| 99 | RECORD OF MEETINGS |
| | | The record of the meeting held on 17 March 2009 and the Joint Meeting of all Committees held on 6 May 2009 were signed by the Chairman as correct. |
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| 100 | APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE |
| | | Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Brake, Juby and Maple. |
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| 101 | DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST |
| | | Councillor Griffiths declared a personal interest in any item with any reference to NHS Medway (formerly Medway PCT) on the grounds that he is a non-executive director. |
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| 102 | WORK PROGRAMME |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordinator gave a brief introduction to the work programme.
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| The Chairman explained that a report from the newly formed task group to consider temporary accommodation was due to report back to the 15 October 2009 meeting and he would therefore like to chair that meeting. On that basis he requested that the attendance of the Portfolio Holder for Customer First and Corporate Services be put back to the December 2009 meeting. |
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| | > Appendix 1 (pdf file 119.3kb) |
| | > Appendix 2 (pdf file 131.3kb) |
| | > Appendix 3 Forward Plan (pdf file 74.5kb) |
| | > Work programme report (pdf file 95.9kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | | (a) | It was agreed that the attendance of the Portfolio Holder for Customer First and Corporate Services is moved to 10 December 2009;
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| | (b) | The work undertaken by all overview and scrutiny committees in the last cycle and to be considered in the next cycle of meetings was noted. |
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| 103 | CALL-IN SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT 2007 |
| | Discussion: |
| | | On behalf of the Liberal Democrat group, Councillor Stamp introduced the call in item by stating that he felt by not opting into the Sustainable Communities Act the Council was missing an opportunity to empower local residents. He stated that, if adopted, powers from central government could be delegated and by using the Citizen's Panel, not just as a focus group but as a means of reaching agreement on local issues, this would enhance community empowerment.
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| He dismissed the reasons given in the report for not opting into the Act at this stage. As far as the timing was concerned he stated that the Council had been consulted on this last October so there had been sufficient time to consult and he queried why this had not happened. In terms of the potential costs of implementing the powers in the Act he felt they could be absorbed and stated that local residents gave their views free of charge. He also felt that residents were suffering from consultation fatigue and that the direction adopted by all political parties was to delegate power to the community and ensure local residents were part of the decision making process.
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| He put forward an alternative proposition as follows:
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| "This Committee recommends that:
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| The Cabinet should opt-in immediately to the Sustainable Communities Act, with provisions made to:
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| | (1) | Integrate the strategy outlined in the Sustainable Communities Act with the Local Development Framework
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| | (2) | Utilise the 'newly refreshed' Citizens Panel as one of the mechanisms for the Act's implementation, once this Panel has been fully scrutinised to ensure it is representative and includes people from under-represented groups
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| | (3) | Consider incorporating the existing Forums into the Act as a means of enhancing the consultative role they currently have and minimising any potential cost implications".
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| Discussion then took place about the proposal Members expressed the view that they were not convinced about the need to take immediate action and advised that there would be no funding accompanying any powers. It was felt that it would be better to wait to see how other authorities implemented the Act before putting it into practice in Medway.
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| The proposal was seconded, put to the vote and was lost.
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| Following a request from Members, the Assistant Director, Customer First, Leisure, Culture, Democracy and Governance stated that he would be happy to report to this Committee in the New Year on the lessons learned elsewhere.
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| It was then moved that the Cabinet decision should be upheld and no further action taken. |
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| | > Appendix 1 call in sustainable communities act report (pdf file 108.0kb) |
| | > Call-in sustainable communities (pdf file 94.3kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | | (a) | It was agreed that no further action be taken in respect of the call in;
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| | (b) | A report be brought to this Committee in the New Year outlining lessons learned from elsewhere in the country in terms of the implementation of the Sustainable Communities Act 2007. |
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| 104 | COUNCILLOR CALL FOR ACTION AND SCRUTINY OF CRIME AND DISORDER ISSUES |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Assistant Director, Housing and Corporate Services gave a brief introduction to the report on the proposed changes to the constitution to give effect to new powers for councillors to help them solve problems in their wards.
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| She indicated that it was being recommended that individual decision-making powers were not delegated to ward councillors and stated that the Cabinet members did not have individual decision-making powers and emphasised the complexity of adopting such powers. She also mentioned that as part of the briefing of Members in August there would be training for them in their new role.
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| Some members expressed concern that the suggested CCfA procedure placed the onus on ward councillors to notify the public of the outcome of discussion of a CCfA if the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee rejected the matter. Officers advised that it would fall to the member who had organised the CCfA to notify his/her constituents. Members also felt that the idea of a briefing in August may not be feasible due to it being during the holiday period and asked for officers to bear this in mind when organising the event. Should a number of Members be unavailable consideration should be given to moving the event. |
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| | > Draft CCFA and scrutiny of crime and disorder (pdf file 288.0kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | | (a) | It was noted that the Regeneration, Community and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee will be the designated Committee for scrutiny of crime and disorder in Medway and that the Committee will be asked to develop detailed procedures and protocols for implementation of this new power;
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| | (b) | The recommendation to Council that no action should be taken at this stage to implement the new power to delegate decision-making to ward Councillors was noted;
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| | (c) | It was noted that there would be a briefing for Members of the Council on implementation of CcfA. during August with an alternative date being offered for those unable to attend. |
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| 105 | ANNUAL REPORT 2008/2009 |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Assistant Director, Communications, Performance and Partnerships introduced the annual report 2008/2009 and responded to Members' queries.
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| She explained that the reason why a number of data was missing was due to the introduction of new indicators for 2008/9 and the Council was not in an informed position to set targets until the end of 2008/9 the first baseline year.
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| Discussion took place concerning the telephone statistics relating to Customer First, which had been reported to Audit Committee. The Assistant Director, Customer First, Leisure, Culture, Democracy and Governance set out the context for the report and noted that measures had been put in place to ensure that staffing levels could be increased to address call waiting times.
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| The following comments were put forward:
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| | (1) | page 92 third paragraph - it was suggested that this should be contextualised to cover the extent of the current primary school reorganisation including potential school closures
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| | (2) | in order for Members to assess how the Council was performing against stretch targets in particular it would be useful to have similar authorities' figures along for comparison
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| | (3) | those indicators classified as "red" should be tracked into next year
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| | (4) | page 97 fourth paragraph - a request was made that a detailed breakdown of the 427 homes is given to show how many are rented, how many relate to key worker properties, elderly accommodation and other types of affordable housing.
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| The Assistant Director, Communications, Performance and Partnerships explained that with regard to the comparative authorities data requested this would be available as part of the second quarter council plan monitoring.
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| With regard to page 123 NI 169, a request was made for details of the rationale used to determine where and when highways maintenance took place in Medway. Councillor Hunter explained that there would be a Member item at the August meeting of Regeneration, Community and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee covering this matter. |
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| | > Annual report appendix 1 (pdf file 281.5kb) |
| | > Annual report appendix 2 (pdf file 2.4Mb) |
| | > Annual report cover report (pdf file 165.7kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | The Committee noted the report with the comments set out above. |
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| 106 | COUNCIL PLAN 2009-2012 |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Assistant Director, Communications, Performance and Partnerships explained that this was a forward looking report and stated that the Plan had been agreed in February, the purpose of this item was to update members on specific targets set that had now been informed by 2008/9 performance.
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| The following comments were made:
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| | (1) | appendix 1 - it would be helpful to have the comparison with last year's targets and actuals to see where indicators were progressing
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| | (2) | page 163 NI 14 - it was unclear what this was measuring and it would be helpful to have an explanation of how this measure was meaningful in terms of performance and improvement. |
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| | > Council plan appendix 1 (pdf file 581.2kb) |
| | > Council Plan covering report (pdf file 91.6kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | The comments set out above were identified for forwarding to Cabinet and should be included in the first quarter council plan monitoring report. |
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| 107 | HOUSING REVENUE ACCOUNT CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2009/2010 |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Assistant Director, Housing and Corporate Services introduced the report setting out the housing revenue account capital programme 2009/2010 and responded to Members' questions.
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| In response to a query concerning paragraph 2.5 of the report she stated that the property surveys had not yet commenced this year and that 25% would be surveyed in each area, assumptions would then be made about stock condition and the remainder completed on cloned data.
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| The comment was made that the figures for planned maintenance set out on page 169 of the report lacked detail and that a cost per unit should be shown. A Member voiced concern over boiler replacements and the possible disaggregation of capital budgets and quoted 2.4 of the contract rules as follows:
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| "any officer who knowingly assembles or disassembles a scheme in order to avoid or diminish the requirements of these rules or otherwise disregards the provisions of these rules or the guidance in the procurement manual may be liable to disciplinary action"
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| The member also stated that he felt there was a conflict of interest in this instance for the Monitoring Officer also having responsibility for housing matters.
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| The Chief Finance Officer stated that no breach of financial regulations had occurred and the Assistant Director, Housing and Corporate Services emphasised that legal advice had been sought in relation to housing matters from a senior member of the legal team.
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| In response to a further query she stated that while a small amount of boiler replacements were currently being carried out by Mears the remainder of the replacements would be tendered for with the capital works programme, as set out in the report. She stated that soft market testing had been completed on the replacement of the boilers and the price had been £500 under the market price. Swale Heating are checking all boilers installed by Mears and feedback would be requested from all respective clients. |
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| | > Housing Revenue Account Capital programme 2009-10 (pdf file 146.9kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | | (a) | The report outlining the current position and future proposals for the HRA capital programme was noted;
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| | (b) | It was agreed that quarterly progress reports would be presented to this Committee. |
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