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NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE DISTRICT COUNCIL

Week ending 15 May 2020

MEMBERS’ INFORMATION

Topic Page News and information

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CCTV Reports

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Pre-Agenda, Agenda and Decision sheets

11 - 22

Planning consultations

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Planning applications received & decisions

23 - 33

Press releases

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Produced by the Communications Team. Any comments, suggestions or contributions should be

sent to the Communications Team at pressoffice@north-herts.gov.uk

www.north-herts.gov.uk

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NEWS AND INFORMATION

AGENDA & REPORTS

PUBLISHED WEEK COMMENCING 11 MAY 2020

Planning Control Committee – Thursday 28 May 2020

FORTHCOMING MEETINGS WEEK COMMENCING 18 MAY 2020

None

CHAIR’S ENGAGEMENTS WEEK COMMENCING 16 MAY 2020

Date Event Location None

VICE-CHAIR’S ENGAGEMENTS WEEK COMMENCING 16 MAY 2020

Date Event Location

None

OTHER EVENTS WEEK COMMENCING 16 MAY 2020

Date Event Location

None

www.north-herts.gov.uk

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RESOURCES

MEMBERS INFORMATION NOTE

Nominations to the Asset of Community Value register Under the Assets of Community Value (Community Right to Bid) we may receive nominations to list assets within our District, whether they are NHDC owned or not. When a valid nomination is received, we will inform all Councillors. Subsequently we will also notify Councillors of whether the listing nomination was successful or not. This note is to confirm that we have received a nomination, under the Localism Act, from The Windmill Community Pub Ltd for the following assets: The Windmill PH, Charlton, Hitchin, Herts.

If a nomination for an asset is accepted, no further actions are taken until such time as the asset is to be put up for sale (or for disposal by a long lease).

If you have any queries regarding the interpretation of the "Right to Bid", please contact Isabelle Alajooz in Legal Services I would be very grateful for any comments you may have on this nomination by 11th June 2020 Background: The Dept of Communities & Local Government states that the initial requirements for a valid nomination are: A) a description of the nominated land including its proposed boundaries for the purposes of the nomination. B) any information the nominator has about the freeholders, leaseholders and current occupants of the site. C) the reasons for nominating the asset, explaining why the nominator believes the asset meets the definition. D) the nominator's eligibility to make the nomination. For more information please contact: Ian Couper Service Director - Resources Tel: 01462 474243 Email: ian.couper@north-herts.gov.uk

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CUSTOMERS

MEMBERS INFORMATION NOTE

VIDEO CONFERENCING AND IT HARDWARE PROVISION

The IT Team has been working for some time, long before COVID-19 appeared, to develop a video

conferencing facility for the Council. The advent of COVID-19 has prioritised the need to complete

this work much earlier than originally expected.

It has become clear that any video conferencing system is not as effective as it may be, if it is being

run on equipment which is not optimised for these systems and where the broadband capability is

below that which will support video conferencing.

There have already been a number of internal meetings run as trials and two open Council meetings

run and I know that some Members who have taken part have been frustrated by dropping out of the

meeting or where frames freeze.

The Council has ordered a number of laptops, which will have sufficient sound and video capability to

support video conferencing. It is hoped that these will be delivered very soon, although I have to

report that we have had some difficulties with the supplier over this. The intention will then be that our

IT get the laptops built and delivered to appropriate Members as soon as possible.

Can I please ask Members to contact Vic Godfrey on 01462 474455 or at vic.godfrey@north-

herts.gov.uk by Bank Holiday Monday, 25 May 2020 to confirm whether you need one of the new

laptops. You will need a laptop if you are relying on only a tablet or mobile phone for carrying out your

Council business or if you have a desktop PC or laptop that does not have sound or video capability.

If you have a desktop PC or laptop that has adequate sound and video capability, it should be

perfectly fine for you to use that equipment for video conferencing.

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Regardless of what equipment you have, or whatever system is used, video conferencing will not

work effectively if you do not have sufficient broadband speed. This has been the cause of most of

the Member frustration mentioned above.

With that in mind, I would ask that all Members carry out a broadband speed test to be sure that their

broadband capability is sufficient. It would be useful to carry out tests at different times of the day, as

speeds can vary from time-to-time. There are various broadband speed tests that can be downloaded

and a recommended test would be:

Andriod – Play Store and search for Speedtest

IOS (Apple) App Store and search Speedtest

If the upload and download speeds are below about 5.8 mb/s, there may well be a problem with you

maintaining a video conferencing link and you should seek advice from your internet broadband

supplier.

If any Member has any queries over this or wishes to seek further advice, please contact Vic Godfrey,

contact details above.

With the current arrangements likely to continue for some time, we are working hard to provide a

solution that will enable the Council to resume its normal business as far as possible and this needs

help from Members to achieve this, so to summarise:

• Please contact Vic Godfrey to say whether or not you need a Council laptop (please let him know even if you don’t need one) by Monday 25 May 2020

• Please take a few minutes to check your broadband speed to ensure it is capable of supporting video conferencing

HOWARD CROMPTON

SERVICE DIRECTOR - CUSTOMERS

Tel: 01462 474247

Email: howard.crompton@north-herts.gov.uk

15 May 2020

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STRATEGIC PLANNING AND ENTERPRISE

MEMBERS' INFORMATION NOTE

Intalink Enhanced Partnership Safer Travel Campaign – 13.05.2020

Following the Prime Ministers announcements on Sunday regarding the first phase of easing of lockdown restrictions, the DfT (Department for Transport) have now issued safer travel guidance for passengers which can be viewed here: www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-safer-travel-guidance-for-passengers The Intalink team at HCC are currently putting together a campaign plan to implement across Hertfordshire and the bus network to support operators and residents with this messaging, the DfT have also provided some guidance on messaging style with wording and logos which we are currently tweaking to include the Intalink Enhanced Partnership branding also. They are asking operators to use this across the bus network to ensure consistency in the messaging for Hertfordshire’s residents and passengers. The Intalink team will also be looking to produce the campaign material as well as a toolkit of ads to be deployed across social media accounts, with digital material expected to go live next week. Contact Officer: Daniel Washington Transport Officer Tel: 01462 474368 Email: Daniel.Washington@north-herts.gov.uk

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STRATEGIC PLANNING AND ENTERPRISE

MEMBERS' INFORMATION NOTE

Train services will change from 17 May 2020 From 17 May 2020, the UK rail industry will introduce a new timetable, to support the United Kingdom’s efforts to tackle coronavirus. The focus is on increasing space for key workers, safely and reliably. The timetable will operate until further notice. The timetable restores some additional train services with earlier start and later finish times, adds more cross-London Thameslink services and increases frequencies across the network to create more space for customers on-board. The new timetable is an adapted version of the plan for the Saturday timetable in the original Summer 2020 plan, now operating on a Monday-Saturday basis. These adaptions are focused on matching where possible early and late-night services and uplifts in train frequencies to cover peak travel periods. It is different to the timetable that is currently operating, so it is important that passengers check before travelling because the times of trains and station calling patterns will change. It is important to emphasise that the times of most trains will change, and we are asking customers to plan before travelling. The timetable is available in journey planners such a www.nationalrail.co.uk from 12 May 2020. Fore more details: www.thameslinkrailway.com/travel-information/plan-your-journey/coronavirus-information Contact Officer: Daniel Washington

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RECORD OF DECISION MADE UNDER DELEGATED AUTHORITY

*PART 1 – PUBLIC DOCUMENT

Any interest to declare/ or conflict and any dispensation granted [if applicable] None

SERVICE DIRECTORATE: Resources

1. DECISION TAKEN

To approve the criteria for awarding grants to Community Organisations who are providing

support to residents in relation to Covid-19. The criteria are set out in Appendix A.

2. DECISION TAKER

Ian Couper, Service Director: Resources

3. DATE DECISION TAKEN:

15th May 2020

4. REASON FOR DECISION

To provide criteria for awarding grants to ensure that it is focused on those services that the Council

are seen as most important and to ensure a spread across the District.

5. ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED

The Council has a role in supporting its residents and communities, so not providing any grants or

funding was discounted.

Awarding grants solely through Area Committees was discounted as that may not provide

consistency or geographical spread.

6. CONSULTATION (INCLUDING THE EFFECT ON STAKEHOLDERS, PARTNERS AND THE

PUBLIC)

The Executive Member for Finance and IT has been consulted, as any spend from the Special

Reserve is agreed in consultation with him.

The Executive Member and Deputy Executive Member for Community Engagement have also been

consulted.

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All other Members of the Cabinet have also been given the opportunity to comment.

7. FORWARD PLAN

7.1 This decision is not a key Executive decision and has therefore not been referred to in the

Forward Plan.

8. BACKGROUND/ RELEVANT CONSIDERATIONS

8.1 The Special Reserve was set up a number of years ago. Following an urgent delegated

decision by the Chief Executive on 3 April 2020 the uses of the Reserve have been extended

to include “support the response to and reduce the impact of major incidents”. This allows it to

be used for discretionary spend in response to Covid-19. The reserve can be used for other

purposes (including “pump priming for initiatives for shared services, changes in working

practice, major contract renewals, unexpected contract variation, and other financial

pressures) and could be released to support General Fund expenditure. Therefore, it is not

the intention that this Reserve should be used solely to provide these grants, or indeed just for

discretionary spend in relation to Covid-19. The referenced delegated decision also “noted

that any discretionary spend in respect of Covid-19 will be approved by the Service Director:

Resources as Budget Manager, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and

IT”.

8.2 The Council has received a few applications through Area Committees for funding for local

groups supporting the provision and delivery of food and other essentials. As it is now clear

that the impact of Covid-19, and specifically the impact of lockdown, will be with us for quite

some time, it was felt necessary to consider how the Council could get the best outcomes out

of the limited funding that it can provide. The criteria that are set out in more detail in

Appendix A are therefore focused on:

• Concentrating the support on the provision of food and essentials, mental health support and domestic violence support.

• Using larger grants through ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ arrangements to ensure broad coverage and enable the monitoring of activities, outputs and outcomes.

• Using smaller grants through an application process to supplement this with support that addresses more local and/or more specific needs.

9. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS

9.1. As detailed in paragraph 8.1, the Service Director: Resources has been given authority to approve spend from the Special Reserve i.e. to act as Budget Manager. This will be done in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and IT. This therefore provides authority to set specific criteria on spend (in accordance with the general principles agreed) and spend up to the available budget.

10. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

10.1. These criteria set the parameters for the Council incurring revenue expenditure that is in accordance with the delegated decision made by the Chief Executive on 3 April 2020. The amount of spend that will be incurred is currently unknown but will be monitored to ensure that it remains within the available Special Reserve funding. The intention is that spend will be significantly less than the total available, to retain funding for other purposes.

10.2. There are no capital expenditure implications.

11. RISK IMPLICATIONS

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11.1 The intention of awarding funding is to try and reduce the risk of negative outcomes arising from

the Covid-19 pandemic. The criteria will clarity how funding will be awarded and therefore

reduce the risk that funding does not maximise the achievement of positive outcomes. There is

a financial risk that the demand will exceed the available funding. This will be managed through

regular reviews, and also identifying other support that community groups can access.

12. EQUALITIES IMPLICATIONS

12.1 In line with the Public Sector Equality Duty, public bodies must, in the exercise of their functions,

give due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation, to advance

equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected

characteristic and those who do not.

12.2 The use of this fund seeks to directly support those most vulnerable during this pandemic.

Whilst it is acknowledged that Covid-19 greatly affects the whole of the population, the most

vulnerable bear the brunt of the impact.

13. SOCIAL VALUE IMPLICATIONS

13.1 The Social Value Act and “go local” policy do not apply to this decision.

14. HUMAN RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS

14.1 The process of awarding the larger grants (e.g. identification of organisations, discussions with

those groups and completing Memoranda of Understanding) will create additional work for the

Community Engagement Team. The management of the smaller grants will also create additional work.

The intention of these criteria is to manage this additional work as much as possible, whilst still

achieving the desired positive outcomes.

15. BACKGROUND PAPERS

Chief Executive Delegated Decision of 3 April 2020.

16. APPENDICES

Covid-19 Special Reserve Community Grant Protocol

NOTIFICATION DATE

15.5.2020

Signature of Executive Member Consulted ……Non-executive decision……………

Date …………………………………………..

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Signature of Decision Taker ……… ………………………

This is a non-executive decision.

Call-in does not apply to NON-EXECUTIVE DECISIONS

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