Agenda and minutes

The Leader began by condemning the atrocious attack in Ukraine by Russia. He informed that he had asked for extensive plans to be drafted to support refuges coming from Ukraine and added that they would be extremely welcomed in the borough. There had been many offers of help from local residents, and he was sure that everybody shared their deepest sympathy for the victims. The Council stood in solidarity with Ukraine and would continue to push for robust actions against Russia.

That the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 7 February 2022 be confirmed and signed as an accurate record of the proceedings, and that the outstanding actions be noted.

Apologies for Absence were received from Councillor Max Schmid and Councillor Larry Culhane.

If a Councillor has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a particular item, whether or not it is entered in the Authority’s register of interests, or any other significant interest which they consider should be declared in the public interest, they should declare the existence and, unless it is a sensitive interest as defined in the Member Code of Conduct, the nature of the interest at the commencement of the consideration of that item or as soon as it becomes apparent.

At meetings where members of the public are allowed to be in attendance and speak, any Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest or other significant interest may also make representations, give evidence or answer questions about the matter.  The Councillor must then withdraw immediately from the meeting before the matter is discussed and any vote taken.

Where Members of the public are not allowed to be in attendance and speak, then the Councillor with a disclosable pecuniary interest should withdraw from the meeting whilst the matter is under consideration. Councillors who have declared other significant interests should also withdraw from the meeting if they consider their continued participation in the matter would not be reasonable in the circumstances and may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interest.

Councillors are not obliged to withdraw from the meeting where a dispensation to that effect has been obtained from the Standards Committee.

The Leader stated that this report recommended a significant investment on CCTV works, raising to the challenges of crime. Protecting residents was the Council’s No 1 priority.

Councillor Sue Fennimore stated that this report was part of the continuous commitment by the Council to keep its residents safe. This investment would enable the Council to expand and upgrade the CCTV, taking full advantage of modern technology, and work in partnership with the police to bring criminals to justice.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS PRESENT:

That Cabinet:

1.      Approves one-off capital funding of £5.365m (across 5 years) for investment in the Council’s CCTV infrastructure, to be funded from an expected West London Alliance (WLA) grant (£0.9m) and general fund borrowing (£4.465m).

2.      Approves one-off revenue funding of up to £0.1m to fund a detailed condition survey of the Council’s CCTV network, required to secure estimated inward investment of £0.9m from the West London Alliance, to be funded from the annual corporate contingency budget for 2021/22.

Councillor Sue Fennimore noted that following the recent anniversary of Sarah Everard’s murder, the Council’s thoughts and warm wishes went out to her family and to all victims of abuse against women and girls. She stated that this report was creating a large amount of new support to the new Violence Against Women And Girls Strategy, to keep them safe. This had been fully consulted upon with partners and residents.

The Leader thanked Councillor Fennimore for leading on this strategy and stressed that violence against women and girls was totally unacceptable. This strategy established the Council’s zero tolerance against this type of violence.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS PRESENT:

That Cabinet approves the contents and publication of Hammersmith & Fulham’s Ending Violence Against Women & Girls Strategy 2022 - 2027.

Councillor Wesley Harcourt stated that this report requested funding to continue the full stabilisation, strengthening and restoration of Hammersmith Bridge. This would allow the Council to look at the feasibility design of Fosters/COWI proposal and to look at any risks involved, as well as other investigations.

The Leader added that Hammersmith Bridge had caused many issues over the years and had to be closed in 2020. It was partially reopened in 2021 to pedestrians, cyclists and river traffic while being closely monitored. Following numerous investigations the main problems had been detected and a Government Task Group had been set up, where it was recommended that the Council should pay a third of the restoration works. This was unprecedent given that normally TfL would pay for the majority of the works on bridges in London. Therefore, the Council was seeking to develop a toll or road charging scheme to finance the Council’s contribution to the project, which would also help with the future. maintenance of the bridge.The new works proposed by this report would allow the Council to move to the next stage and fully reopen the bridge once all works were completed.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS PRESENT:

1.         To approve a new capital budget of up to £3.5m in 2022/23 to progress concept design and associated works leading to the strengthening and restoration works to be initially funded by Council borrowing (increase to the Capital Financing Requirement).

2.         To approve the procurement approach set out in paragraph 4 given the specialist nature of the works.

3.         To approve the appointment of the preferred technical experts to complete the work for the amounts set out in paragraph 4, subject to a client held contingency being used where required.

Councillor Wesley Harcourt stated that this paper was seeking approval to adopt the West London Alliance (WLA) low carbon procurement policy, which had been developed collaboratively by the Council and eight west London boroughs. It presented a unified expectation of suppliers for council contracts on tackling the climate emergency across the subregion.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS PRESENT:

That Cabinet:

1.    Adopts the West London Alliance low-carbon procurement policy.

2.    Approves the inclusion of the accompanying low-carbon charter in all future tenders as a precondition for successful tenderers.

3.    Approves that the charter be sent to all current suppliers to encourage them to voluntarily agree to its principles.

4.    Approves the inclusion of climate impact considerations in the development and evaluation of all future procurements, supported by the low-carbon toolkit and other support and advice available from the climate unit and elsewhere.

Councillor Wesley Harcourt reported that In the summer of 2021, the borough was hit by a storm that caused over 300 properties to flood causing incredible hardship for many of the residents. This report proposed flood mitigation measures do deal with future storm which were likely to become more frequent due to climate change. The Council had also appointed a Flood Mitigation Czar, led by Councillor Helen Rowbottom and had a meeting with Thames Water recently where a number of key actions were agreed. Each individual project would be subject to further approval.

The Leader added that he Chaired the meeting with Thames Water, attended by residents affected by the flood. They had since managed to get Thames Water to agree a series of key action and appointed a Flood Mitigation Czar and were making some progress. It was also critical to discuss the insurance issues in a future meeting as many people were not able to get insurance for having homes in a flood plain.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS PRESENT:

1.         That detailed proposals for the flood mitigation measures described in the report be developed.

2.         That subject to funding being secured, the progression and implementation of the flood mitigation measures are delegated to the Strategic Director of Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment.

The Leader stated that this report proposed the increase of the special education inclusion fund budget. He added that the former special education needs transport service was provided by a company without any knowledge of disability and children’s special needs. Since then, many new investments had been done, including opening a new centre for disabled children, demonstrating a genuine commitment for improving children services. The Council wanted to ensure that special education needs children would get equal chances in life. He thanked Jacqui McShannon, the Director of Children’s Services, for her great work on this matter.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS PRESENT:

1.         Schools Block Budget 2022/23 Financial Year:

a.    To approve the Local Authority formula for allocating resources to Hammersmith & Fulham schools for 2022/23 as set out in Appendix 1, the Authority Proforma Tool (APT) for setting school budgets.

b.    To approve the National Funding Formula (NFF) transitional funding formula factor rates (as set out in Appendix 1) as the basis for calculating the 2022/23 schools funding formula, together with a 1.5% per pupil Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) protection for individual schools versus 2021/22 levels with respect to pupil led funding.

c.    To approve the transfer of £0.556m (0.5% of the total schools' block allocation) from the schools' block to the high needs block in the 2022/23 financial year. This is to support high needs education expenditure for special educational needs in Hammersmith and Fulham.

d.    To approve the proposal to top-slice the 2022/23 Schools Block to the value of £0.200m or 0.18% of the total for the Falling Rolls protection fund in 2022/23. Allocations to mainstream schools from the agreed fund would be agreed by a sub-group of the Schools Forum.

e.    To approve de-delegation budgets of £0.666m for maintained mainstream schools only.

f.     To approve the education functions budgets of £0.258m for maintained mainstream schools only, as confirmed by Schools Forum on 18^th January 2022.

2.         Central Services Schools Block Budget 2022/23

a.    To approve the proposed budget allocation for Central Services Schools Block DSG totalling £2.817m.

3.         Early Years Block Budget 2022/23

a.    To approve the 2022/23 draft budget of £15.173m for 3- and 4-year-olds in line with grant conditions, including the proposed distribution of an increase in the hourly Base Rate paid to providers from £6.26 to £6.39 and the high level central Early Years budget of £0.759m.

4.         High Needs Block Expenditure 2022/23

a.    To note the significantly increased funding allocation for High Needs and special educational needs education in 2022/23, planned expenditure by category and commissioned places with special education providers in 2022/23.

The Leader reported that a letter had been emailed earlier on the day to all Cabinet Members on behalf of Land Securities, Legal and General, Romulus and Stanhope PLC, expressing their concern with regard to the recommendation on this report.

Councillor Andrew Jones stated that this was a special planning guidance document around affordable workspace, which was a core part of the Council’s local industrial strategy and the White City innovation district. This guidance would enable the Council to support local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Start-ups and the not-for-profit sector. The guidance had been informed by independent and technical evidence and had been subject to public consultation at the end of the previous year.  This guidance was a starting point for negotiation with any developer and specified 20% of the floor space to be allocated to affordable workspace.

Councillor Andrew Jones added that in relation to the letter mentioned by the Leader he had been advised that, after careful consideration, it did not raise any new issues from previous responses to the document.

Joanne Woodward, Chief Planning Officer, reiterated Councillors Jones’ response in relation to the letter received and added that the issues raised by it had been dealt with during the consultation at the end of the previous year. The letter received earlier on the day from Gerald Eve LLP, on behalf of a number of developers, was an updated version of the one they had sent in November, with no new issues raised. At the time of the consultation in November, Joanne Woodward and her team had fully considered all the issues raised in the letter from Gerald Eve LLP.

The Leader expressed his disappointment at receiving this letter because the innovation district was positively transforming the borough, particularly White City. The innovation district was a first of its kind where the Council had stablished a formal relationship with a university and invited a business board to generate business in the borough. The aim was to dominate the economy in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, media and medicine. This issue had been widely consulted upon and with the help of local business entrepreneurs the business strategy had been created. It laid out that in order to attract Start-ups and Scale-ups, the Council needed to provide extensive affordable flexible office space. He added that the industrial strategy was thinking long term and would create many jobs in the decades to come.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS PRESENT:

1.     That Cabinet carefully considers the public consultation responses in Appendix 4.

2.     That Cabinet approves the SPD for adoption incorporating amendments following the public consultation.

Councillor Andrew Jones stated that this was another supplementary planning guidance to the local plan concerning the many railway arches in the borough, which were very important to its heritage. The railway arches were home to many SMEs and a wide range of amenity uses with multiple owners and planning arrangements. This guidance had been widely consulted upon with residents and businesses taking a holistic approach to all railway arches across the borough. This document contained guidance for taking planning decisions in future to support small and medium-sized enterprises and addressed residents’ concerns.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE CABINET MEMBERS PRESENT:

1.    That Cabinet carefully considers the public consultation responses in appendix 4.

2.    That Cabinet approves the SPD for adoption incorporating amendments following the public consultation.

The Key Decision List was noted.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 - ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Proposed resolution:

Under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following items of business, on the grounds that they contain the likely disclosure of exempt information, as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the said Act, and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption currently outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.       

There was no discussion of exempt elements.