Cabinet Decisions

Since its inception in 2018 we have been running a commercial waste service with the intention of providing local businesses with a fairly priced and flexible service. The original decision was predicated on introducing a new service, whilst using existing resources and generating surplus income to help support the budgets within Waste & Recycling.

The service is currently being subsidised by waste and recycling resources and the national HGV driver shortage has had a significant impact. There has been a 2 week suspension of garden waste that impacted some 12,500 residents as well as difficulty in fulfilling our missed collection recall commitment.

Cabinet agreed that:

As per Option 1 at 4.1 in the cabinet report to cease offering the service from 31 May 2023 and provide two months notice to customers as per the terms and conditions, discontinue the Commercial Waste Service and charge customers at the 2022/23 rate until such time as the service is withdrawn.

The aim of the Future High Street Fund was to renew and reshape high streets with the inclusion of other uses to drive increases in footfall. Through a lengthy application process Thanet District Council was awarded funding from the Fund to deliver a creative workspace scheme. Unfortunately, due to changing circumstances, the building originally identified to deliver the workspace project in, has been leased to a private business, and with further assets either having been sold, or leased to a third party, or in relation to a previous decision on the 13 October, 2023, the landlord has become unresponsive.

The Council also has the opportunity to include the Levelling Up Programme Funding for the Access to Opportunities in the town centre project as part of this delivery. This allows for greater value to be added to both the Future High Street Fund project and the Levelling Up Fund project.

Cabinet agreed:

1.  To Authorise the Director of Regeneration to include the Levelling Up Fund monies for the ‘Access to Opportunities’ (town centre) project to be included within the Future High Street Fund project for delivery. The funding allocated is approximately £250,000;

2.  To give delegated authority to the Director of Regeneration, in consultation with the Interim Director of Property, to complete negotiations for the purchase of a town centre property within the approximately £1.31m externally funded budget. The funding allocated will need to deliver the purchase of the asset, and refurbishment in order to meet the outputs of the Future High Street Fund and the Levelling Up Fund project.

A report was presented to Cabinet proposing options for the future of the Port of Ramsgate.  The report discusses market opportunities and describes recent work to develop options for future port delivery, with the objective of creating a sustainable and financially resilient business model, alongside an increase in local employment.

Cabinet agreed:

1.  To approve the future model for delivery of the Commercial Port as set out in Option 5, in Section 10 (of the cabinet report);

2.  To give delegated authority to the Chief Executive Officer to develop the procurement framework and process to be followed, to secure a port operator in accordance with Section 11 of this report;

3.  To give delegated authority to the CEO to conduct an open and competitive tendering process in order to make a recommendation to Cabinet to secure a Port Operator, based on the proposed scoring criteria; following which the CEO is authorised to negotiate and award a concession contract and enter into an accompanying lease, in accordance with Section 11 of this report;

4.  To give delegated authority to the CEO to conduct negotiations with the aggregate operator, which will be subject to a best value exercise to ensure the agreed proposals add value to the Port of Ramsgate, the Council, and its communities. Negotiations will also cover any requirements in terms of formal approvals required being achievable for the expansion. The agreed proposals will be recommended by the CEO to Cabinet for approval. Following this, the CEO is authorised to enter into a subsequent contractual agreement with an accompanying new (or revised existing) lease with the aggregate operator.

Cabinet considered a report regarding the  HRA tower block refurbishment and retrofit programme.  Approval requested for 2 points:

1. Approval of  the appointment of Mears Group PLC as design and delivery partner via direct award using the Prosper framework;

2.  Approval of  the appointment of the in-house delivery team, as detailed in annex 1 to the Cabinet report.

Cabinet agreed to:

1. Approve the appointment of Mears Group PLC as design and delivery partner via direct award using the Prosper framework;

2.  Approve the appointment of the in-house delivery team, as detailed in annex 1 (to the cabinet report).

A report was presented to Cabinet proposing to transfer an area of land off of Highfield Road, Ramsgate, from the General Fund (GF) to the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the provision of affordable housing.

Cabinet agreed:

1.  To the transfer of land from the General Fund account to the Housing Revenue account to enable it to be developed for Affordable Housing;

2.  To prepare and submit an application for planning consent for the development of affordable homes, including necessary technical site assessments and community consultation;

3.  To consider a further report to authorise the letting of a construction contract, once a detailed scheme has been developed.

A report was presented to Cabinet which provided an update on the current use of the Better Care Fund, and recommended that some of the funding be used to support additional resources for Home Energy advice.

Cabinet agreed:

1.  To note the report regarding the current use of the Better Care Fund, and approve the additional resource within the Housing Strategy & Projects Team for Home Energy.

Thanet District Council called a Climate Emergency on 11th July 2019. On September 22nd 2022, the first draft of the Thanet District Council Net Zero Strategy was presented to cabinet and the updated TDC pledge was agreed: 

To do what is within our powers and resources to: 

• make Thanet District Council net zero by 2030 in our core carbon footprint (this includes emissions we have direct control over e.g. the estates and activities that we own and manage) 
• address emissions that TDC has partial control over (those outside of the core carbon footprint e.g. projects, procurement and social housing) as soon as possible, and by 2050 at the latest.
• support KCC, the Government, business, industry and the community to make Thanet as a whole net zero by 2050.

In order to make these targets possible we will:

• call on Westminster to provide the powers and resources to make the targets possible;
• continue to work with partners across the county and region to deliver this new goal through all relevant strategies;
• investigate all possible sources of external funding and match funding to support this commitment

The cabinet also approved the draft Net Zero Strategy for public engagement, which ran until Friday 11th November 2022. Members of the public and stakeholders were asked to complete either a short questionnaire comprising three questions or a long survey comprising 8 questions. 

32 responses to the short survey and 40 responses to the long survey were received. This feedback is summarised in the report and the full document is attached as annex 1 to the Cabinet report.

As part of the engagement we received a large number of comments and suggestions which are summarised in Table 1 of the full report. The table also includes TDC’s response to the comments, showing how we will take the comments into consideration.

The engagement process has led to a number of recommended additions to the strategy. These were discussed at the Climate Change Cabinet Advisory Group and were considered useful. Members are asked to read the report and consider the recommendations below. 

Further information has also been added to the Net Zero Strategy which helps to clarify our route forwards. This includes a paragraph around the use of seaweed to sequester carbon:

“Scientists will assess the carbon storage and sequestration potential of all UK seas, as well as within Marine Protected Areas and it is hoped that the report will be available in summer 2023. We will use this information to inform our carbon sequestration plans”. 

The updated strategy is attached as Annex 2 to the Cabinet report. Any additional information is highlighted in yellow within the document for ease of viewing.

Cabinet agreed:

1.  To approve the proposed recommended additions to the Net Zero Strategy:

a.  To add interim targets (to 2030 and 2040) for the emissions the council has partial control over in the next action plan. This action plan will be written in 2024;

b.  To add the emissions from home working to future carbon footprinting calculations; 

c.  To consider calculating emissions from staff commuting when resources become available to collate the more complicated data set; 

d.  To work with KCC on Local area energy planning to devise a plan for renewable energy across the district, where resources allow; 

e.  To set out a clear plan to ensure that all staff are educated on climate change.

2.  To approve the Final Net Zero Strategy 2023;

3.  To continue to note that the strategy cannot be fully implemented without external funding being available, and agreed, in accordance with the pledge, to lobby external agencies and government.