The meeting was opened with a moment of personal reflection to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, a day dedicated to remembering the six million Jewish men, women and children who suffered in the Holocaust under Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.  The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day was ‘One Day’ in hope that in the future there may be one day with no genocide.

To receive apologies for absence, including notifications of any changes to the membership of the Board.

It was reported that, in accordance with the wishes of the Liberal Democrat Group, the membership of the Board had been amended to include Councillor Dudley in place of Councillor Atiya-Alla.  An apology for absence was also received from Councillor Mandy Darling.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 8 December 2021.

The minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 8 December 2021 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairwoman.

To receive an update on the implementation of Climate Change Emergency actions.

(Note:  The Divisional Director of Planning, Housing and Climate Emergency, David Edmondson, the Climate Emergency Officer, Jacqui Warren/Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Environment and Culture, Councillor Morey, will be in attendance for this item.)

Councillor Morey, Cabinet Member for Infrastructure, Environment and Culture, David Edmondson, Divisional Director of Planning, Housing and Climate Emergency and Jacqui Warren, Climate Emergency Officer provided an update on the progress made to implement the recommendations arising from the Review of Climate Emergency as highlighted in the submitted papers.  They and Kevin Mowat, Director of Place responded to questions in respect of the following:

·                     If the Council had joined up with the work of Professor Stewart called ‘Southwest Powerhouse’ which was a hub for clean green growth.

·                     What the £25k allocated for climate emergency had been spent on and when it was expected to have been spent by.

·                     The benefit of rolling out dual bins across Torbay to give people more opportunity to recycle and what lessons could be learned from the trials.

·                     The number of vehicles in the Council, TDA and SWISCo fleets and when they would be able to be replaced with electric or more greener options.

·                     What action was being taken to work with bus companies to help them role out electric buses and concerns over their future sustainability.

·                     The benefits of providing infrastructure such as charging points to enable a smoother transition to electric vehicles.

·                     What action was being taken to increase cycling and review cycle paths to make it safer for people to travel by bicycle and if consideration had been given to commuting routes e.g. to Torbay Hospital.

·                     What consideration had been given to other petrol equipment such as garden machinery and steam cleaners.

·                     What progress had been made on the two solar farms.

·                     How was the Council/SWISCo helping people to recycle more when some properties only have one bin or have no storage for multiple bins.

·                     If the Council should be encouraging households to reduce the number of cars and how the planning system could help with this.

·                     How clean was the energy from electric charging points.

Members requested a note to be provided to the Board Members in May showing what the £25k allocated to climate emergency had been spent on.

The Board agreed to continue to monitor the progress on climate emergency as this was a key priority area for the Council.

To monitor the progress of the Cabinet’s response to the Overview and Scrutiny Review of Anti Poverty.

(Note: Dr Lincoln Sargeant, Director of Public Health and Councillor Stockman, Cabinet Member for Adults and Public Health will be in attendance for this item.)

Councillor Jackie Stockman, Cabinet Member for Adults and Public Health provided an update on the implementation of the actions arising from the Turning the Tide on Poverty Review.  Bruce Bell, Consultant in Public Health and Alan Denby, Divisional Director for Economy, Environment and Infrastructure provided feedback from the workshops held on Ill Health Prevention and Fair Employment and responded to questions in respect of the following:

·                     What action was required to help reduce the high numbers of care experienced children who were NEETs (not in employment, education or training).

·                     How could ill health be prevented when people had problems accessing their GPs and not all people were able to use the E-Consult service.

·                     It was important to look at prevention but acute response often takes priority to address people’s immediate needs, how could we achieve the right balance.

·                     Who was attending the workshops and how individual’s experiences were being taken into account e.g. people who suffer trauma can have impacts on many aspects of their future life.

·                     What university studies could we learn from and inform this work.

·                     The impact of sports injuries and the benefits of being active.

Members noted that once all the workshops had been held a final workshop would take place to bring together all the learning points and develop an action plan for a way forward.  The Board requested that this action plan be brought back to a future meeting of the Board so that they could review the progress made and scrutinise the proposed way forward.

To consider the above report of the Priorities and Resources Review Panel in respect of a review of the Council’s Revenue Budget for 2022/2023.

The Board considered the draft report which had been prepared following the meetings of the Priorities and Resources Review Panel held during January 2022.  The Review Panel had considered the Cabinet’s budget proposals for 2022/2023 and the report set out the Panel’s views, conclusions and recommendations.

Resolved (unanimously):

That the report to the Cabinet on the Revenue and Capital Budget 2022/2023 be approved.

(Note:  prior to the consideration of the item in Minute 40 Teresa Buckley, the Clerk, declared a non-pecuniary interest as one of the recommendations relates to Overview and Scrutiny for which she was the Statutory Officer.)