Agenda and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

Link to further information in the Council’s Constitution

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 4 June 2024 were agreed as an accurate record and were signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman referred to concerns raised at the July Full Council meeting in relation to Councillor understanding of the scrutiny process and confirmed that the Council was looking to organise training through East Midlands Councils and also a workshop to support with understanding.

Report of the Director - Neighbourhoods

The Strategic Human Resources Manager presented the Health and Safety Annual report for the period of April 2023 to March 2024 and provided an overview of the key points.

The Strategic Human Resources Manager referred to sections two and three of the report which covered the increase in the health and safety risk profile for the Council, which was due to the Streetwise services coming back in-house and the opening of Bingham Arena and Rushcliffe Oaks Crematorium. In light of this, the Council had reviewed its health and safety provision and determined to recruit a permanent Health and Safety Advisor.

The Strategic Human Resources Manager updated the Group about key activities that had taken place over the last twelve months, including the annual review of Health and Safety policies.

The Strategic Human Resources Manager said that Health and Safety Audits and visits had been conducted by the new Health and Safety Advisor at the Streetwise Depot, Rushcliffe Country Park and the R2Go Depot to both familiarise herself with the sites and carry out hazard spotting.

The Strategic Human Resources Manager noted that the Health and Safey Executive had visited the Streetwise Bingham Depot in October 2023, which had been an announced visit from an Inspector from the chemical regulation division, in relation to plant protection products. She said that the Inspector had reviewed the Council’s training and risk assessment procedures and had carried out a comprehensive inspection of the Council’s chemical storage and compliance with the legislation. Overall, the Inspector was pleased and submitted a few minor written recommendations, suggesting a reduction in the amount of stock held in storage and that the chemical store be modernised and relocated inside.

In relation to progress towards achieving health and safety goals, the Strategic Human Resources Manager said that all six goals had been achieved with the exception of some outstanding policy reviews which would be rolled over in the 2024/25 programme. She said that e-learning compliance was not as high as the Council would like and that this would be a focus for the coming year. In relation to performance, she said that accidents had increased slightly, in part due to increased understanding from training and toolbox talks about reporting of accidents.

In relation to work days lost due to accidents, the Strategic Human Resources Manager said that this had increased significantly in comparison to previous years, but that although many of these were for minor accidents, due to the nature of manual work had nonetheless meant that staff members could not work. She said that all had been reported to the Health and Safety Executive and none had triggered any follow up from them.

The Chairman asked about the number of days lost to injury and asked if these were due to any particular reasons. The Strategic Health and Safety Manager said that the Council did review whether it was at fault for any of the accidents and said that the majority had not occurred on the Council’s premises, often  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Report of the Director - Finance and Corporate Services

The Chairman explained that due to unforeseen circumstances this agenda item had been postponed and would be carried forward to the next meeting of the Corporate Overview Group on 19 November 2024.

Report of the Director - Finance and Corporate Services

The Senior Finance Business Partner presented the Q1 position for the Council’s financial and performance monitoring for 2024/25.

The Senior Finance Business Partner said that there was currently a projected underspend in both revenue and capital which were proposed to be earmarked for additional cost pressures. She referred to the variances set out in Table 1 of the report, notably favourable variances due to interest on income, additional funding and grants, and business rates. She also noted the most significant adverse variant arising from planning, due to appeals and enforcement. She explained that the Council did have a reserve fund for planning variances but that as there were in year efficiencies it would be covered through those.

The Senior Finance Business Partner referred to Table 2 for the earmarked proposed uses for the underspend.

In relation to the capital programme, the Senior Finance Business Partner said that the Council proposed to rephase £3.756 of the underspend to 2025/26 as summarised in Table 3. She said that the remaining underspend was mainly due to £1m allocated for the travellers site acquisition which would potentially be removed later in the year as no sites had been identified, and underspends on Rushcliffe Oaks Crematorium and Bingham Arena, where funds had been allocated for possible VAT liability and post opening enhancements, but which could potentially be released later in the year.

The Senior Finance Business Partner informed the Group that the Council did not have any external borrowing and was in a healthy financial position, but that this could change. Over the longer term, she noted that capital resources were diminishing and that the Council had big environmental objectives which needed to be met.

The Chairman said that she thought the Council’s underspends and efficiencies to be good given the recent fluctuations in interest and inflation rates.

The Vice Chair of Communities referred to the efficiencies from staff positions not being filled and the Senior Finance Business Partner explained that the majority of these had occurred where there had been changeover of staff and a period of time between the outgoing staff member leaving and the new employee starting. She said that there were also some posts which the Council did not plan to fill.

In relation to Table 2, the Vice Chair of Communities referred to the underspend from West Bridgford Town Centre regeneration and pedestrianisation of Central Avenue and the Senior Finance Business Partner said that this project was on the Council’s radar and so it was holding the funds as potential.

The Vice Chair of Communities referred to Table 3 and asked why projects weren’t being taken forward if the money was available and the Chair of Growth and Development Scrutiny Group echoed this sentiment. The Senior Finance Business Partner referred to Appendix D which provided more information on the capital programme. In relation to Hound Lodge, she said that the Council was waiting for a review of the facility to be completed before undertaking any works and in relation the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

The Chair of Growth and Development Scrutiny Group reported that the last meeting had received two items, on Rushcliffe Oaks Crematorium and Infrastructure Delivery. In relation to Rushcliffe Oaks Crematorium, he said that the majority of the Group had been pleased with the report and the positive surplus and growth that had been delivered. He noted that the Group had asked for further information about finances. In relation to Infrastructure Delivery, he said that the Group had received detailed explanation about s106 and Community Infrastructure Levy monies and had raised questions about the variations process and had fed back that parish councils felt uniformed and powerless in the variations process. The Group had asked for additional methods for feeding back information to be put in place and for the Infrastructure Delivery report to return to the Group on an annual basis.

The Chair of Governance explained that the next meeting of the Group was scheduled to take place at the end of this month and that an update would be provided to Corporate Overview Group in November.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group reported that the last meeting had received a report in relation to the Use of Community Facilities and Managed Spaces which had included an update about facilities at Gresham and West Park. He said that the Group had learned that sporting provision was performing well and meeting targets.

The Service Manager for Corporate Services confirmed that there was no update from Lead Officers.

Report of the Director - Finance and Corporate Services

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group presented the scrutiny request for The health of our town and village centres.

The Chairman agreed that West Bridgford Central Avenue be included as part of the scrutiny item.

The Group agreed for this item to be taken forward in the scrutiny work programme.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group and the Chair of Growth and Development Scrutiny Group presented the Housing association customer service and maintenance request on behalf of Councillors Parekh, Brown and Upton.     

The Service Manager for Corporate Services said that Officer feedback on this scrutiny request was to ask for more clarity about what outcomes Members would wish to achieve from the scrutiny work, with the suggestion that Members identifying the main problems and what the scrutiny hoped to achieve would be beneficial to focus work. She said that as there were many housing providers in the Borough it would not be possible to invite them all to attend a meeting and as such Members may wish to highlight specific ones that they were having issues with or perhaps specify if they would wish to invite the largest ones. She suggested that clarification of objectives would be helpful and that discussing requests with Officers before submitting them also helped to focus what the scrutiny process could achieve.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group explained that when Councillors were approached by residents with problems with their housing it could be difficult for Councillors to make contact with the housing providers and they were often frustrated about how to best help them. The Chair of Growth and Development Scrutiny Group said that residents expected Councillors to be able to influence outcomes but that they often felt that there weren’t able to do anything and wanted to understand how they could help residents and address their issues.

The Chairman said that the Council had a duty of care to its residents and that as the Council had appointed housing associations to provide social housing, Councillors needed to be able to scrutinise the system. She suggested that Councillors could assess what the main issues were and which providers they had most issues with and then filter who to invite to attend a meeting. She suggested contacting the Director for Neighbourhoods to help clarify the function of the scrutiny request.

The Service Manager for Corporate Services confirmed that contact details for the Borough’s housing providers were available on the Councillors Portal and agreed to circulate a link to the Group and include it in Councillors Connections.

Members of the Group asked if it would be possible to have information on which housing providers were working in which areas and the Service Manager for Corporate Services said that she would take this request back to Officers.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group presented the scrutiny request for Playgrounds built on new developments. He said that whilst he had received feedback from Officers that this information may be covered through existing documents such as the Design Guide,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Verbal Update

The Chairman noted the two documents which had been provided as an update for Members of the Group.

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