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.

Decisions required:

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 29 November 2012.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 29 November 2011 be agreed.

(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.

To receive a presentation from the Local Strategic Partnership Manager, John Houston.

John Houston, the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) Manager, took the Committee through what the LSP did over the last year, their future challenges and issues around the proposed Locality Boards.

The LSP brought together all the key public agencies, voluntary and private sectors, including Epping Forest District Council, Essex County Council, the Primary Care Trust, Police, Fire and Rescue, the Parish and Town Councils, Faith Groups, Voluntary Action Epping Forest, businesses and the Chamber of Commerce. These and other local groups were brought together to identify common problems and develop joined-up solutions by pooling their expertise. They are also able to commission research, identify gaps in provision and opportunities for new ways of working.

They have four theme groups feeding into the main board, one dealing with Healthier Communities, one dealing with Sustainable Communities, another dealing with Safer Communities and lastly, one dealing with Children and Young People.

The LSP will be holding a conference in February, and are hoping to get between 120 to 130 voluntary groups together along with the Chief Constable of Essex.

As part of their review of the year for safer communities the EFDC’s Community Safety Team was hailed as one of the best examples in the county; crime was down by 4% in this area, but unfortunately there were increasing numbers of burglary,  domestic abuse and car crimes.

Part of the LSP’s sustainable communities programme helped set up small businesses and helped employ 70 younger people within our district. They encouraged people to use local businesses and pay their bills promptly and organised local business events to enable them to make contacts etc.

The LSP have just launched a new website “One Shops Local” for local businesses. Having only been going for about five or six weeks they already have 120 businesses signed up and this number was growing weekly. Despite some negative comments by some of the press the speed the system had been brought to the public and the numbers of businesses who have signed up and are offering vouchers to residents to shop locally was impressive.

The status of Locality Boards were fluid at present and they were not sure how it would link into the existing structure. A number of objections have been raised seeking clarification on what local organisations would need to do once the locality boards came into operation. The LSP is still awaiting a response to their questions.

It was noted that Epping Forest already had very good partnership working and really did not need to add extra layers of bureaucracy to this.

Councillor Wagland the Chairman of the LSP, added that it was a shame that the press chose to criticise before they found out what was happening about the support given to local shops. Mr Houston had been travelling around and talking to shopkeepers and local businesses to get them to join up to our new website which had proved most successful and she would like to congratulate all concerned in this enterprise, which so  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

(Director of Finance and ICT) to consider the Portfolio Holder Budgets report. The full draft budgets were considered in detail at the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee on 16 January 2012 and the reports that went there are attached to this agenda.

The results of this meeting will be reported to the Committee.

Committee members are recommended to add their own comments to the Council’s Budget report before it goes on to Cabinet and Full Council.

The Director of Finance and ICT, Bob Palmer took the committee through the budget report. The Committee considered the recommendations of the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee incorporating the members of the Finance and Performance Management Scrutiny Standing Panel, on the Council’s budget for 2012/13.

The Chairman of the Finance and Performance Management Standing Panel commented that they had scrutinised each Service Directorate and everything had looked reasonable. They recognised that good savings had been made over the year, but the biggest saving came from our waste contract. Also, the new homes bonus helped. They noted that we were keeping our risks to the banks to a minimum over the next few years, and that localism could turn out to be a double edged sword.

The Committee noted that:

• Concerns were raised over the  introduction of universal credits, as whatever we had to do would cost us money;
• The waste contract income was guaranteed and if it went up we would benefit from this;
• Although we were withdrawing our funding for PCSOs, Essex still had an appropriate number of PCSOs for the district; and
• It was unfortunate that £148k had to be found for the PCC elections in November, an election that no one was interested in.

RESOLVED:

That on consideration of the budget report and the deliberations of the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee and Scrutiny Standing Panel members, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee endorsed the Budget report.

(Acting Chief Executive) To consider the attached report.

The Committee noted the draft Key Objectives 2012/13 report. Officers were looking to make them smarter and work them into the 5 key aims as agreed last March. The key objectives were not intended to reflect everything that the Council did, but were intended to focus on national priorities set by the Government and local challenges arising from the social, economic and environmental context of the district.

The Chairman noted that they had not included the St Johns Road and Langston Road projects and was assured that they would be on the website where you could drill down for up to date information.

            RESOLVED:

That the Council’s draft key Objectives for 2012/13 be agreed and recommended to the Cabinet.

Final report to follow

The Chairman of the Senior Recruitment Task and Finish Panel, Councillor Angold-Stephens introduced the Panel’s final report. The Panel had been tasked with reviewing the reporting procedures for the recruitment of the Chief Executive and all Directors. They looked at the reporting of complex and sensitive contracts to members and a procedure to be followed in the event of such contracts being entered into and have agreed written procedures to be put in place in time to inform the outcome of the recruitment to the position of Chief Executive.

The Panel had been set up in September 2011 and had met on three occasions. It should be noted that their remit did not include any involvement in current or forthcoming recruitment exercises except to advise on an appropriate process to be followed. They noted that there was no one process for every circumstances so they came up with a flow chart which gave options for most circumstances and would be useful for a recruitment panel to use.

The Committee asked that a minor amendment be made to a bullet point on page 12 of the report that ‘and/or’ be added so that it read: “Decide whether vacancy is to be advertised internally and/or externally.”

            RESOLVED:

That the recommendations of the Senior Recruitment Task and Finish Panel be endorsed and recommended to the Council.

(Director of Planning and Economic Development) At its meeting on 20 December 2011 the Planning Services Scrutiny Standing Panel had discussed and agreed new Terms of Reference and a new Work Programme for recommendation to this committee.

The Committee reviewed the Planning Services Standing Panel’s report requesting a revision of their Terms of Reference and Work Programme.

            RESOLVED:

That the revised Terms of Reference and Work Programme for the Planning Services Standing Panel be approved.

(a)                 To consider the updated work programme

The current Overview and Scrutiny work programme is attached for information.

(b)               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.

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

Work Programme

(a)        Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Committee noted that as they were nearing the end of the municipal year members should start thinking of any topics they would like covered in the following years work programme.

Item 12 – that the British Transport Police (BTP) be taken from the O&S Work Programme and moved on to the Safer Cleaner Greener programme although they were not certain that the BTP would want to share this information.

That an item be added to review the North London Hospital Mergers in a years time to assess their progress and impact.

b)         Standing Panels

(i)         Housing Standing Panel

It was noted that:

• a special meetings had been scheduled for 31 January and 5 March to enable the Panel to finish its work programme before the end of the year;
• the outcome report on the implementation of new licences for park home sites (item 27) be deferred.

(ii)        Constitution and Member Services Standing Panel

It was noted that their last meeting had to be cancelled, but an extra meeting may have to be organised before the end of the year.

(iii)       Safer Cleaner Greener Standing Panel

At their last meeting the Panel considered a consultation document on Essex County Council and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council joint waste development – preferred approach. The Panel were largely happy with most of the responses given by the officers but felt that some of the responses should be more forceful and be in the negative if thought appropriate.

(iv)      Planning Services Standing Panel

Noted that their revised Terms of Reference and Work Programme had just been agreed.

(a)        The Chairman reported that he had attended the Heads of Scrutiny meeting at Essex County Council the week before. A report of what was discussed is attached.

(b)        The Chairman also noted that there was to be joint training sessions on Scrutiny with Harlow Council in March and hoped that all members involved in Scrutiny, either on this Committee or on the Standing Panels, would make an effort to attend at least one of the sessions. Members should inform Simon Hill of their intention to attend.

RECOMMENDATION:

To consider any items to be raised by the Chairman at the Cabinet meeting on 30 January 2012.

(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 30 January 2012 Cabinet agenda (previously circulated) to see whether there are any items that they wished to be raised at the Cabinet meeting.

The Committee went into private session to consider a private Cabinet report.

Exclusion: To consider whether, under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press should be excluded from the meeting for the items of business set out below on grounds that they will involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the following paragraph(s) of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) or are confidential under Section 100(A)(2):

The Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006, which came into effect on 1 March 2006, requires the Council to consider whether maintaining the exemption listed above outweighs the potential public interest in disclosing the information. Any member who considers that this test should be applied to any currently exempted matter on this agenda should contact the proper officer at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.

Confidential Items Commencement: Paragraph 9 of the Council Procedure Rules contained in the Constitution require:

(1)        All business of the Council requiring to be transacted in the presence of the press and public to be completed by 10.00 p.m. at the latest.

(2)        At the time appointed under (1) above, the Chairman shall permit the completion of debate on any item still under consideration, and at his or her discretion, any other remaining business whereupon the Council shall proceed to exclude the public and press.

(3)        Any public business remaining to be dealt with shall be deferred until after the completion of the private part of the meeting, including items submitted for report rather than decision.

Background Papers:  Paragraph 8 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules of the Constitution define background papers as being documents relating to the subject matter of the report which in the Proper Officer's opinion:

(a)            disclose any facts or matters on which the report or an important part of the report is based;  and

(b)        have been relied on to a material extent in preparing the report and does not include published works or those which disclose exempt or confidential information (as defined in Rule 10) and in respect of executive reports, the advice of any political advisor.

Inspection of background papers may be arranged by contacting the officer responsible for the item.

RESOLVED:

(1)        That, in accordance with Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the item of business set out below as it would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12(A) of the Act indicated and the exemption was considered to outweigh the potential public interest in disclosing the information:

Agenda                                                                                   Exempt Info

Item No           Subject                                                           Paragraph No

20                    Licence Fees payable by                                3

                        Hughmark Continental ltd.

Councillor Stallan wanted a recommendation added that the unaudited accounts be reviewed before the end of the year. This was agreed.