Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To note any urgent items of business which the Chair has consented to being considered under the provisions of Section 100(B) 4(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There were no urgent items of business to consider.

Members should declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and Non Statutory Interest as defined by the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of:

a)         any business on the agenda

b)         any urgent additional items to be considered

c)         any matters arising out of those items

and if appropriate, withdraw from the meeting at the relevant time.

There were no declarations of interest made.

To consider the minutes of the last meeting held on 17^th January 2022 (see Council Minutes) NC did this meeting.

Moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor Deborah Watson

RESOLVED that the Minutes of an Employment and Personnel Committee held on 17^th January 2022 be approved as a correct record.

Committee considered a detailed report which sought approval to recommend to Council the creation of a Senior Economic Development Officer post for Pleasley Vale within the Economic Development Team.

Members had considered redevelopment proposals for the Pleasley Vale site at a meeting of the Executive held in May 2020, and had endorsed a recommendation that flood modelling be undertaken.

The findings of the flood modelling were that a significant proportion of the site was indicated to be located within the predicted flood extent for a 1 in 20 year flood event.  This flood event was often used to determine the extents of the functional floodplain.

The functional floodplain designation would restrict the types of redevelopment that were considered appropriate at the site and it was anticipated that any redevelopment proposals would be limited to a built footprint of no greater than the current built footprint. 

Consequently, the redevelopment proposals previously presented to Executive in May 2020, could not be considered to be feasible because of flood risk, and the redevelopment potential of the site would be severely restricted based on the flood modelling commissioned by the Council.

Aside from flood risk, there were also a number of other constraints on the site that needed to be addressed to de-risk any future planning application and arrive at a credible scheme for redevelopment of Pleasley Vale including:

·         the condition of the buildings;

·         geotechnical;

·         heritage conservation;

·         transport and highways;

·         utilities; and

·         wildlife and ecology. 

A renewed approach towards Pleasley Mills was needed to be able to produce a credible scheme for redevelopment within the next 3 years, as proposed in the Council’s Business Growth Strategy. 

There were also multiple stakeholders within the Council that needed to be properly engaged with the redevelopment of the site. 

To achieve this, a dedicated officer would have oversight of master planning at Pleasley Mills with the specific objective of making a planning application within the next three years.  It was considered that this officer would take on responsibilities and duties most similar to those contained within the person specification of a senior economic development officer and the person specification and job description were attached as appendices to the report.  An appropriate budget would also be needed to allow the officer to commission necessary survey work or technical reports as they were required.

In response to a Member’s question, the Business Growth Manager advised the meeting that on 26^th April 2022, a consultation meeting had taken place with the Pleasley Park and Vale Conservation Area Joint Advisory Group, where a working group was set up, which included the Council’s Leisure staff, Members from Mansfield District and Pleasley Vale Residents Association. 

Moved by Councillor Sandra Peake and seconded by Councillor Duncan McGregor

RECOMMENDED that (1) Council approve a new 3-year fixed term post within the Economic Development Team for the role of Senior Economic Development Officer (Pleasley Vale),

(2) approves the transformation reserves budget of £150,000 to fund the salary and all associated on-costs, subject to job  ...  view the full minutes text for item EMP23-21/22

To move that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the stated Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and it is not in the public interest for that to be revealed. [The category of exempt information is stated after each Minute].

Moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor Mary Dooley

RESOLVED that under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended), the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the stated Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act and it is not in the public interest for that to be revealed.

Committee considered a detailed report which sought approval to make the current temporary Homeless Triage Officer post permanent, and to recommend that Council approve additional General Fund revenue budget associated with the establishment of the permanent post from Year 3, in the event that the post did not generate enough new grant to cover the cost of the post.

The Housing Act 1996, as amended by the Homeless Reduction Act 2017, placed statutory duties on Local Authorities to intervene at earlier stages to prevent homelessness in their areas.  It also required Housing Authorities to provide homelessness services to all those affected and not just those who had ‘priority need’.

During the Covid pandemic there was a ban on evictions which was lifted at the end of May 2021.  Since that time the Council had seen a significant increase in the amount of approaches as private landlords served Section 21 “no fault” notices.  This increased demand had put significant pressure on the Housing Needs Officers, who had homelessness as a part of their wider role, which led to the appointment of a temporary Homeless Triage Officer post in December 2021.  The post was for 12 months and funded by the Covid recovery grant, and using additional Covid funding, the post could be funded until March 2023.

The Council received homeless prevention funding, which was calculated in part on the number of prevent and relief cases the Council reported on, therefore, it was imperative that the Council recorded this data accurately.  This was a driver in securing the temporary Homeless Triage Officer post and had been a key part of the role.  

The temporary post had a significant impact in a very short space of time and there was now a need to recruit to this post to enable the Council to respond to its statutory homeless duties.  The financial implications regarding recruitment to the post were set out in the report.

Moved by Councillor Sandra Peake and seconded by Councillor Duncan McGregor

RESOLVED that a new full-time permanent Homeless Triage Officer post be established subject to Council approving the increase in budget.

RECOMMENDED that Council approves a revenue budget increase for the amount set out in the report, from 2025/26, to fund the post in the event that not enough grant is generated.

(Portfolio Holder for Housing/Senior Governance Officer (acting))

The Assistant Director Housing and Enforcement left the meeting.

Committee considered a detailed report which provided information regarding the Council’s response to the Cleveland and Redcar Ransomware attack case study and its impact on the future arrangements for the Council’s Joint ICT Service. 

In February 2020, Redcar and Cleveland Council was subject to a ransomware attack which encrypted the Council’s systems and resulted in no access to their files on shared or personal drives.  The majority of work devices were unusable and they suffered a total loss of ICT and data.

For a period of 4 weeks the Council had little or no access to customer records and electronic systems, finance, planning, revenues and benefits, etc., and recovery was impeded as the attackers had deleted backups before the attack.  After 4 weeks, 66% of the data was recovered, however, a year later, the Council still considered themselves to be recovering from the attack.

Whilst the true impact on Redcar and Cleveland Council’s residents and businesses could never be fully understood, the cost of the attack was high and estimated to be £10.4m.

As an outcome of the incident, the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), funded a series of audits of local authorities (including Bolsover) to test resilience against a cyber-attack and produced a case study of the Cleveland and Redcar attack to ensure councils learned the lessons from such an incident to improve their cyber-resilience.

In February 2022, the Joint ICT Committee endorsed proposals to increase the overall capacity and resilience of the Joint ICT Service and recommended these to the partner authorities for consideration and approval.  The recommended actions/improvements were set out in the report along with the detailed financial implications.

The service level agreement between NEDDC (as host authority) and this Council would be reviewed to see whether any changes were required as a result of the changes.

Moved by Councillor Duncan McGregor and seconded by Councillor Sandra Peake

RESOLVED that (1) the measures implemented/recommended in response to learning from the Cleveland and Redcar case study as detailed in the report, be noted,

            (2) the proposed structure changes to be considered by Council, be noted.

(Portfolio Holder for ICT, Leisure and Tourism/Senior Governance Officer (acting))

The meeting concluded at 1435 hours.