Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, Councillors of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to declare interests where appropriate.

No disclosures of interests were made.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Cabinet held on 27 November 2019.

The minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 27 November 2019 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Leader.

The Chief Executive provided the Cabinet with an update on Minute 16, ‘Extending Gigabit Ultrafast Public Fibre Connectivity’, noting that since the Cabinet meeting further negotiation had taken place over the Gigabit Ultrafast contract with West Sussex County Council and their provider and it has become more advantageous for the Council to sign a 7 year contract on better terms than the originally agreed 30 year contract. As a result the Chief Executive in consultation with Leader would be pursuing the 7 year deal under the previously approved delegation.

To answer any questions asked by the public which are relevant to the functions of the Cabinet.

Public Question Time will be concluded by the Chair when all questions have been answered or on the expiry of a period of 15 minutes, whichever is the earlier.

There were no questions from the public.

To consider any matters referred to the Cabinet (whether by a scrutiny committee or by the Council) and those for reconsideration in accordance with the provisions contained in the Scrutiny Procedure Rules, the Budget Procedure Rules and the Policy Framework Procedure Rules set out in Part 4 of the Council’s Constitution.

It was confirmed that no matters had been referred to the Cabinet for further consideration.

The Leader’s Portfolio

To consider report FIN/486 of the Head of Corporate Finance. 

The Leader of the Council presented report FIN/486of the Head of Corporate Finance which sought a delegation to the Leader of the Council for the awarding of the Council’s insurance contract and its Commercial Property insurance contract. It was noted that the Council was currently undertaking a procurement exercise for insurance placements using the Yorkshire Procurement Organisation (YPO) framework to ensure that the Council achieves the best value for money.

Councillor Crow was invited to speak on the item and in response to queries raised the Leader confirmed that the proposed delegation of the contract was a one-off delegation and ongoing change. He also confirmed that the reason for following this approach was that the local government mutual insurance scheme, of which the Council was a founding member, was not fully ready to trade and as such provide the Council with the required insurance provision. The Council therefore had to go out to tender for the two insurance contracts.

RESOLVED

The Cabinet

a)         notes the current work taking place on the Council’s insurance contract and the Commercial Property insurance contract.

b)         delegates the one-off decision to award the contracts for the provision of insurance to the Leader of the Council, following the evaluation of the tender process.

Reasons for the Recommendations

In line with the Constitution, Cabinet would normally award any contract with a total value over £500,000. Due to tight implementation timescales, the report recommends that the best approach in order to meet the contract start date is to seek approval to delegate the contract award decision. It is therefore recommended that the Leader of the Council makes the award decision.

Planning and Economic Development Portfolio

To consider report PES/341 of the Head of Economy and Planning.

The Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development presented report PES/341 of the Head of Economy and Planning which sought approval to commence a period of public consultation on the draft Crawley Transport Strategy (Appendix A of report PES/341). The draft strategy was acknowledged as an aspiration document, as the Council did not hold responsibility for transport, but it did set out some clear direction that the Council and its partners should be working toward for the betterment of the Borough.

Councillor Crow was invited to speak on the item, commenting that he welcomed the intention of the document.

Councillors Irvine and Mullins spoke as part of the discussion in support of the report and the associated draft strategy.

It was noted that there would be some clerical corrections made to the draft strategy prior to it being released for consultation.

RESOLVED

The Cabinet

a)         review “New Directions for Crawley”, the borough’s new draft Transport Strategy (attached as Appendix A to report PES/341), and approve the draft for public consultation.

b)         delegates authority to the Head of Economy and Planning, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development, to make minor amendments to the Crawley Transport Strategy in response to the consultation. (Generic Delegation 7 will be used to enact this recommendation).

Reasons for the Recommendations

To commence the process of establishing a Transport Strategy for Crawley, which:

·         Seeks to provide a vision, rationale and framework to enable an integrated approach to improving access and transport throughout Crawley.

·         Includes issues and options on how Borough wide transport provision can be improved and how the Council can respond in relation to its own service delivery

·         Presents priorities for scheme delivery as the first phase towards delivery of the strategy’s vision

·         Seeks to make the case for further external funds to invest in Crawley’s sustainable transport infrastructure.