Agenda and minutes

5.1             The evacuation procedure, as noted on the Agenda, was taken as read. 

6.1             Apologies for absence were received from Councillor D T Foyle.  There were no substitutes for the meeting. 

7.1             The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 26 June 2012 and took effect from 1 July 2012.

7.2             There were no declarations made on this occasion.

To approve the Minutes of the meetings held on 7 April and 26 May 2015.

8.1             The Minutes of the meetings held on 7 April and 26 May 2015, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as correct records and signed by the Chairman. 

To determine whether there are any questions for the relevant Lead Members and what support the Overview and Scrutiny Committee can give to work contained within the Plan.

9.1             Attention was drawn to the Executive Committee Forward Plan, circulated at Pages No. 11-15.  Members were asked to determine whether there were any questions for the relevant Lead Members and what support the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could give to the work contained within the Plan.

9.2             A Member raised concern that the Climate Change Strategy had been removed from the Agenda for the meeting on 25 November 2015.  He stressed that this was a very important issue, which was high on the agenda for all political groups, and it was crucial that the Council had a clear approach to tackling climate change.  The Deputy Chief Executive explained that it was a question of finding the capacity to undertake this work given that there had been changes in personnel within the department as a result of the transfer to Ubico.  Climate change was not currently a priority within the Council Plan and Members may wish to give consideration to its inclusion when the Plan was reviewed over the coming year.

9.3             A Member noted that the Corporate Enforcement Policy was due to be considered at the Executive Committee meeting on 15 July 2015, and would set out the guiding principles by which legislation would be enforced by the Council to protect public health, safety, amenity and the environment within the Borough.  He recognised the importance of enforcement but indicated that it had been stressed to Members who had attended the Planning training as part of the Members’ Induction Programme that enforcement action should only be taken when expedient to do so.  The Deputy Chief Executive agreed that any enforcement policy would need to balance different priorities and judgements would need to be made to ensure that enforcement was effective.  She clarified that this would be a corporate policy which would set out how the Council would collectively deal with problems in the community, for example, there had recently been an issue around caravan licences.  A Member indicated that he had been experiencing problems with caravans within his Ward and he raised concern that he had found out about action being taken by Tewkesbury Borough Council via local radio rather than from Officers directly.  The Communications Team Leader indicated that, unfortunately there was not always time to update Members on an individual basis on every media enquiry and she relied on Officers to keep Members informed in relation to issues across the Borough which may attract media attention.  If she had known about this particular situation she would have ensured that the relevant Members were fully briefed and she undertook to send them a copy of the full statement which had been issued. 

9.4             It was

RESOLVED          That the Executive Committee Forward Plan be NOTED.

To consider the forthcoming work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

10.1           Attention was drawn to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2015/16, circulated at Pages No. 16-18, which Members were asked to consider.

10.2           A Member was of the opinion that it would be beneficial for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to undertake a review of Ubico, following the transfer of waste services in April, given that this was a frontline service which also provided street cleansing and grounds maintenance for the Borough.  He felt that it would be appropriate to have an interim update in October with a 12 month update in April and Officers undertook to include this in the Work Programme.  A Member queried who was responsible for grass cutting and the Environmental and Housing Services Group Manager explained that this was dependent on who owned the land.  The Grounds Maintenance team cut the grass on land owned by Tewkesbury Borough Council and, whilst the Council did not contract out any work of this nature, there were other contractors who carried out grass cutting on behalf of Parish Councils and other agencies such as Severn Vale.  In terms of the recent complaints about grass cutting, she advised that the large gang mower had broken down and, due to its age, it had taken some time to obtain the parts which were required to fix it.  Unfortunately, this had meant that the grass cutting regime had fallen behind and it had not been possible to borrow a machine from Ubico due to the length of the grass.  The mower had been repaired and the grass had now been cut.  Officers were working hard to carry out missed cuts and to undertake second cuts where necessary.  In response to a query about carrying out grass cutting on behalf of Parish Councils, confirmation was provided that they were required to pay for this work.  A Member noted that the grass along the A38 had been cut earlier that day which had exposed a significant amount of litter and he felt that this would need to be addressed swiftly in order to avoid complaints.  The Environmental and Housing Services Group Manager undertook to contact the supervisor responsible.

10.3           The Corporate Services Group Manager drew attention to two new areas of work for the Committee: the Review of Disabled Facilities Grants which was due to be considered in July and would involve the formation of an Overview and Scrutiny Committee Working Group; and the monitoring of the Peer Review Action Plan in December.  The Democratic Services Group Manager went on to advise that, at its meeting on 26 May 2015, the Council had appointed Councillor Rob Garnham as its representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel.  Whilst he was not a Member of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Garnham had indicated that he intended to report verbally to the Committee following each meeting of the Panel, and confirmation was provided that he would attend the next meeting on 21 July 2015.  On that basis it was felt that it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To review and scrutinise the performance management information and, where appropriate, to require response or action from the Executive Committee.

11.1           The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 19-72, attached performance management information for quarter 4 of 2014/15.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee was asked to review and scrutinise performance information and, where appropriate, identify any issues to refer to the Executive Committee for clarification or further action to be taken.

11.2           The performance management report comprised the Council Plan Performance Tracker, the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) set, the Financial Budget Summary Statement and the Capital Monitoring Statement.  The performance tracker, attached at Appendix 1, confirmed the completion of a number of key actions and ongoing progress of longer term actions.  Paragraph 2.3 of the report highlighted a number of achievements since the last update.  Members were informed that good progress was being made on the build of the new leisure centre and it was intended that a report would be taken to the Executive Committee in September regarding the naming of the facility.  Operational services had now transferred to Ubico and a client monitoring framework was in place to set out how they would be delivered.  The Revenues and Benefits improvement programme was now complete and had resulted in the identification of significant savings, furthermore, processing performance was now in the top quartile nationally.  The review methodology was being replicated across other services with a review of Customer Services already underway and the scope for a review of Environmental Health agreed.  In addition, Members were advised that the governance arrangements to support the £1.4M LEADER European rural funding were now being implemented; almost £400,000 of repair and renew grant funding had been delivered to provide flood protection to properties; the successful delivery of the Families First Programme, in partnership with Gloucestershire County Council, had resulted in the County being chosen as an early adopter of the new programme; there had been improvement within ICT such as a new test environment and hardware; a new Community Funding Officer post had been established; and the JCS examination was currently underway.

11.3           Members raised the following queries in respect of the Performance Tracker:

To consider the list of policies and strategies and identify those for inclusion within the Committee’s 2015/16 Work Programme.

12.1           The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 73-84, provided the list of corporate policies and strategies.  Members were asked to consider the list and identify those for inclusion within the Committee’s 2015/16 Work Programme.

12.2           The Corporate Services Group Manager explained that the Committee had previously requested a list of the policies and strategies to help inform its Work Programme. The list was revised and updated on an annual basis and the policies and strategies that were due for review in 2015/16 were highlighted in bold at Appendix 1 to the report. He indicated that there were potentially four policies/strategies which he felt could be focused upon for inclusion in the Committee’s Work Programme: Customer Services Strategy; Discretionary Housing Payments Policy which aligned with the gold standard for housing options; Corporate Enforcement Policy; and Risk Management Strategy.

12.3           A Member noted that the Absence Management Policy was not due to be reviewed until 2017, however, he queried whether it would be prudent to bring that forward given that that the absence statistics had been less positive in recent months.  The Chief Executive provided assurance that there was no problem with absence management and he reiterated that there had been a number of long term absences due to serious illnesses and, unfortunately, this had a significant impact on the figures due to the size of the organisation.  He indicated that it was short term sickness absence which tended to cause problems and he felt that the absence management procedures were robust in those situations.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had conducted a review of the Absence Management Policy in 2012 and had made a number of recommendations which had been incorporated into the Policy.  He felt that it was important to keep a close eye on sickness absence going forward, and to challenge Officers if the situation did not improve, however, he did not recommend a review at this stage.  The Corporate Services Group Manager confirmed that the Committee had been pivotal in producing the current Policy and it was to be borne in mind that the Policy was subject to regular internal review; a report had been taken to the Executive Committee in March which had resulted in the trigger periods for sickness absence being reduced.

12.4           Members agreed that the four policies/strategies identified would be the most appropriate and accordingly it was

                  RESOLVED          That the following policies and strategies be included for review                              in the Committee’s 2015/16 Work Programme:

·           Customer Services Strategy;

·           Discretionary Housing Payment Policy (incorporating the gold standard for housing options) – a workshop would be arranged to undertake this review on Wednesday 8 July at 2.00pm;

·           Corporate Enforcement Policy; and

·           Risk Management Strategy.

To consider the progress made in relation to the Communications Strategy actions.

13.1           Attention was drawn to the report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 85-115, which asked Members to consider the progress made in relation to the Communications Strategy Review actions.

13.2           The Communications Team Leader explained that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had helped to develop the Communications Strategy through a workshop on 17 March 2014 and the Strategy had subsequently been approved by the Executive Committee on 30 April 2014.  It had been agreed that the Strategy should be reviewed on an annual basis in order to ensure that there was effective monitoring of the actions which had been identified in the Strategy.  A review of the actions for year one of the Strategy was attached at Appendix 2 to the report and it was noted that the majority of actions were either complete or ongoing into year two.  Two of the actions were marked as ‘partly complete’: undertake a baseline assessment of communications and graphics to explore opportunities for shared working; and work with the Community Development team to improve communications with the Borough’s hard-to-reach groups.  Members were advised that the baseline assessment had been completed and submitted to the Corporate Leadership Team, however, the opportunities for shared working had not yet been explored as the team was currently under review as part of the restructure of the Chief Executive’s Unit.  In terms of hard-to-reach groups, a young people’s column had been introduced in the Tewkesbury Borough News, however, no other work had been undertaken and the Communications team would need to focus on this action during year two.  The Communications Team Leader went on to indicate that she intended to arrange a seminar on communications for all Members which would include discussions as to how communications could be improved and how Members could help to promote the Borough.  In addition, media training would be provided for Members and she would circulate details as soon as they were available.

13.3           Several Members indicated that they would welcome media training and it was suggested that this may also be beneficial to Parish Councils, particularly in terms of social media and responding to negative posts from members of the public.  The Chief Executive explained that himself and the Communications Team Leader put a lot of effort into liaising with the media to protect the Borough Council’s reputation and to ensure that reports about the Council were fair.  Social media was very different as people were largely free to say whatever they wanted and training for Borough Councillors would be very important in that regard.  It was down to Parish Councils to decide how to approach social media and this was something which could be raised at the Town and Parish Council seminars, which were held biannually, and promoted in the Parish Matters newsletter.

13.4           A Member raised concern that the Borough was covered by two different local newspapers, the Gloucestershire Echo and the Citizen, however, the Citizen did not tend to report on issues within Tewkesbury  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To establish an Overview and Scrutiny Committee to develop a new Economic Development and Tourism Strategy for Tewkesbury Borough and to approve the proposed Terms of Reference for the Working Group.

14.1           The report of the Development Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 117-123, advised Members of the need to develop a new Economic Development and Tourism Strategy for Tewkesbury Borough.  Members were asked to establish an Overview and Scrutiny Committee Working Group to develop the Strategy and to approve the proposed Terms of Reference for the Working Group as set out at Appendix 1.

14.2           Members were informed that the current Economic Development and Tourism Strategy ‘Regenerating and Growing the Economy’ had come to the end of its life and, in order to reflect the changing nature of the local economy and the impact on businesses, the Council needed to develop a new strategy.  This would include a review of the Council’s small business grant scheme.  Since it was established there had been many changes to the economy, both locally and nationally, therefore it was sensible to consider whether the scheme could be developed to maximise the benefits it could deliver to the business community.  It was recommended that a small Working Group be established to conduct the review, drawn from the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and including the two key Portfolio Holders for Economic Development/Promotion and Finance and Asset Management.  It was anticipated that there would be three to four meetings of the Working Group and the Strategy would be reported back to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee before consideration by the Executive Committee.

14.3           It was subsequently

RESOLVED          1. That an Overview and Scrutiny Committee Working Group be established to develop a new Economic Development and Tourism Strategy comprising the following Members:

Councillors D T Foyle, T A Spencer, Mrs P E Stokes, P D Surman, M G Sztymiak and M J Williams plus the Lead Members for Economic Development/Promotion and Finance and Asset Management.

2. That the Terms of Reference for the Working Group, as set out at Appendix 1, be APPROVED.