Agenda

To receive apologies for inability to attend the meeting (if any).

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Executive held on 14 March 2024.

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any personal, disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Members of the Executive to answer questions submitted by members of the public in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules contained in the Council’s Constitution.

Councillors or Members of the public may present any petition which they have received. These will normally be referred to the appropriate Committee without discussion.

Purpose: to propose a new approach for managing regeneration of the Council-owned Bond Riverside estate, by closing-down the existing programme dating from June 2022 and bringing the regeneration of sites on the Bond Riverside estate which are under Council control within the management of the wider Newbury Town Centre Masterplan programme.

Purpose: to publish the results of the Local Government Association (LGA) Corporate Peer Challenge for West Berkshire Council and inform that an Action Plan to address the recommendations will be presented to the next meeting of the Executive.

Purpose: the Council commissioned a review into the CIL Customer Journey which was undertaken by the Planning Officers Society (POS) and this identified a number of opportunities to improve the CIL process in West Berkshire.  There are a number of priority recommendations included in the POS report and this report proposes the adoption of a CIL Enforcement Policy - Householder Applications, which will be applied with immediate effect.

It also proposes a process by which the Council will undertake a discretionary review of CIL payments for Housholder applications previously made against the new CIL Enforcement Policy - Householder Applications. 

Purpose: to provide an overview and update in relation to the Armed Forces Act 2021 and specifically request that West Berkshire Council sign the Armed Forces Covenant and form an Armed Forces Task and Finish group to ensure ongoing compliance and appropriate support to the military ‘family’ in the community.

Purpose: to request approval of funds that will be matched by Greenham Trust to set up a new fund to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people and adults across West Berkshire. The fund ‘Lets Get Mindful’ will support projects that help reduce anxiety and improve mental health and wellbeing of adults, children and young people, aiming to reduce inequalities and improve educational attainment and school readiness.

Purpose: to request that the Executive adopt the proposal that being a ‘care experienced’ person will be viewed as a protected characteristic by West Berkshire Council and afforded the same protections and rights as other groups who are considered to have a protected characteristic in the Equalities Act 2010.

Purpose: to provide feedback on the statutory consultation in relation to the hackney carriage table of fares.

Members of the Executive to answer questions submitted by Councillors in accordance with the Executive Procedure Rules contained in the Council’s Constitution.

RECOMMENDATION: That members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items as it is likely that there would be disclosure of exempt information of the description contained in the paragraphs of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 specified in brackets in the heading of each item. Section 10 of Part 10 of the Constitution refers.

(Paragraph 3 – information relating to financial/business affairs of a particular person)

Purpose: to obtain Executive approval to take action to ensure the delivery of the redevelopment project of Northcroft Leisure Centre.