Agenda item

To receive reports and any announcements from the Leader and members of the Cabinet on matters falling within their area of responsibility:

(a)        Report of the Leader;

(b)        Report of the Commercial and Regulatory Services Portfolio Holder (attached);

(c)        Report of the Customer and Corporate Support ServicesPortfolio Holder (attached);

(d)        Report of the Environmental and Technical Services Portfolio Holder (attached);

(e)        Report of the Finance and Economic Development Portfolio Holder (attached);

(f)         Report of the Housing and Community ServicesPortfolio Holder (attached); and     

(g)        Report of the Planning and Sustainability Portfolio Holder (attached).

The Council received written reports from Portfolio Holders. The Chairman invited the Leader of Council to provide an oral report and the opportunity for other members of the Cabinet to give updates on matters concerning their relevant portfolios.

(a)        Leader of Council

Councillor C Whitbread stated that the Covid-19 vaccination programme roll-out was well established, it was good news for the Country and for the Epping Forest district bringing positive signs with a timetable to unlock the Country which would bring back some normality into the daily lives of people.

He advised that he had been attending numerous meetings on a regular basis, in his capacity as Leader of Council, including the Covid-19 Local Outbreak Board. The Board had been looking at controlling the Covid-19 outbreaks and as had been reported in the news Brentwood were undergoing additional test and trace procedures due to the South African variant. He stated that he was pleased to report the figures for the Epping Forest district had been falling and continued to fall which was positive news. Members of the EFDC Cabinet have brought forward their reports to the meeting which start to show the way forward and the recovery following the Pandemic, this would be one of the Councils main focuses in the weeks and months ahead.

Councillor J Philip will be reporting the Councils Budget at this meeting and I am pleased to say it was an excellent Budget and would set the theme for the coming year

(b)        Housing and Community Services Portfolio Holder

Councillor H Whitbread advised that she had recently attended a housing webinar which gave her the opportunity to engage with tenants. It was a good way of communicating with tenants and for them to be able to ask questions of officers.  The event was well attended and hopefully these webinars will continue regularly.

Councillor Whitbread also advised that she had met with the Youth Council and the High Sheriff of Essex and was asked some very challenging questions from the Youth Councillors. She felt it was good to keep in touch with the Youth Council and that was something she had done regularly throughout the year.

The Festival of Culture which was ongoing with lots of digital engagement programmes from wild life to music and was good to celebrate culture across the district. The Digital Inclusion projects were continuing to help people with social isolation particularly in Shelley, Ongar and Paternoster, Waltham Abbey.

(c)        Planning and Sustainability Portfolio Holder

Councillor N Bedford advised that recently the Planning team had become aware of a Government bid that was available for the National Model Design Code and the Council hastily put together a bid with the co-operation and collaboration of working with North Weald Parish Council a bid has been put forward and the result will be known shortly. The National Model Design Code sets out design considerations around the masterplanning areas and as North Weald would be one of the first areas coming forward in the Local Plan a successful bid would enable North Weald to have some control over the design on the masterplanning area.

(d)        Customer and Corporate Services Portfolio Holder

Councillor S Kane advised that he would like to update his report on page 33 of the agenda where it stated ‘There are 8 vacancies in ICT due to the restructuring’. There had been a successful advertising campaign leaving just 1 vacancy in ICT and now all work would be able to be carried out in house and not by external companies.