Meeting documents
Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Wednesday, 6th June 2007
Present
Chair
Mrs CM Meaden
Councillors
L Fraser, D Hawkins, IM Moon, PM Southwood
Deputy
SL Rowlands (for Cllr Mrs K Wood)
A Taylor (for Cllr CM Teggin)
Cabinet member
SA Holbrook
Index to Minutes
- Minute 1 - WELCOME
- Minute 2 - DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
- Minute 3 - APPOINTMENT OF VICE-CHAIR
- Minute 4 - MINUTES
- Minute 5 - COMMITTEE WORK PROGRAMME 2007-08
- Minute 6 - YEAR END PERFORMANCE MONITORING REPORT
- Minute 7 - INVESTMENT IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAMME, PROGRESS REPORT
- Minute 8 - CORPORATE SERVICES DEPARTMENT - FINANCIAL MONITORING
- Minute 9 - CORPORATE SERVICES DEPARTMENT - CAPITAL PROGRAMME MONITORING
- Minute 10 - EXEMPT INFORMATION - EXCLUSION OF MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
- Minute 11 - CORONER'S SERVICE
Minute 1 - WELCOME
Minute Text :
The Chair welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the new municipal year and suggested that future meetings of this Committee start earlier.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That future meetings of the Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee start at 6.00pm.
Minute 2 - DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Minute Text :
The Head of Legal and Member Services invited members -
(a) to consider whether they had a personal or prejudicial interest in any matters to be considered at the meeting and, if so, to declare them and state what they were;
(b) to declare, pursuant to paragraph 18 of the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules, whether they were subject to a party whip in connection with any matter to be considered and, if so, to disclose the nature of the whipping arrangement.
No declarations were made.
Minute 3 - APPOINTMENT OF VICE-CHAIR
Minute Text :
In accordance with minute 5(8) of Cabinet (16/5/07), the Committee was strongly recommended to appoint a Vice-Chair.
On a motion by Councillor Taylor, seconded by Councillor Southwood, it was -
Minute Decision :
Resolved (4:2) That Councillor D Hawkins be appointed Vice-Chair of this Committee.
Minute 4 - MINUTES
Minute Text :
The Head of Legal and Member Services requested that the minutes of the meeting of the Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 20 March, which were received by Council on 16 April, 2007, be received.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That the minutes be received.
Minute 5 - COMMITTEE WORK PROGRAMME 2007-08
Minute Text :
The Committee were invited to consider possible areas for scrutiny during the coming year.
Russ Glennon, Head of Policy, gave a presentation on selecting topics for scrutiny and led the members through an exercise which helped in this process.
After some discussion and debate it was -
Minute Decision :
Resolved -
(1) That the Committee work programme for 2007/08 focus on the issues of:
(i) communications (internal and external),
(ii) Staff retention and
(iii) accommodation strategy and asset management.
(2) That the Director of Corporate Services bring a scoping report to the next Committee on these three topics for scrutiny.
Minute 6 - YEAR END PERFORMANCE MONITORING REPORT
Minute Text :
The Deputy Chief Executive / Director of Corporate Services gave a presentation to the Committee and submitted the year end Performance Monitoring report giving details of the performance of the Corporate Services Department. There were 29 statutory (BVPI) and corporate plan performance indicators (PIs), selected by the council which allowed progress against the corporate objectives to be measured, for Corporate Policy, Human Resources, Legal Services & Transformational Change divisions within Corporate Services.
Both the Director and the Head of Policy responded to questions from members and made comments including:
- Grant funding to voluntary organisations had been reduced in the budget, but the funding was for infrastructure and there was no evidence to suggest that this would have led to the deteriorating target of the percentage of people who were actively involved in helping the local community.
- Rigid adherence to the sickness policy with return to work interviews etc had helped in reducing levels of sickness.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That the year end performance for Corporate Policy, Human Resources, Legal Services and Transformational Change divisions in Corporate Services, be noted.
Minute 7 - INVESTMENT IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY PROGRAMME, PROGRESS REPORT
Minute Text :
The Director of Technical Services submitted a report on the progress made in implementing the Investment in Energy Efficiency Programme phases 1 and 2 and the Microgeneration Feasibility Study. The report also gave details of recent developments in the field of energy conservation over the last six months and future developments including the statutory requirements to be implemented by the Energy Performance in Buildings Regulations 2007.
In response to questions from Members the Director of Technical Services made the following comments:
- Gas Force Ltd, a national company, was the only company able to provide Burner Management Units to the required specification.
- Funding had been provided through the Local Transport Plan for the next five years for improvements to street lighting.
- All schools had been contacted with regard to the energy awareness campaign.
Minute Decision :
Resolved -
(1) That the progress made to date in implementing the Investment in Energy Efficiency Programme and Microgeneration Feasibility Study, be noted.
(2) That this Committee agrees that further work is required to allow the implementation of the Statutory Items detailed in section 4 of this report.
Minute 8 - CORPORATE SERVICES DEPARTMENT - FINANCIAL MONITORING
Minute Text :
The Deputy Chief Executive / Director of Corporate Services submitted a report on the financial performance of the Corporate Services Department during 2006/07, including progress on policy options, progress on savings, and service re-engineering savings and likely variations.
The Director of Finance explained how the slight variations in the figures shown for the Coroner's Service budget had occurred between the report and the appendix.
Minute Decision :
Resolved -
(1) That the report be noted.
(2) That a further report be submitted to the next meeting of this committee.
(3) That a monthly update on financial monitoring for all Committees be emailed to all Councillors.
Minute 9 - CORPORATE SERVICES DEPARTMENT - CAPITAL PROGRAMME MONITORING
Minute Text :
The Deputy Chief Executive / Director of Corporate Services reported upon the Corporate Services Capital Programme which was formulated and planned on a three-year basis within the Council’s Capital Strategy. An appendix to the report detailed the programme on a scheme by scheme basis with the forecast expenditure for future years.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That the report be noted.
Minute 10 - EXEMPT INFORMATION - EXCLUSION OF MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
Minute Text :
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That, under section 100 (A) (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by the relevant paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) to the Act.
Minute 11 - CORONER'S SERVICE
Exempt :
NOT FOR PUBLICATION: Exempt by virtue of paragraph 3, Part I, Schedule 12A (as amended), Local Government Act 1972
Minute Text :
The Deputy Chief Executive / Director of Corporate Services submitted a report on the Coroner’s Service and its budget. The report gave details of the Coroner's duties and budgetary issues. The Coroner’s budget formed part of the local authority’s funding (RSG). There was no separate or specific budget allocated to the Coroner in the Grant and therefore the Coroner’s budget had to be treated as part of the departmental budget. An appendix was attached to the report which gave a breakdown of the budget and out-turn for each of the last three financial years.
After some debate on the issues raised in the report Members suggested that it would be helpful to have a cost analysis report on the Coroner's Service.
Minute Decision :
Resolved -
(1) That the report be noted.
(2) That a further report be brought to a future meeting of this Committee setting Wirral’s expenditure on a Coroner’s service in context with other authorities’ expenditure around the country and also providing a more detailed breakdown of expenditure.
(Minutes Published: 20 June 2007)