Agenda and minutes

The General Counsel reported apologies from Mr Hook, Mr Rayner, Mr Manion, Mr Booth, Mr Horwood, Mrs Dean and Mr Monk.

(1)          Dr Sullivan declared an interest, as her husband was employed by the County Council in the Early Help and Prevention Team.

(2)           Mr Lewis declared an interest as his wife was employed by the County Council.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 2019 be approved as a correct record.

Birthday Honours List

(1)           The Chairman referred Members to the list of honours recipients from Kent following the recent announcement in The Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

(2)           The Chairman informed Members that Viscount De L’Isle, the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, had become a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for services to The Sovereign, Mr Clive Emson, a former Kent Invicta Award recipient and Kent Ambassador, had received an MBE for services to vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in Kent, and Ms Jo James, Chief Executive of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce and Kent Ambassador, had received an OBE for Services to the economy in Kent.

(3)           The Chairman, on behalf of the County Council, offered sincere congratulations to all of those Honours recipients.

 Newly Appointed Deputy Lieutenants of Kent

(4)           The Chairman referred Members to the list of newly appointed Deputy Lieutenants of Kent, published on 20 June 2019. Each of the seven new Deputy Lieutenants had been appointed for their positive contributions to the County and the Nation.

(5)           The Chairman formally congratulated all those appointed, but in particular, Miss Jo Holmes, Head of the Civic Office and Deputy Clerk to the Lieutenancy at Kent County Council.

The Queen’s Awards for Voluntary Service

(6)           The Chairman drew Members attention to the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service which was the highest award given to volunteer groups across the UK. Any group of two or more people doing volunteering work could be nominated for the award, but the group should have been running for three years or more, with the majority of the group being volunteers. She encouraged Member’s to look for nominees from their community and stated that further information would be e-mailed to Members and confirmed that the deadline for nominations was 13 September 2019. Further information was available from the Civic office.

 Local Government Honours

(7)           The Chairman announced that The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government had invited Kent County Council’s Members to make recommendations for the Birthday 2020 Honours. She stated that further information would be e-mailed to Members and that completed forms should be returned to the Civic office by 16 August 2019.

 Highway Tree Planting and Member Grants

(8)           The Chairman announced that at 1:00pm, the Soft Landscape Team from Highways, Transportation & Waste would be holding a tree-planting event outside County Hall. The event celebrated the continued support of Kent resident, Sophie Scott, who had provided Highways, schools and other organisations with funding to plant urban and highway trees for over 20 years. At the event, Mr Payne, Deputy Cabinet Member for Planning, Highways, Transport and Waste, would be planting a ceremonial tree and Ms Scott would be presented with a second tree, which would be planted at a site of her choice in Canterbury.

(9)           The Chairman stated that the Soft Landscape Team would be on hand during the lunch break to answer queries from Members about the best time to allocate their Member Grant funding to obtain the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 149.

In accordance with Procedure Rule 1.17(4), 11 questions were asked and replies given.  A record of all questions put and answers given at the meeting are available online with the papers for this meeting.

(1)          The Leader updated the Council on events since the previous meeting.

(2)             Mr Carter, the Leader of the Council,  referred to the recent announcement by the Government of £4m toward the construction of a new medical school campus in Canterbury, with a further £4m in the following autumn subject to the anticipated cancellation or delays of current South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) projects. Mr Carter confirmed that the Canterbury medical school, which was a joint venture between the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University, would take its first cohort of 100 medical students from September 2020.

(3)           Mr Carter referred to the apprenticeship nursing programme that was offered by the Kent Community Health Foundation Trust and confirmed that Kent would gain an additional 50 qualified nurses each year through the programmes.

(4)           Mr Carter outlined the proposed changes to the governance arrangements in relation to LEPs and the consequences of these changes for the future of Kent and Medway’s membership of the South East LEP which would be affected by the scheduled changes.

(5)           Mr Carter presented a series of slides which contained extracts from an open letter to the two candidates for the Leadership of the Conservative Party, which he had written on behalf of the Conservative Group of Leaders, as Members of the County Council Network. The letter set out significant social and funding issues facing local government. The responses from Mr Hunt and Mr Johnson were displayed.

(6)           Mr Carter had expressed the view in a recent interview for Radio 4 that any new Ministers would have a lot of work to do not only in relation to Brexit, but also regarding the Fair Funding Review and various social issues affecting local government.

(7)          Mr Bird, the Leader of the Opposition, welcomed the recent announcement by the Government of £4m to be invested into the new medical school in Kent and the positive impact that the new medical school would have on Kent’s residents.

(8)           Mr Bird outlined the advantages and disadvantages of LEPs, the future of LEPs and the importance of ensuring that the Kent and Medway Economic Partnership continued to drive forward economic growth, whilst considering the ever-increasing population in Kent and Medway.

(9)           Mr Bird expressed his views in relation to the responses that had been provided by the Conservative Party Leadership candidates to Mr Carter’s open letter.

(10)        Mr Bird referred to the process for policy making within the Liberal Democrat Party and shared information with Members which related to the Party’s plans for the devolution of tax powers to local authorities, focusing more closely on primary care, social care and specialised care services and tackling inequalities within the education system through funding.

(11)       Mr Farrell, Leader of the Labour Group, referred to the Conservative Party Leadership election and the need for significant investment in public services for this period of austerity. Mr Farrell highlighted the important role of Councillors across the country in addressing the challenges facing society  ...  view the full minutes text for item 151.

(1)         Mrs Prendergast moved and Mr Gough seconded the following motion:

“County Council is asked to note the annual report and thanks the Members of the Youth Council for their work and their contribution to the debate.”

(2)           The Chairman welcomed three Members of Kent Youth County Council, Eleanor Burnaby-Rouse, Alice McDonald and Alex McGovern to the meeting and invited them to give a presentation on their annual report and to answer questions from Members.

(3)        Following the debate, the motion was agreed without a formal vote.

(4)         RESOLVED that the annual report be noted and, the Members of the Youth Council be thanked for their work and contribution to the debate on this item.

(1)  Mr Whiting moved and Mr Holden seconded the following motion:

   “County Council is asked to agree adoption of Kent’s Plan Bee – the Kent County Council Pollinator Action Plan.”

(2)        Following the debate, the motion was agreed without a formal vote.

(3)        RESOLVED that the Kent’s Plan Bee – the Kent County Council Pollinator Action Plan, be adopted.

(1)  Miss Carey moved and Mr Kite seconded the following motion:

   “County Council is asked to note the End of Year Performance Report 2018/19.”

(2)        Following the debate, the motion was agreed without a formal vote.

(3)        RESOLVED that the End of Year Performance Report 2018/19 be noted.

Removal of peak time restrictions to the Disabled Person's Bus Pass

Proposer: Ian Chittenden

Seconder: Ida Linfield

Background information

At present, holders of the Disabled Person’s Bus Pass in Kent are restricted to being able to travel between 9:30am and 11:00pm on weekdays (off-peak). However, in Wales, Scotland and some parts of England, such restrictions do not apply. Research by the charity Scope shows that those living with a disability face additional costs of £583 per month on average, and that disabled people are more than twice as likely to be unemployed.1 By removing the current peak time restrictions within Kent, it would make it more affordable for people with disabilities to travel for work or medical appointments, while promoting use of public transport.

Motion

“The council commits to including an amendment to the terms and conditions of the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) for Kent due to be published in November 2019, which will remove the peak time restrictions applicable to both the Disabled Person's Bus Pass and Disabled Person + Companion Pass, effective from April 2020.”

Footnote:    Disability Price Tag policy report 2019: https://www.scope.org.uk/campaigns/extra-costs/disability-price-tag/

Disabled Person’s Bus Pass in Kent

(1)      Mr Chittenden moved the following motion:

“The council commits to including an amendment to the terms and conditions of the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) for Kent due to be published in November 2019, which will remove the peak time restrictions applicable to both the Disabled Person's Bus Pass and Disabled Person + Companion Pass, effective from April 2020.”

(2)                        Ms Head (Head of Finance - Operations), on behalf of Mr Shipton (Acting Section 151 Officer), advised that although the motion for time limited debate had been submitted and accepted in accordance with section 1.21(1), Appendix 4 Part 1 of Kent County Council’s Constitution, the motion failed the Section 151 test because there was no funding associated with the request.

(3)         Based on the Section 151 Officer’s advice, the Chairman decided not to consider the motion at this meeting.

(Miss Carey declared an interest as her mother inlLaw had a disabled person’s bus pass, Mr Collor declared an interest as his sister had a disabled person’s bus pass and Mr Gibbens declared an interest as he had a disabled nephew who lived outside of Kent)

Minutes of the meeting held on 27 March 2019.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Corporate Parenting Panel on 27^th March 2019 be noted.