Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Rooms G3/G4, Addenbrooke House, Ironmasters Way, Telford, TF3 4NT

Contact: Deborah Moseley  01952 383215

Media

Items
No. Item

CAB-19

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

None.

CAB-20

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 315 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meetings held on 11 July 2019 be confirmed and signed by the Chair. 

CAB-21

Travel Assistance Policy and Transport Review pdf icon PDF 340 KB

Cllr S A W Reynolds

Cllr A J Burford

Cllr D Wright

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Key Decision identified as Home to School and Adults Social Care Travel Assistance Policies for Consultation in the Notice of Key Decisions published on 14 August 2019.

 

Councillor S A W Reynolds, Cabinet Member: Children, Young People & Education presented the joint report of the Assistant Directors: Education and Corporate Parenting, Adult Social Care and Customer & Neighbourhood Services which sought approval to commence a formal consultation process in respect of proposals to refresh the Home to School Transport Policy and introduce an Adult Social Care Travel Assistance Policy

 

The proposed updated and new policies focussed on the Council’s statutory duty to provide travel assistance. The main changes were:

 

·                     eligibility criteria and assessment process had been made clearer;

·                     all options available for travel assistance had been listed;

·                     there was a clear appeals process for all age groups; and

·                     it covered areas where the Council may charge for services.

 

The objective of all the Council’s travel assistance polices was to enable people to have more choice and control by accessing general travel services where possible. The Council’s current transport service was a traditional model which encouraged dependency through the provision of transport for people from door to door. The proposed policies were attached as appendices to report.  There was a statutory requirement for the Council to publish a Post 16 Travel Assistance Policy every year in May and the current year’s policy was also attached to the report for reference purposes.

 

In drafting the proposals, the Council had considered the lessons learned both from councils which had completed their processes and also paid due regard to lessons from the latest Local Government Ombudsman reports into school transport decisions, best and local practice for Post 16 travel, and for adults with links into ‘think local and act personal’ .

 

The proposed policies would relate to a large number of borough residents and so it was essential there was sufficient time for meaningful consultation. The Council would commence consultation for the Home to School Travel Assistance Policy on 26 September 2019 until 15 November 2019.

 

The proposed timing of the Council’s consultation would ensure that families and carers had a chance to review and comment on the policy as they were making decisions regarding primary and secondary school applications.  However,  was noted that Government had recently launched a consultation on its Home to School Travel and Transport which ended on 31st October 2019 after which the Government would need to respond to that consultation and finalise the statutory guidance with its outcomes by spring 2020.  This guidance would need to be incorporated into Council policy but if the changes were significant, this might mean the Council’s policies would not align with the guidance and therefore, re-consultation might be necessary. 

 

Consultation for the Adult Social Care Travel Assistance Policy and Post 16 Travel Assistance would commence on 4th November 2019 until 16th December 2019.

 

This two phased consultation approach would allow for sufficient resource to be available to support full and meaningful engagement with  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAB-21

CAB-22

Procurement Update pdf icon PDF 462 KB

Cllr L D Carter

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Key Decision identified as Procurement Update in the Notice of Key Decisions published on 14 August 2019.

 

Councillor L D Carter, Cabinet Member: Finance, Commercial Services & the Borough Economy presented the report of the Assistant Director: Governance, Procurement & Commissioning which provided an update on the Council’s Procurement Intentions Document and the latest information regarding effective procurement and contract management.

 

It was noted that the council wide procurement continued to drive savings through robust competitive tendering and real time negotiation when brokering services.

 

Government had urged Councils to ‘be bold’ in their approaches to social value and ensure that bidders are not restricted or unintentionally excluded by making social value complicated.  The Council’s procurement officers had recently supported a construction event held at Flaxmill, Shrewsbury, to assist local suppliers with top tips on supporting social value.  The Live Well Telford website offered an invaluable link to bidders to enable them to understand organisations they could link with in the borough who could support their social value offer.

 

The report included details of the social value delivered by Balfour Beatty as part of the contract for the railway link bridge and explanation of how Veolia have met their social value commitment in their contracts with the Council. 

In 2018, the council had become a ‘carer friendly employer’ and was also working towards being a Disability Confident Employer aided by the voluntary Government scheme.  

 

The regular Procurement Intentions Document was set out at Appendix 1 to the report. The document presented up and coming procurements for the next few months.

 

The report was welcomed.

 

RESOLVED that –

 

(a)  the procurement  updates in the report be noted; and

(b)  the Procurement Intentions Document (Appendix 1 to the report) be noted and, where indicated, authority be delegated to the appropriate officers (as per the Contract Procedure Rules) to progress new procurements through the tender process to contract award. 

CAB-23

Reducing Single Use Plastic in Telford & Wrekin pdf icon PDF 549 KB

Cllr H Rhodes

Minutes:

Non-Key Decision

 

Councillor H Rhodes, Cabinet Member: Parks, Green Spaces & The Natural Environment presented the report of the Assistant Director: Commercial Services which set out progress to date in reducing single-use plastic from the Council’s operations and activities and sought approval of an action plan setting out how the Council would make further improvements over the next year.

 

Members were aware that plastic was an extremely useful material due to its versatility, durability, cheapness and availability. However, 50% of the plastic produced was used only once and these single-use plastics had a high environmental impact.  Pollution caused by single-use plastics has become an increasingly topical issue and was now starting to form part of Government policy.  In addition, there were a growing number of villages, towns and cities that had reduced the use of avoidable single-use plastics in their community and had been recognised as plastic free communities by Surfers against Sewage.  Becoming a plastic free community was not about removing all plastic, but rather it was focused on avoidable single-use plastics (eg plastic bottles, coffee cups, lids, cutlery, straws, bags, condiment sachets, bathroom plastics and balloons). 

 

A direct link between plastic pollution and climate change had been identified and so the Council had resolved, at its meeting on 25 July 2019, to support the Plastic Free Communities Campaign and declared a climate change emergency.  Building on this motion, the Council’s strategy was divided into two main parts: Single-Use Plastic Free Council and Single-Use Plastic Free Community.  The report set out the progress towards each part including the progress that had been made to reduce and remove single-use plastics from the Council’s operations and activities and detailed some of the work that local organisations were already doing to address the issue. 

 

The Council’s aspired for Telford & Wrekin to become a recognised, certified Plastic Free Community, in accordance with the Surfer’s against Sewage framework which would involve evidencing that five objectives (set out in the report) had been met.   In order to deliver on these objectives, it was proposed to establish a Task Force which would ensure that future plans were community-led in order to achieve the ultimate goal of becoming a Plastic Free Community.  The aims and initial membership of the proposed task force were detailed in the report.  Since publication of the report, Wellington Town Council had indicated that they wanted to join the Task Force.  It was proposed that the first meeting would take place in late September 2019 when Terms of Reference would be agreed with taskforce members.  Since

 

The report and positive actions which had already taken place was applauded and it was noted that the Council needed to be a pioneering organisation to set an example for other organisations in the borough and trigger individual action.  There were clear links to procurement. 

 

The fantastic work that had taken place in Newport, Madeley and Wellington was recognised and thanks were expressed to the passionate staff who were involved in the plastic free drive  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAB-23