Scrutiny Co-ordinating Board Minutes: 29 July 2010

Present:

SCb/13/7/10 Apologies for Absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs G Lumley and N Hughes. Councillor Mrs P Bell attended in place of Councillor Hughes.

SCb/14/7/10 Minutes

Minutes SCb/1/5/10 to SCb/12/5/10 of the meeting of this Committee held on 20 May 2010 were approved as a correct record of those proceedings.

SCb/15/7/10 Declarations of Interest

None

SCb/16/7/10 Report from the Leader of the Council

The Board received a verbal update from the Leader of the Council.

He informed those present that he had attended a meeting with representatives from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and Government Office Northwest (GONW) regarding the Big Society initiative. This had included discussions on the role of the Council and the issue of communications. Both the DCLG and GONW had endorsed the Council’s approach of supporting but not controlling community groups in the area. There were also plans to set up a method of direct communication between the Council, DCLG and GONW.

Members asked questions of the Leader and thanked him for his update.

SCb/17/7/10 Reports from Panel Meetings and Scrutiny Co-ordinated Work Plan

Bite Sized training for all Members had been held before the previous Environment and Economy Panel.

No Vice Chair had been elected for the Panel and this item had been deferred until the following meeting.

The review into the disabled facilities grants had been suspended awaiting further information about the future of the funding for this grant.

The Recycling and Refuse review was making good progress. A number of meetings had been held and visits had been made to Carlisle and Selby Local Authority facilities and Shank’s facility in Dumfries. Witness sessions were being planned; these would take place via telephone or videolink where appropriate.

The Economic Development Review had been delayed pending further information regarding the development of Local Enterprise Partnerships.

RESOLVED that the reports be noted

SCb/18/7/10 Forward Plan - Key Decisions

The Board considered the Forward Plan for the period August 2010 to November 2010.

The Corporate Plan will be considered by Full Council for formal adoption in February 2011. The Plan will be distributed to all Members in late August .Members are requested to return comments to the September meeting of the Scrutiny Co-ordinating Board.

The business case for shared services with South Lakeland District Council and the Resources Plan will be considered for comments later in the year.

RESOLVED that the Forward Plan be noted

SCb/19/7/10 Treasury Management Transactions Report: 1 April 2010 to 30 June 2010

The Board considered report F53/10 of the Director of Finance which summarised Treasury Management activity and performance over the period 1 April 2010 to 30 June 2010.

RESOLVED that the report be noted

SCb/20/7/10 Treasury Management Annual Report 2009 - 2010

The Board considered report F31/10 of the Director of Finance which compared the 2009-10 treasury activities with the Strategy presented to Council in February 2009.

RESOLVED that the report be noted

SCb/21/7/10 Revenue Budget Monitoring: Provisional Outturn 2009-10

The Board considered report F36/10 of the Director of Finance, which provided details on the quarterly budget monitoring and provided an opportunity to ensure that the actual income and expenditure is in line with budget and any variations are identified and any impact on service assessed.

The main variances were: salaries, development control fees, blue collar contract costs, IT and telephone costs, off street car parking income and recycling. The Financial Services Manager explained the reasons for the variances and responded to questions from Members.

He explained that the County Council would take responsibility for concessionary travel from 31 April 2011. It was likely that they would ask the Districts to continue issuing travel cards to users. It was possible that the move would lead to a loss of grant income greater than the savings to the District. The Council would be writing to all operators to explain the changes.

RESOLVED that the report be noted

SCb/22/7/10 Capital Programme Monitoring: April 2009 to March 2010

The Board Considered report F40/10 of the Director of Finance which set out the revenue and capital spend for April 2009 to March 2010.

RESOLVED that the report be noted

SCb/23/7/10 Efficiency Monitoring: Year to March 2010

The Board considered report F37/10 of the Director of Finance which set out the Council’s progress against the projected outturn target.

RESOLVED that the report be noted

SCb/24/7/10 Review of Partnerships

Councillor Morgan declared an interest as a member of the Eden LSP.

The Board considered report F44/10 of the Director of Finance which set out the Council’s involvement in partnerships for Members’ review.

RESOLVED that:

1. A review of the Eden Local Strategic Partnership be undertaken
2. The following Councillors to be invited to sit on the review panel, subject to their existing workload:
   
   Councillor Morgan to invite Councillors Fisher, Savage and J Nicholson
   Councillor Mrs Bell to invite Councillor Eyles
   Councillor Davidson to invite Councillor Harrison
3. The membership and timetable for the review to be confirmed at the meeting of the Board to be held on 18 November 2010.
4. Training to be arranged for Members on reporting back from Outside Bodies including how other Members can have an input.

SCb/25/7/10 Scrutiny Annual Report

The Board considered report PP50/10 of the Chairman of Scrutiny which described the activities of the various Scrutiny panels and ‘task and finish’; groups between May 2009 and April 2010.

The Scrutiny Officer explained that the performance targets contained in the report were introduced at the start of the year and it was therefore not possible to compare these with previous years. There were plans to review the performance targets for future years to make them more outcome driven.

Councillor Mrs Bell expressed her disappointment that the report did not contain information regarding the implementation of Scrutiny recommendations.

The Board noted Councillor Mrs Bell’s comments.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Annual Report be approved and the work of Scrutiny during 2009/10 be noted

SCb/26/7/10 Performance Indicators 2009/10 - End of Year Report

The Board considered report PP44/10 of the Director of Policy and Performance which outlined the 2009/2010 year end figures for all corporate performance indicators (PIs), informed of any issues with them and requested that the targets be set for 2010/2011 - 2012/2013.

The Policy Officer informed the Board that there was an amendment to the figures in NI 155 (number of affordable homes delivered). The correct figure was 26 and not 3 as reported. Improved systems for information sharing and monitoring had been put in place to ensure no further errors in reporting would occur.

The targets for NIs 191 and 192 (residual household waste per household and % of household waste recycled/composted) had not been met. These had been based on estimates calculated before the introduction of separate collections for household and commercial waste. The targets for these have now been revised following more accurate calculations being available and are currently awaiting agreement from the Cumbria Strategic Waste Partnership.

As a result of the 2010 Budget Announcement a number of National Indicators are to be removed.

LPI 17a (percentage of employees from an ethnic minority background) was 0% against a target of 0.23%. The small size of the workforce at the Council made it a challenge to meet this target.

NI16 (serious acquisitive crime rate per 100 of population) had not met the target. Potential reasons for this were the economic downturn and displacement from neighbouring areas. A joint CDRP, Police and EDC action plan had been produced to reverse this trend.

RESOLVED that

1. Eden’s year end performance against targets 2009/10 be noted
2. The targets for 2010/11 - 2012/13 as set out in the Performance Report be agreed 

SCb/27/7/10 Corporate Plan Monitoring - Quarter 4

The Board considered report PP35/10 of the Director of Policy and Performance which provided a summary of progress against the actions contained within the Corporate Plan for the fourth Quarter of 2009/2010.

RESOLVED that:

1. The progress made against targets within the Corporate Plan be noted
2. The exception reports contained within the report be agreed.

SCb/28/7/10 Corporate Improvement Plan - Quarter 4 Monitoring

The Board considered report PP36/10 of the Director of Policy and Performance which detailed the progress against the actions within the Corporate Improvement Plan for the fourth Quarter of 2009/10

RESOLVED that the progress against the actions within the Corporate Improvement Plan for the fourth quarter of 2009/10 be noted

SCb/29/7/10 Joint Scrutiny Annual Report

The Board considered report PP55/10 of the Director of Policy and Performance which presented for Members’ information the Annual Report of the Cumbria Joint Scrutiny Committee.

RESOLVED that the Cumbria Joint Scrutiny Annual Report be noted

SCb/30/7/10 Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Scrutiny Co-ordinating Board will be held on 30 September 2010.

The meeting closed at 8.25pm