Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was reported that Councillor Mrs Pond was substituting for Councillor Angold-Stephens, Councillor Mrs Hedges for Councillor Green and Councillor Chana for Councillor Hart.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). 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.

No declarations of interest were reported pursuant to the Councils Code of Conduct.

Decisions required:

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 5 June 2008.

            RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 June 2008 be taken as read and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(Deputy Chief Executive) To receive a presentation from Lonica Vanclay, officer responsible for youth provision in the District.

This item came about from a request by Councillor Angold-Stephens who wished to look at the provision of youth services in the district. His request to scrutiny is attached and is provided for background information.

The Committee welcomed Lonica Vanclay the County officer responsible for youth provision in the District. She explained how the provision of youth services in the district was structured. Essex County Council (ECC) provides a large proportion of the services within the District. They also work along side a number of voluntary organisations and agencies. Currently ECC focus mainly on targeted work programmes and are doing less on open provisions. They are focusing on specific areas of need and on specific groups of younger people. The other voluntary groups and agencies provide more general needs for the youth of the District.

There are two teams in the District, one based in the south and one based in the rural north. They consist of behavioural support teachers, a full time youth worker and some part time youth workers. They have a ‘targeted youth team’ based in Harlow that work with teenage parents, run a ‘prison no-way’ scheme and also operate a mobile bus that focuses on specific projects. They also work with ‘Connexions’ to provide advice and support.

As for what goes on in the District in terms of Youth provision. Ms Vanclay explained that a couple of nights a week, open centres are operated in Ongar, Loughton and Limes Farm. Also, a couple of nights a week there is a ‘Way 2000’ in Waltham Abbey. The mobile bus visits Theydon Bois, North Weald and the Nazeing, Roydon areas. There are also specific targeted activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and currently there are about 16 people on that scheme.

ECC are currently reviewing plans to extend services. They are looking where there are particular needs in the district. Although their staffing resources are fixed at present, they are looking at ways to effectively respond to local needs with their current resources. They are working in partnership between EFDC, Tottenham Hotspur and the Police to provide a good quality of service, which no one agency on its own can provide.

Another important provision that they provide is provision for young people in the summer holidays. As always there are budget issues about the provision available. The ECC is developing plans to provide additional activities during the holidays.

As for the Loughton Youth Centre next to Murray Hall, there have been issues with Anti Social Behaviour with some of the youths there. Because of the design of the building, it gets very hot in the summer which exasperates the problems and becomes a hot house in all senses.  Adding to this is the fact that they do not have access to the garden. They now close the centre in the summer period, but do some partnership work with the Academy, so at the moment young people are going up to the Academy to undertake a more structured programme of activities there. This happens a couple of nights a week. Some of the youths in the centre have complex needs and one of the benefits of having the youth workers based in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Recommendation:

To discuss the Cabinet priorities for the year ahead and the forward work programme for 2008/09

The Overview and Scrutiny rules state that this Committee should ..’arrange meetings with the Leader and other Portfolio Holders to discuss their plans for the year ahead and… agree with them on any items for inclusion in the work programme which may be undertaken by the Committee on the Cabinets behalf’.

Accordingly attached is the Executive Work Programme incorporating the Forward Plan  for the period 1 July 2008 – 31 October 2008.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Mrs D Collins has indicated that they have the following priorities for this year:

(i)         To ensure that the Council fully contributes to the delivery of the priorities and objectives of the second Essex Local Area Agreement, not only through active participation in the Local Strategic Partnership, but also by robustly monitoring performance against the priority areas that the authority has ‘had regard to’;

(ii)        To explore options to improve the accessibility of the Council’s services through customer focused initiatives, including neighborhood services and one-stop-shops;

(iii)       To produce a Sustainability Strategy for the Council, to ensure that the authority minimises the environmental impact of its actions and operations; and

(iv)       To review options for the future of North Weald Airfield, through the continuing work of the North Weald Airfield Strategy Cabinet Committee.

In addition, there are a further 18 objectives split between the nine Portfolios detailed in the Best Value Performance Plan for 2008/09.

 The Leader and Portfolio Holders  will be attending this meeting to present their plans and answer questions on their work.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Mrs Collins introduced the Cabinet’s forward plan for the coming year ahead. A paper was tabled with the Cabinet Objectives for 2008/09. This plan was based on their Best Value Performance Plan and lists what they are hoping to do this year or, at least review if they are not going to deliver it. They have corporate priorities that cover the whole of the Council, especially with the new Local Area Agreement 2, which they are joining in with the LSP, the voluntary sector and the County Council. Some of Essex County Council money will come down to District level, this will not be new money, just existing money distributed in a different way.

The Council has now signed up to the Nottingham Agreement and will have to work on a sustainable strategy.

The North Weald Airfield is not in the East of England Plan and the Council will need to develop its own strategy for the future.

The Council will be looking to make its services more accessible to residents and will need to communicate with them more and to get them to communicate back.

It was hoped that Council Tax will be kept to 2.5% for the next three years, which will not be easy. In order to do that they will have to keep tight control of the Council’s finances and only spend money on new and improved services only when they have identified savings.

Safer Cleaner Greener will be the Council’s thrust for the next year. The Council will be working with SITA to improve the waste collections and will be looking at new ways to extend recycling in the District.

There is also the new ‘responsible area officers’ who will be working to keep the streets clean and tidy.

Under the Community Wellbeing banner the Council will be improving its CCTV coverage and will be appointing officers to cover this increased coverage. Officers and Portfolio Holders will also work to improve graffiti removal and will be working closely with the new Police Inspector for the District.

The Cabinet look forward to working with the Youth Council as well as the PCT to improve things in the District on health and inequalities matters.

The East of England Plan is now out and they will be engaging with partners in Harlow and East Hertfordshire to plan housing growth in Epping Forest and to cause as little harm to the Green Belt as possible.

The Council will continue with the plans for Debden Broadway as the consultation is nearly complete.

Council will facilitate as many affordable homes as possible, and make as many houses available to part rent, part buy. Council houses will be brought up to decent homes standards as soon as possible. The Housing Portfolio Holder will also be looking at parking on Housing Estates and the options for the delivery of the Careline Service.

The Highways Panel for West Essex was now set up and the Council will be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Recommendation:

To endorse the terms of reference for the Leisure and the Customer Transformation Task and Finish Panels. (To Follow).

The Committee is asked to endorse the terms of references for the reconstituted Leisure Task and Finish Panel (to follow) and for the new Customer Transformation Task and Finish Panel (to follow) considered at recent meetings. The Chairmen of these respective Panels have been invited to present their proposals to the meeting.

The Committee received and approved the terms of reference from the newly formed Leisure Task and Finish and the Customer Transformation Task and Finish Panels.

            RESOLVED:

That the terms of reference for the Leisure and the Customer Transformation Task and Finish Panels be endorsed.

Recommendation:

To endorse the terms of references for the two new Panels: the Planning Services and the Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panels.

The Committee is asked to endorse the terms of references for the two new Standing Panels, the Planning Services Standing Panel and the Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panel (attached). The Chairmen of these respective Panels have been invited to present their proposals to the meeting.

The Committee considered and approved the terms of reference for the newly constituted Planning Services and the Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panels.

            RESOLVED:

That the terms of reference for the Planning Services and the Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panels be endorsed.

(a)               Updated Schedule

The Committee are asked to note the updated schedule. This reflects the proposed Terms of Reference and work programme proposed by each Panel. Any changess made under preceeding items will be amended in the programme accordingly

(b)        Reserve Programme

A reserve list of scrutiny topics is required to ensure that the work flow of OSC is continuous.  Members can suggest items for the work programme at any time.

OSC will ‘pull out’ items from the list and allocate them accordingly  once space becomes available in the work plan following  the completion of existing reviews.

Members can put forward any further suggestions for inclusion in the reserve list  either during the meeting or at a later date.

Existing review items will be dealt with first, then time will be allocated to the items contained in the reserve work plan.

Once existing work plan items have been dealt with, scrutiny time will be focused on the items contained in the reserve programme.

The Committee noted the work programme for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and for the Standing and Task and Finish Panels.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme:

1.         It was noted that reports for items 6 and 7 (North Weald Essex PCT – proposal for joint scrutiny review and the District Transport in Rural Areas) will come to the committee when they are available.

2.         Councillor Stallan asked if it would be possible to ask the County Portfolio Holder to come and talk to the Committee about the rural bus service. It was agreed that this would be an appropriate request to make and would be added to the work programme.

ACTION: that the County Portfolio Holder be asked to attend a meeting of the Committee to talk to and answer questions about the rural bus service.

3.         It was noted that under item 8 (Scrutiny of Epping Forest Local Strategic Partnership), it had an original deadline of summer 2008 to report back to the committee. However, it was reported that the LSP was currently going through some changes and will have a conference in October. It was thought to be more useful to ask them to attend the December 2008 meeting.

AGREED: to change the deadline to December 2008.

4.         Councillor Mrs Whitehouse asked about Councillor Angold-Stephens request about the provision of Youth Services in the District. His submission had asked for a Task and Finish Panel and although Ms Vanclay gave a presentation today, there are some questions that have not been answered. She did hear that County were setting up a Task and Finish Panel on this subject could the district have an observer or get the minutes of that Panel. The Deputy Chief Executive replied that members would recall that we had a Youth Strategy Panel a few years back, which undertook a major review of the youth facilities in the district. Their report went to O&S and then to Cabinet. Currently we have an appropriate forum in the Children and Young People Strategic Partnership, chaired by Councillor Ann Haigh and that is our main form of influence on youth services in the District. If County are setting up some sort of scrutiny, then we will make sure our voice is heard there. Also coming up in September is the Joint Area Review of Young People Services at County level. We are down as consultees for that. So we are active in this area without having to set up another Task and Finish Panel.

5.         Councillor Jon Whitehouse referred to the proposed LSP scrutiny; as this was a big area to cover, should the Committee schedule a pre-meeting before hand to discuss what we want them to focus on at their presentation to us and maybe discuss future actions arising from the presentation.

AGREED: to hold a pre-meeting before the LSP presentation for the Committee to organise their thoughts and what they would like to focus on.

6.         Councillor Mrs Wagland asked about the scrutiny  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

RECOMMENDATION:

To consider any items to be raised by the Chairman at the Cabinet meeting on 14 July 2008.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). Under the Overview and Scrutiny rules the Committee is required to scrutinise proposed decisions of the Executive. The Chairman is also required to report on such discussions to the Cabinet.

The Committee is asked to consider the 14 July 2008 Cabinet agenda (previously circulated) to see whether there are any items that they wished to be raised at the Cabinet meeting.

The Committee considered the Cabinet agenda for its meeting on 14 July 2008. No issues were raised for consideration by the Cabinet.

The Senior Democratic Services Officer informed the committee about an upcoming Essex Wide Scrutiny Conference to be held on 8 October 2008 at Hylands House in Chelmsford. Further information will be put into the Members Bulletin.