Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Member:-

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Committee;

(b)               all other Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that the following interest was declared:

Agenda Item 8 – Draft Climate Action Plan and Draft Delivering Warmer Homes (HECA) Report

Councillor Sue Anderson declared a disclosable pecuniary interest in that she was employed by the Primary Care Trust.  She would remain in the room whilst the matter was considered and voted upon unless the discussion related to her interest at which point she would then leave.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2012 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

With reference to the Post Ofsted Improvement Plan, a Member reminded the Committee that the Chief Executive had given an undertaking to provide details on any Equality Impact Assessments that had been carried out on the social worker posts as part of the work on terms and conditions.  An officer advised that a response had been included in the Committee’s action sheet but that she would seek clarification on this.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 14 November 2012, be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

To receive questions (if any) from local residents/organisations under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 17 (Part 4B of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions were received at the meeting under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 17.

To receive petitions (if any) submitted by members of the public/Councillors under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 15 (Part 4B of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no petitions were received at the meeting under the provisions of Committee Procedure Rule 15.

(if any).

None received.

Report of the Corporate Director of Environment and Enterprise

Members received a report of the Corporate Director of Environment and Enterprise which set out a general overview of the Public Realm Services and the changes planned for the service area.

The Divisional Director of Environment outlined the content of the report and explained that the Public Realm Service was currently part of a wider transformation project taking place in his division – the PRISM project.  He reported on the new technology in the refuse service, the proposal to reduce the number of refuse vehicles, the ability to provide information more directly to residents, and changes to the street cleansing and grounds maintenance services.  He stated that the changes made had meant that there was a greater ability to focus on those issues that residents reported.

A Member stated that the report did not address the issues that he wished to consider in that over the years there had been a number of cuts and had wanted to see where the Council was in terms of service standards.  He wanted to get a sense of what was going on on the ground, for example, in relation to trees. Residents were complaining about trees in terms of pruning and officers were reporting that they could not carry out works unless it was an emergency due to budget cuts.  He also requested clarification on the meaning of paragraph 4 on page 12 of the report.

The Divisional Director responded that the department’s restricted capacity was acknowledged and that there were some activities that could no longer be performed due to savings.  The front line services had, however, been maintained.  The proposal was to separate some functions and staff in order to particularly focus on commissioning.

The Member expressed the view that the removal of some of the Access Harrow contact channels would make the current situation worse and residents would instead contact Councillors with their public realm issues/complaints.  He questioned how it was envisaged that Members resolve issues raised as they too would have reduced contact channels.  The Divisional Director responded that it was important to recognise that many residents now contacted the Council by emailing or texting photographs of problems in the public realm such as graffiti and fly tipping.

A Member stated that in the budget papers there was a line stating that there would be £600,000 savings from a reduction in the public realm service and requested clarification on the implications of this line.  The Divisional Director stated that whilst this was not included in the papers before Members, work was being done on efficiency savings.  He reported that calls about graffiti and fly tipping were being responded to more quickly but that there would, amongst other things, be a reduction in the level of street cleansing and grass cutting.  Decisions were on these aspects would be included in the final budget and whilst officers would not choose to make these cuts the Council had to make significant savings.  In response to the Member’s request for further detail  ...  view the full minutes text for item 343.

Report of the Corporate Director of Environment and Enterprise

Members received a report of the Corporate Director of Environment and Enterprise which set out the draftClimate Change Action Plan (Appendix D) and the draft Delivering Warmer Homes (HECA) report (Appendix I), which were reported to Cabinet on 22 November 2012.  These draft strategies/plans were currently subject to public consultation and Overview and Scrutiny Committee were invited to consider and comment on the drafts.  The Chair drew Members’ attention to the fact that they were being invited to comment only on the two draft documents (Appendices D and I).

The officer reported that the report to Cabinet in November had provided details of progress of the existing Climate Change Strategy.  Whilst there had been good progress in reducing carbon emissions, the officer gave a word of caution in that the previous winter had been particularly mild.  In terms of Delivering Warmer Homes, the Council was required to submit a response to the consultation by 31 March 2013.

In considering the report, Members made comments and asked questions which included the following:

·                     Concern was expressed at the apparent inconsistencies between this and the previous report on the agenda (Changes in Public Realm Services), citing numerous examples, and the lack of joining up of information across the Council.  The officer advised that Appendix A was the previous Action Plan which had included everything officers had thought might be required.  Appendix D took a more ‘broad brush’ approach as it was now recognised that the previous Action Plan was too detailed. A consequence of this was that reports had had to summarise a large amount of the information received from a number of departments.

·                     A Member, referring to page 96 of the report, stated that the population figure was not included in the waste section of Appendix D but that somehow the waste per head and recycling figures were included without this figure.  He questioned why, on page 14 of the previous report the figures differed.  The officer reassured Members that Appendix D would be completed prior to its further consideration by Cabinet in March 2013 and that these figures would be checked.  The figures relating to number of households and population were provided by the Environment Agency.

·                     There appeared to be no mention of the two main strands in relation to the Council’s carbon footprint within Appendix D. In addition, carbon emissions did not appear to have been considered during the commissioning process and there was no activity that monitored the carbon impact of capital spend or commissioning.  The officer drew Members’ attention to the section in the Appendix which recorded the Council’s carbon footprint and stated that the carbon impact of capital spending was taken into account as part of the capital bidding process but accepted that more weight could be given to this. Another Member stated that there should be a way of ensuring that the embedded carbon effect of capital spend was monitored and recorded. The officer replied that, at present, embedded carbon was not measured and that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 344.

Report of the Divisional Director of Strategic Commissioning

The Chair advised the Committee that this item had been deferred to the next ordinary meeting.

Report of the Divisional Director of Strategic Commissioning

Members agreed to consider and receive the report of the Chair of the Performance and Finance Scrutiny Sub-Committee as matter of urgency for the reasons set out on the supplemental agenda.

A Member expressed concern at the timeliness of the data received as it related to quarter 1 when it was now the end of quarter 3.  He suggested that this be discussed at the Scrutiny Leadership Group the following day.  The Chair of the Scrutiny Sub-Committee echoed the concerns expressed stating that it was a problem that scrutiny officers had tried to resolve.

In terms of corporate equality objectives, the Chair of the Scrutiny Sub?Committee advised that consideration was being given to inviting the corporate equality leads to the quarterly Chair’s briefing.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.

Report of the Divisional Director of Strategic Commissioning

Members agreed to consider and receive the report of the Divisional Director of Strategic Commissioning which accompanied the reports from the Scrutiny Lead Members as matter of urgency for the reasons set out on the supplemental agenda.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted and the actions proposed therein be agreed.