Minutes:
Mr James Pearson (Head of Libraries, Registrations and Archives) was in attendance for this item.
2. Mrs Bell provided an update on the following:
(a) The temporary library service provision for Folkestone Library remained in place and a public consultation would be progressed on the future long-term location. Timescales for the public consultation were to be confirmed.
(b) The Home Library Service delivered books and other library items direct to people’s homes and a satisfaction survey was recently completed which achieved 99% customer satisfaction from 279 responses. A new Key Performance Indicator (KPI) relating to the Home Library Service had been created.
(c) Following the annual review for fees and charges the LRA service had started to introduce changes for 2024/25 which included necessary increases in response to the rise of inflation. Registration and archives fees and charges came into effect in early May 2024 with library fees and charges being introduced in June following a library system upgrade.
(d) The LRA service was preparing for the annual summer Reading Challenge called ‘Marvelous Makers’ which would engage young people in fun activity and reading over the summer holiday period.
(e) A multi-agency Kent Community Safety Partnership event on anti-social behaviour took place in March 2024 which Mrs Bell attended. The event included a number of excellent speakers and covered a range of anti-social behaviour topics.
(f) The coroner service delivered a record seven jury inquests during March 2024 and the investment in the new facilities at Oakwood House was having a positive impact on service delivery.
(g) Mrs Bell referred to the sad passing of Ms Debbie Large, Head of the Coroner Service. Mrs Bell said Ms Large’s commitment to the service over many years had been instrumental in its development. She was nationally recognised for her expertise and would be sorely missed by the Council.
(h) The Resilience and Emergency Planning Service was preparing for the impact of the Entry/Exit System border checks as well as leading preparations internally for KCC. The Team continued to assess the implementation of the new Business Continuity Management System which would allow an improved governance regime.
3. The Chair expressed, on behalf of the committee, his condolences to the families of Mr James Williams and Ms Debbie Large.
4. Mr Murphy, Cabinet Member for Economic Development, provided an update on the following:
(a) Mr Murphy congratulated Mr Jake Body, part of the No Use Empty (NUE) team, on his Level 3 Chartered Institute of Housing qualification, and welcomed Mr Tom Henderson to Economic Development who would be investigating energy issues facing the county.
(b) The Council would welcome a delegation from West Flanders (Belgium) on 11 June including the Governor of the Province of West Flanders and the Cabinet member for West Flanders Water, Rural, Fisheries, and Agriculture. The meeting would be hosted by the Leader and Mr Murphy and would commence with discussions concerning Kent West Flanders bilaterial Co-Operation especially economic, environmental & greater cooperation via the Straits Committee. Following this meeting the West Flanders delegation would visit the Water Efficient Technologies Centre at East Mailing.
(c) On 18 April 2024 Mr Murphy met with Cllr Catherine Mornindesally from Normandy Regional Council to discuss greater ties between Normandy and KCC with a focus on economic and environmental issues.
(d) Sittingbourne was going to be home to a net zero carbon logistics park thanks to a £150m vote of confidence by the site’s owners, Panattoni. As the largest logistics real estate developer in the UK and Europe, the company would create Panattoni Park Sittingbourne on a site near Kemsley, and offer a total of 644,000 sq ft, split between two units. When built and occupied, the 26-acre site will offer the prospect of 1,069 new jobs for Swale. Panattoni is targeting net zero carbon development with an expected BREEAM sustainability rating of ‘Excellent’ and an EPC rating of ‘A’. All units are to be developed with enhanced sustainability measures within the base specification, including the installation of roof-mounted photovoltaic panelling and electric vehicle charging points.
(e) BP pulse acquired Ashford International Truckstop, one of Europe’s largest truck stops, unveiling ambitious plans to help Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) electrify.
5. Mr Jones, Corporate Director Growth, Environment and Transport, provided an update on the following operational matters:
(a) Work on the Council’s Mineral and Waste Local Plan had recently been transferred to the Economic Development Portfolio. The Minerals and Waste Local Plan (KMWLP) sets out the County Council’s 15-year strategy and policy framework and following consideration by County Council, the emerging Plan was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for independent examination in May 2024.
(b) Work was ongoing to finalise the transfer of responsibilities from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP) to Kent County Council on behalf of Kent & Medway. Whilst transition agreements were being finalised the Economy Team was developing the implementation plan for the Kent & Medway Economic Framework.
(c) Following the relaunch in November 2023, the Kent & Medway Business Fund was now fully operational with a high level of applications being received.
(d) A workshop took place in April to kick off a new ‘health & economy’ workstream in partnership with the Kent & Medway Integrated Care System and linking into the Kent & Medway Economic Framework.
(e) KCC recently received confirmation from the Department for Business & Trade that the Kent & Medway Growth Hub would be funded for 2024/2025. Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce was contracted to run the service which acted as a single point of contact to business support services available to help the county’s companies.
(f) Work had started to transform and refurbish the Dover Discovery Centre. The works would take around a year and would enable KCC services and Dover District Museum to be better delivered from the town centre building. For the duration of the works a temporary library service was being offered from the nearby Dover Gateway. Since April, following the successful bid for grant funding from the British Library, the library service had had virtual tours live across 31 of its county libraries, accessible via kent.gov.uk.
(g) The Community Warden staff consultation had closed, and data was being assessed to allocate wardens to individual communities in line with the geographic allocation policy. Discussions were taking place with several parish and local councils regarding funding or sponsoring a warden in their communities. KCC Community Wardens participated in the Multi-Agency Event for Safety in Action Week at Dreamland in Margate, to large groups of primary school children.
(h) Kent Scientific Serviceshad a record business year in 2023/24 which saw an increase in samples received of almost 20% from the previous year.
(i) Trading Standards had secured grant funding from the Office for Product Safety and Standards to continue to provide the protective infrastructure preventing the importation of dangerous consumer goods at the channel crossings for the year ahead.
(j) The Active Kent and Medway Team were delighted to be working with Sport England to deliver two new programmes. The first related to engagement with a new national programme to support National Governing Bodies and their local clubs to promote good practice and safe sport for children, young people and adults at a local level. The second focused on the activation of multi sports facilities across the county and the Council was awarded £143,000 by Sport England to pilot this programme. The Everyday Active programme continued to go from strength to strength and further information on their flagship campaign could be found on the Everyday Active Kent website.
(k) Mr Jones passed on his own sincere condolences to the family of Ms Debbie Large.
6. A Member commented on the importance of public transport for people wishing to visit libraries. Mr Jones referred to the Bus Service Improvement Plan which would be discussed at the next meeting of the Environment & Transport Cabinet Committee and Mr Pearson (Head of Libraries, Registrations and Archives) said the library service could be accessed in a wide variety of ways in addition to services provided at library buildings, for example through online services, the mobile library service, and the home library service.
RESOLVED to note the verbal updates.