To provide an overview of the Executive’s activity since the last Council meeting.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor JG Jarvis, presented his report.

He thanked the Chairman of the Council for her work in support of the Royal visit to the County.  He also informed Council that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government had granted planning permission for the development of a waste incinerator at Hartlebury, Worcestershire.

Members made comments on the following items:

·         Page 28 of the agenda papers paragraph 4 – The Leader of the It’s Our County Group put on record his Group’s view that unless a fully tested “no road” option was included in the Core Strategy difficulties lay ahead.

·         Page 30 paragraph 22 – The Leader was requested to support an application for funding to provide for the replacement of four trees and the replacement of seating that had been removed to allow for the installation of the Hereford Bull sculpture in High Town.  The Leader of the Council confirmed his support for this work.

·         Page 29 paragraph 19 – Attention was drawn to the number of people on the housing waiting list and the fact that many had no prospect of being housed. It was suggested that a way had to be found of enabling applicants to have a clearer understanding of their housing prospects.  The Leader commented that this was an extremely difficult problem.  The relevant Cabinet Member and Cabinet Support Member were considering the matter and concerns should be brought to their attention.

·         Page 28 paragraph 6 -  It was questioned whether it was correct to refer to the first phase of the root and branch reviews as being “well in hand”.  The Leader commented briefly on the programme of reviews.

·         Page 27 – Confirmation was sought that the Council had sufficient capital funding in place to support the Joint Waste Strategy.

·         Page 28 paragraph 4 - It was requested that the outstanding matters referred to in that paragraph in relation to finalising the Local Development Framework should be listed, for Members reference.  The Leader agreed to consider this request.

·         Page 30 paragraph 20 – Clarification was sought as to who had made appointments to the Enterprise Zone Board, the selection criteria, and who paid the appointees.  The Cabinet Member – Enterprise and Culture commented that the Board was established by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership.  A Managing Director for the Enterprise Zone had recently been appointed on an interim basis in accordance with the policy governing such appointments.  He highlighted the planned investment by the Get it Group in the Enterprise Zone and the plans of that Group to work with local schools and colleges to try to ensure that local people would have the skills to take the jobs that would be generated.

·         Page 29 paragraph 12 – With reference to the consultation on the adult social care charging policy and the policy that any charges made needed to cover the cost of services, assurance was sought that those on low incomes and on benefits would not be adversely affected.  The Cabinet Member - Health and Wellbeing commented that there would be means testing.  It was also confirmed that residential services were not affected and did not form part of the consultation.

·         A Member requested that consideration be given to making greater efforts to raise Member awareness of major issues and consultations such as that on the adult social care charging policy.

·         It was suggested that consideration should be given to establishing a financial reserve to deal with problems associated with floods given their increased frequency.  The Leader acknowledged this suggestion but observed that caution needed to be exercised in considering the creation of such reserves.  He would, however, discuss the matter with the Section 151 Officer.

·         There was general praise for the work of Amey, emergency services, local councillors, local communities and the emergency planning team in responding to the recent flooding.

RESOLVED:  That the overview of the Executive’s activity be noted.