Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence (if any)

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Barron, Bryan, Hayes, Hoy, Musson, Niblock, Siddle, Stevenson and Woods.

To receive declarations of interest (if any)

None received. 

The Chairman reported the sad news of the sudden death of Tim Freeman who was Deputy Managing Director of Toyota UK and a highly respected Board Member of the D2N2 LEP.

Sincere thanks were expressed to Pat Bloore for her contribution to the Council as its stenographer for over 40 years.

2024 marked 50 years of Derbyshire County Council in its current form with Councillors Robert Parkinson and Dave Allen being recognised for their contribution since its establishment. The Civic Chairman presented both Councillors with certificates of honour to mark this tremendous achievement. This was followed by speeches from both Councillors and colleagues.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 9 October 2024.

On the motion of Councillor B Lewis, duly seconded, it was

RESOLVED:

To confirm, as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting of Council held on 9 October 2024.

To consider the report of the Council Leader and Members' questions on the report

The Leader referred to the publication of the performance monitoring report on the back of the Council's forecasting statement and the very significant issues facing the local authority. Savings delivery was on track in most areas, but there was the continuing demand and cost pressures in adults and children social care services. The situation was compounded by the employer's National Insurance situation.

The Leader commented on the Government’s budget in October and the impact on local authorities, businesses and farmers. He took part in the farmers’ protest recently held in London alongside 40,000 farmers and representatives of the farming community from across rural areas of Derbyshire.

The Leader was very disappointed to see the free school program being cut for the five proposed new schools, and the knock-on effect which would cost local taxpayers millions of pounds. He also referred to the recent SEND Review, which included health and education partners and which had raised real concerns. These had been acknowledged and the Council was working hard on addressing the issues.

To consider public questions (if any)

Question from Andy Billings to Councillor A Dale, Cabinet Member for Education

“My son has not been able to attend school since April 2022 due to Autism and severe Anxiety. The following failings have been acknowledged by DCC:

• Failure to provide a full-time education since April 2022 and meet the statutory timescale to issue an EHCP;

• Refusal to provide an Occupational Therapy assessment;

• DCC SEND Officers being barred from our Tribunal Appeal.

Councillors Lewis, Dale and Patten and Carol Cammiss have received numerous emails regarding my son’s case and received no response from the Leader nor Carol Cammiss. Emails to Cllrs Dale and Patten have been ignored, and we have received no support from Cllr Patten, the person sent to Matlock to represent us. Given the severity of the failures by SEND Services, and the impact on my son, does the Council feel it’s acceptable that Cabinet Members and Directors, ignore communications from parents, requesting support with their child’s case?”

As Mr Billings did not attend the meeting a written response was provided to him as follows:

“While I appreciate you may not wish to accept it, I want to start by offering a profound apology on behalf of the Dept for the poor standard of service you have received, particularly in relation to communication, which we acknowledge has not been good enough at all and must improve.

There are a number of steps being taken to improve our communication and engagement with parents and schools and this is a huge focus for us at the moment. This includes the recent launch of the EHC Hub. While it will clearly take a bit of time to bed in, the benefits of providing much greater transparency for parents and schools around the EHC process it is hoped will significantly reduce the need to contact officers for updates and thereby help to free them up to answer the more technical enquiries they receive in a more timely manner.

In answer to your specific question, the answer is of course no, but respectfully I do not agree that that has been the case.  It is not uncommon for emails to members of the Cabinet, local members and senior officers to be passed to the relevant operational officer to respond, particularly when the enquiry is technical in nature or relates to case-specific information.

This is particularly the case when many of the emails we receive we are copied in on rather than being the direct recipient, as is the case with the significant majority of your emails. The default expectation is that the direct recipient is based placed to respond on behalf of the authority.

That said, having reviewed the correspondence file, I can see examples where myself, Cllr Lewis and Cllr Patten have sent emails to the Department to chase up responses to you, recognising that the delays you were experiencing were unacceptable.

It is also typical for emails to the Leader of the Council to be passed to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85/24

To receive petitions (if any)

None received.

The Executive Director of Place introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, seeking approval to submit the Derbyshire and Derby Joint Minerals Local Plan to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

On the motion of Councillor C Renwick, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

To approve the submission of the Derbyshire and Derby Joint Minerals Local Plan to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and to accelerate preparation for the resulting

examination in public.

The Managing Director introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, that asked for in principle agreement, to confer 0the title of Freeman of the County on Albert Keir in recognition of his achievements during his life and career.

On the motion of Councillor A Sutton, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

1)     To support in principle the proposal to confer the title of Honorary Freeman of the County of Derbyshire upon Albert Keir; and

2)     To agree to convene a special meeting of the Council on a future date to be confirmed to consider the nomination.

The Director of Finance introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, seeking approval to appoint two co-opted independent members to the Council’s Audit Committee.

On the motion of Councillor R Parkinson, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

To approve the appointment of David King and Ruth Marchington as the Council’s two co-opted independent members of the Audit Committee for a term of four years to December 2028, subject to satisfactory references and right to work checks. 

The Director of Legal and Democratic Services introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, seeking approval for an extension to the current term of office of the Independent Person, Ian Orford.

On the motion of Councillor S Swann, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

To approve the extension of the term of office for Mr Ian Orford as Independent Person under the Localism Act 2011 for a further four years from 3 February 2025.

The Director of Legal and Democratic Services introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, notifying members of updates to the Constitution.

On the motion of Councillor S Swann, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

1)    To note the inclusion in the Constitution of the revised terms of reference for the Health and Wellbeing Board approved by Cabinet on 25 July 2024;

2)    To note that the Director Digital now holds the role SIRO;

3)    To note the update to Appendix 1 – Responsibility for Functions within the Constitution to confirm the responsibility of the Director Digital in relation to the Information Technology Strategy;

4)    To note that the required updates to the Constitution had been authorised and completed by the Monitoring Officer who had the delegated power to undertake those amendments; and

5)    That the changes to the Constitution were reported to the Governance, Ethics and Standards Committee on 10 October 2024.

The Managing Director introduced a report, which was circulated in advance of the meeting, asking Members to note the temporary appointment to the role of Executive Director of Children’s Services who would have the statutory responsibility of the Director of Children’s Services under Section 18 of the Children Act.

On the motion of Councillor B Lewis, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED:

To note the appointment of Alison Noble on a temporary basis to Executive Director of Children’s Services and the officer having statutory responsibility for the Director of Children’s Services under Section 18 of the Children Act 2004.

The Director of Legal and Democratic Services introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, reporting on executive decisions taken as a matter of urgency and where call-in had been waived. 

On the motion of Councillor B Lewis, duly seconded it was

RESOLVED to note:

1)                 The key decisions taken where special urgency provisions were agreed, as detailed in Appendix 2 of the report; and

2)                 The urgent decisions taken where the call-in procedure was waived under the Improvement and Scrutiny Procedure Rules as detailed in Appendix 3 of the report.

To consider questions submitted by Elected Members

Question from Councillor E Fordham to Councillor B Lewis, Leader of the Council

“Over the last 3½ years or 7½ years the Leader has been an active champion for more funding for Derbyshire County Council. How successful has that advocacy and lobbying been?”

Councillor Lewis responded as follows:

“County Councils Network raises the profile of local government finance and challenges faced by local authorities. This has led to a national debate on money for the County Council for example, additional money for social care in 2024 and 2025. The government is committed to the review of how local authorities are financed and we will continue to lobby government for extra money for the county council.”

Councillor Fordham asked the following supplementary question:

“I am surprised by the lack of content in the answer. I think what he is sating is that he’s agreed with the cuts made to local government. Does he agree with me that it’s a pretty lame report?

Councillor Lewis responded as follows:

“I have nowhere to go with the question I was asked”

Question from Councillor E Fordham to Councillor B Lewis, Cabinet Member for Strategic Leadership, Tourism, Culture and Climate Change

“The county has a tree planting scheme across Derbyshire - would the portfolio holder consider making the scheme more devolved and asking councillors to help identify locations and opportunities for tree planting in each individual division? And to ask what proportion of the trees planted this far are fruit or nut trees?”

Councillor Lewis responded as follows:

“As part of this Council’s hugely successful million trees projects, we have been successful in planting well over half a million trees at this point.  We expect that we will get to our target well before 2030 and we are ambitious to continue with that as a programme and maybe try to extend to 2 million trees if we can. 

England's community forests are in and around large towns and cities, providing urban, economic and social regeneration, infrastructure etc and creating high quality environments for millions of people.  The Heartwood scheme covers the eastern side of the county and includes the north east of Chesterfield, Amber Valley, the Derby City area and Erewash and links up with the National Forest in the south.  Just over the border in Nottinghamshire there is another community forest so that covers a considerable swathe of the East Midlands Combined Authority area.

It's called Heartwood because of its location, it will occupy central positions and will provide a missing link to join up those woodland areas to pockets of available land over geographic areas of approximately 289 square miles in communities along the eastern border and areas to the south of the county. 

The Heartwood Community Forest is fully funded by revenue and capital grants from the government's Trees for Climate Programme.  The initial grant period is until 2026 and included in the government's Comprehensive Spending Review that is currently underway. Work in 2024 and 2025 is concentrated on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94/24

Councillor Major proposed a motion that was duly seconded, in the following terms:

During its last meeting, all Members of Derbyshire County Council, with the exception of Labour Councillors, supported local pensioners by urging the Government to reverse its decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Allowance, a measure that risks leaving many Derbyshire pensioners in danger of going cold during the coming months and in financial hardship, particularly with October’s significant increase the energy price cap. Unfortunately, the Budget provided the Government with many further opportunities to wreak financial havoc on the country.

The Labour Government’s avaricious tax-and-spend Budget on 30 October 2024 was clearly a long-planned full-frontal ideological assault on working people, pensioners, farmers, house-buyers, bus passengers, housing landlords, hospices and other charities, university students, businesses including care companies, childcare and pre-school facilities, and GP and Dental practices which, as the Office for Budget Responsibility and other more respected monetary and fiscal organisations have confirmed, has saddled Britain with £40 billion in extra taxes and plans to spend an additional £70 billion a year that will stifle economic growth for years to come.

The changes to the long-established Inheritance Tax Relief for agricultural land announced by the Labour Government in its mega-tax-raising Budget will introduce what has been widely dubbed as a ‘Family Farm Tax’, which will have a hugely detrimental impact on British families’ food budgets and UK food security by making it extremely difficult for farmers to pass on their Family Farms to the next generation of trained and skilled farmers.

Steve Reed, who was photographed recently wearing a £420 pair of designer wellies donated by the controversial Labour figure Lord Alli and is the Member of Parliament for the inner-London constituency of Streatham as well as the Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Sir Keir Starmer, another well-documented beneficiary of Lord Alli’s seemingly endless murky financial largesse, had both been clear in ruling out the introduction of the Family Farm Tax.

Derbyshire’s economy is highly dependent on farming, and numerous family farms  throughout the County will face the devasting impact of Labour’s terrible new tax.

The UK relies on the farming sector to ensure its food security, which now more than ever is essential to maintain with the population booming at around 70 million people.

This counterproductive and mean-spirited measure has caused levels of despair not seen in agricultural communities since the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001.

That Council believes:

?         The Labour Government’s changes to inheritance tax relief on agricultural property, the Family Farm Tax, will make British food production significantly harder, threaten many long-established family businesses, lead to job losses, and inevitably see much increased food prices for consumers across the UK.

?         At a time when many farmers in Derbyshire are struggling with soaring costs and energy prices, this sudden tax rise will damage the future of their farms and negatively impact on local communities as well as our area’s environmental  ...  view the full minutes text for item 95/24