Agenda and minutes

The Chairperson welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the Executive in the New Council Chamber since the local elections.

Some councillors and officers would be joining the meeting remotely via Microsoft Teams.

The meeting was also being streamed live on the internet.

Councillor Bell noted that June was Pride Month, and the Executive was pleased to see the Pride flag in the Council Chamber.  The council supported all its communities and stood with them in promoting acceptance and equality.

The Executive, at the discretion of the Chairperson, will hear up to four people, each of whom must be a resident or a business ratepayer or an elector, who wish to address it in accordance with the Executive Standing Orders, on matters that affect the area or its residents and over which the Executive has powers and duties. The Chairperson will select the order of the matters to be heard. Each person will be limited to a period of three minutes and this part of the meeting must not exceed fifteen minutes.

Requests to speak must be submitted in writing to the Monitoring Officer, or the officer mentioned at the top of this agenda letter, by noon on the day before the meeting and the request must detail the subject matter of the address. 

None received.

A Member must declare any disclosable pecuniary interest where it relates to any matter being considered at the meeting. A declaration of a disclosable pecuniary interest should indicate the interest and the agenda item to which it relates. A Member is not permitted to participate in this agenda item by law and should immediately leave the meeting before the start of any debate.

If the Member leaves the meeting in respect of a declaration, he or she should ensure that the Chairperson is aware of this before he or she leaves to enable their exit from the meeting to be recorded in the minutes in accordance with Standing Order 37.

8 February 2023, to approve as a correct record

Resolved: that the minutes be approved as a correct record.

Non-Executive Councillors wishing to address the Executive are required to notify the contact officer mentioned at the top of this summons letter by noon on the day before the meeting. A total of fifteen minutes will be allocated to hear all addresses.

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(attached)

Resolved: that the Forward Plan be noted.

Report of Councillor Whitfield (attached)

On behalf of Councillor Whitfield, Councillor Bell introduced the report and explained the background in that current contracts were expiring either this year or next.  He added that a number of commissioning routes were being used to deliver value for money and good outcomes.

Resolved: that the Executive

a) Agreed the Adult Social Care commissioning priorities for the year 2023-2024. 

b) Approved the commencement of activities listed in Appendices A & B of the report, delegating to the Director for Adult Social Care, approval to determine the relevant procurement routes, and the award of any contract, in consultation with the relevant Executive Member(s). 

c) Approved the activity listed in Appendices A & B of the report; the extension of any contracts that have already reached the term under the original permission; the commencement of a procurement. 

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Report of Councillor Ho Marris (attached)

Councillor Ho Marris introduced the report and explained the background to the Integrated Care System set up in 2022 to join up health and care needs.  She said that the existing contract was due to expire in 2025.  The commissioned services were wide ranging and access to good sexual health services promoted gender and health equality and improved social outcomes.

She confirmed that climate change and environmental implications of the recommissioning plan would be assessed.

Resolved: that the Executive

a)    Agreed to the recommissioning of the North Somerset elements of the BNSSG Integrated Sexual Health Service for up to a 10-year term.

b)    Agreed to join Bristol City Council’s procurement process (in collaboration with the NHS BNSSG Integrated Care Board, South Gloucestershire Council, and Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Council).

c)    Delegated the contract award from the Executive to the Director of Public Health (to comply with Bristol City Council’s procurement process).

d)    Agreed to anonymise the winning bidders’ details on the Council website when the Director award decision was published (to comply with Bristol City Council’s procurement process).

e)    Agreed to follow Bristol City Council’s Procurement Plan - no separate NSC specific Procurement Plan will be produced by the Strategic Procurement Service for approval.

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report and discussed above. 

Report of Councillor Young (attached)

Councillor Young presented the report and explained the council’s legal duty to maintain the highways network.  A full business case and pricing submission had been received from North Somerset Environment Company (NSEC) and which had undergone a detailed evaluation.  The award of the contract to NSEC offered the council the best strategic fit and opportunity to allow for changes in priorities during the life of the contract.  She explained that it was essential the contract be awarded in June 2023 to allow sufficient time for contract mobilisation.

A query on the use of the existing depot was answered by officers.

Resolved: that the Executive agreed to direct award the contract for the highway services cyclical and reactive maintenance to North Somerset Environment Company (NSEC) using the Public Contract Regulations 2015 (regulation 12) exemption for an initial term of 7 years, with an option to extend for a further 7 years.

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report.

Report of Councillor Whitfield (attached)

Councillor Bell introduced the report on behalf of Councillor Whitfield noting that it was a re-contracting of an existing service.  The bids put forward had been through a stringent evaluation process.  The winning bid came out best on all evaluation criteria.  Councillor Bell noted that Access Your Care Limited only operated in North Somerset and was pleased to see a locally home-grown company being able to bid for contracts.

Resolved: that the Executive approved the award of the Support to Live at Home One Weston Lead Provider contract to Access Your Care Limited for circa £2,172,642 per annum (circa 1700 hours per week) for an initial term of three years with an optional extension of four years in two-year increments.

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report.

Report of Councillor Waite (attached)

Councillor Waite introduced the report. North Somerset was the second most at risk of flooding so the requirement for a Local Flood Risk Management Strategy (LFRMS) was both a statutory requirement and a top priority for the council.  The LFRMS had been updated to maintain the technical and statutory content whilst making it more readable and the Action Plan was in accordance with all national objectives.  The draft strategy had been the subject of extensive consultation and engagement

Resolved: that the Executive agreed to adopt the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy following public consultation; and to delegate any necessary minor amendments to style and content post adoption to the flood risk team to ensure the document was kept up to date with proposed legislation changes and action plan progress. 

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report and discussed above. 

Report of Councillor Young (attached)

Councillor Young presented the report and noted that the Strategy was based on the work carried out by the previous Executive Member for Highways and Transport, members, officers and industry experts.

The Strategy would support the council’s objective of becoming carbon neutral by 2030 given that 43% of emissions in the district came from transport.  Electric vehicles would therefore play an important role alongside the Active Travel Strategy in achieving this objective.  North Somerset faced challenges in providing sufficient electric vehicle charging if the provision of infrastructure was left to the private sector as full coverage across communities would not be achieved.  The approach had been developed to allow the council to bid for central government funds and which would support the proposed concessionary funding model.

Members debated the report and highlighted the issues of providing new substations; the challenges faced when providing on street charging facilities including the need for home charging and following public consultation, that whilst public facilities should be provided, these should not be installed on pavements.  Councillor Young responded that access issues would be taken seriously during implementation but noted that for many households, home charging was not currently an option.

Resolved: that the Executive agreed to adopt the North Somerset Electric Vehicle Strategy.

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report and discussed above 

Report of Councillors Gibbons and Waite (attached)

Councillor Gibbons introduced the report noting that the funding for the expansion was being sourced from a Basic Need allocation grant which supported the capital requirement for providing the right number of physical school places.  In this instance, a deficit of building provision in Clevedon required expansion of the current site. 

Councillor Gibbons noted that the school wished to use the funding opportunity to create a Dance and Drama block which could be used by the public outside of school hours.  She added that other options beyond the expansion of Clevedon School had been considered.

Resolved: that the Executive

a)    Approved the commissioning plan for delivering an expansion to the buildings at Clevedon School to meet local place needs and

b)    Agreed that the capital programme project for Clevedon School KCS217 be re-based to align with the funding sources as detailed in the report

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report and discussed above. 

Report of Councillor Bell (attached)

Councillor Bell presented the report drawing members attention to a modest underspend of £0.418m for the 2022-23 financial year which would be transferred into the council’s General Reserve fund.

He noted this was to the credit of officers at a time of huge pressures on services and costs.  He added that the underspend masked variation in the detail with continuing challenges around Children’s Services specifically around Looked After Children and children with disabilities and Home to School transport where there were significant cost pressures.  He thanked the Adult Services team in particular for effectively managing its budget.

The Director of Corporate Services and s151 officer endorsed Councillor Bell’s comments and added that she was supportive of adding the underspend to general reserves.  She noted the ongoing inflationary pressures on the council’s budget.

Resolved: that the Executive

1. Noted the revenue and capital budget out-turn positions for 2022/23 as detailed within the report and the associated transfer of the underspend of £0.418m into the council’s general revenue reserve as at 31 March 2023,

2. Noted the transfers to / from earmarked revenue and capital reserves as set out in Appendix 4 of the report

3. Approved the amendments to the revenue budget that were reflected within the budget as detailed in Appendix 1A of the report

4. Approved the amendments to the capital programme as detailed in Appendix 7 of the report.

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Report of the Assistant Director Legal and Governance (attached)

Councillor Bell introduced the report noting that there were a couple of vacancies still to be filled.

The Assistant Director Legal and Governance added that in light of difficulties caused for the North Somerset Internal Drainage Board (NSIDB) requiring nominations before the council’s first Executive meeting in an election year, he proposed that membership of the NSIDB would continue from the previous administration until the first Executive meeting of a new administration was held where the appointments to the drainage board were made.

Resolved: that the Executive

a)    Determined the appointment of members on Outside Bodies as per the circulated report

b)    Agreed that any final nominations afterwards be confirmed by the Leader and Deputy Leader

c)    Agreed that the terms of office for the council’s nominations to the North Somerset Internal Drainage Board would continue until the first post-election meeting of the Executive in an election year

Reasons for the decision:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Alternative options considered and rejected:

As set out in the report and discussed above.

Executive Councillors might report orally on matters in progress. Such reports will be for information only and no material decisions can be made arising from them.

Councillor Bell congratulated the Chief Executive on her nomination for Chief Executive of the Year at the Municipal Journal awards and noted her contribution to the council.  He added that the nomination also reflected the great work of the officer team that she led.

He also thanked the Executive members for their energy and enthusiasm that they had shown for their role and especially for those new members who had dealt with issues and reports from the outset.

Councillor Gibbons reminded members that it was Refugee Week with a number of events being held.

For a matter to be considered as an urgent item, the following question must be addressed: “What harm to the public interest would flow from leaving it until the next meeting?” If harm can be demonstrated, then it is open to the Chairperson to rule that it be considered as urgent. Otherwise the matter cannot be considered urgent within the statutory provisions.

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