Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 19 June 2014 (enclosed)

a)            Confirmation

RESOLVED - That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting be held on 19 June 2014 be confirmed as a correct record for signing by the chair.

b)            Matters arising from those minutes

14.OS.9: Scrutiny Training

The Chair commented on the successful scrutiny training session that had taken place earlier in the year and was satisfied with the way in which the authority approached scrutiny.

To note the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Performance Panel meetings held on 10 July 2014 and 25 September 2014 (enclosed)

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Panel meetings held on 10 July and 25 September 2014 be noted.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of interests.

No questions were received.

To consider the minutes of the Executive Cabinet meetings held on 26 June and 28 August 2014 (enclosed)

Members considered the minutes of meetings of Executive Cabinet held on 26 June and 28 August 2014.

RESOLVED - that the minutes be noted.

To consider the Notice of Executive Decisions that was published on 29 September 2014 (enclosed)

Members considered the current Notice of Executive Decisions which gave notice of both key and other decisions which the Executive expected to take, over the forthcoming 28 days.

Further information on Land at Crosse Hall, Chorley was requested. The refresh of the Economic Development Strategy was discussed and Members were informed that the Strategy would be subject to a four week period of consultation which provided an opportunity for Members to put forward their views. Shop Front Grants in relation to the amount of funding being invested in the scheme was raised. Members were informed that due to the popularity of the scheme, at the previous Executive Cabinet it had been agreed that a further £100k from additional income from Market Walk would be invested in the Town Centre Grants Scheme. At their request, Members also received an explanation on the Big Grant Funding scheme which was focused on supporting existing businesses in Chorley to grow and create additional permanent jobs in the Borough.

RESOLVED – that the Notice of Executive Decisions be noted.

Report of Director of Public Protection, Street Scene and Community (enclosed)

The Director of Public Protection, Street Scene and Community submitted a report on the proposals to scrutinise the Community Safety Partnership under the authority’s requirement to scrutinise crime and disorder related activity in line with the Crime and Disorder (Overview and Scrutiny) Regulations 2009.

It was explained that the Chorley and South Ribble Community Safety Partnership consists of a number of key agencies that form a statutorily determined Responsible Authorities Group (RAG). In previous years the RAG had met on a quarterly basis to oversee the delivery of the Partnerships Strategic Assessment.

In 2014, it was agreed, that in an effort to increase partners capacity, the number of meetings would be reduced to a single meeting per year with the ability for any RAG partner to call an extraordinary meeting as necessary. The Officer Working Group would continue to meet on a more regular basis to carry out the detailed delivery of the projects contained with the Strategy.

The first annual meeting and conference is being held on 29 October at the Town Hall in Chorley. At this event, the RAG will review the strategic priorities of the partnership for 2015/16 and determine the action necessary to address them. It was suggested that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could scrutinise the effectiveness of these new arrangements.

Partner representatives would be invited to comment to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s next meeting in January so that Members can review the new meeting arrangements in terms of:

·         If the new format of the conference worked?

·         Were partners content with the new format?

·         was the public engagement adequate?

·         has it resulted in a robust strategic assessment for local action?

In order for the Committee to fully understand the format of the annual meeting and conference and to form a view, Members were encouraged to attend the event in October.

RESOLVED – That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee review the new meeting arrangements for the Responsible Authorities Group (RAG) at it next meeting in January 2015.

To consider the response of the Executive Cabinet to the recommendations of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group on the Health Impact Assessment Review (enclosed)

The Committee received a report of the Director of Public Protection, Streetscene and Community on the Executive’s response to the final report of the Health Impact Assessments Scrutiny Task Group.

The report set out the seven recommendations of the Task Group and the views of the Executive. Each recommendation had been accepted and would be implemented.

A review of the toolkit had been undertaken and the assessment criteria in relation to health and wellbeing had been amended to reflect the priorities of both the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board and the local Health and Wellbeing Partnership. The assessment would now be made against the following criteria:

·         Starting Well

·         Living Well

·         Aging Well

This would consider the impact of the policy/service against these criteria and provide a whole life approach to public health priorities.

One of the review’s key recommendations was the delivery of training for relevant officers and all Elected Members of the Council to help gain a greater understanding of the reviewed assessment toolkit and the process involved. The Chair of the Task Group, Councillor Julia Berry encouraged all Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to attend a Member Learning Session that had been scheduled to take place on 3 November 2014.

RESOLVED – that the report be noted and a six monthly monitoring report of the recommendations be brought back to a future meeting.

To consider the responses of the Executive Cabinet to the recommendations of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group on Select Move (enclosed)

The Committee received a report of the Director of Customer and Advice Services and Community on the Executive’s response to the final report of the Select Move Scrutiny Task Group.

The report set out the 15 recommendations of the Task Group and the views of the Executive. Each recommendation had been accepted and would be implemented.

The majority of recommendations related to the Registered Providers; however the Council was a represented partner on the Strategic Housing Partnership. This Partnership was chaired by the Executive Member responsible for housing, Councillor Graham Dunn, who had also chaired the Task Group review of Select Move.

The final report of the Select Move review was on the agenda for the Partnerships next meeting on 11 November and the Chair, along with other representatives of the Council would encourage the registered providers to accept the recommendations.

Council officers also held regular meetings with the two main registered providers of social housing in Chorley, Chorley Community Housing and Places for People and would use this opportunity to talk through the recommendations with them.

The Committee asked for further information about the Gentoo product and were informed that this was an affordable housing scheme whereby an individual or family could purchase a home through a renting scheme without having to find a deposit. For a fixed rental over a specific period of time, the home owner(s) would buy a share of the property and the house could be purchased outright after a period of 30 years. The house could still be sold and any profit made invested in another Gentoo home, a private marketed property or just retained dependent on circumstances.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted and that a six monthly monitoring report on the recommendations be brought to a future meeting.

To note the draft scoping document of the joint review with Lancashire County Council (enclosed)

The Committee received the scoping documentation for the Disabled Facilities Grant Funding Task Group that was currently being undertaken jointly with Lancashire County Council following a request made by this Committee in 2013/14.

Councillor Julia Berry had been the Council’s representative on that Group and updated the Committee on the progress made to date. Following a consultation event that had taken place at County in August with officer and Member representatives from all the districts across Lancashire, a further meeting had taken place to look at the issues that had been raised.

There appeared to be a lot of inconsistency in approach taken by the different authorities across the county and the Committee discussed many of the points that had been raised at the consultation event that included:

·         Standard of approach

·         Waiting lists

·         Out of date assessments

·         Lack of flexibility to changing circumstances

·         Second hand adaptions

·         Adapted properties

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

The Chair, Councillor June Molyneaux updated the Committee on the work of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Neighbourhood Working Review. The Group had held its first meeting and were currently in the process of scoping the review.

The Groups overall objective was for the development of a neighbourhood working footprint that will encourage sustainable engagement with neighbourhoods across Chorley. At lot of work had already been undertaken to try to embed neighbourhood working across the authority and the group wanted to ensure that this is happening.

The Group intended to interview a variety of different people over the next two months to establish if the current arrangement were working or if there were any improvements that could be made and anticipated that the review would be completed by the end of the year.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

The Vice Chair, Councillor Julia Berry updated the Committee on the work of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Public Transport Issues in Chorley Review. The Group had invited County Councillor John Fillis, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport and Tony Moreton, Assistant Director of Transport from Lancashire County Council, along to their first meeting to give an overview of current arrangements regarding bus provision across Chorley.

The next steps for the group was to effectively scope the review as Members were aware that there would be limits to what they could hope to achieve due to the private system of public transport, the Group were also aware that any discussions with the public may raise unrealistic expectations.

The overall aim of the Group was for the provision of reliable services that cover the whole of Chorley, reflective of people needs and Members discussed what aspects they would like to try to influence/improve upon.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

To consider the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2014/15 (enclosed)

The Committee received the updated Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme 2013/14

RESOLVED – that the work Programme be noted.