The Chairman of the Council, the Chairmen of Committees and Sub-Committees and Portfolio Holders to answer any questions on any matters in relation to which the Council has powers or duties or which affect the District of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 13.
Minutes:
Question 1 - Councillor Beer to Councillor Malvisi, Cabinet Member for the Environment
At the February 2021 full Council Budget Meeting, we approved the maximum increase in Council Tax and increased car parking charges to be applied in our own Babergh carparks. The reasons stated at the time were due to the forecast budget position of a £1.8 million deficit. This was presented at many workshops and by finance officers and the Cabinet Member for Finance.
To help balance this position we were given several options;
Introduce the full allowed council tax increase, introduce car parking charges and close the Sudbury Advice Centre.
I voted against these charges being introduced, based on the information supplied at the time.
We now have the final 2020/21 financial outturn, which shows a rather different position, we now have a £725,000k surplus.
So, in light of this information will the Cabinet withdraw the introduction of any car parking charges?
This will give our town centres of Sudbury and Hadleigh a breathing space to recover from Covid 19, this would certainly send out the correct message to our hard pressed residents of Babergh and show that as a Council we do listen to our traders and the public at large.
Response to Cllr Beer from Cabinet Member for Finance
Thank you for your question Cllr Beer. Before handing over to Cllr Malvisi to answer the specific matter of our cark park tariffs, I would like to correct a couple of misconceptions in your question.
Firstly, I would like to point out that we provide an Access Point, not an advice centre. We have never run an advice centre in any of our face-to-face locations. This may seem like a pedantic comment, but it is important as it gets to the nub of some of the criticism of the decision to move it. And I want to provide a further clarification and say that we have moved it, not closed it – it is still very much open and successfully serving our residents. Part of the reason for the move was that it would give us savings, but it needs to be understood also that the contract was due to expire in March and we took the opportunity to design a more appropriate service, aligned with our Customer Strategy and the changing way our residents interact with the Council.
Secondly, I did report, when I presented the budget, that we were forecasting a cumulative three-year deficit of £1.7m. This still stands and I don’t expect it will improve in the foreseeable future – indeed, it may well go further in the wrong direction, but officers are currently reviewing the figures as part of the preparation for setting the budget for next year. The favourable outturn of £736k does not change this because most of it was one-off benefits that won’t necessarily be repeated in future years. We have used this money to top up some reserves, most notably the Climate Change and Biodiversity Reserve and the Strategic Priorities Reserve, but reserves can only be used once and don’t solve our base budget gap.
Response to Cllr Beer from Cabinet Member for the Environment
Thank you for your question Cllr Beer.
The funds generated from car parking have to be ring-fenced to pay for that provision, because as you know it is not a statutory service and currently our car parks run at a substantial loss, which cannot be sustained in the longer-term. They are sorely in need of investment – we are providing new ticket machines, but our car parks also need resurfacing, they need remarking of bays and, crucially, improved lighting for the safety of users. We must have additional income for this.
Our economy is dependent on tourism and to encourage visitors to our towns we need car parks that are clearly marked and indicating if there is space, many is the time that I go into Girling Street Car park to find it full but nothing to tell me if there are spaces elsewhere, do I drive round wasting fuel – no I go home.
As I’ve mentioned earlier and as you very well know, provision of parking is not a statutory responsibility and currently it is a drain on council tax, which only forms 29% of our income, and business rates, which is =16% of income – both of which must fund our statutory services.
We most definitely are listening and have ensured that we will still be providing a very generous 1 hour free period, with only modest short-term charges for stays beyond that. We will not be introducing charges until the new year – after the busy Christmas period.
However, people’s decisions on where to go for shops and other experiences are determined more by the offering and not on whether they have to pay a pound for parking. Our two towns do very well in this regard and we have supported our high street businesses with the very successful roll-out of the award winning Virtual High Street (now with over 150 businesses on the platform in Sudbury and over 60 in Hadleigh) with an accompanying digital skills for business programme.
In addition, the Welcome Back funding provided to both towns will help to put on local events, enhance the appearance of each centre and seek to draw greater footfall into our places.
These are some of the exciting events and activities that Sudbury and Hadleigh have been doing using the Welcome Back Fund and there’s more in the pipeline. Also, we are working on the town centres presentation with new planters/hanging baskets etc.
Sudbury - they have used the welcome Back fund:
- Town centre ambassadors to support businesses and visitors to the town centre
- a new initiative to have “Green” Sundays which are monthly which are to encourage new businesses to attend their market area that support the green agenda
- Heritage open days over 2 weeks earlier this month that had guided tours and activities celebrate the heritage of Sudbury
- Audio trail on the silk heritage of Sudbury
Hadleigh – they have used the welcome Back fund:
- Innovate local – market stall pilot which offered 1 stall for a new business for a free period (usually 4 weeks) which started in July and until December, the stall is now booked out till November.
- They have created a mini tourism info point for a redundant BT box which has been received positively
- They have created their own loyalty cards for the town centre which supports residents using the high street and the cards are put in for a prize once completed. The prize is a voucher of the residents chosen shop in the town centre.
We as a Council, have also run activities including kinetic science with open spaces (Belle Vue park, Beaumont Park and Coxes Park). We have pushed out social media on the activities and supported the towns with their events.
You will know, Councillor, that the date of introduction for the new parking charges will be discussed at Cabinet in October. I would encourage you to attend that meeting, listen to the debate on that item, and of course ask any further questions on this important subject.
You have decided not to return the £725,000 surplus to the tax payer and the residents of Babergh District Council. But now instead will you be using this amount of money to help pay for the proposed massive wage increases to our senior officers, so is it more money for senior officers and more taxes for Babergh residents?
Response – Written response outside of the meeting
Question 2 - Councillor Jamieson to Councillor Malvisi, Cabinet Member for the Environment
Although we have been fairly lucky in this country so far, the extremes of weather experienced globally this summer give increased evidence that climate change is happening now. As this is our last Council meeting before cop26, will the Member for environment advise us, and concerned Babergh residents, if the Council are doing anything to encourage a favourable outcome at the conference. I realise we are but a small pebble on the beach but a letter to the government stressing how important this is would not go amiss and would be the least we could do? if every Council did the same, we could make a difference.
Response to Cllr Jamieson from Cabinet Member for the Environment
Cllr Jamieson, thank you for your question regarding COP 26 and what we as a Council are doing to encourage a favourable outcome. As you know Babergh committed to tackling the very real issues relating to Climate Change and Bio-Diversity early on in its tenure.
We are just over mid-way through our term and your question has very kindly enabled me to bring Council up to date on what we have been doing to move the District to a better natural environment all round, that is of benefit to all who live and work in the District.
Just for the record, Climate Change is real as is the damage being done to our natural world on which we depend for our own survival which is why both plans touch on a myriad of initiatives some of which are wholly environmental but many impinge on all the other Portfolios. Humans have the greatest negative impact on the planet.
We’ve switched the fuel used in our waste freighters, from diesel to HVO, a certificated fuel made from recycled used vegetable oil. In doing this, Babergh is one of the first local authorities to so do demonstrating yet again that we are leading not following.
This will immediately reduce the Fleet Carbon Emissions by 90% and the Council’s overall Emissions by 25% and this, fellow Councillors is a big step forward, and as we move forward we shall move the rest of the fleet to either HVO or Electric Vehicles.
We’ve started work on improving our planning design guide and are working very closely with BDC Planning Department and Developers to build back better and Greener in line with Government Policy. As an example, in my home village of Long Melford we have successfully negotiated with Bloors to have an area as a wildflower meadow running parallel beside the Melford Walk in a couple of years this will have had a major benefit to the LNR. Bloors are installing Swift Boxes, Hedge Hog runs, Bat Boxes and these are being made by the Scouts thus engaging more of the community. They are also installing water butts in a bid to reduce water consumption on the garden.
We have won funding to put a Solar Car Port into the Car Park at Kingfisher with multiple Electric Vehicle charging points and given that we live in a very sunny part of the country, we will be storing the unused electricity generated by the Solar Panels for onward utilisation. In fact, I do believe that the relevant planning application has been submitted to Babergh.
We are introducing new technology into the Kingfisher Centre to reduce their energy and water usage by recycling the warm water in the pool through a back-wash filtration system.
Very soon we shall see the conclusion of a mapping exercise that has been conducted in conjunction with Suffolk Wildlife Trust. When completed we, as a county as well as a district, will be able to see what nature reserves we have in relation to each other and how they can be linked to provide a ‘wildlife highway’ nature route. All issues that require planning guidance, which we plan to put into the Planning Supplementary Guide.
By using satellite technology, we have been able to identify what sort of tree canopy exists in our district and what types of trees exist within it. This means that we will be better placed to plant the right tree in the right place.
We are rolling out a free tree and hedge offer to parishes which has created a lot of interest, however in Babergh we are short of our own land supply to be able to create community woodlands, but we are working on it.
I think it is very important to note that all the trees and hedges will be locally sourced. We need a lot of trees and hedging which will provide local employment.
We will be rolling out wildflower meadow verges towards the end of the year and the beginning of next.
There is more, but the important thing to remember is we are on track to achieve our Carbon Reduction Plan and our Bio Diversity action Plan.
COP26 is the 26th Climate Change Conference and I expect to see from Central Government clear actions and further support on how we can accelerate towards our climate change and biodiversity actions. We will be listening closely and will be sharing highlights of the conference throughout.
My advice to residents on how they can influence the outcomes of the conference, is to get involved. The COP26 conference website has a page on how to be involved. But you can do more than that, you can make changes at home right now. That is what will make a real difference. Decide to cut down on single use plastic, try not to waste water, cut down on your car use, only buy the food you need, switch to buying from environmentally friendly companies, switch to green energy tariffs. These are the things that will really make a difference if each, and everyone one of us committed to them, sadly some are not but I believe most are.
The Environmental Task Force was set up as part of the climate emergency motion, that you yourself delivered, was focused very much on getting the Council to carbon zero by 2030. Can we now widen the remit of the environmental task force to look to see what we can do to help the district as a whole get to carbon zero by 2030?
Councillor Malvisi to provide a written response.
Supporting documents: