Agenda item

The Committee are asked to consider the enclosed minutes of the last Executive Cabinet meeting held on 9 December 2010.

10.EC.236 – Coppull Leisure Centre

Issue raised:

Members asked what consultation had been carried out before it had been agreed to sell the Leisure Centre to Big Air Limited.

The Director of People and Places explained that consultation had been carried out by Coppull Parish Council who owned the centre and that they had held a public meeting that representatives of Big Air Limited had attended. The centre would still remain as a leisure facility and the newly created play area was still in the ownership of the Parish Council.

RESOLVED – That the information be noted.

10.EC.237 – Core Funding, 2011/12 – Review of process

Issue raised:

Members of the Committee asked what processes were in place to ensure that there was no duplication of funding for projects by the various partner organisations. There were concerns that there could be overlapping of funding on larger projects and that some smaller projects could miss out all together. Information was sought as to how this was monitored to ensure that each project or commissioning only received the required amount of funds when applicant can seek funding from a variety of different partners, instead of one central funding source.

It was explained that processes were in place to mitigate this risk and that a number of attempts had been made to facilitate the merging of the funding sources of the various partners.

However Members felt that these processes demanded further scrutiny and that more should be done to consolidate all available funding sources in the current financial climate to ensure that the reduced funding that would be available was allocated effectively.

Concerns were also made that the minutes of the Local Strategic Partnership’s Board, Executive and its Thematic Groups were not published on the website. This form of communication was the only way that many of the members were informed about the decision made by these bodies.

The Chair also requested that a report be submitted to the next meeting of the Committee on the changes that were currently being implemented to the Local Strategic Partnership.

RESOLVED – That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommend the Executive Cabinet :

1.                    Make immediate changes to the application process of allocating Core Funding grants in 2011/12 to allow for more transparency and scrutiny of the applicants to ensure that funding is allocated effectively and not duplicated by other funding sources.

2.                    Review the process in 2012/13 for the allocation of partnership funding and a monitoring procedure that ensures that there is no overlapping of funds by the various organisations.

3.                    Review the publication of the Local Strategic Partnership Board, Executive and its Thematic Groups minutes on the Chorley Partnership website.

4.                    That the Head of Policy and Communications submit a report to the next meeting of the Committee on the restructure of the Local Strategic Partnership.

10.EC.238 – General Budget Principles for 2011/12 and 10.EC.241 – Restructures

Issue raised:

Members commented that other authorities had explored shared services that had resulted in considerable savings and more innovative ways of partnership working and asked what Chorley Council was doing to continue driving efficiencies forward.

The Director of Transformation explained that with the present sharing arrangements with South Ribble Borough Council in the financial and revenue and benefits services and the current joint Chief Executive arrangement with Wyre, the Council were achieving financial savings of around £486,000. Further savings were anticipated from phase 2 of the shared arrangements with South Ribble.

Lancashire County Council had entered into a strategic partnership with BT and had invited all of the district council to participate in a procurement exercise of the available services. The Council had met to discuss the options and had decided not to participate at this stage as the offer was not considered developed enough.

Chorley had not discounted taking up the offer in the future and discussions had already taken place between the two authorities to discuss a way forward on a shared agenda for frontline services.

RESOLVED – That the information be noted.