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 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.

            Decision Required:

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 11 April 2011 (attached).

RESOLVED:

The minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 11 April 2011 be agreed subject to the inclusion of Councillor Jennie Hart and noting the misspelling of Councillor Philip’s name under minute item 99 (b).

(Acting Chief Executive) To consider the attached report, appendix to follow.

The Committee considered the outturn report for the range of Key Objectives for 2010/11. Performance for the Key Objectives for the year is reviewed by the Cabinet and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee went through the objectives one at a time and made the following comments:

Key Objective 1 – To maintain the Council’s sound financial position: the Committee were pleased to see the latest figures and gave credit to the Finance Directorate for this.

Key Objective 2 – To seek Continuous performance improvement and the best use of resources: it was noted that this was still important and was linked to achieving value for money. They also noted the big improvement in the Housing Repair Services.

Key Objective 3 – To work with the Epping Forest Safer Communities Partnership…: the Committee noted that the crime figures had gone up slightly and that this would be something for the Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panel to look at during the year. They noted that there was also financial pressures on the Police and it was important to find out if there was anything the Council could do to help.

Key Objective 5 – …help mitigate the impact of the current economic conditions…: the Committee hoped that the car parking charges could be kept low again this year to help local businesses. There were also concerns raised that the free parking areas get filled very quickly and not necessarily by shoppers, nullifying the vale of the initiative.

Key Objective 7 – To improve the performance of the benefits Service: the Committee complimented staff on their hard work in bringing down the average number of days for processing new claims to 22.96 days. They also noted that changes were being proposed to bring in a ‘universal credit’ and were unsure how this would ultimately affect the staff.

Key Objective 9 – To achieve the level of savings identified within the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy: Noted that the Council had done well in their saving strategy but there were still savings to be made in the coming year.

Key Objective 11 – To continue to increase the Council’s recycling performance: the Committee noted that the government were thinking about changing from the two weekly collections to a weekly one. The council would then have to consider what impact this would have on recycling. They also wanted to congratulate the officers on meeting their targets despite the exceptional bad weather experienced during the winter months.

Key Objective 12 – To review the Council’s commercial Landholdings…: they noted the Council’s Commercial landholdings was something to be kept under scrutiny during the year.

            RESOLVED:

That the Committee noted and commented on the Outturn Performance in relation to the Council’s Key Objectives for 2010/11.

To note the final report from the Children Services Task and Finish Panel and to consider the recommendations made.

Report to Follow.

The Chairman of the Children’s Services Task and Finish Panel, Councillor Mrs Wagland, introduced her Panel’s report, giving a brief history of the Panel and the work carried out. She thanked the members and officers who had helped her carry out this investigation and asked the Committee to endorse the recommendations made and refer it up to the Cabinet.

Councillor Murray agreed with the Panel’s recommendations, noting that the report was well worth reading as it was an important document and one of the best bits of scrutiny he had read.

Councillor Stallan agreed that it was an important document and would like the report to go on the Council’s website and to all members.

Councillor Mrs Sartin thought it was an excellent report and wondered in relation to their recommendation 5, when Essex County Council would come to this Committee. Mrs Wagland suggested it should be the tail end of the year after their Scrutiny Panel had looked at this topic as well.

The Chairman noted that as there were little of costs and resources in the report and these would be useful to know as an indicator of what the Council needed to do. Councillor Mrs Wagland replied that the costs as was known, were in the report. Detailed figures would be needed to be worked out and it would be important to prioritise our actions. Julie Chandler, Assistant Director Community Services, added that the officers involved tended to deal with a whole range of different duties and so it was difficult to pinpoint officer input, time and costs.

In all, the Committee agreed that this was an excellent report.

            RESOLVED:

(1)        That the recommendations of the Children’s Services Task and Finish Panel be endorsed and the report be referred on to Cabinet; and

(2)        That Essex County Council’s Director of Children’s commissioning, be requested to meet with the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in respect of Children’s Services on an annual basis.

(Acting Chief Executive) to consider the attached report.

The Committee received the amended annual Overview and Scrutiny Report for 2010/11 incorporating comments made at  their meeting of 11 April 2011.

            RESOLVED:

That the Annual Overview and Scrutiny Report for 2010/11 reporting the work undertaken during the past municipal year be agreed and submitted to the Full Council at its meeting on 28 June 2011.

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 officer liaison with the Group Leaders and via the Appointments Panel. A list of any nominations made ahead of the meeting will be tabled at the meeting.

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, including 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.

RESOLVED:

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

(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 Programme

The Committee considered their work programme for the coming year. They noted that the Standing Panels would be agreeing their work programmes at their first meetings.

O&S Work Programme

Item 8 – Review of Secondary and Primary education in the District… - Councillor Murray was please to see it on the work programme and suggested that officers could contact the consortiums of Primary School Heads and Secondary School Heads and ask them to send a representative each to the appropriate O&S meeting.

Item 11 – Corporation of London – noted that there were concerns raised about the forest and members were pleased to have it on the programme. It was suggested that that a representative from ‘Friends of Epping Forest’ be invited to that meeting.

The Committee also wanted to consider the new organisational make up of the PCT/ West Essex Health Service and any progress made on the commissioning of local health services. It would be helpful if they could come at the end of the year to talk to the Committee. It was noted that the County were establishing a Panel to look at this. Also, that the Bill was presently on pause so it would be more appropriate to look at this in the autumn.

The Committee also wanted to look at what the state of play was on the Lea Valley Regional Park Authority and the Olympics. Officers said that a report could be brought to the next meeting on the progress so far.

The role of the Transport Police was brought up, what their jurisdiction was and any data on criminal activity over the last four years. Also, was their data compatible with the County Police’s data handling systems and could they share data electronically. It was thought useful to have the Transport Police and the Essex Police there at the same meeting and this should be added to item 12 of the Work Programme.

For the Committee to discuss the form of presentation wanted and the type of questions to be asked of the representative from London Underground. Officers are hoping to get a representative from London Underground to come to the July meeting of this Committee and speak about their proposed operational changes and about the preparations for the forthcoming Olympics and the implications for the district.

Members are asked to identify any other topic they may wish to discus with the representative from LUL.

The Committee considered the upcoming visit from London Underground at their next meeting. They wished to consider:

• Capacity on Trains;
• Train stock improvements;
• Engineering works, how much is refurbishment;
• Refurbishments at Mile End – can’t see the destination boards, the ceiling height is too low and staffing levels at the station;
• Oyster Cards, will the scheme be  extended; there have been reports in the press that they were not working as they should and people were being overcharged;
• Parking issues around the stations and the road outside Epping Station as the Council did not own or enforce parking on it;
• The disabled exit at  Epping Station, could they advise people at Theydon Bois on what side of the station the train was to stop at so that people could decide what to do;
• Litter in the car parks;
• Impact of the Olympic games –
  • we are a commuter town what will happen to our commuters during the Olympic period and how would LUL manage this problem;
  • Also would there be an increased staff presence during the games or increased opening hours of the stations;
  • would there be a link from Loughton to Waltham Abbey to save people travelling into central London and then out again; had this been considered; and

• Security at unmanned stations.

            RECOMMENDATION:

To consider any items to be raised by the Chairman at the Cabinet meeting on 6th June 2011.

(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 6 June 2011 Cabinet Agenda (previously circulated) to see whether there are any items that they wish to be raised at the Cabinet meeting.

The Committee were concerned about the amount of recovery time for agenda item 11, ‘ICT disaster Recovery Policy’. It was thought that a 40 day recovery period was too long and substantial improvements was needed on this.

The Committee then went into privates session to discuss any concerns they had about cabinet agenda item 16, Review of Grounds Maintenance and Nursery Services, when they expressed concern about potential loss flexibility due to any outsourcing.