The Leader of the Council informed the Cabinet of the following statistics:

The Cabinet was created as a result of the Local Government Act 2000 to include a Leader and up to ten Members.  The Council adopted the practice in January 2001.

Several meetings had over 40 items:

·  19-03-09 – 52

·  14-01-10 – 41

·  04-02-10 – 41

·  18-03-10 – 41

·  22-0-710 – 46

·  12-04-12 – 53

·  21-06-12 – 42

The Leader had changed four times: Councillor Steve Foulkes (to 2010), Councillor Jeff Green (to 2011), Councillor Phil Davies (to 2019), then CouncillorPat Hackett.

Since 4 January 2001, there had been:

·  330 Cabinet meetings.

·  50 different Councillors had sat on the Cabinet in that time, chaired by four different Leaders, Councillor Pat Hackett being the fourth.

·  930 Cabinet Member decisions had been taken.

RESOLVED:

That the updated Wirral Council Enforcement Policy at Appendix 1 to the report be approved.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the Cabinet recommends to the Council the approval of additional funding for the schemes referred to in paragraph 3.3. of the report and as follows:

·  Integrated Transport Block Funding - £1,150,000 of allocated to Wirral Council by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to support the delivery of the Combined Authority Transport Plan Programme in 2020/21. The programme is a package of schemes designed to support increased numbers of journeys to be undertaken by sustainable active modes reducing resident’s reliance on the private car and reducing carbon emissions.

·  Highways Maintenance Funding - £2,149,000 of allocated to Wirral Council by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to support maintenance of the network in 2020/21.  The programme of investment in our highway assets will support improvements to roads/footways/bridges and lighting.

·  Disabled Facility Grant - £4.163,000 allocated to Wirral Council by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to provide grants for people with a permanent disability of any sort – including physical and learning disabilities, sensory impairments and mental illness. The grants are to help towards making changes or adaptations to a home to allow the person to continue living there.

(2)  the Cabinet recommends to the Council the approval of the revised Capital Programme of £131.7 million for 2020-21.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the recommendations of the scrutiny panel’s review of the Wirral Tree Strategy be noted and endorsed:

(2)  the Wirral Tree Strategy be noted and endorsed;

(3)  the creation of an advisory board made up of Council representatives and partners to monitor progress against the Strategy’s objectives and action plan be approved;

(4)  the Director of Neighbourhood Services be authorised to develop the action plan to fully implement the Strategy; and

(5)  it be noted that the Tree Strategy can be a material consideration in planning applications and therefore a matter that will be taken into account in delegated officer decision making and decisions of the Planning Committee.

RESOLVED:

That the Cradle to Career partnership be supported and the three-year commitment to providing a dedicated public services team be endorsed.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the Panel’s recommendations 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7 as detailed in the Minutes of the meeting be agreed;

(2)  it be noted that recommendations 3, 5 and 8 are beyond the Cabinet’s control;

(3)  in respect of the Panel’s recommendation 3, the Cabinet’s response be as follows:

“This recommendation can be accepted where this is agreed with the land or property owner before the Council has legal access or on safety grounds.” 

(4)  in respect of recommendation 5, the Cabinet’s response be as follows:

“This can be agreed only in relation to the following item ‘Proper organised advice should be given to victims regarding recovery via legal means (their own solicitor, CAB) and single point of contact should be utilised’

The Cabinet is unable to agree to delaying billing as the Council has a statutory requirement to invoice for expenditure within the year it has been incurred.  Therefore, a delay in sending out bills to customers where it has incurred expenditure on their behalf is not possible. 

However, the Cabinet agrees that vulnerable victims should not be threatened with legal action in such circumstances where insurance companies are taking claims and can agree to place a hold on the recovery of these invoices until this has been resolved.”

(5)  in respect of recommendation 8, the Cabinet’s response be as follows:

“This can be agreed where the Council has control of Gold Command for future incidents and the incident fits the criteria for declaring a major incident.  Where the Council does not have Gold Command, it may request that a major incident is called but is not in overall control as to whether this will be granted.

(6)  the Cabinet thanks the Scrutiny Review Panel for the work it has undertaken on the review.  The Cabinet is pleased that a way forward has been agreed that is satisfactory to all interested parties so that the Scrutiny into the tragic event on the evening of 25 March 2017 can be concluded.”

RESOLVED:

That the following be approved:

(1)   the appointment of the following consultants on the design and delivery of the new offices, in accordance with the terms of the Wirral Growth Company Partnership Agreement:

(a)  Building Contractor- Morgan Sindell

(b)  Architect - AHR Architects Limited

(c)  Civil and Structural Engineer- Curtins Consulting Limited

(d)  Fire Engineer - Design Fire Consultants Limited

(e)  M&E Engineer, BREEAM and Acoustics- Hannan Associates Limited

(f)  Contract Administrator- Walker Sime Limited

(g)  Quantity Surveyor- Abacus Cost Management Limited

(h)  Health and Safety Auditor - Walker Sime Limited

(i)  Landscape Architect – Gillespies LLP

(j)  Ecology – United Environmental Services Limited

(k)  Highways - Vectos

(l)  Rights of light and Party Wall -GIA

(m)  Planning - Barton Willmore Planning Limited

(2)  the granting of authority to the Director of Law and Governance in consultation with the Director of Regeneration and Place to:

(a)  negotiate and agree and finalise the terms of a lease  of the land shown edged red on the plan attached at Appendix 2  to Wirral Growth Company LLP  or such funder as may be appointed by Wirral Growth Company LLP  together with a lease back to the Council of the land and/or the completed office development (of approximately 150,000 sq. ft)  within the  following parameters:

(i)  the land acquired or to be acquired at Milton Pavements shall be added to the Option Agreement with the Wirral Growth Company LLP on the basis that the Wirral Growth Company LLP may not acquire it at less than the amount the Council pays for it and on the basis of the existing option agreement conditions, with such specific changes as may be needed to accommodate the proposed structure of the annuity lease;

(ii)  the lease back to the Council from the Wirral Growth Company LLP or the funder  shall be at no more than the rent per square foot set out in the approved  Partnership Business Plan as set out in the exempt Appendix 1 to this report; and

(iii) the conditions that apply to the option agreement currently shall apply to the sale and leaseback arrangement so that the viability tests and planning tests and other tests that apply to the working arrangements of the Wirral Growth Company LLP apply to the annuity lease structure.

(2)  negotiate and agree and finalise amendment of the Milestones in the Partnership Agreement and the Partnership Business Plan to reflect the revised timescales for the entering into of the agreement for lease as follows:

  ‘agreement for lease to be entered into by 30 June 2020 albeit the parties have informally agreed an extension on that date to 31 August 2020.’

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the activity undertaken so far in working towards gaining accreditation to the Real Living Wage Foundation and the next steps and further analysis to be undertaken be noted;

(2)  a further report be submitted to the Policy and Resources Committee that recommends seeking accreditation from the RLW Foundation if the further work undertaken confirms this; and

(3)  it be noted that approval has already been made to the Care Sector under the Covid-19 response for providers to be sufficiently funded to pay their employees who are engaged on Wirral Council contracts the Real Living Wage.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  Revenue

(a)  it be noted that the gross expenditure has been balanced to gross income with the appropriate allocation of reserves;

(b)  it be noted that the General Fund Balance at 31 March 2020 of £10.668 million; and

(c)  it be noted that the Earmarked Reserves totalling £66.768 million.

(2)  Capital

(a)    the additional re-profiling of £19.4 million from 2019/20 to 2020/21 be noted;

(b)  the financing of the Programme for 2019/20 be noted; and

(c)  the Programme for 2020/21 and beyond be kept under review   to ensure it is realistic, deliverable and affordable.

3  Collection Summary

(a)  it be note that the in-year collection rate for Council Tax is 94.8%, the same as the previous year;

(b)  the increase in cash collected for Council Tax 2019/20 of £11.7 million be noted; and

(c)  the in-year collection rate for Business Rates of 97.53% (In 2018/19 the collection rate was 97.9%.) be noted; 

(d)  the £86.557 million of Sundry Debtors collected in the year be noted; and

(e)  the sundry debts for Adults Social Services and Other Directorates detailed in the report to be written-off against the Provision for Bad Debts of £2.271 million be approved.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the 2019/20 Treasury Management Annual Report be agreed and recommended to the Council for approval at its meeting in October 2020; and

(2)  the saving of an additional £0.9 million above the budgeted savings target from treasury and capital financing activities in 2019/20 be noted.

RESOLVED:

That the terms of reference of the Health Protection Board and Outbreak Management Board detailed in Appendix 1 to the report, along with related governance structure summarised in Appendix 2 of the report be agreed.

Following the Government’s guidance to limit the spread of Coronavirus and restrictions around gatherings of more than two people, the Government has introduced new legislation enabling Council’s to conduct their meetings remotely. The Regulations came into force on 4 April 2020 and apply to local authority meetings (and Police and Crime Panel meetings) which are required to be held, or held, before 7 May 2021.

Furthermore, the Regulations make provision for authorities to make changes to their standing orders, at a remote meeting convened under this new power, to enable them to deal with the practicalities of holding remote meetings. Such practicalities include voting, member and public access to documents and remote access of public and press.

Resolved (36:0) - That the Council adopts the draft Remote Meetings Procedural Rules as appended to the Director of Law and Governance’s  report, for use until 6 May 2021, if it continues to be necessary because of Coronavirus.

Resolved (36:0) – That the absence of any Members from all Council and Committee Meetings be authorised and approved for the period that the provisions of the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 are in force or until the Annual Meeting of Council 2021, whichever is the sooner, pursuant to Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972.