Agenda item

(copy to herewith)

At this point each of the Cabinet Members present made a presentation on their respective portfolios which had been circulated with the agenda.

Councillor Woods then presented his portfolio update which covered issues of Management Restructure, Partnerships, Improvement and WNDC.  A number of comments were made in respect of the Northamptonshire Local Area Agreement 2 and the WNDC Planning Committee.  Councillor Woods undertook to write to Councillors Caswell and Larratt in respect of their queries on the Local Area Agreement 2 and provided an update in respect of Borough Council Members of the WNDC Northampton Planning Committee (Councillors Church and Woods declared a personal interest in this as WNDC Board Members insofar as the discussion referred to the WNDC Northampton Planning Committee).

Councillor Woods on behalf of Councillor Glynane presented his portfolio report regarding Customer Services Operations, Support Services, Call Care, Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour Culture and Leisure.  In response to a comment Councillor Woods reported that the apparent haphazard delivery service to Councillors by the Post Office was being taken up with them.

Councillor Mildren presented his portfolio report which covered the sign off of the draft Statement of Accounts, Recruitment within Finance, Budget Monitoring and a number of property issues.  Following a comment made by Councillor Larratt, Councillor Mildren undertook to confirm with the One Stop Shop that the plans for Archway Cottages were available for public inspection and noted that any objections would be considered by Cabinet in due course.  The intention was for the cottages to be refurbished internally and externally and as far as he was aware there were no plans for different access arrangements to the cottages.

Councillor Beardsworth presented her portfolio report which covered Performance Partnership Working, Homeless Strategy and other key issues.  She thanked the new Chair of N-TACT, Beverley Menell, for their support and noted that Choice Based Lettings would commence at the end of July.  Councillor Beardsworth noted in response to a comment by Councillor Palethorpe that a strategy had been put in place to make sure that benefits, furniture and equipment were all aligned with tenants’ needs and that this included follow up visits to see how tenants were coping.  She also undertook to write to Councillor Clarke in respect of the Cooper Street heating project.

Councillor Church presented his portfolio report which covered the Chrysalis Centre, the Town Centre Retail Strategy, the Market Square and Abington Street frontages, the Market Square, Disposal of School Playing Fields at Parklands and Grange Road, the Developer Contributions Standard Charge, Former Blueberry Diner Site Car Park Strategy, Sixfields, Concessionary Fares and Establishing an Integrated Planning Service.  In respect of the comments made by members of the public earlier in the meeting he stated that clarification from the County Council and WNDC was being sought on the exact status of access agreements.  He noted that the Overview & Scrutiny Committee report had been accepted by Cabinet including clarification and strengthening of existing policies within the local development document framework.  He was not aware of any comments that Overview & Scrutiny had made in respect of judicial review.  He noted that in respect of St Lukes, Duston that any application for this former school site would be determined by WNDC and that the Borough Council would be a consultee.  The public could raise their concerns both with the Borough Council and with WNDC.  Councillor Church also noted in respect of the Market Square that although the consultants’ report had taken longer to bring forward than had originally been anticipated he felt that it would present a welcome solution.  (Councillor Edwards declared a personal interest in the contents of this report as a member of the County Council’s Development Control Committee)

Councillor Crake presented her portfolio report which covered Street Scene, Waste Management, Carbon Management Programme, Crypto Sporidiosis and Disabled Facilities Grants.  She acknowledged the comments made by Councillor Larratt in respect of the train in Abington Park and the support given by County Councillor Maureen Hill and Tony Ansell and also thanked Mr Tom O’Shea and the nursery for donating the train.  She confirmed that there would be winter planting in the public areas such as the town’s major roundabouts this year.  It was hoped that glass recycling would be rolled out across the town by the end of the year.

Councillor B Hoare presented his portfolio report which covered Performance Management, ICT, Elections, Land Charges and Information Management, Legal Services and Standards.  Councillor B Hoare commented that he would further investigate Councillors comments about the slow performance of the portal service and also the spam filters on the Council’s computer systems.