Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual Meeting - Online access

Contact: Mark Beeley  01628 796345 / Email: mark.beeley@rbwm.gov.uk

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Items
No. Item

160.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence received.

161.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 103 KB

To receive any declarations of interest.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

162.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 331 KB

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 29th November 2021.

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 29th November 2021 were approved as a true and accurate record.

 

Councillor L Jones suggested that the Panel should go through the actions from the previous set of minutes, to ensure that they had all been completed.

 

The Chairman suggested that it would be good to bring all the actions together at the bottom of the minutes.

 

Mark Beeley, Democratic Services Officer, said that at the Infrastructure Overview and Scrutiny Panel, the clerk produced an actions table, listing each action and what the result of the action had been. This was circulated amongst the Panel after the meeting and ensured that all actions were picked up and completed. The Panel agreed that this would be a useful addition for the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

 

ACTION – Mark Beeley to produce actions table after each meeting and circulate it amongst Panel Members.

163.

Budget 2022/23 - Fees and Charges pdf icon PDF 816 KB

To consider the fees and charges for the Budget 2022/23.

Minutes:

Andrew Vallance, Head of Finance, explained that the fees and charges were raised where they could be by inflation, this would look to offset contract fees where they had also been raised. Some fees were statutory and were therefore controlled by the government, some were ring fenced and could not make a profit and in other areas the council had benchmarked against other local authorities. Considering some of the major fees and charges, Andrew Vallance said that:

 

·         Parking had increased by inflation.

·         Roads and street works had to be considered on a case by case basis but was nearly at inflation.

·         Green waste had been increased by 4.8%, in previous years RBWM had increased this above inflation.

·         The figure on Building Control should be 3%, this had been missed out on the original report which had been included in the agenda pack. Building Control had recently come in house so RBWM was able to set the fee.

·         Marriages and civil partnership ceremonies had gone up by 3.5% due to statutory obligations.

·         Cemeteries and church yards had gone up by inflation.

·         Local Land Charges was an example of where officers had benchmarked against another local authority.

·         Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders and Highway Licenses were at inflation.

 

The Chairman asked what the rationale was for the increase in car parking prices which RBWM was looking to implement and why they varied across the borough.

 

Alysse Strachan, Head of Neighbourhood Services, said that the parking fees and charges were set out with the same principle as all the other fees and charges. A number of factors needed to be considered, for example usage, parking patterns, considering previous increases, considering fees in similar car parks both in and out of the borough and the cost of administering any changes. The cost of the residents discount parking scheme also needed to be considered. The 4.8% increase was the overall budget position rather than individual tariffs. Most of the difference had been due to rounded up car parking charges, with the biggest increase being 50% which was for commercial permits.

 

Councillor Sharpe said that there was a reasonable level of inflation. He asked if changes had been made due to other local authorities and how much they were charging.

 

Alysse Strachan said that other local authorities parking charges were considered by the team. RBWM offered a residents parking discount to encourage residents to park in the borough.

 

Adele Taylor, Executive Director of Resources, said that fees and charges were determined on a service by service basis. For things like Building Control, RBWM needed to consider other competition in the market. The 4.8% was not necessarily on the fee itself but on the budgeted amount.

 

Councillor L Jones said that there was a large range of car parking charges across the borough, particularly in Windsor. The residents parking discount scheme did not apply in shopping areas and was a particular issue for those with mobility issues who needed to park close by. Victoria Street was a good  ...  view the full minutes text for item 163.

164.

Budget 2022/23 – Car Parking Income Targets

To consider the income targets on car parking which have been proposed as part of the Budget 2022/23.

Minutes:

This was discussed as part of the agenda item above.

165.

2021/22 Q2 Data & Performance Report and future performance reporting arrangements pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To consider the Q2 performance report and the future performance reporting arrangements.

Minutes:

Adele Taylor said that the new Corporate Plan had recently been approved by Full Council and this document set out the key strategic priorities of RBWM for the next five years. The performance of the council for Q2 had been outlined in the report. New performance monitoring arrangements would take effect from April 2022, Members had been informed at the start of January of the new arrangements. Considering the Q2 report:

 

·         6 measures were meeting or exceeding targets.

·         2 measures were short of target but within the set tolerances.

·         1 measure was off target and out of tolerance.

 

The continued impact of the pandemic meant that business rate collection was off target. It had been challenging to set targets in this area due to government driven benefits for some businesses. A recovery strategy had been launched which involved a number of campaigns ensuring that residents were given confidence, there had been an encouraging increase in footfall in town centres. The council had secured some additional funding for the climate strategy and this would allow decarbonisation plans to be developed.

 

The Chairman asked when the new portal for monitoring performance would go live and be available to both Members and residents.

 

Rebecca Hatch, Head of Strategy, confirmed that this would go live in April 2022.

 

Councillor Sharpe asked if there was anything in the performance report that officers were concerned about.

 

Adele Taylor said that business rate collection was a concern as it was off target but the reasons for this had been explained and much of this was out of the council’s control. This was also similar to other local authorities and was therefore not unique to RBWM. The percentage of calls abandoned could be improved but there was a variety of reasons why this could be the case.

 

Councillor Sharpe asked if RBWM was taking over 5G transmission stations in the borough.

 

Adele Taylor did not have this information and did not think this was within the remit of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

 

Councillor L Jones said that the Panel was considering the performance report from Q2 but this was now Q4 and therefore the monitoring information related to a period which was a significant amount of time ago. She asked if this was the normal timeframe for the Panel to consider the report as she felt that comments made by the Panel would not have much of an impact. Considering the new performance monitoring arrangements, Councillor L Jones expressed concern about the Panel taking on oversight of the process and that the Panel therefore needed to have the right Member cohort. She suggested that more Members could be needed on the Panel. Councillor L Jones concluded by explaining that the report was dense and contained a lot of words, she would prefer to see a highlights or summary section at the beginning. She asked if the Panel was able to influence the areas of the council that would be monitored going forward.

 

Rebecca Hatch said that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 165.

166.

Annual Scrutiny Report pdf icon PDF 301 KB

To draft the Annual Scrutiny Report.

Minutes:

The Chairman explained that the annual scrutiny report for the Panel needed to be completed. He asked for any contributions from Panel Members to be sent via email outside of the meeting.

 

Councillor L Jones asked if the previous annual scrutiny report could be sent to Panel Members so that they could review the progress.

 

Mark Beeley said that he would be able to send the last two years reports, from 2020 and 2021, out to the Panel after the meeting.

 

ACTION – Mark Beeley to send out copies of previous annual scrutiny reports to Members of the Panel.

 

The Chairman suggested that any comments on the report should be sent to him in the next couple of weeks.

167.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 122 KB

To consider the Panel’s work programme for the remainder of the Municipal year.

 

To include consideration of items scheduled on the Cabinet Forward Plan.

Minutes:

Mark Beeley gave an update on the communication and the customer journey topics, which had been suggested by Councillor L Jones. A meeting would be arranged with the relevant officers and Councillor L Jones to determine the scope of the suggestion and whether there was an overlap of work.

 

Councillor L Jones said that the two suggestions and the RBWM App item all overlapped and therefore could be considered as one item, rather than three separate items.

 

Councillor Werner suggested an item on the procurement process and the different levels of approval for different contracts. Some contracts were signed off by officers under delegated authority and it would be good if Members had oversight and were aware of what contracts had been signed.

 

Adele Taylor said that she was happy to point Councillor Werner in the right direction and discuss this topic with the relevant officers.

 

Councillor L Jones said that there was a similar item on the Audit and Governance Committee work programme, it would therefore be worth discussing this with the Chairman of the Committee to avoid duplication of work.