Report on County Council Matters to North Nibley Parish Council

5^th November 2018

Latest Ofsted Report on Children’s Services

In early October Ofsted carried out their fourth monitoring visit to children’s services since the inspection in March 2017.The report sent to the county council reads: “The local authority has accelerated progress in improving services for its children and young people, albeit from a delayed start”. It also highlights that progress was not consistent across the service.

The report referenced a lack of consistent timely visits to children where there are safeguarding concerns, leading to children remaining in situations of unassessed risk for too long, as well as a failure to follow processes where there are clear disclosures of abuse.

The full report is available on Ofsted’s website: https://files.api.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50034361

New Chief Fire Officer

Wayne Bowcock has been appointed to this post and will be taking it up early next year. He is currently Deputy Chief Fire Officer for Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Highways Local

£500 of my allocation is to be put towards finding and fixing potholes between Whiteway Hill and Waterley Bottom. This work is scheduled for the end of this month.

Emergency Exercise

If you happen to be in Berkeley next Saturday, 10th November you may wish to be aware that the power station site will be hosting a major multi-agency emergency exercise.

It will begin at around 11 a.m. and you may hear some loud noises and commotion coming from the site – this is due to the nature of the exercise scenario.

Significant numbers of emergency services personnel will be present on the site throughout the day, with representation from the Police, Ambulance and Fire Service. They will be coming through Berkeley but will only initiate ‘blue lights’ at the roundabout adjacent to site. They will not affect access to and from Berkeley.

The exercise is due to complete by 3 p.m.

Parking enforcement services contract

Work on this contract has now started. Tender documentation will be issued in December and the contract awarded next April for commencement in April 2020 when the current contract with APCOA expires. It will be a five-year contract with an option to extend for a further three years.

A shared contract with the district councils has been found not to be cost effective, although they could of course choose to appoint the same supplier.

Household Recycling Centres

I reported last month on the one day a week closure of these. My group has set up an online petition to try to get this decision reversed at: www.gloslibdems.org.uk/recycling_petition

John Cordwell

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