.  In the majority of cases, residents were advised to present their bins for collection the following day, unless the weather and road conditions meant that this would not be possible and alternative advice provided.

·        Arrangements were made with developers regarding the collection of bins on new and partly constructed sites depending on the size of the development, number of houses in occupation and access.  He would discuss a site in Corbridge with Councillor Oliver the following day.

·        It was likely that landowners were making their own arrangements regarding fallen trees which would be difficult for the Council to ascertain and therefore removal of logs by individuals was not queried.

·        Some locations required frequent checks to ensure that gulleys and drains were not blocked by leaves and other detritus.

Councillor Riddle, Portfolio Holder for Local Services reported that it had been necessary to bring forward waste collection for 40,000 households due to the days on which Christmas Day and Boxing Day had fallen in 2021.  The communication messages had worked well with only a small number of missed bins.

The following issues were also raised by Councillors:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 77.

The meeting adjourned for a short period and resumed at 4.48 pm.

The Community Risk Management Plan 2022-26 has been developed, providing data and analysis on key fire and rescue related risks, and information on how Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service will work with communities to address and mitigate those risks.  The purpose of the report is to raise awareness of a public consultation on the Plan which opens on 5 January 2022 and closes on 16 February 2022 and to provide an opportunity for feedback from Local Area Council into the process.

The Local Area Council received a presentation from the Chief Fire Officer on the draft Community Risk Management Plan 2022 – 2026.  (A copy of the power point presentation and draft plan were enclosed with the signed minutes).  He introduced his colleagues also in attendance: Graeme Binning, Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Deborah Brown, Strategic Policy, Risk and Performance Officer and Simon Daniell, Community Safety Team Leader.

He explained that all fire and rescue authorities were required to produce a Community Risk Management Plan which must:

·        reflect up to date risk analyses;

·        demonstrate how prevention, protection and response activities would best be used to prevent and mitigate the impact of identified risks on its communities;

·        outline required service delivery outcomes including the allocation of resources;

·        set out its management strategy and risk-based programme for enforcing the provisions of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005;

·        cover at least a three-year time span;

·        reflect effective consultation throughout its development; and

·        be easily accessible and publicly available.

The plan would need to be reviewed as often was required, for example, as it had been in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.  An annual update reviewed performance, changes to risk and whether this impacted on the service.

The plan set out the definition of risk as a 'combination of the likelihood and consequence of a hazardous event' and provided more information to explain the risk analysis process and the 10 most frequently attended incidents in the previous 5 years.  Over 90% of attendances were attributable to these incident types and rarely changed which allowed the service to target resources effectively.  Dwelling fires were highlighted as one of the top incidents and the plan set out what they did to reduce risk and what they planned to do, to further reduce risk.

The fire and rescue service also needed to be prepared to respond to emerging risks, which although infrequent, had the potential for a high impact.  This included:

·        Climate change and extreme weather events.

·        Pandemic.

·        Future housing and commercial development.

·        Ageing population and increased vulnerability.

·        British Volt.

·        Ashington, Blyth and Tyne Rail Line.

The aims and priorities for 2022/23 were outlined.

Consultation on the plan had commenced on 5 January 2022 and was due to close on 16 February 2022.  Councillors and members of the public were encouraged to respond to the survey or provide feedback to allow the fire and rescue service to better shape and deliver their service.

Comments from the committee and responses from the Chief Fire Officer were as follows:

·        An audit of clad buildings in the county had been undertaken following the Grenfell tragedy and some remedial action had been taken.  There were no buildings over 18 metres high with external cladding that fell within the Grenfell review categories for recommendations and actions; it was therefore a low risk and not included within the CRMP.

·        The fire and rescue service were not a statutory consultee on planning applications but did respond to surface water flooding incidents.  They worked with colleagues  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

This presentation will outline the Council’s strategy to the 2022-23 Budget within the context of the Corporate Plan.?  The presentation will provide details of the approach to setting the budget for the next financial year and the broad impact this will have on the delivery of services.

Councillor Sanderson, Leader of the Council and Councillor Wearmouth, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services gave a presentation to outline the approach being taken to set the budget for the next financial year, looking at the current position, challenges and opportunities and the impact this would have on the delivery of services.  The detail regarding initiatives and schemes would be presented at a separate meeting.  (A copy of the presentation is enclosed with the signed minutes.)

The presentation highlighted:

·        The work of frontline services during the pandemic, and following Storm Arwen, was appreciated and acknowledged with no budget cuts being proposed.

·        Health inequalities to be addressed across the county with a summit planned in March 2022 to make meaningful change with partner organisations.

·        Unexpectedly, employment rates were largely comparable with pre-pandemic rates at 4.1% which was lower than regional and national figures and the economic performance of the county was quite strong.  Targeted interventions hoped to address areas where unemployment figures were higher, including those within the 18–24-year-olds, areas where there were job vacancies and the necessity of introducing a real living wage in adult social care to retain staff who were leaving for jobs in other sectors.

·        The vision and aims of the Corporate Plan identified 48 key priorities with targeted actions to enable their delivery.  Examples included strengthening relationships with town and parish councils, welcoming new businesses, free town centre car parks etc.

·        The overall funding context for the 2022/23 budget was set out; the increase in Council Tax precept remained at 2% without holding a referendum with an additional 1% for Adult Social Care for the next three years.

·        Areas were outlined where the Council intended to invest in the future of the county.

·        A review of the Budget for 2022-23 and the Medium-Term Financial Plan required savings of £9.704 million to balance the budget.  A provisional savings requirement of £28 million had also been calculated for the following two financial years.  The approach to identifying spend and savings within the budget were outlined with proposed savings by Portfolio Holder, although some of these included opportunities for income generation.

·        The consultation was due to close on 21 January 2022.  Over 200 responses had been received to date which was helpful when assessing areas which operated well and those that didn’t, as well as suggestions where more funds should be allocated, before the budget was finalised and published ahead of scrutiny and consideration by Full Council on 23 February 2022.

The following issues were discussed:

·        How unemployment was to be addressed, welcoming new industries and their supply chain, investment in further education and skills at Northumberland College and the Energy Central Learning Hub for vocational skills.  Borderlands funding was available for projects in Haltwhistle and Bellingham and the Heritage Action Zone in Hexham and exploration of opportunities for sustainable jobs in farming and climate change in rural areas.

·        Details of career support via advisors, the Kick Start programme and apprenticeships would be provided outside the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79.

To note the latest version of agreed items for future Local Area Council meetings (any suggestions for new agenda items will require confirmation by the Business Chair after the meeting).

A list of agreed items for future Local Area Council meetings was circulated.  (A copy is enclosed with the minutes.)

Members were invited to email any requests to the Chair and / or Democratic Services Officer between meetings.

Items to be referred to the LAC Chairs Briefing for consideration for inclusion in the work programme:

·        Broadband Update

·        Outside Bodies

·        Local Cycling, Walking and Infrastructure Plans

RESOLVED that the work programme be noted.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 15 February 2022 at 4.00 p.m.

The next meeting would be held on Tuesday 15 February 2022 at 4.00 p.m.