Minutes:
“As we enter the eye of the chaotic storm the Government has made of Brexit, can the Leader tell us how much has been spent by this Council in terms of time and money, on Brexit preparations since the 2016 referendum?”
Answer
“Thank you for your question. The Council is required to plan for all relevant emergencies, [even ones with uncertain consequences] in partnership with organisations such as the Police, Fire, Ambulance and County Council. For some of our Officers - activities such as emergency planning, training, reporting, responding and recovering from emergencies is part of their day to day work. Others take part as required according to specific risk or need.
The Corporate Management team and all Heads of Service have been engaged in Brexit planning since the referendum result; with the emphasis of considering how Brexit [whatever form it may take] may affect their service and planning for things that this Council can directly control or influence. Each time we have moved towards potential exit days, this planning has increased.
Additionally the Chief Executive and Corporate Director (Public Protection, Planning and Governance) have been actively involved in representing local authority interests at the Statutory Local Resilience Forum, including the Strategic and Tactical Co-ordination groups where joint planning and work for the wider Hertfordshire area is discussed.
Workshops have been held with our Officers, and Member bulletins have been produced to advise Members on work being undertaken. Since August all Councils have been required to appoint a Lead Senior Officer for Brexit and our lead Officer [Corporate Director, Public Protection, Planning and Governance] has also been meeting with colleagues from other districts and boroughs to help understand and plan for potential impacts.
There has been a dedicated Brexit area on the One Welwyn Hatfield website for some months now. Additionally there have been selected posts to the Council’s social media accounts including raising local awareness of the new EU Settlement Scheme. Our risk register has been updated to reflect the UK’s expected exit from the EU and we have reached out to local businesses as well through our partnerships and networks.
As much of this work falls within the Council’s statutory responsibilities a lot has of course been funded from existing service area budgets, however at present some specific money [roughly a couple of thousand] has been spent on things such as communications and imported food safety training for our Environmental Health Officers. As the uncertainties around Brexit become clearer we hope we are of course ready to use the money which has been allocated by central government as required.”
Councillor Broach in a supplementary question said that as the Government had already allocated £4bn to Brexit does Councillor Kingsbury agree with him that it is madness to see local government spending being slashed whilst at the same time watching the same government finding huge wads of cash to use on making a pig’s ear of Brexit?
Councillor Kingsbury said no we need to prepare for it and we have a Motion later on this.