Verbal updates by Cabinet Members and Corporate Director
Minutes:
1. Mr Hill (Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Affairs said the coroner for North West Kent had been investigating a death following a police shooting since 2016 and that there was a statutory obligation for such cases to be heard with a jury. Since the lockdown in March 2020 all inquest hearings had been held virtually, however, this method was not acceptable for this case. The coroner’s service had, therefore, worked closely with KCC’s infrastructure service to develop a Covid-safe way to accommodate a jury, the presiding coroner, the coroner’s counsel, and witnesses in a court setting using County Hall and a bespoke IT package. In addition, jurors were provided with iPads to enable them to access documents using a court document software package. Mr Hill said this was the first time this software had been used in a coroner’s court, the first complex jury inquest in England and Wales delivered with significant video conferencing functionality, and during Covid-19 restrictions. He was pleased to say that a number of compliments from the Police and the judiciary had been received on the successful staging of this complex event despite the many complications presented by Covid-19.
2. Mr Whiting said he had been working closely with Locate in Kent to ensure Kent was not left out of the government's levelling up agenda which was focussed on the Midlands and the North. He said it was important that ministers recognised that Kent had areas of high deprivation, which should be reflected in any plans to relocate government departments from London to other parts of the country.
3. Mr Whiting said the London Resort had submitted its application for a Direct Consent Order to government. He said that, while KCC was generally supportive of the project, which had the potential for to bring significant economic benefit to Kent, there were areas of concern including transport and environmental matters. Officers were, however, working through these issues with the development company and the three planning authorities in the area.
4. Mr Whiting referred to the Scrutiny Committee's timely short, focussed inquiry into the local farming economy and said it would help inform new strategies to assist farmers, who played a vital role in Kent’s economy and who had been negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and extreme weather in the last twelve months.
5. Mr Whiting said that KCC’s first Infrastructure Funding Statement was now live on kent.gov.uk and that it provided a summary of all financial and non-financial developer contributions, as well as information on Section 106, legal agreements under the Community Infrastructure Levy and examples of infrastructure projects delivered and planned.
6. Mr Whiting said that the Innovative Sector Exchange Project, a four-year project to bring together innovative technology and creative SMEs across Kent and regions in France, the Netherlandsand Belgium had come to an end last month. Over 300 SMEs had taken part in a range of seminars, advice sessions and company visits, with the project assisting those SMEs in the ... view the full minutes text for item 266