To appoint the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Panel.

Resolved unanimously: that Cllr C Rayner be appointed as Chairman and Cllr Burbage be appointed as Vive-Chairman of the Corporate Services O&S Panel.

To receive any apologies of absence.

Apologies for absence were received by Cllr Quick, Cllr Dudley, Cllr Saunders, Cllr S Rayner and Jennifer Jackson.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To approve the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 18 April 2017.

The Part I minutes of the meeting held on 18 April 2017 were approved as a true and correct record.

To comment on the Cabinet report.

The Panel considered the Cabinet report regarding the final outturn statement in 2016-17. The Panel noted the underspend of £447,000 on the General Fund, an improvement of £46,000 since the last update.

The Panel were informed that an additional recommendation would be put to Cabinet in relation to the appointment of the Braywick Leisure Centre Design Team.  The following proposed Cabinet recommendation was circulated at the meeting:

Delegates authority to the Executive Director in liaison with the Lead Member for Finance and Lead Member for Culture and Community Services, for the appointments of the Braywick Leisure Centre Project Design Team within the overall approved capital programme, including progressing the Concept Design and related consultation into a Final Project Brief which will be submitted for approval by Cabinet in summer 2017 before significant progression of the Detailed Design and submission of a Planning Application.

The Panel were informed that the budget was already in the capital programme but to comply with the council’s contract rules, Cabinet approval was required to make the appointment.

Cllr McWilliams asked that regarding the Capital programme CT51, where did the £500k go and was informed that as the funds were no longer required it would go back into the capital budget.

Cllr Jones asked that 2 paragraph 4.17 showed savings related to the Housing capital programme and asked what these were.  The Panel were informed that this related to the question from Cllr McWilliams above regarding CT51, a briefing note would be circulated to the Panel. 

Cllr Burbage asked that with regards to the Community Protection and Enforcement Services, how did the underspend arise and what was the increase in approved estimate when compared to the budget.  It was agreed that an update would be circulated to the Panel.

Resolved unanimously:  that the Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Panel considered the Cabinet Financial Update report and fully endorsed the recommendations, including the additional recommendation circulated at the meeting regarding the appointments of the Braywick Leisure Centre Project Design Team. The Panel requested additional information relating to the revision to the Housing Capital Programme, the savings from community protection and enforcement services and why the approved estimate is larger than the budget originally set. In response to questions it was reported that the accounts complied currently with all the current legislation requirements, there were no outstanding inspections from any government agency and there were no outstanding debt or legal costs that were not yet accounted for.

o   The update circulated to the Panel is appended to the minutes.

To comment on the performance report.

The Panel considered the latest Cabinet performance monitoring report and Cllr McWilliams explained that that 73% of indicators were on target, however there were a number that were off target.

Cllr McWilliams mentioned that paragraph 8.2 provided details of the process for Lead Members attending scrutiny when they have had indicators reporting ‘Red’ for two consecutive quarters.

Panel members did not support the proposals contained with paragraph 8.2 and the Chairman said it was for himself and the Panel to decide if they wished to call Lead Members to the Panel to be held to account for poor performance. 

Cllr Jones said she would not approve the proposal that the Lead Member need only attend the appropriate scrutiny panel relating to that indicator as she would have to attend all Panels and this would restrict Members being able to scrutinise the whole performance report.

Cllr McWilliams informed that the process was designed to reduce duplication with Lead Members and officers having to attend multiple Panel meetings to discuss the same issues.  Cllr McWilliams agreed to re-consider the paragraph. 

(Cllr L Evans joined the meeting)

Cllr D Wilson. Lead Member for Planning, attended the meeting and reported that he was happy to attend scrutiny panels as required.  With regards to the planning indicators within the report three were reporting as ‘amber’; just off target.  The Panel were informed that with regards to lost planning appeals it was difficult to achieve the target due to officer recommendations being refused at planning meetings.  Members had the right to go against officer recommendations, however the reasons for refusal needed to be robust to stand up to potential appeals. 

The Chairman mentioned that if a refused application went to appeal then it had an 80% chance.  The Chairman asked if the reason for lost appeals was because of lack of Member training and poor reasons for refusal.  Cllr D Wilson replied that all members on planning panels were required to undertake training and that any reasons for refusal had to be robust.  It was also important that Members attend appeal hearing to explain their reasons for refusal especially if they had been lobbied by local residents and were representing those residents at the meeting.

Cllr L Evans mentioned that the Government would be making the target even harder to achieve.  Cllr Wilson said that the recent white paper wants to reduce the national target from 35% to 10% of appeals lost and if introduced the indicator would be reporting ‘red’.  If the Planning Department was seen to be failing the Government could take over the service.  Once the Borough Local Plan was adopted and when neighbourhood plans were in place it would be easier to defend appeals. 

(Alison Alexander joined the meeting)

Cllr Jones mentioned that some of the planning targets had retention and recruitment of staff as part of the reasons for under performance and asked for turnover figures for the last three years, how this compared to neighbouring authorities and the number of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 161.

To consider passing the following resolution:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on item 9 on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of

Schedule 12A of the Act.

To approve the Part II minutes of the meeting held on 18 April 2017.