Agenda and minutes

1.         This meeting is to be webcast. Members are reminded of the need to activate their microphones before speaking.

2.         The Chairman will read the following announcement:

“I would like to remind everyone present that this meeting will be broadcast live to the Internet and will be capable of repeated viewing and copies of the recording could be made available for those that request it.

If you are seated in the lower public seating area it is likely that the recording cameras will capture your image and this will result in the possibility that your image will become part of the broadcast.

This may infringe your human and data protection rights and if you wish to avoid this you should move to the upper public gallery”

The Chairman made a short address to remind all present that the meeting would be broadcast on the Internet, and that the Council had adopted a protocol for the webcasting of its meetings. The Committee noted the Council’s Protocol for Webcasting of Council and Other Meetings.

As the Chairman of the meeting Councillor Morgan was unavailable, the Vice Chairman, Councillor Mrs Whitehouse took the Chair for the meeting.

Councillor Mrs H Harding was appointed Vice Chairman for the duration of the meeting.

(Head of Research and Democratic Services). To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was reported that Councillor R Frankel was substituting for Councillor M Woollard and that Councillor K Chana was substituting for Councillor M Cohen.

(Head of Research and Democratic Services). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

a)            Pursuant to the Council's Code of Member Conduct, Councillor Mrs M Sartin declared a personal interest in agenda item 10 (Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) Task and Finish Panel – Final Report) by virtue of being a member of the LSP Board.  She declared that her interests were not prejudicial and indicated that she would remain in the meeting during the consideration of the item.

b)            Pursuant to the Council's Code of Member Conduct, Councillor Mrs A Grigg declared a personal interest in agenda item 10 (Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) Task and Finish Panel – Final Report) by virtue of being a member of the LSP Board.  She declared that her interests were not prejudicial and indicated that she would remain in the meeting during the consideration of the item.

c)            Pursuant to the Council's Code of Member Conduct, Councillor K Wright declared a personal interest in agenda item 9 (Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme) by virtue of being a member of Theatre Resources.  He declared that his interests were not prejudicial and indicated that he would remain in the meeting during the consideration of the item.

d)            Pursuant to the Council's Code of Member Conduct, Councillor Mrs J Whitehouse declared a personal interest in agenda item 10 (Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) Task and Finish Panel – Final Report) by virtue of being a member of the learning partnership of the LSP.  She declared that her interests were not prejudicial and indicated that she would remain in the meeting during the consideration and voting on the item.

e)            Pursuant to the Council's Code of Member Conduct, Councillor A Lee declared a personal interest in agenda item 10 (Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) Task and Finish Panel – Final Report) by virtue of being a member of the LSP. He declared that his interests were not prejudicial and indicated that he would remain in the meeting during the consideration of the item.

Decisions required:

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 2 February 2007. (attached).

That the minutes of the Committee held on 1 February 2006 be taken as read and signed by the Chairman as a correct record subject to the correction of the spelling of Councillors Bateman name under minute number 69.

(Head of Environmental Services). Ms Davina Millership, the Area Highways Manager, for the District will be attending the meeting to give a presentation and answer questions on local highway issues.

The Chairman welcomed Davina Millership, the Area Highways Manager for the District, Spencer Brooks, Senior Traffic Engineer and Trevor Baker the Assistant District Manager. They were attending the meeting to give a presentation and a question and answer session on local highways issues.

Ms Millership started by saying that an area office is the implementation arm of Highways and Transportation Section. They have strategic officers at County Hall that put together programmes and get funding from Central Government. This is then fed to the four area offices for practical implementation.

Generally the area offices carry out the day to day maintenance, e.g. resurfacing of footways and carriageways, potholes, gulley cleansing and traffic management schemes (including parking and general signage). They also implement road safety schemes and deal with Development Control, that is, schemes that have above five and up to fifty properties are dealt with by the area offices. They also deal with street lighting maintenance.

They have two main areas of funding for maintenance. One is a budget for basic maintenance, e.g. pothole patching and this is a reactive maintenance budget. The other is capital funding for larger/major construction schemes and this is spread over a three year period. We are currently in the second year of the cycle. The first year concentrates on ‘A’ roads; the second year concentrates on ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads; and the third year on ‘B’ and unclassified roads.

The basic maintenance budget for 2005/06 was £2.5 million for the West Area Office – of that 31% went to Epping in 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08.

For Highways Maintenance, the West Area Office got 40% of the total amount for the County – of which 52% went to Epping in 2005/06, 33% in 2006/07 and 46 in 2007/08. This was from a £8m budget for the West Area.

Area Offices report to a Local Programme Manager, John Burr who in turn reports to Tony Ciaburro at County.

They run a Highways Panel twice a year that meets in the Harlow Offices and have a £200,000 Local Determination budget for use in consultation with Local Councils. They also use Section 106 money for specific projects and act as consultants to Local Councils.

Davina Millership then answered questions from members on highways that were sent to her prior to the meeting. The questions and answers are attached to these minutes as an appendix.

(Head of Environmental Services). Members will recall that, at its meeting on 9 January 2007,  the OSC called-in the proposals to provide free Saturday  car parking. The Committee resolved, in principle, to carry out regular operational reviews of the regime and asked the Portfolio Holder for Civil Engineering and Maintenance, Councillor A Green, to formulate arrangements for carrying this out for this meeting.

The Portfolio Holder has been invited to attend this meeting to report back his proposals.

The Head of Environmental Services reported back to this meeting on the provision of regular operational reviews of the free car parking on Saturdays recently instituted. He reported that they were to use the existing parking attendants to monitor use of the car parks. They would be there at 10am and then again at mid afternoon to note the registration numbers of any long stay vehicles, this could be accomplished at no extra cost to the Council. A fuller feedback could be obtained from the Town Centre Partnerships, for a longer term survey.

The Portfolio Holder for Civil Engineering and Maintenance, Councillor Green added that initiative could be viewed in two ways, one, looking if the car parks were being used in a manner we did not want, and two, as a way to enhance town centres and assist traders, and this was where local ward members could provide feedback on how it’s working.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse asked if it could also be noted how many cars use the parks and was assured that this would be done.

Councillor Frankel asked how long it would take to get meaningful feedback from this survey and was told that they would be collecting data every Saturday. A view would have to be taken on when the cut off point would be to get any meaningful data.

(Head of Research and Democratic Services) To consider the attached report.

The Committee noted that this was a first draft of the annual report for 2006/07. Comments were requested to be sent to Democratic Services by week ending 16 March 2007.  It would then be amended and a final version put to the April meeting of the Committee.

(Head of Research and Democratic Services). To consider the attached report.

The committee noted that a new work programme was to be presented to the next meeting. They were now asked to send in any new items for consideration by 19 March, when it would be considered under the PICK system. The Chairman and Vice Chairman will sift through the new requests to determine if any new topics are to be added to the work programme of the existing Standing Panels or to constitute new task and Finish Panels.

Standing Panels

Councillor Colling proposed that with the current large workload on officers, was the Customer Services and ICT Standing Panel still relevant as their workload had shrunk over the last few months. Councillor Collins agreed that a lot of their work was on hold at present, so it could be closed down and the remainder of their work could be transferred to the Finance and Performance Management Standing Panel, until their Customer Service work picks up again.

The Committee agreed that any outstanding work be re-evaluated and redistributed to other panels.

            RESOLVED:

1.            That the Customer Services and ICT Standing Panel be disbanded and its remaining workload be redistributed to other panels, principally to the Finance and Performance Management Panel.

2.            The Committee considered the other Standing Panels and agreed that they should continue.

Task and Finish Panels

Leisure – the Chairman of the Panel Councillor Mrs Harding reported that the panel would have completed three of the four tasks set out in its terms of reference, that is the Review of the Future Management of the Roding Valley Meadows Local Nature Reserve, the Review of Arts Development in the District and the District Council’s role and involvement in Outdoor and Community Events. They would need more time to finish the Future Management of Waltham Abbey Sports Centre. A full report will go to the next meeting of this committee.

Town Centre and Car Parks – the antisocial elements of this Panel’s terms of reference is still to be completed and probably continue into the new year.

Crime and Disorder – this Panel will be meeting again on 15 March and hopes to wind up it’s terms of reference by the end of this year.

Older Persons and Disabled Persons – this Panel is currently writing its final report, which will come to the next meeting of this committee.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The work programme for the committee and the need for the Chairman of the LSP to be invited to address the Committee on a yearly basis was noted.

Council Plan

Noted that a Value for Money Sub-group was currently meeting, and may call for an in-depth service review.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse commented that he had just come from that sub-group meeting and they had been looking at various areas of the Council but were constrained by the data in front of them.

Two areas that did occur to the sub-group for further investigation was:

1)                 the external management of leisure facilities by SLM, and they would like the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.

(Chairman of the Panel – Councillor Ms M Sartin). To consider the final report of the Panel. (To follow).

The Committee received the final report of the Local Strategic Partnership Task and Finish Panel. Councillor Mary Sartin, the Chairman of the Panel, introduced the report and commended it to the meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the Local Strategic Partnership Task and Finish Panel Report be endorsed.

Recommendation:

To consider any items to be raised by the Chairman at the Cabinet meeting on 12 March 2007

(Head of Research and Democratic Services). Members are reminded to bring to the meeting their copy of the Cabinet agenda.

The committee looked at the cabinet agenda for the meeting to be held on 12 March 2007. The only item of business they had for it was, on the consideration of the Calendar of Meetings for 2007-08. At the recent Local Council’s Liaison Committee meeting they had requested that provision be made by the District Council to leave one night a week free of meetings. This was so that they hold their own individual meetings to enable ‘dual-hatted’ Councillors to attend. The Local Councils thought that this might be feasible now that four Area Planning Sub-Committees had been reduced to three, thus freeing up some Wednesdays.

The Committee were sympathetic to Local Councils dilemma, but also acknowledged that the District Council’s need for meetings should be paramount. They agreed that, as far as possible some spare days be kept free of meetings to help Local Councils, and this would be recommended to Cabinet.

            RESOLVED:

That the Committee put to the Cabinet three alternatives, that the principle not be agreed; or that where possible, the principle be agreed; or finally that the principle be accepted. The Committee would recommend the second option to the Cabinet.