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 Chairman welcomed Councillor Matthews as the new Chair of Growth and Development Scrutiny Group.

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2023 were approved as a true record and were signed by the Chairman.

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

The Senior Business Partner presented the Q3 position for the Council’s financial and performance monitoring for 2023/24.

The Senior Business Partner said that the revenue position had improved since Q2, from a £0.287m underspend to a predicted underspend of £0.665m, mostly due to grant income and which would be requested to be carried forward. She said that the biggest overspends were from the Crematorium, Streetwise vehicle hire and Planning income. She said that underspends were from homelessness grant income, utilities, leisure contract efficiencies, costs recovered and a delay in the HVO fuel project. 

The Senior Business Partner said that there was a capital underspend projected of £3.88m following a rephasing of projects and she referred the Group to Table 2 of the report. She said that the underspend arose from savings at the Crematorium, Bingham Leisure Centre, Gresham redevelopment and potential savings at Lutterell Hall. She said that there was also currently underspend with the Council’s Registered Housing Providers, and Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG).

The Senior Finance Business Partner referred the Group to paragraph 4.13 of the report which detailed the multi-asset funds and said that this also showed improvement since Q2.

In summary, the Senior Finance Business Partner said that the Council was in a good financial position.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager presented the Q3 Performance Scorecards, as found at Appendix G.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that there were five indicators currently not reaching target, including the Transformation Strategy savings being below target mostly due to income from the Crematorium, additional Streetwise costs and income related to primary contracts. In relation to the usage of community facilities, he said that Sir Julian Cahn and Rushcliffe Country Park were performing well and that the Council was looking at improving usage at Gamston Community Hall and was introducing a new diary management system.

In relation to householder planning applications, the Communications and Customer Services Manager said that performance was continuing to improve and that December 2023 saw the Team achieve their best performance in two and half years. He said that the information was only showing in current performance reporting due to the legacy in the reporting timeframe and that last month’s performance stood at 89%.

The Communications and Customer Services Manager said that the Customer Services Team were receiving an increasing number of email enquiries and measures were being taken to meet that demand while continuing to answer customer phone calls.

The Vice Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group asked about the predicted underspend of £0.332 for the DFG given the significant demand on the grant.  The Senior Finance Business Partner referred to Appendix D and the two elements to the funding, mandatory funding and the Council’s discretionary top-up funding. She said that the underspend was from the discretionary funding as it was agreed at Cabinet in July 2022 to temporarily suspend that element of funding pending a national review of the formula. She said that the mandatory grant had been spent.

The Chair of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

The Chair of Governance Scrutiny Group reported that the Capital and Investment Strategy had been deferred from the last meeting and would be reported to the next meeting due to changes in the way that some of the valuations were carried out. He noted that the Annual Audit had been completed and that the Council was in a much better position than many other local authorities in terms of the speed at which its accounts were signed off. He said that audit costs were rising substantially but that as the Council required this service it had no option but to pay them. He referred to Treasury Management Training held recently which had been useful and said that Arlingclose had come back to work as the Council’s Treasury Management Company.

The Chair of Communities Scrutiny Group reported that the last meeting had received a presentation on East Midlands Airports Flight Paths which had involved an interesting discussion with representatives from the Airport.

The Chair of Growth and Development Scrutiny Group reported that the last meeting had received presentations about the Management of Open Spaces and had involved lively debate on the implications and costs involved with adopting open spaces. He said that the Group had asked questions which were due to be reported on by Officers at a later date. He said that the meeting also received a presentation regarding Sewerage and Flood Infrastructure from Nottinghamshire County Council as lead flood authority.

The Service Manager for Corporate Services said that following feedback, the Scrutiny Matrix form had been renamed and was now called a Scrutiny Request form. She said that this would be communicated through Councillors Connections, along with information about deadlines. The deadline for a Scrutiny Request to go the next Corporate Overview Group was 1 May 2024.

The Chairman was pleased at the form name change and said that she had also asked for some wording to be tweaked, such as changing ‘understand’ to ‘explore’ and that ‘transition’ now be ‘development’.

Report of the Director – Finance and Corporate Services

Councillor Thomas joined the meeting to present the matrix for Accessible Housing. She said that this had arisen from budget discussion about the Disabled Facilities Grant and proposals for the Council to stop topping up the Central Government funding pot from its own funds. She noted that the £500k top up was a one-off amount which came from the Council’s sale of council houses. She said that she had been alarmed by the identified impact that waiting times would increase and as such thought that there was need to understand how much they would increase by and whether the increase would continue to roll into subsequent years. She said that case studies would help with understanding and that there were many related issues, as listed on the form, such as how much adaptable housing was being built by both the affordable and market sectors.

The Chairman said that this matter had implications for both the Communities and the Growth Scrutiny Groups and suggested options for having a joint scrutiny meeting or alternatively that one scrutiny group receive the item and invite the Chair and Vice Chair of the other scrutiny group to join for the discussion.

The Service Manager for Corporate Services said that a joint scrutiny meeting would allow the topic to be viewed from various angles but would also make it a big group requiring greater coordination and structure than normal, for example a pooling a questions ahead of the meeting. She said that alternatively a briefing session for all could be held which could feed into one scrutiny group reviewing the item, with the Chair of that group inviting the Chair and Vice Chair of the other group to attend for that item only.

Members of the Group discussed options, including holding separate discussions by both scrutiny groups and receiving a briefing session ahead of the item going to scrutiny. Members of the Group suggested that a briefing session for Councillors would be helpful in informing discussion at a subsequent joint scrutiny group meeting involving members of both scrutiny groups. The Chairman suggested consideration be given to inviting expert witnesses and the relevant Portfolio Holders to attend.

The Service Manager for Corporate Services suggested that the briefing session could be held on 17 October and the joint scrutiny meeting on 23 October and said that she would report back to the Group.

The Chairman referred to the Management of open spaces within new developments matrix submitted by Councillor Chewings and said that this arose from the same scrutiny meeting as the Management Charges Actions Review matrix submitted by Councillor Way. The Chairman asked for updates on housing density and SUDS.

The Service Manager for Corporate Services said that the housing density matter had been referred to the Director for Planning and Economic Growth who had spoken with the Chair of the LDF Group, with the proposal that it be taken through the LDF Group. She said that a briefing note regarding SUDS on new estates was being  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.