Minutes:
Mr James Pearson (Head of Libraries, Registrations and Archives) was in attendance for this item.
1. Mrs Bell, Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services, provided an update on the following:
(a) Feedback from the recent Folkestone Library consultation was being analysed and would inform the future decision.
(b) The Libraries, Registration and Archives (LRA) service had retained Customer Service Excellence standard. The Assessor was impressed by the enthusiasm displayed by staff, their local knowledge of communities and customers, the creativity and innovation that took place, and how the services and staff were open to change.
(c) Kent Libraries had once again signed up to the Warm Welcome Campaign which highlighted all Kent libraries as safe and welcoming places people could visit. This was featured on a recent ITV Meridian news item where staff at Margate Library were interviewed promoting warm welcoming library spaces.
(d) Black History Month in October was commemorated in libraries and throughout 2024 there had been a touring exhibition called ‘Beyond the Bassline’ 500 Years of Black British music, on loan from the British Library.
(e) Community Wardens had been allocated communities following changes to the service and engagement was taking place with parish and local councils regarding the option for them to fund a Warden in their area.
(f) Mrs Bell joined the Chair of National Trading Standards, Lord Bichard, at a visit with the Council’s Trading Standards Ports Team to find out about their work protecting the border. The visit focussed on preventing illegal vapes entering the country but covered the whole remit of the team at the border. A visit to the Port of Dover was included where some of the challenges facing the team were demonstrated. Lord Bichard asked for the challenges that could be addressed centrally to be shared with him in writing so that he could discuss them with Government.
(g) Trading Standards led and coordinated a multi-agency operation targeting illicit trade in tobacco products and vapes. Agencies included Kent Police, HMRC and local authorities.
(h) Mrs Bell attended the launch of the first Local Vape Action Project in Tunbridge Wells which was led by British Vape Trade Association and the project aimed at ensuring only legal safe products were sold and that sales to children did not occur.
(i) The main focus of the Resilience and Emergency Planning service continued to be the Entry/Exit System border checks and work continued internally and across the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum to ensure the Council was prepared. The Business Continuity Management System progressed and the Adult Social Care and Health directorate were trialling the system.
(j) Mrs Bell recently met representatives from the British Horse Society at Squirrels Riding School in Bluebell Hill, along with the local member, Chairman of the Council, and the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, and heard about the challenges faced by equestrians using public rights of way and safety issues on the roads.
2. Further to questions and comments from Members, it was noted that:
• The Trading Standards Team was at the heart of the government consultation on vapes to ensure the right support could be provided to businesses. The market was starting to change ahead of the ban and the use of reuseable vapes was increasing.
3. Mr Murphy, Cabinet Member for Economic Development, provided an update on the following:
(a) The lead officer for No Use Empty (NUE), Steve Grimshaw, delivered a presentation to Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) officers following a recent letter from Mr Murphy to the Housing Minister, Mr Matthew Pennycook MP.
(b) The NUE scheme had returned approximately 8500 empty properties in Kent back into use since April 2005. So far for the financial year 2024/2025 22 loans had been approved with a value of £2.3million. The outstanding bad debt of the NUE scheme since 2005 was only £140,000.
(c) The NUE team recently participated in a day’s filming about the successful empty properties scheme for a feature on the BBC’s ‘The One Show’.
(d) The NUE New Build Scheme had funded 243 new homes across eight Kent districts and a further eight applications were currently being progressed. Work was ongoing with the Kent and Medway Business Fund with a view to accessing more funding to promote commercial schemes.
(e) Since the Kent & Medway Business Fund was relaunched earlier in the year, 15 applications had been approved for loans to the value of £1.2million for small business development.
(f) Mr Murphy attended, in September 2024, the opening of the Taittinger Vineyard in Chilham, Kent which was the first venture of any French vineyard outside of France. The vineyard comprises 150 hectares and had been a 10-15 year project. A growth in vineyards was now being seen in Kent which was the largest growing vineyard area in England.
4. Mr Jones, Corporate Director Growth, Environment and Transport, provided an update on the following operational matters:
(a) The Registration teams were experiencing an increase in service demand through winter and customer service officers were allowing as many extra appointments as possible during this challenging period.
(b) The workload for continuing domestic abuse related death reviews remained high with 22 reviews currently being undertaken. Two sessions of a lessons learnt webinar were held in October in partnership with the Kent and Medway Safeguarding and Adults Board.
(c) Ashford Gateway hosted a team from Arts Council England to observe a ‘Playground’ session and the Arts Council England fed back that they viewed ‘Playground’ as a national example of good practice.
(d) Mr Jones thanked the 900 volunteers who added value to the Libraries, Registration and Archive service in delivering, for example, the home library service, maintaining reading gardens, research, supporting local history collections, and making a positive difference to communities. A promotional push of the Home Library Service would take place in the new year to highlight how people could get involved and encourage more volunteers to join the team.
(e) Mr Jones thanked the Economic Development team for their newsletter.
5. RESOLVED to note the verbal updates.