Agenda and minutes

(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 made.

To agree the notes from the last meeting of this Panel, held on 3 December 2009.

The notes from the last meeting were agreed subject to the following amendment. That Councillor Mrs Smith had said that the roof tax was being developed by the government, who were looking to replace the current section 106 agreements. Officers from County were giving out information on these proposals.

(Chairman/Lead Officer) To note the attached Terms of Reference. The Panel are asked to review the document at each meeting.

The Panel’s Terms of Reference were noted.

At their initial meeting, Members of the Panel expressed a desire to meet with representatives of other local authorities who had submitted proposals under the Sustainable Communities Act.

Judith Paterson from the London Borough of Redbridge will be attending to discuss their experience of the following two bids:

(i)                  To suspend the requirement for Redbridge Council to publish statutory notices in the London Gazette and instead to publish notices on its award winning website

Redbridge-i and Redbridge Life, the Council paper as well as local papers.

This bid has progressed to the shortlist.

(ii)                Introduce a new subsection possibly A1(a), to the Use Class Order to identify a number of coffee shops and take-away food shops currently operating as Use Class A1 establishments.

This bid has not progressed to the shortlist.

A full summary of the shortlist of proposals made under round one of the Sustainable Communities Act is available on the Local Government Association Website :  www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageld=561663

Unfortunately, the other representative from Maldon District Council, who was also invited to attend cannot make the date, but has offered to send a briefing note on their experience.  At Agenda dispatch, this had yet to be received but will be circulated when available.

The Panel welcomed Judith Paterson from the London Borough of Redbridge. She was there to relay her borough’s experience in soliciting bids and then submitting proposals under the Sustainable Communities Act (SCA).

The provisions of the Act were launched in October 2008. This provided a process by which councils, communities, organisations and public bodies could put forward new ideas through their council. The process involves an invitation to submit proposals outlining new ideas for further enhancement of economic, social and environmental sustainability, either at local or national level.

Policy officers at Redbridge submitted information reports up to Cabinet to draw their attention to the SCA. Early in 2009 the Council had endorsed proposals for the scheme. The Council then placed information on their website and in their Council’s newsletter about the Act and how to submit a proposal. No relevant proposals were received, although a lot of general enquiries were made. The three proposals that were submitted in the end were generated from within the Council. A Panel of representatives from the voluntary sector was set up to consider the proposals which were agreed with some amendments. As it turned out, one of the proposals on shop user class was in the legislative pipeline and was withdrawn, leaving two. One was about Redbridge Council not to put notices in the London Gazette and instead publish notices on its website, council magazine and local newspapers. The other was about making more use of reflective technology for highway signage.  These proposals have now been submitted to the Local Government Association (LGA) who is acting as the ‘selector’ of submitted proposals. This would involve them:

• Receiving and collating proposals from councils;
• Drawing up a shortlist from the submissions; and
• Seeking an agreement with the Secretary of State on which proposals to implement.

Redbridge are still awaiting the outcome of this stage of the proceedings.

Councillor Mrs Smith asked how this scheme fitted in with the Council. She was told that the lead was taken from the Corporate Centre and the Policy unit co-ordinated it. Once successful the proposal would be handed over to the relevant directorate to deal with, such as the proposals on road signs to Highways.

Councillor Wixley asked what were the practical benefits of not putting notices in the London Gazette. Ms Paterson replied that they would save roughly £9,000 per annum. This money could be redirected into other areas. Savings from the Highway signage were more diverse and have not been fully calculated as yet.

Councillor Philips asked how much of officers time was taken up by this scheme. He was told that at the start not much, and they did not get a lot of queries once the scheme was advertised as it was not heavily promoted. The queries came in mostly from Community groups. However, if heavily promoted, it would take a lot capacity and officer’s time. The setting up of the Panel could be onerous as it involved speaking to a number of representative community groups  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

To consider and agree the date of the next meeting for this Panel.

The Panel decided that their next meeting was to be held on Tuesday 9^th March 2010, starting at 7.30pm.