Meeting Details

Scrutiny Panel
15 Oct 2019 - 18:00
Occurred
  • Documents
  • Attendance
  • Visitors
  • Declarations of Interests

Documents

Agenda

Part A
1 Welcome and Announcements
The Chairman will welcome members of the public and Councillors and remind everyone to use microphones at all times when they are speaking. The Chairman will also explain action in the event of an emergency, mobile phones switched to silent, audio-recording of the meeting. Councillors who are members of the committee will introduce themselves.
2 Substitutions
Councillors will be asked to say if they are attending on behalf of a Committee member who is absent.
3 Urgent Items
The Chairman will announce if there is any item not on the published agenda which will be considered because it is urgent and will explain the reason for the urgency.
4 Declarations of Interest
Councillors will be asked to say if there are any items on the agenda about which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest which would prevent them from participating in any discussion of the item or participating in any vote upon the item, or any other pecuniary interest or non-pecuniary interest.
5 Minutes of Previous Meeting
The Councillors will be invited to confirm that the minutes are a correct record of the meeting held on 29 August 2019.
230

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 29 August 2019 be confirmed
as a correct record.

 

6 Have Your Say!
The Chairman will invite members of the public to indicate if they wish to speak or present a petition on any item included on the agenda or any other matter relating to the terms of reference of the meeting. Please indicate your wish to speak at this point if your name has not been noted by Council staff.
7 Decisions taken under special urgency provisions
The Councillors will consider any decisions by the Cabinet or a Portfolio Holder which have been taken under Special Urgency provisions.
This report provides Scrutiny Panel members with information relating to a decision taken on 30 September 2019 under special urgency provisions. The awarding of the contract for fleet maintenance was certified by the Proper Officer, and by the Chair of the Scrutiny Panel, as an urgent decision in accordance with the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 14.
231

Richard Block, Assistant Director (Environment) introduced the item and explained
the reason for the use of special urgency provisions in the making of the decision.
The procurement process for a new fleet maintenance contract had commenced
over 12 months ago, had been a comprehensive process which included market
engagement and follow-up work with interested parties, but had garnered only one
bid, which had come from the current provider of fleet maintenance services.

 

Significant time had been spent on negotiating the contractual terms, but this had left
insufficient time to go through the normal decision-making process and call-in period
before the then-current contract would have lapsed.

 

The Chair confirmed that she had signed off the decision, but that very little time had
been given for her to consider the item and ask questions. It was noted as
regrettable that only one bid had been received, and that the scheduling of the latter
part of the tendering process had been such that full scrutiny of the decision had not
been made possible.

 

RESOLVED that the Panel noted the decision taken under special urgency
provisions.

 

8 Items requested by members of the Panel and other Members
(a) To evaluate requests by members of the Panel for an item relevant to the Panel’s functions to be considered.

(b) To evaluate requests by other members of the Council for an item relevant to the Panel’s functions to be considered. 

Members of the panel may use agenda item 'a' (all other members will use agenda item 'b') as the appropriate route for referring a ‘local government matter’ in the context of the Councillor Call for Action to the panel. Please refer to the panel’s terms of reference for further procedural arrangements.
9 Cabinet or Portfolio Holder Decisions called in for Review
The Councillors will consider any Cabinet or Portfolio Holder decisions called in for review.
This report provides details of the local Council Tax Support proposals which are due to be effective from 1 April 2020.
232

It was noted that there were no substantive alterations proposed to the Council’s
scheme for Local Council Tax Support, compared to the 2019-20 scheme. It was
confirmed that Cabinet had reviewed the scheme and are satisfied that no changes
have been made since last year.

 

RESOLVED that the Panel had reviewed the proposed Local Council Tax Support
scheme commencing 1 April 2020.

 

This report sets out recent performance on business rates collection and summarises recent government policy on reforming the business rates system. 
233

Councillor Bentley (by reason of being a business owner within Colchester
Borough) declared a non-pecuniary interest in the following item pursuant to
the provisions of Meetings General Procedure Rule 7 (5).

 

Paul Cook, Interim Head of Finance and 151 Officer, introduced the item and
informed the Panel that the collection performance of the Council had been shown to
be good. Further information was given regarding the technical consultation being
carried out on the Government Policy to make local authorities more dependent on
Business Rate income, and it was noted that the report looks at the related issues
and the approach taken by Colchester Borough Council.

 

A clarification was made that, at 5.3 of the report, the ‘50% share of collecting the
baseline’ quoted, should have been noted as referring to the 50% share of business
rates which goes to the Borough Council, County Council and local Fire Authority.
This was then broken down into 40% of Business Rate income going to Colchester
Borough Council, 9% going to Essex County Council and 1% being assigned to
Essex County Fire and Rescue Service.

 

Councillor King, Portfolio Holder for Business and Resources, informed the Panel
that there is currently wider uncertainty regarding future local authority finances, with
a current consultation underway into the balance of shares of income and streams of
finance between upper and lower tier local authorities. Central Government is
looking across the board at the balance of local authority funding.

 

In answer to questions as to whether the Council could vary the business rates for
which it had a responsibility to collect, the Portfolio Holder for Business and
Resources confirmed that the Council could not vary business rates, but did have
some flexibility to apply discretionary relief, such as when attempts are made to
encourage businesses to move into empty units.

 

Detail was requested as to what cooperation with other local authorities in the region
was currently being carried out, and what financial planning had been undertaken for
the future. The Portfolio Holder for Business and Resources explained that work and
consultation regarding plans for the future had continued and the details of this
would be disclosed for wider consideration when ready. The importance of prudence
was stressed when making projections of the future. An example is the assumption
made that there would be a reduction in the Council’s ability to rely on funding from
the New Homes Bonus.

 

The Interim Head of Finance detailed the ongoing technical consultation by the
Government into local authority financing, which had recommended that the ability of
central government to levy a negative revenue support grant on local authorities be
ceased.

 

In answer to questions relating to cooperation with other local authorities in the area,
the Interim Head of Finance explained that the Essex Business Rates Pool
continued to operate and successfully provide savings to the partner authorities.


The Panel remarked that the Government’s approach needed to be unveiled and
explained before in-depth planning and scrutiny could be conducted in regard to the
collection and retention of business rates. The Panel urged the Government to give
clarity in this area as soon as was possible. The Panel also requested that Cllr King
arrange for a training and briefing session to be arranged for all elected members on
the subject of business rates, and future considerations and planning relating to it. A
member of the Panel suggested that this could be done in a Full Council meeting
and local businesses invited to attend and take part in giving their views. The
Portfolio Holder consented to consider how best to carry this out early in the
following year.


RECOMMENDED to the PORTFOLIO HOLDER for Business and Resources that a
training/briefing session be arranged, potentially as part of a Full Council meeting, for
all elected members on the subject of business rates, and future considerations and
planning relating to it.


RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Panel had considered the report on future business
rates arrangements.

 
This report sets out the current Work Programme 2019-2020 for the Scrutiny Panel. This provides details of the reports that are scheduled for each meeting during the municipal year.
234

The Chair briefed members of the Panel on discussions which she had held with
officers regarding potential ways to adopt new elements of best practice and improve
the way the Scrutiny Panel operates.

 

Discussions had been held in regard to whether the reporting of financial data and
items could move to exception-based reporting, rather than bringing full reports to
the Panel each year, mostly showing where performance was either better than
expected, or in-line with expectations/Key Performance Indicators. Owen Howell,
Democratic Services Officer, confirmed that he had discussed the options with
Andrew Weavers, Monitoring Officer, and that it was the officers’ opinion that the
statutory duty for the Panel to scrutinise the Council’s financial performance would
mean that the Panel would need to continue to receive full reports on Council
finances, which would give the public assurance that full scrutiny and oversight were
being carried out, and to allow members of the public to raise their own queries at
public meetings for the Panel to consider in its deliberations.

 

A number of new items and changes were put forward for the Work Programme
2019-20:

 

• The North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance presentation would be put
back to 17 March 2020, to allow for a full year of its work to be reported on.
• A presentation on the Council’s approach to, and preparations for, Brexit to be
scheduled for 12 November 2019.
• A report on the Budget Strategy for 2020-21 to be brought before the Panel on
10 December 2019.

 

The Panel noted that in some other local authorities, the biannual performance
reports brought to Scrutiny were presented by all portfolio holders and assistant
directors. Although this was more difficult to organise, the Panel considered that this
could allow for more information to be given to the Panel and the public, and better
scrutiny conducted. It was considered that this approach could increase
accountability, promote sharing of best practice, show how different portfolios and
service areas related to each other, and give assurance that Cabinet members
understood their portfolios. Concern was, however, raised that the invitation of all
Cabinet and Assistant Directors would make a meeting unwieldy and very long.

 

The Panel was asked to consider whether it would be best to focus in-depth scrutiny
of the December Half-Year Performance Report on a selection of two or three
portfolio or service areas. It was suggested that Panel members should be given an
advanced copy of the draft report, to see where concerns may lie, and identify which
Portfolio Holders to invite to the meeting.

 

A request was made by the Panel for scrutiny of Council asset management to be
added to their work programme, to allow the Panel to examine the authority’s use of
its property and land portfolio and ensure that this is being put to best use. It was
posited that this had been examined by the now-retired trading board. The Portfolio
Holder for Business and Resources agreed that the scrutiny of asset management
would be in line with the importance of showing that assets were being used well to
maximise the Council’s income.

 

A further suggestion made was that the Scrutiny Panel should examine the work,
resourcing, objective-setting and achievements of the Council’s task & finish Groups.
A number of specific areas for enquiry were raised, including how to ensure that
resourcing is sufficient, that value is being achieved by the Groups and that they are
working within their terms of reference and are disbanded once their objectives are
achieved. It was noted that task and finish groups can help backbench councillors to
contribute and provide advice and recommendations to the Executive, and that it
was important to ensure that the right objectives and constructive approach were set
in place.

 

The Scrutiny Panel resolved to hold an additional meeting in February so as to
discuss and scrutinise the current operation of task and finish groups by Colchester
Borough Council. The Panel requested that the Democratic Services Officer draw up
a questionnaire for each group to complete, and to first circulate this to Scrutiny
Panel members for comment. Following this, the Panel directed that the Chairs of
each task & finish group would be asked to attend the meeting.

 

The Chair suggested that a second meeting of the Crime and Disorder Committee
be held in February or March 2020, in order to allow a more in-depth examination of
the performance of two selected strategic partners from the Safer Colchester
Partnership. The meeting held in September 2019 had discussed the broad themes
within the work of the Partnership but had not allowed for an in-depth scrutiny of
performance data. It was proposed and agreed that a second meeting of the
Committee be scheduled for February or March each municipal year to allow for
statistics and performance data to be presented by partner organisations, and for
more in-depth questioning of selected statutory partners.

 

The Chair requested that all Panel members raise any training needs they identify for
themselves or potentially for the whole Panel.

 

A member of the Panel requested that the subject of Climate Change, and the
Council’s approach to this, be brought to the Panel for scrutiny, to allow the Panel to
be a critical friend, discuss progress made and assist in adding value to the Council’s
action to minimise and mitigate the effects of its work on the environment. This could
then be made into a regular item for the Scrutiny Panel to examine. It was noted that
the work of the Conservation and Environmental Sustainability Task and Finish
Group would be scrutinised at the additional meeting to be arranged for
February/March 2020. The Assistant Director (Environment) informed the Panel that
the motion to Full Council on 17 July 2020 regarding the declaration of a Climate
Emergency resolved that the Conservation and Environmental Sustainability Task
and Finish Group would ‘report to Cabinet and Full Council within six months with an
action plan setting out conservation and environmental sustainability goals to
address targets by 2030; incorporating proposals on the investment implications of
this proposed activity.’ This committed the Group to report by January 2020 at the
latest. The Panel requested that the draft reports be brought to it for pre-scrutiny,
prior to Council and Cabinet receiving them. The Democratic Services Officer
committed to check timings and investigate.
 
RESOLVED that:-
 
(a) The Work Programme be amended to add the following meetings and reports:
• The North East Essex Health and Wellbeing Alliance presentation to be
put back to 17 March 2020
• A presentation on the Council’s approach to, and preparations for, Brexit
to be scheduled for 12 November 2019.
• A report on the Budget Strategy for 2020-21 to be brought before the
Panel on 10 December 2019.
• An additional Scrutiny Panel meeting to be arranged for February 2020,
for scrutiny to be conducted into the use of Task and Finish Groups.
• An additional Crime and Disorder Committee meeting to be arranged to
occur each year in February/March.
• Pre-scrutiny of the Environmental Sustainability Task and Finish Group
reports to Council and Cabinet to be arranged.
 
(b) The duly amended Work Programme 2019-20 be noted.
 
(c) An early draft of the Half Year 2019 - 2020 Performance Report to be
provided to Panel members, who would then identify Cabinet Members they
wished to invite to answer questions and participate in scrutiny of the item.
 
13 Exclusion of the Public (Scrutiny)
In accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 and in accordance with The Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2000 (as amended) to exclude the public, including the press, from the meeting so that any items containing exempt information (for example confidential personal, financial or legal advice), in Part B of this agenda (printed on yellow paper) can be decided. (Exempt information is defined in Section 100I and Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972).
Part B

Additional Meeting Documents

Attendance

NameReason for Sending ApologySubstituted By
Councillor Mike Hogg Councillor Lesley Scott-Boutell
NameReason for AbsenceSubstituted By
No absentee information has been recorded for the meeting.

Declarations of Interests

Member NameItem Ref.DetailsNature of DeclarationAction
No declarations of interest have been entered for this meeting.

Visitors

Visitor Information is not yet available for this meeting