Cabinet Member decisions

Background:

KCC is delivering the construction of the new Barton Court Free School on the former Chaucer School site in Canterbury. The DfE has appointed KCC to act as the Local Delivery Agent (Responsible Body), with Gen2 acting as KCC’s Agent. As the Responsible Body, KCC will be the contracting authority for the purpose of delivering the scheme. The new school will be located on part of the former Chaucer School site, with the remainder allocated to the land disposal programme.

A paper was presented to June 2019 ICB outlining the outcome of the procurement process to secure a building contractor and contracts are ready to be finalised.

As Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services, I endorse the decision to award an initial building contract to Kier Construction Limited for the Phase 2 enabling works at the Barton Court Free School site and delegate authority to the Director of Infrastructure, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services, to finalise the contractual terms and enter into any necessary documentation. 

Investment - The decision will result in expenditure which is significant having regard to the budget for the service or function (currently defined by the Council as in excess of £1,000,000) as set out in the accompanying exempt report.

Decision:

As Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services, I agree to authorise the acquisition of two assets as an investment and delegate authority to the Director of Infrastructure, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services, the Corporate Director for Finance (S151) and the Head of Paid Service, to finalise terms and enter into the necessary documentation to complete the property transactions.

Decision:

As Leader of Kent County Council, I agree to:

·         Kent County Council remaining a partner in and member of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) after it becomes a company limited by guarantee in 2020.

·         Confirm that the Leader of the Council will be the KCC nomination for appointment as a Director of SELEP Ltd, as per the proposed SELEP Board Membership arrangements.

·         Confirm that the Leader of Kent County Council will be the formal voting representative of KCC at SELEP Strategic Board meetings of SELEP Ltd and at the SELEP Accountability Board, the latter to be governed by the updated Joint Committee Agreement; and

·         Delegate authority to Kent County Council’s Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Leader and the Corporate Director for Growth, Environment and Transport, to enter into relevant contracts, legal agreements and put appropriate arrangements in place required to implement this decision, including but not limited to, signing an updated Joint Committee Agreement governing the SELEP Accountability Board.

Background:

Kent County Council has been a member of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) since its inception in 2011, and the Leader of Kent County Council has been one of the twenty-eight SELEP Strategic Board Members.

The role of SELEP is to drive forward economic growth through strategy development, allocating funding, acting as an advocate for the area, and bringing together a range of stakeholders to co-ordinate action.

In July 2018, the Government published ‘Strengthened Local Enterprise Partnerships’, and in January 2019, published a new National Assurance Framework. These documents stipulate that all LEPs must become a Company Limited by Guarantee within a fixed deadline, and the Company must have no more than 20 Directors and 5 Co-opts. Failure to comply may result in the Government withholding funding to the LEPs (including Local Growth Funding).

To comply with Central Government’s rules, the SELEP Strategic Board has voted to become a Company Limited by Guarantee before 1 April 2020. It has agreed that Kent County Council will be invited to select a representative to become a SELEP Company Director; SELEP has stated the representative must be either the Leader of Kent County Council or a Cabinet Member.

More details are contained in the County Council report dated 12 September 2019: https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/documents/s92048/Item%208%20-%20SELEP.pdf

The options are as follows:

·         Agree to continue to participate in the South East Local Enterprise Partnership after it becomes a company limited by guarantee. SELEP invites Kent County Council to select a SELEP Company Director from its Cabinet. The chosen KCC Director on SELEP will be asked to formally agree the SELEP Ltd Articles of Association and its Framework Agreement (that are currently being drafted by SELEP’s Accountable Body (i.e. Essex County Council)). Agreed participation also necessitates that Kent County Council sign a refreshed Joint Committee Agreement, which gives legitimacy to the SELEP Accountability Board (the current Joint Committee Agreement was signed in 2015 by SELEP).

·         Decide to withdraw from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership. If Kent County Council withdraws from SELEP, it significantly limits Kent County Council’s ability to prioritise its strategic aims within regional and national agendas. It removes its ability to influence the Local Industrial Strategy, and other regional strategic economic plans. It also places at risk the funding which is granted to Kent capital projects through SELEP (this includes the Local Growth Funding and Growing Places Funding). This funding is presently expected to be in excess of £150m between 2015 and 2021.

As Leader of Kent County Council, I agree to:

·         Kent County Council remaining a partner in and member of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) after it becomes a company limited by guarantee in 2020.

·         Confirm that the Leader of the Council will be the KCC nomination for appointment as a Director of SELEP Ltd, as per the proposed SELEP Board Membership arrangements.

·         Confirm that the Leader of Kent County Council will be the formal voting representative of KCC at SELEP Strategic Board meetings of SELEP Ltd and at the SELEP Accountability Board, the latter to be governed by the updated Joint Committee Agreement; and

·         Delegate authority to Kent County Council’s Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Leader and the Corporate Director for Growth, Environment and Transport, to enter into relevant contracts, legal agreements and put appropriate arrangements in place required to implement this decision, including but not limited to, signing an updated Joint Committee Agreement governing the SELEP Accountability Board.

Background:

As Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) for Kent, KCC has a duty to publish reports of investigations into flood events in Kent under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. LLFAs are given freedom to determine the criteria that triggers a report of an investigation to be published. A policy for reporting on flood investigations was set out in the first Kent Local Flood Risk Management Strategy that was adopted by the County Council in 2012. The Kent Local Flood Risk Management Strategy was refreshed in 2018. The new Strategy did not include policies regarding how KCC would exercise its duties as LLFA, as it focussed on the broad strategic issues of local flood risk management. The Section 19 policy needs revising.

Previously the policy proposed that KCC published a report of an investigation of a flood event once one property was flooded internally; it is proposed that this is raised to five properties flooded internally, along with significant disruption to infrastructure and any other incidents KCC considers merit a report.

A report of an investigation under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 is merely a statement of the facts of the flooding, i.e. where the flooding occurred, when it occurred, the conditions that caused the flooding, what was affected/damaged in the flood etc. An investigation does not include analysis of the event, any mitigation options or identify how flood risk might be reduced in future.

Options:

•           Stay with present policy – the policy remains as it was in the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy 2012, which sets the threshold for triggering a report of an investigation at one property. Reports of flooding that involve only a few properties are not usually useful, compiling and publishing reports of flood investigations take a long time, which delays providing a comprehensive narrative of the event to the affected residents as we need to consult with partners on the report before it is published. Small floods are rarely complex and a public report is rarely in the public interest. In this scenario KCC would continue to compile these reports for these floods.

•           Change threshold – the policy could be set at a higher threshold for triggering the publication of a report of a flood investigation, this would mean reports of flood investigations are focussed on flood events where there is a greater public interest in the causes of the flooding. KCC would continue to investigate floods that do not reach this threshold, but we would not be bound to publish a report, unless we considered that there was a public interest in a public report of the event. This would improve the service to residents, as small floods can be explained relatively quickly to residents and we can move on to looking at options to reduce the risk, whilst we focus report writing resources on floods which have a greater public interest.

As Cabinet Member for Environment, I agree to adopt the Section 19 Reporting Policy.

Background:

As a Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA), Kent County Council has been acting as a statutory consultee for surface water within the planning process since April 2015. KCC is required to provide technical advice and guidance on planning applications in relation to surface water drainage strategies, designs and maintenance arrangements put forward by developers via the Local Planning Authority for major developments. The Drainage and Planning Policy Statement sets out the drainage requirements that KCC will require when reviewing surface water management provisions, which will seek to deliver the requirements of the Non-Statutory Technical Standards and National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). With recent changes in the NPPF and publication of DEFRA’s 25-Year Environment Plan, the Drainage and Planning Policy Statement has been revised to be consistent with them. 

Options:

·         Stay with present policy – these powers remain as they were and do not reflect recent changes in planning policy or lessons learned from performing this function. 

·         Revise Policy to be consistent with NPFF and DEFRA’s 25-Year Enforcement Plan

As Cabinet Member for Environment, I agree to adopt the Drainage and Planning Policy.

Background:

Kent County Council as the Lead Local Flood Authority has powers as a Land Drainage Authority, under the Land Drainage Act 1991, to regulate ordinary watercourses in Kent. An ordinary watercourse is a watercourse that is not a main river; it may be a small river, stream, ditch or drain and does not always need to flow.

As a land drainage authority KCC has powers to provide consent for any works within an ordinary watercourse. In exercising this role, we must ensure that the works do not increase the risk of flooding. We are also obliged to ensure that there is no loss of habitat or pollution to the watercourse. At present there is no policy statement on how KCC exercises these powers, which would provide clarity on the use of the powers.

Options:

·         Stay with present policy – these powers remain without a policy, which means that there is no clear statement of how we exercise them and no robust policy to refer to.

·         Develop and adopt a policy to provide clarity on how KCC will exercise its powers to regulate ordinary water courses

As Cabinet Member for Environment, I agree to adopt the Land Drainage Policy.