To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Polly Andrews, Jenny Bartlett, Ellie Chowns, Mark Millmore, Ann-Marie Probert, Paul Rone, Paul Symonds and Ange Tyler.

To receive any declarations of interest in respect of Schedule 1, Schedule 2 or Other Interests from members of the Council in respect of items on the Agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 20 May 2022.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the annual meeting held on 20 May 2022 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive the Chairman and Chief Executive’s announcements.

Council noted the Chairman and Chief Executive’s announcements as printed in the agenda papers.

To receive questions from members of the public.

A copy of the public questions and written answers, together with supplementary questions asked at the meeting and their answers, is attached to the minutes at appendix 1.

To receive any written questions from members of the Council.

There were no questions from members of the Council.

To receive a report from the leader on the activities of the executive (cabinet) since the meeting of Council on 4 March.

Council received and noted the Leader’s Report which provided an update on the work of the cabinet since the previous ordinary meeting of Council in January 2022. The Leader presented his report to Council.

Council questioned the Leader and the following actions were raised:

·         to provide an update on Balfour Beatty’s assessment of the safety requirements of the bridge at Buckton;

·         to provide a timeline for the allocation of full staffing resource to the public rights of way (PROW) and traffic regulation order (TRO) teams;

·         to invite the local MPs to meet with councillors after a forthcoming meeting of the full Council to discuss phosphate concerns;

·         to provide a written response providing detail of the number of wetlands sites that were proposed and the cost involved in the purchase of land;

·         to provide a written response on staff stability within children’s social worker teams and the number of social workers a child may expect to have over a 12 month period. The response to include benchmarking data for a comparison with other local authorities of the current recruitment and retention of social workers nationally;

·         to provide a written response on the incidence of fabricated or induced illness (FII) in Herefordshire;

·         to provide a written response concerning the structure of the children’s services legal team and the use of legal executives in place of solicitors;

·         to provide a written response concerning plans to reduce the number of interim appointments and recruit to permanent positions; and

·         to provide a written response on planning for the location of Ukrainian refugees which takes account of the provision of local services.

To approve an in-year adjustment to the capital programme in respect of the Brookfield Special School project.

Council considered a report by the cabinet member for children and families to agree an in-year adjustment to the capital programme, for capital improvements to The Brookfield Social Emotional Mental Health special school. The cabinet member children and families introduced the report and proposed the recommendation.

Council debated the report and the recommendation.

The cabinet member finance, corporate services and planning seconded the recommendation in the report.

The recommendation was put to the vote and was carried.

RESOLVED – that:

a)    Full Council agrees an in-year adjustment to the capital programme, for capital improvements to The Brookfield Special School as agreed by Cabinet on 21 July 2022 to be completed within a re-profiled budget of £5m.

To approve an adjustment to the capital programme to fund the project from the capital receipts reserve of up to £8m for the Hereford Museum and Art Gallery project and up to £0.5m to the Maylord Orchards Library and Learning Resource Centre project.

Council considered a report by the cabinet member commissioning, procurement and assets to approve an adjustment to the capital programme to fund the Hereford Museum and Art Gallery project and the Maylords Orchards Library and Learning Resource Centre project. The cabinet member commissioning, procurement and assets introduced the report and proposed the recommendation.

Council debated the report and the recommendation.

The cabinet member health and adult wellbeing seconded the recommendation in the report.

The recommendation was put to the vote and was carried.

RESOLVED – that:

a)    Council approves an adjustment to the capital programme to fund up to £8m for the Hereford Museum and Art Gallery project and up to £0.5m for the Maylord Orchards Library and Learning Resource Centre project from the capital receipts reserve.

To consider Notices of Motion.

Motion – Cabinet Commission on Phosphates

Councillor Toni Fagan proposed the motion.

Councillor Jennie Hewitt seconded the motion.

Council debated the motion.

An alteration to the motion was raised. The following clarifications were raised:

·         Greater precision in paragraph 1 regarding the river systems within the scope of the motion;

·         Greater context and qualification of the cumulative impact of development, in paragraph 1, to include specific mention of housing, agricultural and industrial development;

·         To remove the wording of agency partners from the introduction to paragraph 2; to remove any confusion as to the bodies responsible for asking the Environment Agency and Natural England to undertake the actions listed in the paragraph;

·         To include in paragraph 3 a further element for consideration in the update of the Local Plan; by including a bullet point decommission of intensive poultry units that have reached the end of useful life; and

·         To include in paragraph 4 mention of the need to co-ordinate with Powys County Council. 

The alterations were acceptable to the Proposer and Seconder of the motion and were therefore incorporated into the proposed motion.

In summary there was support across the Council for the identified areas of urgent action for inclusion in the remit of the proposed Cabinet Commission on Phosphates, as altered by the points of clarification above.

Councillor Fagan closed the debate.

The motion, as altered by the points of clarification above, was put to the vote and was carried.

RESOLVED – That:

We welcome all the actions that Herefordshire Council and other statutory partners have taken and continue to take to address the issue of phosphate over-loading of the River Wye SAC.

As scientific research now exists which indicates that further impactful and coordinated responses are required to save the river catchment from permanent eutrophication, this motion calls upon the executive to:

Consider including the following areas of urgent action in the remit of the proposed Cabinet Commission on Phosphates:

1.     Request of government that:

•         the new Minister in charge of Defra clarifies what additional evidence they require before they would be prepared to reconsider the Council’s Water Protection Zone request for the Wye;

•         DEFRA commission the catchment-wide appraisal of nutrient flows in the Wye (and all other river systems within Herefordshire) that will inform and enable consideration of the cumulative impact of housing, agricultural and industrial development.

2.     Request that:

•         the Environment Agency improve the effectiveness of their regulatory and enforcement actions and their work with partners, to deliver best practice in sewerage treatment and manure management and to encourage and support the ongoing work of compliant farm businesses.

•         Natural England update their current (2011) River Wye water quality data in relation to the SSSI and SAC targets in a timeframe which is aligned to the current update of the Herefordshire Local Plan; and provide guidance on appropriate conditioning of permissions to achieve the necessary reduction targets.

3.     Identify now how best to use the update of the Local Plan to:

•         recognise and address  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.