Venue: Conference Room, Medway Park, Mill Road, Gillingham, ME7 1HF
Contact: Jon Pitt, Democratic Services Officer, Teri Reynolds, Democratic Services Officer
For more information, please see the Medway Council website:
https://democracy.medway.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=115&MId=5665
Chapters:
0:00 Start of Stream
05:29 Start of Meeting
05:58 1. Apologies for absence
06:08 2. Record of decisions
06:18 3. Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Significant Interests
06:31 4. One Medway Council Plan 2024-2028
21:14 5. One Medway Financial Improvement and Transformation Plan
28:33 6. Joint Kent and Medway Economic Framework
33:36 7. Referral From the Regeneration, Culture and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee – Asset Management Strategy
46:48 8. Revised Advertising and Sponsorship Policy
53:15 9. RIPA Policy Update Report
57:11 10. Gateway 3 Contract Award: Replacement of the Medway Council Refuse Collection Vehicle Fleet
1:00:47 11. Gateway 3 Contract Award: Household Waste Recycling Centres Procurement
1:03:32 12. Gateway 3 Tender Process Review and Contract Award: Building Contractor for the Healthy Living Centre, the Pentagon Shopping Centre
1:11:20 End of Meeting
[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening and welcome to the 30th of April cabinet meeting we’re tonight in the corn exchange uh the reason we’re not in our normal venue of St George’s Center is there is a small matter of democracy happening on Tu on Thursday is Tuesday today uh I’d encourage all Medway residents to go and vote on Thursday don’t forget your photo ID so thanks to officers who have uh facilitated our meeting in this new venue uh this evening um first item of business is apologies for absence and I think we’re all here but I think there’d be apologies from lean farak from an officer perspective um that moves us on to item two record of decisions uh are colleagues happy I signed the record of decisions of the 9th of April yes thank you very much are there any uh Declarations of uh disclosable pecuniary interests or other significant interests nobody is interesting that moves us on to the first that never gets boring sorry moves us on to the first substantive item tonight which is the one Medway council plan and I’m really proud uh to be moving this item tonight this is um the clearest um long-term Vision that we have a labor and Cooperative administration of course uh we passed our first budget uh a few weeks back but this is the plan for the future uh and I firstly want to thank actually the people of Medway more than 300 residents who took part in the consultation the first time in the history of Medway Council we’ve consulted with the public on their council’s plan uh so thank you to all of those individuals who took time out to make their contributions share their views uh and a summary of that is within the report we see tonight I also want to thank scrutiny for the job that they did uh looking at this carefully and their comments and contributions are within the report as well uh our plan as it moves forward focuses on some of our key strategic priorities delivering Quality Social care and Community Services benefiting from good education quality jobs and a growing economy enjoying Green Clean safe and connected communities improving health and well-being for all and living in good quality and affordable homes in my view um the kind of heart of any decent 21st century Community should be looking at those a and I’m really pleased to see in a number of those um consultations that we’ve done the vast majority of meday residents supporting us in those uh strategic priorities it’s important as well to recognize uh that the plan is underpinned by values and behaviors it’s collaborative it’s ambitious for Medway it’s trusted it’s respectful it’s caring and for me personally most importantly it shows that we’re proud to be Medway that’s us as elected representatives uh the hardworking women and men of the council our partners and indeed our wider Community it is truly a one Medway plan and of course as I’ve said elsewhere my vision is that longer term this plan will play into a wider plan a place plan if you will a genuine one Medway plan so us working with our one Medway Charter partners and others to have that overall total Place plan but we’re on the start of that journey and this will definitely play a key role in that I’m sure a number of colleagues from across the cabinet will want to perhaps highlight um aspects from their political portfolios but I just want to in moving this report give a huge thanks to officers who have um worked hard to bring this uh together I want to thank the comm’s team I think the plan is a very straightforward clear plan and actually that’s a that’s a model we’re seeing time and time again we’ve seen that in other documents and I’m sure we’ll see that and more as we move into year two of this Administration so very very happy to move the recommendations as laid out in paragraph one any colleague Teresa Thank You Vince and thank you to everybody who’s contributed to to putting the plan together and it’s a really clear plan that I hope everyone will enjoy reading that contains some interesting facts about how we are how how much we’ve grown all the things that we do here but I want wanted to draw particular attention to the values that underpin the plan so proud to be Medway and and I’m sure that everybody is especially now that we’ve got such a positive plan and an honest plan that talks about the things that are going wrong and the things that we need to develop being caring being respectful trusted ambitious and collaborative and and that last value being collaborative that this plan Accords with lots and lots of other plans from our partners and across the council from my point of view in particular our local health and well-being strategy and The Wider integrated care strategy from our partners at the integrated care board and it’s important every time we look at the way the plan is moving and and whether we’re going in the right direction or whether we need to change direction that would take into account all of the work that we do with our other partners and and I think those values show our intentions and and the way that we’re going to do that it’s not perfect I’m sure I’m really pleased that we’ve had such good comments from scrutiny and and from people who are our residents themselves and we want to keep it live we want to keep hearing from people we want to keep monitoring how we’re doing and thinking about where we need to change Direction Where We can do less of some things and more of others all the way along but overall EV V you’re absolutely right it’s great to have this document thank you very much Teresa I’ve got Simon next Tracy Thea yeah thanks very much vincon just have my thanks along with trees and and your so to all the the amazing officer teams who put this together because it is really quite comprehensive um pulling together of all the things that we want to be doing over the next few years in Medway and I think you know a couple of areas for me particularly with my area one is priority three which is all about our green agenda and how we’re delivering clean green safe connected communities um is what that’s all about that’s our local cycling and walking infrastructure plan which is now in progress uh our active travel agenda and there’s pictures of buses on there which is fantastic to see um but it’s also about nature recovery and delivering new open spaces and we’re doing that at Temple Marsh Dean gate and we’ve got new allotments going in at kington so there’s all sorts of stuff that we’re doing for that green agenda and making our community much sort of more sort of environmentally friendly in every way and equally uh in priority five there’s there’s it’s all about planning we’re delivering a local plan now uh we’re going into the reg 18 process in June for people to have their time chance to consult and talk to us about what they think we’ve done it once already last year we’re going back again to the community to talk to them again so that’s incredibly important piece of work that’s ongoing and it’s right in the heart of this plan planning and environment go right through it’s like a thread through all these these various priorities that we’ve got in here and and and trees of storm I Thunder a little bit by mentioning priorities but the but the the values rather um and the one I pied out the most is collaborative um and how important that is we talk to colleagues we talk to the community we talk to other agencies throughout Medway to work together to deliver this and I think um this is sort of plan that needs to be well read and well thumbed it’s not it’s it’s not perfect I’m I’m sure we’ll find things we want to change in it but that’s great that’s what plans are about they should be if it’s a paper plan it should be kind worn at the edges because it’s been used so often so really welcome this piece of work thank you very much thank you very much Simon I hope you don’t wore out your whereare your laptop reading it uh Tracy please thank you I was really pleased to see this come to Cabinet tonight it’s a really collaborative joined up approach it recognizes that we’ve got inequalities in our in our communities and Medway and it shows us the road map for how we plan to tackle that and I was really pleased that it’s such a a combined approach it understands that there are links between health education housing Financial stability environment all of these things Link in and you can’t deal with any of these in isolation when we’re talking about improving the inequalities in our society puts people at the heart of it which is really important too so very pleased to see this come forward tonight thank you very much indeed Tracy n sh Thank You Vince and I think just to Echo the comments that made made by colleagues I think this is a really um good document in in terms of looking it um how we approach Medway a collaborative way um underpinned by those values um but but Alo the fact that the document itself is really accessible and easy to read I think that’s really helpful because um as we say what we don’t want are plans like this which then sit on the shelf and become Dusty and aren’t able to be sort of engaged with looked at and measured against and and as others have said the flexibility needs to be built in within this to recognize that things might need to change as we go forward but actually it’s a really strong starting point that sets out our commitments as a labor Administration for a future Medway that makes you know Medway sust stainable fit for the future and kind of ready to take its place um which I think is what we’re all here determined to do obviously from my perspective I’m really pleased to see that we’ve given the delivery of affordable homes under priority 5 um the the kind of Leverage that it’s got here and I know that as a council we’ve already started to take those steps and saying we you know when we look at the housing sector housing is a fundamental right and that is recognized here we see that it impact every part of a person’s um life and their ability to act whether that be Health Care education it has a huge impact and we’ve got to get this right and that has many facets to it whether that be living in a good quality home that’s got the right you know that that’s not that’s free of damp and mold whether that be able to access affordable homes and yes we’ve got to work with the private sector to deliver that they’re really important part of this but also as a council we’ve got a significant role in the delivery of that and I feel that this plan captures that well and hopefully we’ve already started to deliver against that but going forward it’s good to see that commitment here thank you very much indeed n Trish thank you very much Vince and I want to Echo colleague sentiments first of all the the way this plan is presented is uh is EXT is easy to read and actually I like the fact that we have given an overview um a sort of uh a lift in a sense a lift guide of the key param kpis in Medway some of the challenges that we’ve had in the past and also around some of the demographics we have in Medway in terms of our terms of going forward I like that presentation and I like the overarching themes here as well which I think the public can Digest and behind that is a very detailed um uh measure of the kpis we will look at from a a logical framework which is appropriate way to look at things and we’re not marking our own homework here either so I think in previous iterations there’s been color coding of internal data um where some of the targets have not been really relevant or um have been questioned about where they’ve come from this is uh this is um largely looked at from there’s a lot of external Matrix and and databases we’re looking at here so we can Benchmark ourselves in a more fair uh uh Manner and people can have confidence in that in terms of terms of they’re looking at um just lastly I’m very keen on obviously the digital promotion in here encouraging residents to uh to access uh us differently and work with us differently as as the demographics change um and also around Community safety um and lastly it’s just worth mentioning the financial context of this as well um I think uh you know it’s worth mentioning that we have had a 91% reduction in direct Revenue Grant since 2010 all local government has struggled um and um the context of delivering Public Services now is very different to what it was in 2010 I’m afraid people need to take responsibility for that and ultimately we are proud about our area we’re ambitious about the future but we’re also realistic around what we can deliver in terms of the financial cuts that we’ve suffered under the conservative so I think this is a a strong plan I think it’s robust and I think it’s forward-looking and it sets the tone for the next several years not just the next 12 months thank you very much Tris I can’t see any other colleagues so can I firstly thank uh cabinet colleagues for their contributions and I support everything that you have said and I know you will all be Champions not only for the plan as a whole but the individual areas that you have political responsibility for um The Silo as much as possible is dead in Medway um we’re a labor and Cooperative group uh collaboration cooperation uh that’s at the heart of our political ethos but also how we work and I think something which I’m proud that this cabinet and again working with uh the chief Executives uh corporate management team the team of 25 a very different approach from those again some of that’s been shared in the public domain through uh local um Publishers as to how the previous administration worked this is a different time and this plan I think is a is a very clear example of that um so absolutely recognize it’s an honest document mway council is not perfect I would be the first person to say that anybody trying to pretend that everything is perfect all the time with any Administration is flawed you know and if people don’t hear it from the 10 of us then I think they will see through that pretty quickly so we’re I think and people can see the conversations we’ve been having recently around um issues like the roads in Medway you know we’re very clear on that that we need that support from central government that 50 million pound support which uh hopefully the minister will respond to uh sar’s latest letter he hasn’t yet we’re still waiting the doors very much open um so it’s right to say look we’ll we’ll take an honest snapshot of where we are um but we’ll hold ourselves to account and importantly the people have made way our partners and others will hold us to account as well and finally um before we move to the recommendations and actually on to the next report which uh deals with some of this it is of course with that Financial backdrop that we find ourselves in are there things that we as a Cabinet probably want to would want to have in this report that isn’t in this report because the finances of this Council simply don’t allow it absolutely I’m sure if you went around all 10 of us uh you would find something extra that we would easily put in there within a heartbeat but we’re honest we’re honest about where we are financially as Tris rightfully said this Council has had a 91% cut in its Rue support Grant since 2010 and therefore we have to live within our means and again we’ll talk about that more on the next agenda item but actually it’s absolutely relevant to this as well and I know that the people of Medway the feedback I’ve had the a strong majority of that recognizes uh what we inherited nearly 12 months ago from when the election was was held so thanks to colleagues for their support for this obviously we will be not agreeing this tonight but we’ll be recommending it to full Council along with the relevant uh delegations are those recommendations agreed agreed thanks very much let’s move on then to the second effectively the second half of that strategic overview the financial the one Medway Financial Improvement and transformation plan which will be one of those local government acronyms you’ll hear us talk about the fit plan uh don’t worry we’re not making you do couch to 5K or anything like that it’s an acronym um can I in moving this item thank um Phil and his team uh but actually recognize that the outcomes of this sit with everybody not just Phil and his team and I want to be really really clear you know we talked in the last item about the silos coming down to get to that Financial sustainability which I talked about a lot on February the un that will need the whole Council uh to be playing their part of course Finance have that expertise that knowledge and actually part of the reason we’ve listened carefully to the recommendations from sitra around increasing that capacity to support the council is for that exact reason but it actually sits with all of us so uh I think this is a strong uh plan uh you the detail is there for all to see and absolutely recognize that this will mean some additional challenging conversations as we go through in the next few years there’s no doubt of that um but even if Government didn’t need us to do this and for the avoidance of Doubt uh we were talking about this long before uh duu wrote back to us and in fact even before we wrote to duu frankly um this this is part of our requirements and responsibilities in the exceptional financial support and again I would remind um those watching that exceptional financial support doesn’t mean additional money it means additional flexibility uh I think there’s been some confusion by perhaps even Ministers of government as to us getting an extra4 million we haven’t had an extra1 14 million we haven’t had an extra50 million either that we requested from perhaps that same individual so this plan is clear it’s clear on the progress we will make again it’s recognizing that it sits across the council and it sits aligned and you know the very first paragraph in there talks about what we’ve just agreed as a cabinet so happy to take any questions or comments from colleagues at that point Theresa yeah thank you Vince and and my thanks to everybody who who helped put this together but more than that thank you to everybody for signing up to it because this does increase the the challenges that our officers face and although there’s some investment in here that will change things and and make things better it does add to people’s workload in a different way but but one of the things that I think about this plan you know having slipper in having having a good honest external look at what was happening turning over all of the stones has been really worth it and I’m very grateful for for the way that all of the officers in the council that we work with on the senior management team and and those who who who work with them joined in with this and and were prepared to fall under scrutiny of a whole uh lot of different people and still do their day job so I think it’s really it’s really important to to recognize that and to recognize the fact that this document signs us all up to not being business as usual it’s about doing things differently it’s about stepping up our game and even at a time when finances are constrained showing that we’re prepared to move the council into the future bring in Innovations do things differently for for my part in Social care look we’ve put the right sizing in the recruitment of the the new jobs 80 new jobs is happening and already officers are working on the care for Medway plan about building our own facilities and really becoming leaders in in the market and in the public services so I’m very grateful for everyone’s enthusiasm and for their willingness to come with us on what has already been a bit of a journey in our first year uh but one that I think we get kind of more exciting and the scenery will be better as uh we travel along the way thank you very much Theresa Simon yeah thanks very much vinc and thank you to all the teams particularly Phil’s team who who managed to pull this together because I mean we all know the challenges that we were faced with when we took control a year ago nearly a year ago now um as of the 4th of May um and I think that the the sort of the the the way we’ve gone about this I think has been very uh difficult and very challenging but also we’ve been constantly trying to work collaboratively which we’ve used that word a lot already tonight but also terms of being smart and sensible um we’ve got very strict Financial constraints Trish already mentioned the 91% that we’re living with um as a consequence of this government um and we’ve got so many issues that we can’t deal with and and and reference has all been made to the roads as well but what we are doing wherever we can we’re delivering and I just wanted to to draw colleagues attention to um paragraph 10 in the report which talks about climate change and how we using our sort of the way we’re going about this smartly if you like to deliver a waste strategy carbonizing our waste Fleet over the next few years all that work that we’re going to be doing in order to deliver on our climate agenda even though we have such tight constraints we can still do that if we’re smart and sensible and go about it in a collaborative way so I would fully support this thank you thank you very much Simon any other colleague Zoe please it’s just pleased to see the reference to Workforce Development and and the value that we give to um our staff as an employer of choice um we are now recruiting to vacant posts um and it was it was great to see the um 4% pay award which which is obviously um keeping people with us um so I I think we are going forward very positively in terms of of the experience of our staff thank you indeed so 5% pay rise absolutely will help with that recruit of retention and we know that’s speaking to some of our HR professionals indeed looking any other colleague I don’t think so okay let’s then can I thank colleagues for their comments and again I would agree that actually as we said in the previous item getting out of the silos which is an easy sentence for us in this room to say but making that a reality and is it perfect yet no um but we’re certainly making strong progress on that as we move forward so again huge thanks to everybody who’s pulled this plan together there’ll be separate correspondents to duu as well alongside this is won’t be the only thing that goes to duu and we are still waiting for some clarity on some of the things that we’ve asked to them so again this will be an ongoing conversation and we’ll keep um cabinet and of course the wider public informed and updated as and when and we will be agreeing this tonight unlike the previous item which will go to full Council this is formally for us an executive function to agree so our colleagues happy to agree the recommendations as laid out in paragraph one thank you all very much indeed let then move on to the next item joint Kent and Medway economic framework Lauren over to you thanks Vince so this paper introduces a new Kenton Medway economic framework we have been very working very closely with Kent County Council and the districts across Kent to put this together as well as the Kent and Medway economic partnership which also includes represent representation from businesses across Kent and Medway so the framework is a highlevel strategy which is going to guide our activity to support the sustainable growth of Kenton medway’s economy through to the year 2030 it is going to put us in a really good position for any future central government funding that will come down the line and it is a framework in which local government business education the voluntary sector can all work together in support of very clear common objectives uh so it fully Embraces the kind of co-creation co-productive collaborative partnership working approach that we want to have here in Medway and is completely consistent with the values and aims of the the council and the the new Administration uh so we’re going to be asked to support the framework in this paper to help us implement the framework and to delegate some Authority to myself and also Adam Brian as the Director of place to make sure that we really support the implementation of the framework and work closely with uh those those partners that I mentioned earlier uh I think one of the key things to just bring out is that we are currently working on an agreement about how we work closely with Kent uh through the Kap the Kent and Medway economic partnership uh and that will have to come back to cabinet for approval once it’s finalized so just wanted to mention that but wholeheartedly uh support this economic framework which has been developed with a lot of a lot of heads in the room and has really broad support and I think is going to set us in a really good place uh for economic growth between now and 2030 thank you very much indeed Lauren any colleague Theresa yeah thank you Lauren and and for my part someone who had um a career in further and higher education I’m really pleased to see the high emphasis on skills in this plan and the fact that the collaboration with Kent means that people in Medway can take advantage of of training and opportunities right across the county and and vice versa with other people coming here and there’s some really great things going on like the um new green Skills Center at midkent College over there in Maidstone and all of the things actually that the Education and Training providers are able to put on and I like the fact that it’s something that that people from right across the economy can get involved in so so there’s a very clear indication of the importance of social care as an economic driver the importance of what happens in the voluntary sector our skills of and traditions in Medway of of of engineering particularly and and also of construction and I think it places us in a really good position to respond once we’ve got the local plan in place because we’re we’re developing the skills that we’ll need to put all elements of the local plan in in place and and make that our kind of future proofing for Medway thank you very much Theresa that’s the any other colleague before I come back to you Lauren this is an excellent document uh and again my personal thanks to you for your leadership in this area I think we just need to look at how uh incredible the business and skill show showcase was a couple of weeks back to show actually you know there were lots of colleagues from outside of Medway coming in to see what was going on they were very welcome um if they want to do more business here that would be welcome as well so your personal leadership on this along with those brilliant hardworking officers within the small but perfectly formed team uh I think shows that Medway is um punching well above its weight and actually that partnership approach with Kent um is very different and actually I’ve certainly had colleagues say to me um it’s been different in the last year which I take as a huge uh positive so wholeheartedly support this recognize there’ll be some uh minor technical so very very very content with the delegation as well so if there’s no other colleagues back to you Lan uh thank you for your supportive comments both of you um nothing else really to say except uh you know I really welcome the report and and thank you to everyone who’s worked closely uh on this including officers as well who worked really hard to to get this over the line and and make sure that we are in a really good place to capture as much government funding as we can to implement this uh going forward thank you very much are the recommendations agreed thanks everybody let’s move on to agenda item seven which is a referral from over and scrutiny uh narra over to you thank you Vince um as you set out this report is a referral from the Regeneration culture and environment overview and scrutiny committee um following their analysis of the corporate building survey results report um which was presented them in February uh the committee has taken the decision to bring this forward to cabinet because I think rightly so they flagged some concerns in terms of what this means for our property portfolio um as set out under paragraph 4.3 you can see that currently the cost ofair repairs is at approximately 24 million in terms of maintaining our our building and property portfolio um in terms of health and safety major repairs and sort of essential works that figure sits at approximately 15.5 million so some really significant figures there um given the state of the F Council finances as we have as was well documented and we’ve discussed numerous times in this committee as well as others um I think the key thing here really is to give some reassurance to the committee that this is something um that following their referral and prior to this as a Cabinet we fully understand the challenges that we’ve got ahead of us when it comes to our property portfolio we’ve talked for quite some time now uh reviewing and looking at that in terms of understanding ing what it is that as an authority we need what works and what realistically we can maintain and manage over the next 5 years certainly and Beyond um and we will we are undertaking that piece of work which is really important and I think it’s fair to say that you know this hasn’t happened overnight this follows years and years of underinvestment into our property portfolio and this is what happens when you don’t maintain and ensure that those buildings are under your control are treated to properly have the right finances and the resources now I recognize at times challenging in local government but actually all we’re doing and what we can see here is that the problem has been pushed down the road and it’s spiraled now to add to that one of the challenges that we’ve had obviously we recognized this as an Administration when we first came into power in May last year but one of the we’ve had some challenges since then which have to be also looked at and for example the finding of rack at gun wolf and I will provide a very quick update on that um shortly but um because I do think it is important in the context of what we’re discussing under this report um so that has met delayed that process slightly because obviously in terms of looking at what we as a council need what we need as an authority what we need for some of our services having the challenges that we’ve got at gun Warf have have meant that we’ve had to sort of press pause on that but I just want to provide the reassurance that this is a really important piece of work that we’re taking very seriously and that we will be bringing forward in the coming months and that we will be bringing it back to this you know and to the cabinet but also we will be able to share that with our scrutiny colleagues to be able to say look this is we’ve Tak on board your comments and review um it is a very challenging circumstance and I think um there is recognition that we can’t really allow this to continue in the way that it has done for a number of years because unfortunately as we can see from those figures it becomes incredibly unaffordable and very difficult um and I don’t think this is a position that local authorities should be in necessarily um just to give a little bit of an update on gun Warf obviously I recognize that you know we’ve discussed gun warolf in some detail at previous meetings but I think it is helpful for both the public and for colleagues to have a bit of an update in terms of how things are progressing um and so just to be clear that we recognize the really financially challenging situation that we are in as Council and you know we but we have taken the for the decision forward on gwf took into account a lot of The Wider context a real analysis of what’s on offer more widely how realistic it would be not to use that building any longer and that was the basis of taking that decision forward um however we will do everything we can as a council to ensure and as you know I understand this as an Administration to ensure that wherever possible we are doing the right thing for the public in Medway so um that is underpinning all of the decisions that we are taking in terms of um how that’s progressing so it’s going to take for this financial year largely this financial year is going to be require us to do that more deeper dive survey work that is needed um as I’m sure people will understand the issue with rack is relatively new in the context of Building Maintenance and people are still playing catch up in terms of recognizing the level of work that is required to ensure that buildings are safe and proper for use so that for this year our work is really about establishing what is required um there are phases through each quarter that we will be looking at including the procurement of Consultants um as well as detailed design completion um and proc M ment of a contractor which will happen in this financial year it will then take approximately and obviously this very much depends on how things change and move but it would take approximately 18 months to then complete those Works after that stage but I’m very happy to continue to update both cabinet and Wier colleagues as well as the public as things progress and we have further information particularly once that F those more detailed service surveys have been undertaken um and we’ve got a clearer picture of how we would like to proceed thank you thank you very much much indeed and sha both for moving the report but also that very helpful uh update to gun wolf I know there are a number of residents who are interested obviously counselors officers and that wider public so thank you very much for that and I know you’ll keep both us and the the The Wider mway Community uh updated on that uh any colleague uh Teresa yeah thank you n shaba and it’s good to have an update because I think that is in the public interest to share the progress um that we’ve been making around our property portfolio and I’m grateful to scrutiny for drawing attention to the fact that our assets had not been managed properly and that there was huge neglect and Decay amongst many of our public buildings and in particular gun Warf which um I’d been banging on about for years before we discovered Rack in there I’m not ashamed or and you know I I don’t sort of shrink from the fact that people will see a contradiction and making an investment like this at a time when money is tight and we’ve got lots of things to do but it’s an investment in the future on keeping our staff safe and in decent working conditions and making sure that all the public who use our buildings particularly gwolf but others as well also have a a safe and enjoyable experience for me that’s what public services are about so it’s important to explain to people honestly why we’re doing what we’re doing the sort of situation that we inherited and I I’m really grateful to the staff for their forbearance because we’ve only got about a third of the people who can normally work at GW Warf actually able to be in the building everybody else having to work in different places being displaced doing hybrid working being extremely generous and Cooperative in and around the building with the space that they’re working including us I’m I’m I’m pleased to say um so that that isn’t easily done and it sends a mixed message to people who might want to come and work for us in the future which is why it’s so important to have the positive message from you about the long-term investment and our our our intentions of where we actually want to get to with the building so there’s there’s been a lot of chatter about this from The Wider public which I do understand but I’ve found when I go along to community groups particularly and people ask me and I explain what has happened actually people are understanding and supportive because they know who the Workforce is but most of our Workforce are people who who live in Medway who work in Medway and that means that they spend their money in Medway so they deserve to have decent working conditions and I think as long as we keep people informed along the way we’ll be uh in a good position to in what’s roughly sort of uh two years 18 months to move into a lovely refurbished comfortable space and feel that everybody is safe thank you Theresa um Simon y thanks very much vincon thank you Naran uh to the whole team who put this this piece of work together huge piece of work involved um to try and gather together what we know about our assets and and how we’re going to take forward uh the management of them and I think there a Lessons Learned really large in this and uh not just in terms of this this issue here but when we’ve seen it in terms of our road Network as well where if you don’t invest in your assets you are going to have to pay the price in the future and I think this is a clear example of it but I think also within that lesson learn there is also opportunities and we’re looking particularly you mentioned quite a bit about gun Warf the opportunities of how we can make it a better space a more usable space a more staff friendly place and a more customer friendly place a more public friendly place as well and also looking at how we can decarbonize and and get the energy cost on the refit down as well so there are opportunities within this uh whole process as well which we mustn’t be shy of of grasping as as often as we can thank you thank you very much uh Simon I can’t see any other colleague so before I come back to you n but a couple of points I would agree um that actually that future of gun Warf is critical not for us as a Cabinet not even necessarily uh for offices although I agree that you know people should be at to work in a safe working environment actually opening gun Warf more to the community is a great thing um it was quite clear in fact the previous administration very clear about it it wasn’t a public building that was a political choice we will be choosing something different um and so it is right and appropriate but it’s also right to to recognize this is a really challenging set of circumstances there are limited um experts when it comes to Rack it’s not the same as just getting a generic Builder they’ll need to have some specific skills and expertise so that does mean perhaps a slightly longer time sheld in a a more General piece of capital work um I also want to before I hand back to youa just to say uh I’ve said on a number of occasions since last May I don’t fear scrutiny I welcome it on is a really good thing for local government so I was really pleased to see a report like this coming forward um so from my perspective again thank you to that particular scrutiny committee because it shows that they’re doing their job as well their job is critical to make sure the council as a whole works so I was very very pleased to see uh this report comes forward and as others have said and I know you’ve said um elsewhere you know this is the the state we find the buildings in is as a result of mismanagement by the previous cabinet that’s the truth of it and that may well be because they were not honest about um it wasn’t 91% at that point but it wasn’t far away away the cuts from their own government if they were more honest about that at the time perhaps people would have seen uh the challenges that we certainly have now inherited and you are doing a a leading role in being open transparent and bringing forward information uh to not just us as a council and the cabinet but the wider public which I know will be appreciated back to you thank you Vince and thank you to colleagues for your comments and as you say Vince I think what we’re what we found as an administr is that sticking plaster politics hasn’t really worked uh unfortunately when it comes to our buildings it definitely hasn’t worked so we’re going to have to um come up with a different way of doing things and I think just to you know again with with gun Warf a lot of work has gone into looking at the impact that would have happened if we for example close the building down and you know there is I think it’s just to provide that reassurance that for example it’s a it’s a listed building delisting it would have been incredibly challenging we also have contracts for example with thej so there’s lots of things that have been factored into our decision making but what I want to do is just provide reassurance that we will have a really critical eye across our portfolio our property portfolio we will make the decisions that you know work for the people of Medway and some of that will be based on fi financially around what works and what doesn’t and what requires the work but also looking at our sort of vision our wider vision for what we want Medway as a place to be but the biggest thing is about transparency and being really open and honest and and again with a big project like gun warfare want to ensure that we have that transparency with the public public um and they can fully see why we’ve taken the decisions that we have and again that will be applied across the property portfolio um so hopefully we’ll be bring able to bring that report back to the scrutiny committee as well um in the not to not too distant future brilliant thank you very much uh the recommendations agreed thank you that moves us on to the next agenda item that sits with me and that’s on the issue of the council’s uh policy on advertising and sponsorship um some I think positive changes to this policy it’s good to review these policies uh colleagues will recall that in a previous life I was a bit unhappy about a football team and a council working together in a in a way which wasn’t exactly clear so that led to this policy and it’s good to review it at this point there are three key elements to uh the review uh and the revised policy that we’ll be looking at today um two are around specific um tip of advertising and sponsorship and then one is around kind of geographical place um so I’ll I’ll take all three quickly firstly looking at um advertising for highin fat sugar and salt Foods so just to be really explicitly clear this is not about saying any one individual company are not welcome here if a company that’s known for selling hamburgers are wanting to advertise their salads they would be very welcome to advertise their salads equally if a company that’s well known for selling health food products then went down a different route and tried to sell something incredibly unhealthy from an hfss perspective they wouldn’t be welcome to advertise that and I want to uh recognize that you know absolutely this is not um something which uh I would hope anybody would be uh opposing we’ve seen it in many other places not least uh down the road with Transport for London I want to rec Iz the comedian Ed gamble uh he has got a a comedy tour at the moment which involves him holding a hot dog in the poster for London tour dates he produced one that had him holding a cucumber you know supporting uh the policy uh uh for transport for London’s advertising Outlets so look Ed Gamble’s very welcome to come to any of our theaters here in Medway as well FES too uh the second one is is not as well seen as perhaps high fat sugar and salt and that’s around the carbon and the climate agenda uh it is I think the right decision for this Council to take uh around you know on the one hand how could it be appropriate for uh you know particularly Simon but actually the whole Council and The Wider Medway Community to be making positive progress on uh trying to reduce our carbon footprint uh to then advertise or have a sponsorship deal with someone who who is doing the opposite of that so again pretty straightforward and and certainly something uh which I hope colleagues will be supporting tonight that i’ draw colleagues attention to 4.13 that is uh relatively new but important change as well it’s a minor change but important um there will be um lots of places we know that um all sorts of people want to come and film and photograph because Medway is a beautiful backdrop whether you love brutalist architecture of the 1960s and70s with our headquarters you love a river you love a High Street whatever it might be there are some people um who perhaps we wouldn’t want to be using that backdrop for their advertising and actually just to be explicitly clear and transparent part of the reason for this coming is because we’ve had an example of that recently which if they were to approach us after we I hope agree this policy tonight uh they would be kindly told that they couldn’t uh be permitted to uh take forward their advertising campaign because we didn’t have that in the policy in my view regrettably but correctly uh we’ve had to say in this occasion they were able to um record their advert so three changes to the policy I think it’s a strong policy uh and you can see there obviously the comments from scrutiny in paragraph 7 uh and therefore very happy to move that and open it up to any colleagues for comments Tracy um thank you for this I think it really strengthens our policy and it goes back to our one Medway council plan where each area of our business supports our priorities and our key aspirations for the the people who are living in Medway so I think it’s it’s um a a certainly good thing to bring forward and it will in a small way perhaps but will add to the message that we’re given to the people of Med way that we are trying to look after the health through the environment through healthy eating thank you very much Tracy uh Teresa I think one of the good things about the report and absolutely I support what Tracy says and I’ve been really pleased at all the work we’ve done particularly with our outdoor events and other events policy on food that we’re giving this very um positive message about how important it is to encourage people to eat healthily and and critically to give lots of people access to healthy food um but I wanted to to particularly draw attention to 4.9 and the experience that they had in having a healthier food policy implemented across transport for London’s Network and there were lots and lots of worries about the fact that there’d be a drop off in the revenue Inc and there’d be all sorts of trouble on the contrary the revenue increase and I hope that that will happen here that people with different views on Foods more positively healthy views on foods will feel that they’ve got a good chance of getting taken up here because because of the policy that we’ve got and come to us for advertising so actually it’s got the potential to to to increase revenue and increase our reputation for be having association with healthy food and importantly access to healthy food so um I’m looking forward to us uh benefiting like the friends in in tfl on this one thank you very much and certainly from a budget perspective I would welcome that as well I can’t see any other colleagues so look thanks for your positive responses I think those particularly um for the uh two areas where we’re looking to um increase the scope of where we will say thanks but no thanks I think for those um looking to reject it are those recommendations agreed thank you very much indeed that’s then move us on to the next item which is over to Zoe on the reaper policy update report thank you um cabinets asked to adopt the updated policy um in the paperwork and note the inspector’s comments um regarding the Improvement in medway’s position in fact in 2021 the policy had to be significantly revised um but in an inspection in 2023 um there was a requirement for some very minor amendments um and and those were being put forward um in the paper since then um there have been a couple um more amendments that need to be um addressed they’re very minor um and so I’d like to add a further item 1.3 under the recommendations on this item um to delegate authority to the assistant director for legal and governance to correct any typo and administrative errors in the policy attached to appendix one in the report these are really very straightforward and minor alterations that are typological essentially um so um in proposing the motion I I I’m proposing that that addition is is made as well thank you very much indeed Z any colleague I think just before we we move to the vote on that I mean certainly uh support the additional recommendation I think it’s always important to have that uh second pair of eyes when we’ve got such an important document which even if it was you know slightly inaccurate uh could lead to the processes uh which are within here being potentially challenged so really welcome that third um recommendation uh from my perspective I’m really really clear and I’ve said here and elsewhere this Administration wants people to play by the rules and if you’re not playing by the rules we will use whatever tools are necessary which includes obviously the things laid out in this document uh to make sure that any investigations and otherwise are dealt with in accordance with the law but also in accordance with what we would see as our priorities which is again making sure uh that uh if you don’t follow the rules or due process will be followed uh to sanction you accordingly I can’t see another colleague apart from Theresa so I’m gonna hand over to her yeah just quickly thank you for this Zoe because it deals with some really serious issues that we have to get right and that we get wrong at our Peril I draw people’s attention to the end of the document which says if in doubt s seek advice from the assistant director of legal governance or the legal team so so so that’s always there and I’m pleased that our version of Ripper um emphasizes that and because it emphasizes that it’s quite right to include the additional recommendation that you’ve put forward to us today giving that that person and and that team the ability to correct things that are minor typographical e errors but could lead to misinterpretation if if they weren’t actually dealt with and and I think rather than go back and forth giving that um responsibility as part of the recommendations is a very straightforward and sensible way to go thank you Theresa I can’t see any other colleagues so Z back to you for a final just just um to reaffirm the the amendment 1.3 to delegate authority to the assistant director for legal and governance to correct any typo stroke administrative errors in the policy attached as appendix one to the report thank you very much zo is that agreed thank you very much uh that moves us on to the Gateway items first one of those item 10 uh Simon over to you for um a rubbish item thank you very much and thank you colleagues I mean I think just I mean this is an issue we’ve discussed quite a lot um um but we’re now reaching this great moment where we’re going to go ahead with the work and um we have a a legal responsibility under the Environmental Protection act to collect people’s rubbish 120,000 homes in Medway approximately and that number between now and 2041 will grow by an additional 28 a half thousand so it’s a huge responsibility 52 weeks of the year the teams go out and collect and again we’ve mentioned it a number of times about the stuff that we’ve been left to deal with and this is another example where we should have had a waste Fleet that was fit for the future and what we’ve been left with is a waste Fleet that needs completely replacing um which is what we’re doing um it’s a headache but it’s and it’s expensive headache um but it’s something that we have to do and one example of how serious this issue is on the 29th of January this year we had 11 vehicles from a 46 vehicle Fleet off the road because they weren’t fit for use and they were they couldn’t be used because they were breaking down so that’s how serious this issue is we’ve grasped the nettle we’ve gone ahead with um setting a budget um we agreed a 17 million pound Capital program last year in July in actual fact the team have managed to put together a package that’s only going to cost us just under 12 million pound so that’s a real Testament to how hard they’ve worked um in order to put this package together um and within that responsibility um we would have loved to have our waste strategy in place first but obviously this has to be done but it is part of our way strategy and we’ll get mention that again in the next item so it’s a complex issue the the the range of vehicles that we’ve got to buy um have different capacities and all sorts of fine detail is in there that work has been done um the kind of engines that they’re using to go down rout euro6 engines and that kind of stuff um it’s all very complex stuff um but that it is now being in a position to deliver it so I just keep mentioning how grateful we are to to what really good work and one of the areas obviously that we have to think about is how we decarbonize our waste program um the Mantra that you hear from our waste teams all the time is firstly reduce the volume of waste secondly recycle as much as you possibly can and thirdly we need to decarbonize and and that’s really important so we’re working on that basis with our strategy going forward and the purchase of this Fleet is part of that process so uh I’m looking for member support thank you very much indeed and of course with all three of these there are blue papers but I’m presuming no no one’s given me indication they wishing to speak on that so I presume that we will um not be going into a close session uh thank you any other colleague on uh item 10 C can I just before I come back to you Simon just say I agree with you on your analysis of the good level of negotiation and it shows that actually a budget is not you know it’s not a Target it’s a budget and therefore with good negotiation and good um officer engagement you know supported by yourself as portfolio holder in this case um we’ve managed to bring that in substantially under budget so back to you yep thank you very much and thank you colleagues and just to um say can we recommend the approval to award the contract thank you very much is that agreed agreed thank you let’s move on to another rubbish item uh Simon back to you thanks just let me find my page I’ll be with you in one second right thank you colleagues um this is about the re-engagement of Medway Norse um under some tech agreements in order to take forward our household waste recycling center procurement um what we’re doing is we we’ve been working very closely with Medway North over seven years on this um in order to deliver three household waste tips one at chillingham one at capson and one at coxon since 2017 we’ve been doing this um they’re really well run there is no doubt about that the the the stats that we’ve got 62% level of recycling going on there while nationally the figure is more like 40% something like that so so we’re doing well in terms of national uh figur working really well the public response on questionnaires has been very positive about how useful those sites are they’re free which a lot of local authorities are not delivering which is really good the booking system works it has a few hiccups down again but generally it works um and certainly the staff on site are incredibly helpful and obliging to everyone who turns up I’m a regular user myself for various reasons so it’s a really important asset that we have a really important service that we provide and this is about extending the contract with with mayay nor under the tech agreements um by additional 60 months it fits within the criteria of our waste strategy taking things forward and there is uh obviously a negotiation to be gone through as we go into this process of proc of of extending the procurement with them and within the context of that our decarbonization increasing our rec cycling levels and everything can be negotiated so looking for members support thank you very much indeed any colleague no I think say one of the things I would add before moving back to you again recognizing this is specifically using those teal um rules and responsibilities and from from that perspective the ongoing conversation there was a good uh joint session with uh mway Council officers and cabinet members and Medway North where we were looking at a number of different aspects which I thought was a positive day and helps move us towards um further good outcomes in that uh joint venture so back to you son y thanks very much just looking for members support for this item thank you thank you very much colleagues is that agreed thank you then let’s move on to item 12 which is the building contracted for the Healthy Living Center Pentagon shopping center at narra over to you thank you Vince and um as you stated there in the introduction the paper ask for cabinet to recommend signing off our building contractor for the Healthy Living Center in the Pentagon um the reason why this has been brought forward relatively urgently is because um it enables us to meet the time scales that we need in order to while we’re working with the ICB to bring forward the Healthy Living Center um and and means that we can retain that funding just for some clarity uh this process did go through initial procurement um that didn’t deliver best value for money so this went through a second round of procurement um where we’ve got a much better deal um as set out in the exemp appendix and also the name of the contractor um so there are reasons why this has been brought forward quickly but essentially it’s about unlocking that top floor and as we’ve talked about for quite some time now delivering that Healthy Living Center which will then hopefully allow us to kind of bring forward the wider program that we have for the Pentagon as well um it’s uh this and this enables us to ensure that the funding is therefore supported and protected um and it also gives us the transparency which is why it’s been brought forward to Cabinet today um given that this was partially already agreed through our Capital but it’s been brought here to Cabinet today in order to give that transparen um and is required as an urgent decision thank you very much Char that’s very helpful uh Theresa thank you n shabra and I think it’s absolutely right to regard it as a urgent decision and um as as as we’re seeing at 1.3 waver the performance company guarantee to make this happen it’s been a long time coming and In fairness that you know there was some vision from the previous administration about what this could bring but it’s critical to determining our ability to have a real impact on health inequality in one of the areas where we’ve got the most vulnerable and sickest people and I think that apart from the fact that it will help bring forward the kind of wider use of the of the Pentagon in the way that we hope to and there’ll be Synergy and cooperation with the co-working Hub I think that will be something very um unusual and and really something that will make uh this project stand stand out but most importantly it will mean a growth in our uh GP base it will be attractive to to some of the new um GPS who are being trained locally and and really add and enhance our GP attraction program and it will give access to people who often have very limited transport and are inhibited by their their sort of inability and and the difficulties that they have in terms of accessing local health services and and it Accords with the strategy of the ICB to bring Services closer to people and out of the hospital and I think there’s loads of potential for for developing some of those new sort of more modern communitybased Services as part of this so I’m really pleased to see it it’s going to um contribute a huge amount to our local health and well-being strategy and it will give us a really good indication of whether all of those things coming together are actually going to start to make a different on those positionist and pervasive Health inequalities and I I’ll be the first one cheering when we find that that bus Journey from cson into uh chattam doesn’t anymore lose nine years on your life if you’re a man and you know we’ll be watching this very closely it’s part of that picture thank you very much indeed trees at Simon yeah thanks very much vinc and thank you sha for the report and and for the teams that put this together it’s hugely important about how we’re investing in our town centers and what we’re doing here um we’ve already pushed through a really exciting design code for the center of chattam as well and what that’s going to look like there’s a lot of development taking place there at the moment but we are doing a lot more as we’re going forward the paddock is about to be reopened and that Garden there is looking absolutely beautiful and that will complement the work that’s going on here because people have those spaces those public realm spaces to go and relax and enjoy I mean if you’re waiting for your appointment and you can sit in a garden under the trees that’s not a bad thing is it so there’s a lot of positive Sy within this and again I think the reflection and possibly The Next Step certainly in my head is about chattam High Street itself and how we go about the public realm area there and what we’re doing there so this is really important step thank you very much thank you very much indeed uh Simon obviously is a ward counselor is in within my ward I really welcome this is fantastic news and I want to highlight paragraph 2.1 that the uh as it says there the proposed contractor has got uh a track record of delivering both a health care facility in Ashford and indeed working at our own hospital so again someone who um is a trusted organization so that’s that’s positive to see and as Theresa rightfully says that combination for the first floor the co-working space and it’s brilliant to see the the designs out there now and they were uh part one of the organizations who were there at the uh business and skill showcase uh that combination both for residents who live there residents who work there I think it’s going to add such value to the center of chatam so really pleased to support this Nar we back to you thank you everyone for um your supportive words and I think just to reiterate that again this is a really good example of collaborative working um and how we can work together to sort of unlock and bring forward regeneration and I agree with everything that’s been said about um the difference that this could potentially make to our communities particularly um in terms of accessing healthare just want to provide some reassurance that obviously that we will only unlock this once that final signature has been given and the NHS have absolutely signed and said this is going ahead and you know we’ve come a really really long way with this contract now and we’re you know we are confident that we will get this over the line but just to provide that reassurance that we won’t be unlocking any of this until that has been finalized um but thank you again for your support tonight on thank you very much uh Thea is that agreed thank you before we close the meeting just two final comments firstly uh it’s great to be here at the corn exchange recognize tomorrow we’ve got a soldout event launching uh round three of UK shared Prosperity fund and if that wasn’t enough for Rochester we’ve got the brilliant sweets Festival this coming weekend so do get down there and um perform your Morris dancing or whether else enjoy some of the good food and drink and secondly obviously annual counsel I’ll be really proud uh to be moving the vote of thanks for all staff but I want to just take a moment as this is the final cabinet of our first year to firstly thank Richard your corporate management team for working so closely with us and from a personal perspective I want to thank my nine other cabinet colleagues you have done tremendous work this year I’m really proud of the progress we’ve made uh there’s a lot more work to do I’m hoping year two doesn’t start in the same way that year one did with Richard telling me we’re losing 170 million I don’t think that’s going to happen uh but look whatever the the next 12 months holds I think the last year has been a very good Collective effort so on behalf of uh the people of mway but me personally thank you to my nine colleagues and thank you Richard to your corporate management team have a good rest of your evening [Music] 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