Agenda and minutes

to approve as a correct record and authorise the Chairman to sign the minutes of the Panel held on 24 November 2016;

O&S.58/16

The minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 24 November 2016 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Members are invited to declare any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests, including the nature and extent of such interests they may have in any items to be considered at this meeting;

O&S.59/16     

Members and officers were invited to declare any interests in the items of business to be considered during the course of the meeting, but there were none made.

A period of up to 15 minutes is available to deal with issues raised by the public;

O&S.60/16     

In accordance with the Public Forum Procedure Rules, the following six questions had been received for consideration during this agenda item:

Questions received from Cllr Birch:

1.Are officers and/or Executive Members in discussions and/or correspondence with any potential developers in respect of the possible development of any of the Council owned car parks within South Hams?

2. When did officers and/or Executive Members first meet with the developer mentioned in the Council's press release dated 19 December 2016 to discuss and/or receive a presentation concerning the proposed development of car parks within South Hams?

3. Which Executive Members were present?

4. Which car parks were mentioned in the discussion and/or presentation?

5. What was the outcome of the discussion/presentation and were there further presentations and/or discussions? If so when?

6. Were there any reports and/or correspondence prepared or received following the presentation mentioned at Question 2 above?

In response to these questions, Cllr Tucker advised that:-

-       An initial meeting had been held on 9 November 2015.  The meeting had taken place following an approach from a Developer and was attended by Council officers and Cllrs Hicks and Ward.  During this meeting, it became apparent that all Council owned car parks were of potential interest to the Developer;

-       A further meeting was held in Modbury on 14 March 2016 between Cllr Ward (as local ward Member) and the Developer specifically on future development proposals in that parish;

-       On 12 May 2016, a telephone conference call was held during which the Developer was informed that the Council was not willing to take the discussions any further;

-       A report was presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Panel at its meeting on 7 April 2016 entitled ‘Income Generation Proposals’ (Minute O&S.100/15 refers) which made reference to these proposals.  Cllr Tucker confirmed that a copy of this report and appendices would be sent to Cllr Birch; and

-       Following the initial meeting, the particular car parks that the Developer had inspected were: Shadycombe Car Park, Salcombe; the Nursery Car Park, Totnes; and Modbury.

Note: If any Member seeks further clarity, or wishes to raise issues regarding any future Executive agenda item, please contact Member Services before 5.00pm on Monday, 16 January 2017 to ensure that the lead Executive Member(s) and lead officer(s) are aware of this request in advance of the meeting.

O&S.61/16     

The Panel was presented with the most recently published Executive Forward Plan. 

In so doing, the Panel was advised that there was a likelihood that two further items would be included on the Executive agenda for its meeting on 2 February 2017 that related to a possible Asset Disposal and a Section 106 Expenditure matter.

(Lead Executive Member – Cllr Hicks)

O&S.62/16     

The Panel considered a report that presented a new method to present performance information.  In so doing, it was intended that the new display information would ensure that performance was presented in a more easy to understand way.

In discussion, the following points were raised:-

(a)  The Panel expressed its support for the retention of the existing format of performance reporting whereby detailed reports are formally presented on a quarterly basis;

(b)  The key indicators of interest to the Panel being in relation to the:

o    Development Management Service;

o    Customer Contact Centre;

o    Revenue and Benefits service;

o    Number of Complaints;

o    Time taken to pay invoices;

o    Number of missed bin collections.

(c)  In respect of missed bins, Members requested that detailed comparative information be presented in the future to enable for the success of the new In-Cab technology to be gauged;

(d)  At a future meeting, the Panel specifically requested that they be in receipt of a report that outlined exactly how the Revenue and Benefits service operated;

(e)    Members again asked that their thanks be passed on to the Customer Contact Centre staff for the demonstrable service improvements.  In recognising that the number of calls and visitors had reduced, Members hoped that the new Council website (scheduled to go live in the upcoming weeks) would further assist with the Channel Shift agenda.  Following earlier guarantees, the Panel was assured that Members would be given the opportunity to test the new website before it went live;

(f)   A Member expressed his belief that the covalent system was particularly impressive.

It was then:

RESOLVED

That the performance dashboards have been reviewed and the comments (as outlined above) be taken into account during the preparation of future quarterly performance reports.

(Lead Executive Member – Cllr Gilbert, items a, b and c)

(a)  Dartmouth Lower Ferry

(b)  Waste and Recycling

(c)  Events Policy

O&S.63/16     

(a)   Dartmouth Lower Ferry

The Chairman advised that the next Group meeting was to be held on 1 February 2017 and it was hoped that a concluding report would be presented to the next Panel meeting on 23 February 2017.

(b)   Waste and Recycling

It was noted that a meeting had been held on 16 January 2017 and the Group was now focusing on drafting a report that outlined potential future service options.

(c)   Events Policy

The Group Chairman advised the Panel that its next meeting would be taking place on Thursday, 2 February 2017.

O&S.64/16     

The contents of the latest version of the Log was presented and subsequently noted with no further issues or comments being raised.

to consider items for programming on to the annual work programme of the Panel, whilst having regard to the resources available, time constraints of Members and the interests of the local community.

O&S.65/16     

In consideration of its Annual Work Programme, the Panel noted that a number of requests had been made during the course of both this meeting and the earlier Joint meeting with Members of the Development Management Committee.  As a consequence, the Panel requested that officers meet with the Panel Chairman and be given delegated authority to update the Work Programme accordingly.

With regard to the future use of Follaton House, it was noted that current heating inefficiencies should be included in this project.  On this specific aspect, Members recalled that a commitment had been previously given for Cllrs Hopwood and Wingate (who both had expertise in this area) to be fully involved in discussions with officers.  However, the point was made that there had been no such dialogue held with them to date.