Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair will welcome Councillor Bell to the meeting. 

The Chair welcomed Councillor Eric, the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods, who had been invited to the meeting.  

An apology for absence was submitted on behalf of Councillor Nora Ball.  

To confirm as a correct record the enclosed minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group - Highways issues held on 20 October 2009. 

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group - Highways issues held on 20 October 2009 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

If the personal interest is a prejudicial 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.

No Members declared an interest in respect of items on the agenda.  

The Group will consider the draft final report, noting the following from the practical guide to overview and scrutiny in Chorley.  The draft report will be forwarded by email. 

Recommendations should be:

·              based on clear evidence

·              address identified need

·              relate to corporate priorities

·              have broad support

·              demonstrate tangible benefits

·              take account of resources

The Chair introduced the draft final report and invited comments from Members.

Councillor Bell thanked the Group for their work on the issues. 

RESOLVED – The following recommendations be made to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

Lancashire County Council:

1.             To set in place a formal information sharing system between Councillors and officers on a strategic level, for example, changes to gritting routes and policy changes, utilising email and other communication tools.

2.             To use “intheknow” to notify Members of practical information, such as, roadworks, highways and neighbourhoods information.

3.             To identify and introduce meaningful performance indicators to enable both County and District officers and Members to scrutinise the performance of the Streetscene Services Agreement. This is subject to the development of the Public Realm Strategy that could supersede the Streetscene Services Agreement.

4.             To present an update report to the relevant County Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee every six months on the inquiry recommendations to ensure robust performance monitoring.

5.             That key information relating to inspections frequencies, highway intervention levels and key performance indicators are extracted from the Highway Maintenance Plan and provided in a simpler format to Members and Key Officers.

Chorley:

6.             To make available to Members current street cleaning schedules and the maintenance schedule for the car parks.

7.             To utilise intheknow to cascade highways and Neighbourhoods information to Members.

Lancashire County Council:

8.             To provide a separate reporting mechanism for officers and Councillors rather than the current single telephone number.

9.             To communicate with the public more, for example, by improving information on the Lancashire County Council website with the detail of the highways maintenance plan.

10.         To reduce avoidable contact with the contact centre (NI14) by keeping customers updated, with text messaging, email alerts or use of postcards for “work in progress” or “work completed”.

11.         To implement an information sticker to be used on grit bins, street lights and generally which displays contact telephone numbers and location information to enable easier fault reporting.

United Utilities

12.         To reduce avoidable contact (NI14) by keeping customers updated, with text messaging, email alerts or use of postcards for “work in progress” or “work completed”.

Lancashire County Council:

13.         To introduce meetings between the county (Environment) and district (Neighbourhoods) portfolio holders at appropriate times, perhaps April and October, and to report back relevant information to Members via intheknow.

14.         To introduce regular meetings between Lancashire County Council (Environment Directorate) and Chorley Council (People and Places Directorate) officers.

15.         To streamline existing meeting arrangements (including co-ordination meetings with utility companies and highways schemes) to make them more effective and ensure the correct people are in attendance and the information from meetings is cascaded down.

16.         Officers to enter into negotiations with Lancashire County Council with respect to Chorley delivering some enforcement functions, such as advertising boards, highway encroachment and overhanging vegetation.

Chorley Council

17.         To include performance monitoring information on enforcement activities on the quarterly report presented to Overview and Scrutiny Committee and forwarded to LCC as the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

Following any amendments requested by the Group the final report will be presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 18 January 2010 and to Executive Cabinet on 18 February 2010. 

The report of the Task Group would be presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in the new year.