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:

“This meeting will be webcast live to the Internet and will be archived for later viewing. Copies of recordings may be made available on request.

By entering the chamber’s lower seating area you consenting to becoming part of the webcast.

If you wish to avoid being filmed you should move to the public gallery or speak to the webcasting officer”

The Chairman reminded everyone present that the meeting would be broadcast live to the Internet, and that the Council had adopted a protocol for the webcasting of its meetings.

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

There were no substitute Members for the meeting.

(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.

There were no declarations of interest made pursuant to the Council’s Code of Member Conduct.

Decisions required:

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 15 April 2010 (attached).

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 15 April 2010 be agreed.

(Deputy Chief Executive) To receive a presentation from Stephen Jones, from London Underground Limited. He will give a presentation updating their latest work plans for the District. He will also be taking questions from the Committee and other members in attendance.

The Committee welcomed Stephen Jones from London Underground Limited (LUL). He was there to update the Committee on the latest work being undertaken on the underground stations in the District. London Underground wanted to modernise the stations and to make them safer places by adding CCTV, Public Address systems and Help Points. This project had been gong on for the last four years and the works have just finished. LUL were in the planning stages for the 2012 Olympics and were in the early stages of planning and forecasting of demand. They were looking to complete the planning by 2011. LUL were also looking at the opening times of the ticket offices and were basing this on their survey of ticket sales. It was noted that only one in twenty tickets were bought at ticket offices, they rest were mostly Oyster card journeys. Given this they were looking to establish offices in the right place and to adjust ticket office opening hours. Their priority was to deliver a better service and provide assistance to passengers.

The meeting was then opened up to questions from members:

Councillor J Sutcliffe: Ticket office opening times, would the new times affect security for passengers in the evenings and help for passengers with problems with their tickets generally. During the Olympics their help would be needed to help foreign visitors staying in the area?

Mr Jones: LUL were presently looking at staffing and stations would not be undermanned, staff would be moved from the ticket office to other duties.

Councillor R Gadsby: Would not the upcoming Olympics need more people at stations?

Mr Jones: LUL would look at the manning of stations for that time; they would also need people with language skills.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse: Passengers would still need help with some tickets or when applying for travel/oyster cards etc. Also there was only step free access to platform 2 at Epping Station at present. And is there any plans for a Park and Ride scheme to be set up in our area.

Mr Jones: This would all form part of their forward planning.

Councillor R Brookes: She noted that the service from Loughton had got better but more crowded. As for Sunday closures of lines, there seemed to be no joined up planning over line closures for maintenance.

Mr Jones: There were a lot of closures but they do try and minimise disruption, but the scale of the works will mean that they will inevitably affect journeys.

Councillor R Brookes: Some indicator boards at Loughton have been out for a long time.

Mr Jones: The boards are not run manually; they are linked all the way down the line. I will find out what has been happening at Loughton and get back to you.

Councillor D Wixley: Who is responsible for cleaning up the litter in the car park at Loughton Station?

Mr Jones: He would look into it and get back to him.

Councillor A Grigg: She was concerned about the Epping  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

(Safer, Cleaner, Greener Standing Panel) To consider the attached report.

The Committee considered a report from the Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panel to make a minor alteration to their terms of reference deleting the reference to the West Essex Joint Waste Management Committee and replacing it with references to the Waste Partnership Member Board and the Inter Authority Member Working Group.

RESOLVED:

That the amendment of clause 2 of the Terms of Reference of the SCG Standing Panel to reflect changes in the Member monitoring arrangements of the Essex Waste Strategy by deleting the reference to the West Essex Joint Waste Management Committee and replacing it with references to the Waste Partnership Member Board and the Inter Authority Member Working Group be agreed.

Decision Required:

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee authorise the Constitution and Member Services Standing Panel to report directly to full Council on the proposed new petioin scheme at the end of June due to time constraints.

The Constitution and Member Services Standing Panel will be meeting on 24 June 2010 for the first time this year. At that meeting they will consider the latest government legislation on the revised petitions scheme including the role and use of “E-Petitions” that becomes law on 15 June 2010.

The Standing Panel will have to consider this legislation and make recommendations for  the amendment of the Council’s Constitution to deal with the new rules and regulations on petitions and ‘E-petitions’. Because of the tight timescale they are asking the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to authorise them to report directly to the Council meeting at the end of June.

The Constitution and Member Services Standing Panel asked that it be allowed to report directly to the Council meeting on 29 June 2010, on the Government’s consultation on petitions and the new ‘e-petition’ scheme. This would mean bypassing this Committee as they were under time constraints to reply. The Standing Panel will have to consider the legislation and make recommendations for the amendment of the Council’s Constitution to deal with the new rules and regulations.

            RESOLVED:

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee authorise the Constitution and Member Services Standing Panel to report directly to full Council on the proposed new petition scheme at the end of June due to time constraints.

(Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panel) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director (Engineering Services), K Durrani introduced the report from the Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panel. They had considered the Defra consultation document on landfill at their last meeting (29 April 2010). The consultation paper was on the possibility of banning certain materials from landfill and the steps which might be required to achieve that.

The consultation document was seeking responses to the following policy options: do nothing; landfill bans with a requirement to pre-sort; or payment based on producer responsibility.  The Standing Panel considered and endorsed a generalised response to six detailed questions asked by the consultation paper.

On consideration, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee endorsed the Safer Cleaner Greener Panel’s recommended response.

            RESOLVED:

That the Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Scrutiny Panel’s recommended response to the Defra consultation paper on landfill as set out in their report be agreed.

(a)   To consider the attached Work Programme

The current Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme is attached for information.

(b)New Year’s Work Programme

To consider any late requests to go into the new year’s Work Programme.

(c)         Reserve Programme

A reserve list of scrutiny topics is required to ensure that the work flow of OSC is continuous.

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. A request form is attached for use.

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

Any space within the work plan is filled on an ongoing basis.

(a)        Work Programmes

Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Senior Democratic Services officer, Simon Hill took the committee through their proposed work programme for the coming year.

Constitution and Member Services:

Members asked that item 8 on their work programme, member training review, be considered earlier than the schedule date of March 2011. Officers agreed that this could be done.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse said that the recent problems with the parking reviews should be looked at by a panel to assimilate any lessons learnt. Mr Hill advised that he should complete a PICK form and have it discussed at the next Overview and Scrutiny meeting.

(b)       New Year’s Work Programme

The Committee considered the two items circulated as a supplementary agenda requesting two more items of work to be added to the work programme.

(i) The first item was a request form Councillor Mrs D Collins to review the way annual appointments were made by the annual council meeting at the start of each year. This would also include a review of the appointment of Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Council.

AGREED: that this item of work should be given to the Constitution and Member Services Standing Scrutiny Panel and added to their work programme.

(ii) The second item was a request from Councillor C Whitbread for a review of the opportunities for setting up of assistants to Portfolio Holders so as to assist with Portfolio Holder duties and aid succession planning.

AGREED: that this item also be given to the Constitution and Member Services Standing Scrutiny Panel and added to their work programme.

(c)        Reserve Programme

There were no items to add to the reserve programme.

Decision Required:

(1)        To appoint members to the following Standing panels in accordance with pro-rata in the proportions shown below:

(2)        To consider requests for appointments to Standing Panels by non affiliated members; and

(3)        To appoint a Chairman and a Vice Chairman to the following Standing Panels:

1.         (Assistant to the Chief Executive). The Council has agreed that pro rata apply to Overview and Scrutiny Standing Panels only. The Overview and Scrutiny rules provide that the memberships must reflect pro rata requirements and the lowest number of members required to achieve cross-party representation whilst allowing the inclusion of members who are not members of a political group or are not members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. This year it has been agreed by  Group Leaders that the Standing Panels should have 11 members.

2.         The Committee are asked to make appointments to Standing Panels in accordance with the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure rules.

3.                  Nominations to Chairman and Vice Chairman of these Panels are excluded from the calculation required under the Council's protocol regarding allocation of Chairman and Vice-Chairman positions between the political groups.

4.         Nominations to the Panels, which may be submitted up until the day of the meeting, were sought through the Members Bulletin and officer liaison with the Group Leaders.

The Committee were asked to make appointments to Standing Panels in accordance with the Overview and Scrutiny rules. The Committee were reminded that the Council had agreed pro rata applied to Standing Panels and that membership should be kept to a minimum to allow each Group to have representation.  It was noted that on this basis it had been agreed by group leaders that Panels would consist of 11 Members, plus any independent member that wished to be a member of a Panel.

It was reported that nominations to Chairman and Vice Chairman to Standing Panels were excluded from the pro rata calculation rules required for such positions contained in the Council’s constitution.

The Committee had before them a tabled paper detailing nominations to the Panels.

RESOLVED:

That the appointments to Standing Panels annexed to these minutes be adopted.

Decisions Required:

(1)        To appoint members to the new Provision of Children Services in the District Task and Finish Panel in accordance with Overview and Scrutiny procedure rules; and

 (2)       To appoint Chairmen and Vice Chairmen to the Provision of Children Services in the District Task and Finish Panel.

1.         (Assistant to the Chief Executive). The Committee are asked to consider appointments to Provision of Children Services in the District Task and Finish Panel. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had reviewed the requests for reviews at their meeting in April and has determined that this Task and Finish Panel Review should be undertaken.

2.         The Overview and Scrutiny Rules state that 'Task and Finish' Scrutiny Panels shall be flexible as to the number of Councillors appointed to membership.  There is no restriction on the numbers appointed.

3.         Any Councillor may be a member of a 'Task and Finish' Scrutiny Panel, save that a member of the Cabinet may not be a member of any Panel which bears directly on his or her portfolio. Additionally no 'Task and Finish' Scrutiny Panel can be comprised of members of a single political group only.

4.                  It is a requirement of the procedure rules that a Chairman and Vice - Chairman should be appointed to each Panel.

The Committee were asked to consider appointments to the new Task and Finish Panel.

It was noted that any Member could be appointed to Task and Finish Panels. However Cabinet Members would not be able to serve on panels which bore directly on their Portfolio. In addition no panel could comprise of members of a single political group and restrictions on numbers did not apply.

Members were also asked to appoint a Chairman and Vice Chairman to each Panel. 

The meeting had before them a tabled schedule detailing nominations.

RESOLVED:

That the appointments to Task and Finish Panel annexed to these minutes be adopted.

RECOMMENDATION:

To consider any items to be raised by the Chairman at the Cabinet meeting on 7 June 2010.

(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 7 June 2010 Cabinet agenda (previously circulated) to see whether there are any items that they wished to be raised at the Cabinet meeting.

1.         Councillor Mrs Collins updated the Committee on the latest government proposed changes to planning policy; they will now concentrate on enabling more local decisions.  A lot of Quangos have been or are about to be disbanded, including the Audit Commission and Gypsy and Traveller issues are to be dealt with locally. Details are to be issued in the Members Bulletin.

2.         The Deputy Chief Executive explained that there were some problems with the Parking reviews and the cost of advertising them. A late updating report will go out to the Cabinet by the end of the week.

For the Committee to discuss the form of presentation wanted and the type of questions to be asked of the representative from the Local Strategic Partnership to come to the July meeting of this committee.

It was noted that the LSP manager would attend the next meeting of this Committee.

Members decided that they needed information from the LSP manger on what areas he would cover at his presentation. To this end the LSP annual report will be circulated to members of the Committee to give them an idea of the subjects to be covered.

Councillor Jacobs said he would like an update on the Ongar Health Centre, Mr Macnab said he would put an answer in the Members Bulletin.