No disclosures were received.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2025 (enclosed).

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2025 as circulated, were approved and signed as a correct record.

Under Part 4, Section 1, Paragraph 13 of the Council’s Constitution, the Chair, Cllr. Nick Chapman, moved that Agenda item 20, Motion under Council Rules of Procedure would be taken before Agenda item 4, Chairman’s Announcements.

Cllr. Hannah Gill moved the following motion, seconded by Cllr. Paul Hartshorn:

“The Council should have a duty of care to balance housing needs with environmental sustainability and the protection of community assets for the communities which they serve. Whilst I am aware that some elements of this motion may exist in isolation there is a need for greater transparency when community assets are being examined for future development potential and a clear process is required. Community assets are integral to the well-being of residents as well as serving to be a attractive feature of the district for potential residents. I hope that Councillors can see that by adopting this this motion that assets can be protected and ensure that they remain available for recreation, biodiversity and cultural enrichment whilst balancing the need for housing solutions.”

The Chairman declared that the motion, having been put the vote was lost.

The Chair, Cllr. Nick Chapman made announcements in respect of the following:

·         Attended the Blaby District Council Community Awards on 30 January 2025.

·         Attended the Oadby & Wigston Borough Council Chairman’s Charity Night on 3 February 2025.

·         Attended Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Councils Mayor’s Charity Night on 22 February 2025.

The Leader, Cllr. Terry Richardson presented his statement in respect of the following:

·         Devolution announcement

·         HNRFI protest letter

·         Community Awards

·         Going green at the depot

·         Big community switch

·         Blaby District Council Health & Wellbeing Partnership Event

Under Part 4, Section 1, Paragraph 13 of the Council’s Constitution, the Chair, Cllr. Nick Chapman, moved that Agenda item 21, Local Government Act 1972, Section 85 (1) – Approval of Absence would be taken before Agenda item 6, Presentation: Local Government Reorganisation and Devolution.

To consider the report of the Senior Democratic Services & Scrutiny Officer (enclosed). 

Considered - Report of the Senior Democratic Services & Scrutiny Officer, presented by Cllr. Terry Richardson – Leader of the Council.

Members will receive a presentation from the Chief Executive and Cllr. Terry Richardson, Leader of the Council.

Cllr. Hannah Gill left and returned to the meeting during this item.

Members received a presentation from the Chief Executive & Cllr. Terry Richardson, Leader of the Council.

The presentation covered the following points:

·         Leicestershire County Council’s proposal

·         Blaby District Councils proposal

·         Next steps

·         Proposal submission deadline

Requests received by the Protocol deadline to be reported by the Monitoring Officer with details of the Agenda Item to which they relate. (Such persons entitled to use the Protocol attend for the purpose of making representations, answering questions or giving evidence relating to the business of the meeting and the time allocated to each person is a maximum of three minutes unless extended at the discretion of the Chairman).

No requests were received.

Any Members wishing to submit questions must do so to the Monitoring Officer no later than 5 working days before the meeting.

The Monitoring Officer will report if any questions have been submitted.

Cllr. Paul Hartshorn to raise the following question to Cllr. Ben Taylor – Planning, Transformation and ICT Portfolio Holder:

“Can a update be provided on the ongoing issues with the councillor email system? Many councillors have reported being unable to access emails from residents, which is preventing them from effectively carrying out their duties.

What steps are being taken to resolve this issue, and when can we expect a full resolution?”

Cllr Paul Hartshorn raised the following question, to Cllr. Ben Taylor – Planning, IT & Transformation Portfolio Holder.

“Could the relevant portfolio holder provide an update on the ongoing issues with the councillor email system? Many councillors have reported being unable to access emails from residents, which is preventing them from effectively carrying out their duties. What steps are being taken to resolve this issue, and when can we expect a full resolution?”

Cllr. Ben Taylor – Planning, IT & Transformation Portfolio Holder responded:

“To enable the new ICT service to inherit existing mailboxes (and all the data stored within those accounts) there is a requirement for any “cloud” mailboxes to be (temporarily) migrated back to an on-premise server.

At the point Councillors mailboxes were pulled back to on-premise many who used personal devices for accessing mail accounts unfortunately lost access via the Outlook app due to this not being an access method supported/promoted by Leicestershire ICT Partnership (LICTP). An alternative method was identified by LICTP which was to utilise Outlook web access (OWA). Unfortunately, a separate unrelated issue which then arose meant the use of OWA had to be revoked.  

As of Monday 17th February 2025, the Outlook app was reinstated with testing completed and successful roll out commenced from Tuesday 18th February 2025.

As part of the ongoing work to transition away from the LICTP mailboxes reverting back to the cloud (MS365) is a priority piece of work and the BDC ICT team will continue to keep members updated on progress via the working group.”

Cllr. Ben Taylor – Planning, IT & Transformation Portfolio Holder had the following request of Members:

“This is one of many critical pieces of work to enable our exit from LICTP, we knew there would be some pain before things get better, and unfortunately, we know that will continue to be the case. We will always endeavour to ensure absolute transparency and communicate with colleagues and members as quickly and fully as possible, via appropriate channels, (as was the case for temporarily needing to move back to on premise with outlook). The ideal would of course be to have foresight of all the ‘snagging’ issues we will encounter but the reality is that is unlikely to be the case (as we discovered with members being unable to access emails via personal devices) but what we will always do is act on the issues encountered to identify a resolution as quickly as reasonably practicable. The (new) BDC ICT team are working exceptionally hard, at pace, and we ask for your continued patience and support on this journey to have our own in-house ICT environment,”

Cllr. Paul Hartshorn asked the following supplementary question: Can the Council publish updates to notify residents when we are experiencing IT difficulties so they are aware that response times may be longer than usual?

Cllr. Ben Taylor – Planning, IT & Transformation Portfolio Holder responded that he will contact the Communications Team to discuss options available to keep residents informed.

Cllr. Paul Hartshorn to raise the following question to Cllr. Terry Richardson – Leader of the Council:

"What steps are the Executive taking to ensure it is delivering Best Value for residents based on the new May 24 framework. How is Best Value measured and reported at Blaby District Council?"

Cllr. Paul Hartshorn raised the following question,- to Cllr. Terry Richardson  – Leader of the Council:

"What steps are the Executive taking to ensure it is delivering Best Value for residents based on the new May 24 framework. How is Best Value measured and reported at Blaby District Council?"

Cllr. Terry Richardson – Leader of the Council responded:

“Can I thank Cllr Hartshorn for the question as it gives me the opportunity to explain to Members and the public all of the fantastic work that we do to ensure Best Value.

The statutory guidance on Best Value was issued by the Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities in May 2024 and we take great care to ensure we follow the good practice within that guidance. 

Best Value requires authorities to “make arrangements to secure continuous improvements in the way in which its functions are exercised, having regards to a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness”.  In practice this covers how authorities set a balanced budget, provide its statutory services and how it secures value for money on all spending decisions.  

The statutory guidance provides greater clarity to the local government sector in England on how to fulfil the Best Value Duty by describing what constitutes best value, the standards expected and the models of intervention at the Secretary of State’s disposal in the event of failure to uphold these standards. 

The Best Value Guidance sets out 7 overlapping themes of good practice which if followed should show that an authority is meeting and delivering its obligations.  

·         Continuous Improvement  

·         Leadership  

·         Governance  

·         Culture  

·         Use of Resources  

·         Service Delivery  

·         Partnership and Community Engagement  

Below each of these themes are examples of good and bad behaviours which local authorities can assess themselves against. 

We continuously assess ourselves against this tool, to identify any gaps in governance we need to address.  As I am sure Members are aware, the LGA has also published a new improvement and assurance framework, designed to help councils check that they have the right controls in place and identify where they need to become more effective. 

The framework promotes transparency and being open to external challenge such as a corporate peer challenge, and having political and managerial leadership which visibly prioritises ‘doing the right thing’. At Blaby District Council we invited a Corporate Peer Challenge in 2023, took action to address the issues raised and welcomed a subsequent six-month review which considered our progress.

Examples of our additional assurance activities include: 

·         An annual review of the effectiveness of the council’s controls and governance in the production of the Annual Governance Statement.

·         Regularly reviewing performance, finance and risk information, through the Senior Leadership Team, Council, Cabinet Executive, Audit and Corporate Governance Committee and the Scrutiny Commission.

·         Ensuring that both members and officers have the skills they need for their roles by offering comprehensive training programmes utilising internal and external resources

·         Focused and constructive challenge by Scrutiny Commission and the Working Groups of decisions and policy development 

·         Oversight and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 237.

To consider the report of the HR Services Manager (enclosed).

Considered – Report of the HR Service Manager, presented by Cllr. Maggie Wright - Finance, People & Performance (Deputy Leader) Portfolio Holder.

To consider the report of the Executive Director (Section 151 Officer) (enclosed).

Considered – Report of the Executive Director (Section 151 Officer), presented by Cllr. Maggie Wright - Finance, People & Performance (Deputy Leader) Portfolio Holder.

To consider the report of the Development Strategy Manager (enclosed).

Considered – Report of the Development Strategy Manager, presented by Cllr. Ben Taylor - Planning, Transformation and ICT Portfolio Holder.

To consider the report of the Housing Strategy Team Leader (enclosed).

Considered – Report of the Housing Strategy Team Leader, presented by Cllr. Les Phillimore- Planning, Housing, Community Safety and Environmental Services Portfolio Holder.

To consider the report of the Accountancy Services Manager (enclosed).

Considered – Report of the Accountancy Services Manager, presented by Cllr. Maggie Wright- Finance, People & Performance Portfolio Holder.

To consider the report of the Finance Group Manager (enclosed).

Considered – Report of the Finance Group Manager, presented by Cllr. Maggie Wright- Finance, People & Performance Portfolio Holder.

To consider the report of the Finance Group Manager (enclosed).

Considered – Report of the Finance Group Manager, presented by Cllr. Maggie Wright- Finance, People & Performance Portfolio Holder.

To consider the report of the Finance Group Manager (enclosed).

Considered – Report of the Finance Group Manager, presented by Cllr. Maggie Wright- Finance, People & Performance Portfolio Holder.

Cllr. Luke Cousin proposed an amendment to recommendation 2.2 of the report, seconded by Cllr. Antony Moseley, as follows:

The District Council Band D Council Tax is set at £191.57, reflecting an increase of 1.29% (£2.44), all other bands being determined in accordance with the relevant Sections of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, as amended, and subsequent adjustments to Agenda item 19 as required.

In accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, the vote was recorded as follows:

The Chairman declared that the amendment had been lost.

Members then returned to vote on the recommendations as published in the

original report.

In accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, the vote was recorded as follows:

To consider the report of the Executive Director (Section 151 Officer) (enclosed).

Cllr. Dillan Shikotra left the meeting during the consideration of this item and did not return.

Considered – Report of the Executive Director (Section 151 Officer), presented by Cllr. Maggie Wright- Finance, People & Performance Portfolio Holder.

Cllr. Luke Cousin moved that the following additional recommendation be added to the report, which was seconded by Cllr. Antony Moseley:

£111,639 be allocated from the general fund to a new, earmarked, reserve for the purchase of additional housing to help reduce homelessness in the District.

Reason:

Earmarking funds to demonstrate this council’s agreement to continue investing in new properties to address homelessness in our district, with the aim to achieve this as future opportunities become available.

In accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, the vote was recorded as follows:

The Chairman declared that the amendment had been lost.

Members then returned to vote on the recommendations as published in the

original report.

In accordance with the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014, the vote was recorded as follows: