Agenda and minutes

to approve as a correct record and authorise the Chairman to sign the minutes of the Panel held on 1 November 2018

O&S.69/18     

The minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel held on 1 November 2018 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.70/18                 

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.71/18

In accordance with the Public Forum Procedure Rules, the Chairman informed that there were no questions that had been received for consideration during this agenda item.

O&S.72/18     

The Chairman introduced the agenda item and advised that, in accordance with Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 15, the resolution arising from Minute E.46/18: ‘Public Toilet Review’ had been formally called-in for further consideration by the Panel.

Upon the conclusion of the debate on the call-in, the Chairman advised that there would be three options available to the Panel.  These were that the Panel:

1.     was content with the original Executive resolution and that decision would therefore take immediate effect;

2.     could refer the decision back to the next Executive meeting (on 13 December 2018) for further consideration; and

3.     could opt to refer the decision to the next full Council meeting (on 17 January 2019).

At this point, the Chairman invited the signatories of the call-in to explain their reasoning behind this decision.  In so doing, the signatories made specific reference to:-

-        their intention for the minute to be called-in in its entirety.  For clarity, the Deputy Monitoring Officer was invited to comment on this intention and confirmed that, whilst the primary focus of the call-in had been on the facilities at Steamer Quay, Totnes, a number of the points made by the Monitoring Officer (e.g. the late circulation of the report and appendices) were pertinent to the entire resolution.  As a result, it was her view that the call-in did relate to all aspects of Minute E.46/18; 

-        their disappointment that the lead Executive Member was not in attendance at this meeting.  Furthermore, these Members expressed their concerns over the way that the lead Member had led on this project;

-        the variance in the costings between the production of the initial Business Plan that had been circulated to Members in August 2018 and the subsequent publication of the Executive report and appendices;

-        the views of Totnes Town Council.  The local Ward Members who were in attendance stated that, once the call-in had been invoked, Totnes Town Council had requested an urgent meeting with the District Council and this meeting had not yet taken place.  In addition, the Members advised that the Town Council was of the view that it had not been given the same opportunity (or range of possible options available) that had been afforded to other town and parish councils in the district.  These Members therefore felt that the Town Council should be allowed to consider this suite of options before the Executive then reached a final decision at its meeting on 7 February 2019; and

-        there being inaccuracies in the Briefing Note that had been circulated to Members earlier this week.

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were raised:-

(a)   With regard to the figures that had been presented to the Executive meeting, the Panel sought an absolute assurance that these were accurate.  In response, officers confirmed that these figures had now been verified by Internal Audit and (with the exception of the facility at Fore Street, Kingsbridge) had been found to be accurate.  In addition, the Leader  ...  view the full minutes text for item O&S.72/18