The Chairman will advise the meeting of the evacuation procedures to follow in the event of an emergency. This is particularly important for visitors and members of the public who will be unfamiliar with the building and procedures.

The Chairman will inform the meeting whether there is a planned evacuation drill due to take place, what the alarm sounds like (i.e. ringing bells), where the closest emergency exit route is, and where the second closest emergency exit route is, in the event that the closest exit or route is blocked.

The Chairman will inform the meeting that:

(a) in the event of the alarm sounding, everybody must leave the building via the nearest safe available exit and gather at the Assembly points at the far side of the Car Park; and

(b) the lifts must not be used in the event of an evacuation.

Any officers present at the meeting will aid with the evacuation.

It is important that the Chairman is informed of any person attending who is disabled or unable to use the stairs, so that suitable arrangements may be made in the event of an emergency.

The Chairman drew attend to the Fire Evacuation Procedure.

To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 22 March 2017 (Minute Nos. 1255 - 1265) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 23 March 2017 (Minute Nos. 1255 – 1265) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chairman will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

(c)          Where it is possible that a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that the Member might be predetermined or biased the Member should declare their predetermination or bias and then leave the room while that item is considered.

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

During discussion in the meeting, Councillor Mike Henderson disclosed a non-pecuniary interest in Faversham Swimming Pool as he was a trustee and Oare Gunpowder Works as he sat on the Steering Group.

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration, the Interim Director of Regeneration and the Special Projects Manager have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and invited all Members, Officers and Visitors to introduce themselves.

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration introduced the report which gave an update on the progress of the Sittingbourne Town Centre Regeneration scheme.  He highlighted that highway works were upcoming and invited questions from Members.

In response to a question from a Member, Huw Evans from Quinn Estates clarified that as the market had changed, the focus had shifted from the residential part of the scheme to Leisure and Big Box retail, and that the residential scheme was now being considered again but would not be rushed.

A Member sought clarification on where diversions would be whilst work was being carried out and raised concern at the impact this would have on vehicle movements.  The Interim Director of Regeneration advised that UK Power Network along with Kent County Council (KCC) were administering the diversion and that diversion notices would be displayed within the next week.  Later in the meeting, Kevin McEveer from Lowick (communications consultancy)  advised that information on the diversion could be viewed on the roadworks.org or the KCC website.  The Chairman advised that the public would expect and recognise traffic delays as a sign that the project was moving forward.

A Member asked why it was necessary for the Development Agreements to be unconditional site-by-site?  The Cabinet Member for Regeneration responded that this was because it was such a large scheme, work would be carried out in phases to avoid any delays that any  issues might cause.  The Senior Projects Advisor added that progress would have been halted and delays created by statutory approvals meant that dates within the Development Agreement may not have been met.  He stated that the Development Agreement still required the whole scheme to be delivered.   The Chief Financial Officer added that it was more financially workable to separate the Retail and Leisure Units.

There was a discussion which centred on the risk around the cinema and a Member drew attention to the recent reduction in profit by the Odeon Cinema chain due to a reduction in footfall.  The Cabinet Member for Regeneration responded that the Odeon Cinema was one of the oldest of the main cinema operators and their issues were a lack of maintenance, renewal and repair of their cinemas.  He added that the Light Cinema chain now had seven cinemas in the United Kingdom with plans for a further 13 cinemas, and the new cinema and related restaurants would generate footfall during the day and night, increasing consumer spend in Sittingbourne.  The Cabinet Member for Regeneration considered that the Light Cinema were an expanding major player.  After further discussion, the Chairman asked if there was a Risk Assessment on the cinema, which could be viewed by Members?  The Chief Financial Officer agreed to circulate an updated Risk Assessment after the meeting.

In response to a question from a Member, the Interim Director of Regeneration clarified that the role of Scheme Manager (recently advertised) would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93.

The Committee is asked to consider the Financial Management Report January 2017 – May 2017.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance and the Chief Financial Officer are invited to attend for this item.

APPENDIX I ADDED 5 JULY 2017

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance and the Chief Financial Officer to the meeting, and invited them to introduce the report which would be considered by the Cabinet the following week.  The Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance drew attention to the Growth Revenue underspend on services and highlighted the larger than expected increase in Planning Fees income which was welcome additional revenue for 2016/17.  He considered that finances had been managed very well in 2016/17 and it was good news for SBC. 

The Chief Financial Officer advised that the Interim Head of Commissioning and Customer Contact was in attendance to answer any questions in his service area and drew Members’ attention to the late receipt of Appendix I Financial Outturn Report 2016/17.  The Chairman asked Members if they wished to defer discussion of the item in view of the late receipt of the report but Members declined.

A Member raised a number of issues of clarification of figures and other discrepancies within the report and the Chief Financial Officer agreed to go through the report in detail with the Member after the meeting, and circulate an update to Scrutiny Committee Members*

A Member stated that there had been a large excess of budget income over the last 4 or 5 years and a more accurate budget was required in the future.  He highlighted the additional costs to the Homelessness service caused by extra bed and breakfast requirements and the additional planning fee income.  The Chief Financial Officer advised that there had been a large spike in the number of residents that required bed and breakfast accommodation in January/February 2017 and Internal Audit had been commissioned to investigate the reasons for this.

There was a discussion around the £25k underspend on Member Grants and the Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance agreed to write to all Members in December of each year, suggesting ways of redistributing any left-over funds to causes highlighted by Members.

A Member asked if families housed in temporary accommodation were eligible for housing benefit?  The Chief Financial Officer agreed to report back with this information.

A Member asked why there had been a £10k saving from the Alexander Centre, Faversham?  The Chief Financial Officer advised that, under the transfer agreement, there was no liability and so this was a saving in next year’s budget.  The same Member referred to page 15 of Appendix I and asked whether £3,500 from the Verge Maintenance fund was enough to cover the additional planting in Swale?  The Interim Head of Commissioning and Customer Contact advised that a bigger budget for additional planting was available and £3,500 was the rollover amount from Verge Maintenance.  The Interim Head of Commissioning and Customer Contact referred to page 19 on Appendix I and advised that a mixture of ordinary litter bins and dog litter bins was provided and users could utilise either.

There was a discussion on spending on IT Improvements and a Member stressed the importance of receiving value  ...  view the full minutes text for item 94.

The Committee is asked to consider the Performance Monitoring Report.  The Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance, the Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance and the Policy and Performance Manager have been invited to attend for this item.

The Chairman welcomed the Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance and Policy and Performance Manager to the meeting for this item.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance introduced the report and gave an overview of the quarterly portfolio-based balanced scorecard performance reports for the third quarter of 2016/17.  He highlighted that complaint levels were at their lowest for two years, but that the proportion of corporate indicators meeting performance target had declined.

The Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Performance stated that sickness levels had increased and highlighted that the increase in the level of long-term sickness may be caused by just one or two individual members of staff.  He added that whilst the homelessness score in Corporate Risk Management had reduced slightly, it remained a serious risk.

In response to a question from a Member, the Policy and Performance Manager advised that it would be difficult to show individual sickness on a graph.  The same Member praised the Housing Services team but raised concerns that the homelessness figure had increased significantly. 

The Committee is asked to consider the Draft Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report 2016/17.

The Policy and Performance Officer introduced the report which set out the draft Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report 2016/17. He explained that the Committee was required by its terms of reference to report annually to Full Council on its work, and outlined the Committee’s powers and terms of reference. The Policy and Performance Officer referred to the schedule at Appendix I on page 47 of the report and highlighted the Committee’s strengths and weaknesses.  He suggested that Scrutiny Committee Members may wish to review how it operated in the future.

The Chairman congratulated the Policy and Performance Officer, paying particular attention to the Task and Finish programme.

A Member referred to page 42 of the report and suggested that further details on membership attendance could be included, as was contained in the Audit Annual report.

A Member suggested that there should be more emphasis on the difficulties encountered by the Scrutiny Committee in the on-going Sittingbourne Town Centre Regeneration Scheme review.  The Policy and Performance Officer agreed to expand the wording in the report to reflect this.

There was a discussion amongst Members on whether Deputy Cabinet Members should be excluded from sitting on the Scrutiny Committee.  The Policy and Performance Officer suggested that this was a matter for the General Purposes Committee and the Chairman added that no Deputy Cabinet Members sat on the Scrutiny Committee.

A Member referred to paragraph 4.5 on page 45 of the report and advised that Scrutiny training would be discussed at the next Member Working Development Group meeting on 18 September 2017.

Resolved:

(1)       That the draft Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report 2016/17 be agreed subject to the amendments agreed and submitted to Full Council for consideration.

The Committee is asked to review and discuss the Committee’s Work Programme (attached) for the remainder of the year.

The Policy and Performance Officer introduced the Work Programme 2017/18. He advised that the purpose of the report was to enable the Committee whether to decide to instigate any more reviews this municipal year and he drew Members’ attention to Appendix II on page 55 of the report which outlined the stages that each review was at. The following topics were suggested to review in the future:

·         CCTV

·         Planning Enforcement

·         ICT

·         Regeneration projects (excluding Sittingbourne Town Centre)

A Member suggested that Planning Enforcement should be reviewed urgently as proposals to restructure the team and provide more resources were currently being considered.

There was a discussion on the frequency of attendance at Scrutiny Committee by Officers and the Cabinet Member for Regeneration to give updates on the Sittingbourne Town Centre Regeneration scheme, but it was agreed that attendance at alternate Committees with an alternate written update was sufficient.  It was further agreed that this would be kept under review.

The Committee is asked to review the updated log of recommendations (attached).

The Policy and Performance Officer introduced the report.  There was no discussion.

The Committee is asked to consider updates on other reviews:

-       Leisure and Tourism

-       Housing Services

-       Development Management

Housing Services

A Member of the Task and Finish Group introduced the report, praised the hard work of Housing Officers and thanked the Policy and Performance Officer for his assistance.

The Chairman congratulated the Housing Task and Finish Group for producing a well written report.

A Member of the Task and Finish Group highlighted some of the issues, which included SBC’s responsibility to statutory homeless.  Another Member of the Task and Finish Group raised concern at the impact the merger of Amicus (now Optivo) would have in Swale.

A Member raised issues around the definition of ‘Affordable Housing’ and had serious concerns that private landlords did not accept the deposit bond scheme and refused to rent to benefits claimants.  A discussion ensued  and the Task and Finish Group agreed to discuss whether these issues should be included in the recommendations of the report.

Councillor Mike Henderson stated that homelessness was a serious problem throughout the whole country, and said that mental health issues and the change in benefit rules had added to the problem.  He proposed the following motion:

“That Cabinet be encouraged to write to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government drawing attention to the severe pressures Swale was facing in housing homeless families.”

The motion was seconded and on being put to the vote, the motion was agreed.

Resolved:

(1)  That Cabinet be encouraged to write to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government drawing attention to the severe pressures Swale was facing in housing homeless families.”

Development Management

The Chairman was disappointed at the lack of progress on the Development Management review.  A Member highlighted that  the visits to other Councils’ Planning Committees, as part of the review was very worthwhile.

The Committee is asked to consider the Forward Plan with a view to identifying possible items for pre-decision scrutiny.

The Policy and Performance Officer advised that the Forward Plan had been updated and republished since the Scrutiny Agenda had been produced.  He advised that the Visitor Economy Strategy and Discretionary Business Rate Relief items were now scheduled to be discussed at the Cabinet Meeting on 6 September 2017.

The Committee is asked to consider any requests from Committee Members to commence a review.

There were no urgent business requests.

At 10pm Members agreed to the suspension of Standing Orders in order that the Committee could complete its business.