To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 June 2015 (Minute Nos. 83 - 87) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 June 2015 (Minute Nos. 83 – 87) 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.

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 Director of Corporate Services as Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

Councillor Mike Henderson declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in respect of the budget for Flood Defences which was referred to in the Financial Outturn report.  He advised that if this subject was discussed, he would leave the meeting for the duration of that discussion.

The Chairman declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in respect of leisure facilities, which was referred to in the Financial Outturn report.  He advised that if this subject was discussed, he would leave the meeting for the duration of that discussion.

The Committee is asked to consider the Financial Outturn Report for 2014/15 (attached).

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Head of Finance have been invited to attend.

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Finance and the Head of Finance to the meeting.  The Chairman drew attention to the Financial Outturn report, paper copies of which were available at the meeting, and invited the Committee to go through the document page by page. 

In response to comments concerning the amount of underspend, the Head of Finance explained that the savings were largely as a result of savings achieved through the renegotiation of the waste contract, and how planning fees were budgeted for.  He explained the purpose of the Performance Fund, the Regeneration Fund and the Transformation Fund.

Table 2, Main Variations by Service

A Member referred to the underspend in Grounds Maintenance, the overspend in Parks and Open Spaces and the £256k adjustment required by the auditors, and proposed that the Cabinet should be requested to look at this again, with a view to spending the funds on the renovation and refurbishment of play areas, possibly some new ones.  The proposal was seconded, however, when put to the vote it was not supported.

Mid Kent Planning Service (MKPS) overspend – in response to questions, the Head of Finance undertook to provide the Member with details of the original estimate for the implementation of MKPS. 

Recycling and Waste Minimisation – a Member referred to the problems with the public putting non-recyclable waste into household recycling bins and suggested the Cabinet should do more.

Street Cleansing – a Member referred to public perception of clean streets, and asked whether the savings in the Waste Contract had resulted in a reduction in cleanliness.

Leisure and Sports Centre – a Member asked for a breakdown of what made up the £73k overspend. 

Parking and Highways – a Member asked what proportion of the £136k income was made up from parking fines.  The Cabinet Member for Finance referred to the free Christmas parking in the town, but there were no facts to prove that this resulted in an increase in revenue for retailers.  A Member gave an example of Cardigan in Wales, where retailers had seen an increase in revenue whilst car park ticketing machines were out of action.

Recycling and Waste – the Cabinet Member for Finance advised that Garden Waste was now making more income than expected.  He also referred to work to encourage recycling, to avoid contamination.  A Member advised that it was not always residents that caused the problem, but members of the public passing by. 

The Head of Finance confirmed that the Council was not required to declare accrued annual leave in its accounts.

Democratic Services – the Cabinet Member for Finance advised that much of the training for Councillors had been undertaken in house, as it was more specific.

Health and Safety – the Cabinet Member for Finance explained why the journals had not been required.

Play Areas Commuted Sums – a Member suggested that this amount should be spent on play areas.  The Head of Finance advised that this was to support S106 funding and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 113.

The Committee is asked to consider the Performance Monitoring Report for 2014/15 Quarter 4 (attached).

The Cabinet Member for Performance and Policy and Performance Manager have been invited to attend.

The Chairman invited the Cabinet Member for Performance and the Policy Manager to introduce the report.  The Policy Manager explained the purpose of the Scorecard for performance monitoring, and went through the Corporate Health Scorecard for the benefit of new Members.

In response to questions, it was confirmed that all staff had an annual appraisal, and that the monitoring of sickness levels would be split between long term and short term sickness in the future.  A Member requested sight of the performance management report that was considered by Senior Management Team, and the Policy Manager agreed to forward this.  The Policy Manager advised that the average sickness was 7.85 days per person, however, the public sector did experience higher levels of sickness than the private sector.  He also explained quartiles and the difficulties in finding comparable data sources.

In respect of the Environment and Rural Affairs Scorecard, Members raised concerns about the downturn in perception in terms of cleanliness.  The Cabinet Member for Performance advised that there were settling-in problems with the new waste contract and that he was confident Members would see an improvement in the next report, as not all of the data in the report was very recent.  In respect of concerns about cleanliness, the Cabinet Member for Performance advised that there was a perception that there was a lot of rubbish around in Kent, and referred to a scheme they were piloting with litter wardens.

In respect of the Planning Scorecard, concern was expressed regarding the upward trend of complaints, the increase in income and the performance indicator that measured delegated decisions, in that it should not be seen as poor performance for the Planning Committee to determine the applications, instead of officers.  The Policy Manager advised that the performance indicator was set by the Council. Another Member raised concerns about planning and considered that officers needed help.

In respect of the Regeneration Scorecard, a Member referred to the performance indicators that measured Council spend with businesses headquartered in Swale, and Council spend with businesses employing 30 or more people.  The Policy Manager referred to data quality issues that had been experienced with these indicators in the past, and advised that for 2015/16 the two indicators would be combined into a single indicator with a more robust methodology for ensuring high quality data.  He undertook to give information on the rationale for combining these performance indicators into one.  The Cabinet Member for Performance suggested that rateable business growth would be a better indicator.

The Committee is asked to consider the Work Programme for the 2015/16 Municipal Year (attached).

The Policy and Performance Officer outlined his report, and referred to Appendix II which set out the topics suggested so far.  The Committee discussed the suggested items, and the Chairman sought to determine which items were considered to be  most important.  During the discussion, the Policy and Performance Officer undertook to provide new Members with information about the Mid Kent Improvement Partnership Planning Support Review.

Item 9 – Housing Services – this was considered to be the most important in the list and the Chairman advised that this would be a review for the Committee, rather than a task and finish group.

Item 10 – it was suggested that the Planning Services review should be restricted to development control, as the Policy Development and Review Committee was looking at planning enforcement.

Item 11 – Leisure and Tourism – the Chairman confirmed that this would be an item for consideration by the Committee, rather than a task and finish group.

Item 12 – Local Engagement Forums – the Chairman suggested that this should be a task and finish group – with one member from each area (Sittingbourne, Sheppey, Faversham).

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

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

Resolved:

(1) That this report be noted.

The Committee is asked to consider updates on other reviews.

The Chairman advised that this was item deferred to the next meeting.

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 reminded Members that strategies and plans were within the remit of the Policy Development and Review Committee, and he outlined the remit of the Scrutiny Committee.

Resolved

(1) That the forward plan be noted.