Minutes:
(1) The Leader began his report by stating that he would reserve his comments on the Transformation agenda for items later on in the meeting but that he felt it was enormously significant to articulate the progress that had already been made on Facing the Challenge.
(2) He announced that Florence Kroll had been appointed as the new Director of Early Help and Preventative Services. Florence came from the London Borough of Hackney where she had a formidable track record as the Assistant Director of Young Hackney.
(3) He also stated that good progress was being made on the unmet costs of asylum in the county, with James Brokenshire, the new Home Office Minister for Immigration, taking a keen and thorough interest in finding a solution to the problem.
(4) Mr Carter made reference to the recent 2020 Business Expo Conference at Detling and offered his congratulations to the County Showground on the opening of their new exhibition centre, which he believed would be of enormous benefit to the county in the future. He stated that he had spoken at the opening of the Expo about the continued trend of the fast improving economy in the county and had quoted several statistics showing performance above the national average.
(5) The Leader stated that whilst he was talking about the economic future of the county, it would be wrong not to mention what a sad day it was for East Kent with the closure of Manston Airport at 5pm. Kent County Council had done all that it could over many years, indeed decades, to help and support Manston Airport thrive and he knew everyone was greatly saddened by the closure of the airport. To the best of his knowledge and KCC’s Economic Development Officers, there had been no credible or viable proposition put to Kent County Council or via the current owners of the airport.
(6) He added that he had made it quite clear to Ann Gloag’s organisation and others that KCC had always stood ready to help and support any company that may be interested with a viable proposition to help and support through application of the Regional Growth Fund. There was now a need to get behind Ann Gloag’s business to find alternative propositions for reopening the airport and other commercial uses to make sure that what had been done so successfully at Discovery Park in Sandwich in rescuing businesses from closure could be applied to Manston.
(7) Mr Carter stated that an announcement from government was eagerly awaited on its recently submitted Kent & Medway Growth Strategy as part of the South East LEP Strategy and the Leader hoped that there would be a generous settlement as part of the single pot allocation.
(8) Finally the Leader stated that there were still concerns on the ongoing negotiations with the Department for Education on the Council’s basic need allocation, which he had mentioned in previous Leader’s reports, in trying to better understand the £30m deficit on basic need allocation in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Negotiations were ongoing as to why Kent, and Oxfordshire, was not receiving a settlement comparable with all other counties across the country.
(9) Mr Latchford thanked the Leader for his report and touched briefly on the issue of Troubled Families, which the Leader had not spoken about, noting that 2,153 families were actively being worked with, of which 153 had been successfully helped.
(10) In relation to the LEP and noting that funds would be available from the EU, he stated that his party’s concern was that this was only the country’s own funding being given back with strings attached. He hoped that one of the main focuses for use of this money would be to ensure broadband connectivity was enhanced in all the county’s rural areas as this was essential for rural enterprise.
(11) Mr Latchford stated that while the Peer Review had been very successful for KCC, Thanet District Council (TDC) had had a very bad review, being branded as ‘toxic’ and amongst the worst in the UK. TDC were meeting later that day to elect a new leader and the new ruling group would, he believed, be earnestly in need of help. He asked the Leader if he would consider what he could do should they need any assistance.
(12) Mr Latchford noted the appointment of the new Director of Early Help and Preventative Service and wished Ms Kroll every success.
(13) With regard to Manston, Mr Latchford agreed wholeheartedly with Mr Carter that it was a disaster for Thanet. Although there was an increase in employment figures in the county, the closure of the airport would mean a decrease of 150 employees at Manston and 600 jobs in ancillary supporting companies who had serviced the airport. The gossip around some quarters was of the possible development of the site for housing instead of an operational airport and Mr Latchford hoped that this would not be the case. The local MP had worked hard in support of the airport and the matter had been included at Prime Minister’s Question Time. As a group, UKIP were very strongly in support of Manston, it had been in their manifesto and they stood by this and were very keen for its survival.
(14) Mr Latchford stated that it was good news to hear that some of the costs of asylum were being met, that the problem had now been acknowledged and that help looked like it would be forthcoming.
(15) Mr Cowan began his response to the Leader’s speech by stating that it was indeed great news that unemployment figures had fallen to a record five year low and it was always very welcome to receive such figures going forward. He sounded a note of caution with regard to employment figures and the danger of these being heavily oversubscribed with part time and zero hour contracts and stated that was important that any employment was in jobs that were real and for the foreseeable future.
(16) Turning to the unmet costs of asylum, Mr Cowan stated that he hoped that there was indeed a solution.
(17) Mr Cowan spoke of the announcement Mr Carter had made on the closure of the Pfizer Pharmaceutical site at Sandwich with the loss of some 4,000 jobs. The Leader, along with those in central government and other interested parties, had immediately formed a task force with the hope of securing the site for the future which had, to date, been incredibly successful with a number of new businesses on site. Although a task force had indeed been set up to secure the best outcome for Manston, Mr Cowan had been surprised that the Leader had not reacted the same way as he had about Pfizer, especially given that in the Council’s Bold Steps for Aviation document there was the statement “In Kent Manston Airport has the potential to make a significant contribution providing excellent connections to European destinations with reduced flight times. Manston has one of the longest runways in Europe, 2,752 metres and is therefore it is able to cater for all modern aircraft”. The report then went on to state that the development of Manston as a regional airport would create employment opportunities in one of England’s most disadvantaged areas and could create some 6,000 additional direct or indirect jobs within the area. Taking forward the proposed Thanet Parkway Rail Station was also part of the report which would complement the airport and increase passenger numbers.
(18) Mr Cowan drew his response to a close by asking the Leader what his commitment was to Manston, what effects this would have on the proposed Thanet Parkway proposals and how important were the closure of the airport and the Parkway proposals for the regeneration of East Kent.
(19) Mrs Dean began her response by congratulating the Chairman on his appointment stating it was great to see a fellow Tonbridge and Malling Member in the chair.
(20) Mrs Dean also welcomed the appointment of the Director of Early Help and Preventative Services and she stressed that is was absolutely crucial that preventative services was one of the themes that was discussed later on in the agenda in the Select Committee: Commissioning item. The Director needed to be given full access to the preparation of the Council’s Commissioning Plans to enable her to ensure that preventative services were a theme that ran throughout them. She stated that it was unfortunate that in the past few days the government had announced the money for children’s health commissioning for 0-5 year olds, including the appointment of health visitors, would not transfer to local authorities until October 2015. This was much later than had been expected and was apparently the result of government not being convinced that local authorities can use their powers sufficiently quickly to involve themselves in the preventative agenda. Mrs Dean hoped that the Leader would put pressure on government to expedite the transfer because if they had no influence in the appointment of health visitors the Council’s early preventative work would be severely weakened.
(21) Mrs Dean stated that she was pleased to see the employment and business figures but hoped that she was wrong in thinking that the reduction in the Council’s contracts that was intended in social care work from over 100 firms to 23 firms would not unduly disadvantage small and medium size businesses in Kent. If this was a theme that was to be reflected on all the Council’s services as they went into commissioning it would mean working with a much diminished number of larger concerns and 99% of the businesses in the non-public sector of Kent would be bypassed. There had to be a way to ensure that small and medium enterprises continued to be able to do work for Kent.
(22) With regard to Manston Mrs Dean stated that she used to be the local Member for West Malling airfield and she clearly remembered similar debates being held when the County Council purchased West Malling and submitted an application from an airfield. The essence of the arguments that surrounded the future of West Malling airfield at that time was based solely on the need for the service.
(23) She stated that many people in Kent were perplexed by the amount of money that was seen to be going into Manston in terms of investment, which was clearly being invested in the North East of Kent. Local people still asked why the Council continued to invest money in a site which seemed not to be succeeding. There was a lot of tax payers’ money going into Manston and Mrs Dean felt that the Council needed to produce a very clear statement of where the need for Manston came from and what its future was intended to be before they continued to invest in the site.
(24) Mr Whybrow also congratulated the Chairman on his appointment.
(25) He very much welcomed the good news Mr Carter had shared regarding the employment and business figures and he hoped that new jobs being created in Kent were well paid and worthwhile and hopefully bringing people off the benefit system.
(26) From KCC’s perspective there were two things that could be looked at; a milestone Mr Carter hadn’t mentioned was that the Kent Support & Assistance Service (KSAS) had just come to the end of its first year. A local voluntary body had described KSAS to Mr Whybrow as ‘really disappointing’. KSAS was a KCC run service or safety net and had £2.8m to provide each year for people in need of assistance. In its first year it had only spent just over £1m but had had over 34,000 people come forward for assistance proving that there was obviously the demand. Mr Whybrow suggested that the bar had been set too high which meant that people were being turned away when they most needed help and assistance.
(27) Mr Whybrow stated that despite all the good things Mr Carter had no doubt seen at the Business 2020 Expo the Council needed to be aware that inequality was continuing to increase across the county. Something which had become a bit of a political football recently had been the Welfare Reform report, which Mr Whybrow stated had been commissioned for worthwhile reasons and he would be interested to know if there were any plans to revisit the issue and have the report refreshed.
(28) The Leader responded to the points raised by the opposition group leaders in their responses starting with Manston Airport. He stated that he had attended task group meetings, including one where he had missed a Cabinet meeting to do so which he said showed how important he thought the task group was. He was kept informed daily of progress on the situation and was in regular contact with KCC Economic Development Officers as well as both Thanet MPs, Roger Gale and Laura Sandys. He too had been disappointed that Manston had not been mentioned in the Davis Review. Bold Steps for Aviation had done all it could to promote Manston Airport with the potential to create significant job growth through the expanse thereof.
(29) He stated that no substantive money had been spent on Manston Airport. Prior to his leadership some help and support had been given to Flybe but Infratil during their ownership had very much dipped into their own pockets to sustain a substantial loss over many years. Ann Gloag’s team had also suffered losses running of the airport over the last six months.
(30) KCC had invested in Manston Industrial Park and the EuroKent site and the Leader was hopeful that as the country came out of recession and KCC went through the appeal process on planning there would be good news to announce on this in due course.
(31) In response to Mrs Dean’s comments on health visitors, the Leader stated that it was a retrograde step to delay this coming under the control and remit of local government. Health visitors needed to be a part of the integrated teams around GP surgeries and patients and the sooner it could be resolved how best to deploy and join together these community health and preventative services the better.
(32) He stated that of course KCC would continue to support Thanet District Council in any way that it could, they always had done under Labour control as well as Conservative control, one only had to look at the good track record of what had gone on in the partnership between KCC and TDC.
(33) Finally he apologised that he had not mentioned Troubled Families, as he had indicated to the opposition leaders that he would but he had replaced this, quite rightly he felt, with the topic of Manston Airport. Again however good progress was being made in supporting Troubled Families across the county of Kent. It had taken time to get the logistics sorted and the right people in place but now the work was gathering considerable momentum and the Leader hoped that the next published set of data would put the Council even further up the league tables.