Agenda item

To receive an oral report at the meeting from the Leader (and Cabinet) on the business of the Executive or on any topic or subject that it is felt should be brought to the attention of the Council.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10 (Leader’s Time):

(a)  The Leader (and Cabinet) shall have up to 15 minutes to make within this report any statements that they wish on any topic or subject that they feel should be drawn to the attention of the Council.

(b)  The Leader of the Main Opposition Group (or their nominee) shall be allowed up to 10 minutes to respond.

(c)  The Leader of the Council shall be allowed up to 5 minutes to exercise a right of reply (or 25% of the time given to the Opposition Group Leader(s), whichever is the greatest).

The Leader of the Council, Councillor K Mills, included the following matters in his report:

The Leader invited the Portfolio Holder for Community and Corporate Property Councillor C D Zosseder to speak on the following matters:

(a)  To congratulate all involved in getting the Roman Painted House open for the public to visit. There had been 1,534 visitors in the six days it had been open and the feedback received from the public had been very positive.

(b)  To inform Members that the tennis court at Connaught Park would be open for half-term.

(c)   The launch of safe spaces initative by community services. 

(d)  The tenders for play parks in Marke Wood, Bulwarks and Travers would be looked at next month. She was really pleased to see these progressing.

The Leader spoke to the following matters:

(a)  That the Government was keen to progress with devolution, although the form was not yet clear. He expected to learn more at the LGA conference the following week. There had been discussions at Kent Leaders and East Kent Leaders on it and it was important district leaders had an input into it. There needed to be funding to support devolution.

(b)  The Cabinet had agreed the Council Motion considered by Overview and Scrutiny Committee. He recognised the importance of the Council reflecting society but also noted that this was something that the political parties were vital to in selecting their candidates.

(c)   He had met with the two local Members of Parliament, Mike Tapp and Roger Gale. It had been a very positive meeting and there would be regular meetings going forward.

(d)  He had visited Woodpecker Court awards ceremony. He praised the good work being done there and the difference it was making to the students. The school was happy for Members to visit by appointment.

(e)  The Crosslinks Centre, Buckland frontages had been completed. It had tidied up the area and it was hoped it would instil pride locally.

(f)    The Beacon Project was progressing well. Archaeology had found the remains of an ancient pub but nothing in the archaeology would cause a significant delay to the works. There had been good cross-party working on this.

(g)  The feedback on the Roman Painted House had overwhelmingly positive. While the work of Dr Brian Philp and the KARU couldn’t be underestimated, people were very happy to see it open. A lot had been done in a very short timescale and while more needed to be done, it was vital for the public to be able to visit it. Dover needed to be a destination and had a heritage spanning from the bronze age to the cold war.

(h)  The Local Plan was a fantastic example of cross-party working and there had been very few changes required at the end of the process. The work done by the officers and the members of the Local Plan PAG was excellent.

(i)    The public consultation on Tides was underway and he encouraged everyone to be involved in it. No final decision had been made but he was committed to having two leisure centres in the district. He had been told in 2022 that Tides was unaffordable, but he was committed to trying to deliver it for the people of the district.

(j)    The works at Maison Dieu were amazing but it needs to have some form of ‘wow’ factor. It was a costly project and needed to be somewhere that would attract the public. He thanked the Landmark Trust for their work with the accommodation.

(k)   Deal Pier should be working on very quickly.

(l)    To congratulate Priority Freight for receiving the King’s Award for Industry.

(m) To state that he was pleased that the implementation of the European Entry/Exit (EES) arrangements had been delayed as the road network and infrastructure was not ready to accommodate it. There were no authorities in place to deal with the removal of cars on the highway and nowhere to accommodate coaches. There had been predictions by the Department for Transport of fourteen-hour delays at the Port. There was a responsibility on all parties to work to resolve these issues.

(n)  The impact on local businesses, schools and commuters needed to be considered as it was not acceptable for the town of Dover to be gridlocked. He urged the Department for Transport to speak to the Council.

(o)  It was important for live testing and the installation of new technology.

The Leader of the Main Opposition Group, Councillor T J Bartlett, included the following matters in his report:   

(p)  To thank officers for their work on the Roman Painted House and to welcome the high visitor numbers which demonstrated its popularity as an attraction. He expressed his disappointment that Dr Philp had not engaged with him when he was Leader.  

(q)  There needed to be more publicity for the tennis courts and play parks works so that the public knew about them.

(r)   To ask the Leader of the Council what his preferred devolution model would be.

(s)   To emphasise that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommendations had been about diversity in a wider context than just gender balance. He had wanted it to go further than the final recommendation was at the end with more outreach direct to the local community.

(t)    To welcome the Leader engaging with Roger Gale MP, who represented the district wards of Little Stour and Ashstone and Sandwich. He advised that Councillor M F Hibbert had been trying to engage with Mike Tapp MP in respect of TAP.

(u)  He would like to see officers and the local MPs could keep ward members updated on activities relating to their wards.

(v)   To agree with the Leader on the great work of Woodpecker Court.

(w)  To suggest that the cost-of-living grant scheme needed to be rebranded. He was concerned that there were not enough applications for the grant and suggested that rebranding it to be more community focussed would encourage applications.   

(x)   To thank everyone involved in the Local Plan and Dover Beacon project and welcome the cross-party nature of it.

(y)   To ask what the plans were following the announced retirement of the Strategic Director (Place and Environment) and to request that he be kept informed.

(z)   To ask about the £1 million pound underspend on staffing last year and the future management arrangements for the Community Services team.

(aa)                That he missed the interaction between Members that happened when there was catering provided for meetings. He asked if with Kearsney Abbey potentially having facilities at the council offices there was an opportunity for them to provide catering for meetings.

(bb)                To praise the work of the former PA to the Leader and Civic Officer and express his sadness at her departure from the Council.

(cc)                To welcome the consultation on Tides.

(dd)                To agree with the Leader on the works at Maison Dieu.

(ee)                To also agree with the Leader in welcoming the delay in implementing EES.

In response the Leader of the Council advised:

(ff)  That longer term he wanted to see the baths under the Roman Lawn excavated to make it a national visitor focal point.

(gg)                The importance of the Council communicating better to its residents and the need to tackle rumours.

(hh)                That in respect of devolution, he personally did not support the mayoral model as he did not think they would represent the whole county. He also wasn’t sure about the benefits of another layer of local government. He also did not want to see the costs of devolution passed onto the taxpayer. However, he wasn’t sure that there would be a choice on it from government.

(ii)   That he felt more people needed to be involved in local politics and welcomed recent petitions as a way of local communities engaging with the council.

(jj)   The pressures on temporary accommodation were significant for the Council.

(kk)                That he would speak to Mike Tapp MP about getting him to contact Councillor M F Hibbert. He welcomed the positive working relationship with Roger Gale MP.

(ll)   Councillor C D Zosseder advised that the grants had been delayed as councillors were not available to meet to consider them. She was also looking at options for a community-based grant.

(mm)             That staffing was regularly reviewed. There was pressure on all Councils and that the budget savings were a positive. The structure going forward was being reviewed and no final decision had been made at this time. However, he expressed the view that the officers were the Council’s greatest asset and that the Council was lucky to have good officers.

(nn)                In respect of catering for committee meetings, he felt that it wasn’t right for taxpayers to pay thousands of pounds on catering when people were making choices between heating and eating. Members were paid an allowance anyway.