Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting Tuesday 20 September 2019 were approved as a true record and were signed by the Chairman.

The report of the Executive Manager – Transformation is attached.

The Human Resources Manager presented the report of the Executive Manager – Transformation which set out the Council’s performance against the objectives set out in the Single Equality Scheme during 2018/19. It was noted that the information presented in the report compared demographic information for the Borough, using the latest census information, with that of the Council’s workforce with this information being taken from the HR Payroll system.

The Human Resources Manager noted that the majority of the population of Rushcliffe was over 60 whereas the majority of Rushcliffe Borough Council employees were aged between 35 – 44 years. It was also explained that during 2018/19 there was an increase of Rushcliffe Borough Council employees who had declared that they had a disability. The Human Resources Manager was pleased to note that the Council had recently employed its first woman HGV driver and hoped that more women would be encouraged to apply for manual labour jobs. It was noted more women had received bonus payments due to performance related pay being introduced for the customer services team based at the Rushcliffe Community Contact Centre in West Bridgford.

Members of the Group asked questions regarding the recording of equality data for Councillors. The Human Resources Manager noted that equality data of Councillors was not required and that Councillors were selected firstly by political parties and electors. It was noted however that the Local Government Association encouraged political parties to select a diverse range of candidates. It was suggested that this issue could be discussed at Member Development Group about how the Council could encourage more women and residents from different ethnicities to stand for election. It was noted that the Council encouraged the promotion of women in the Council’s senior leadership team. 

It was RESOLVED that the report be endorsed by the Corporate Overview Group.

Verbal update by the Service Manager – Finance and Corporate Services.

The Service Manager – Finance and Corporate Services provided the Group with an update regarding the change of the scrutiny process at the Council. The Service Manager listed her findings from attending East Midlands Councils Annual Scrutiny Conference which included:

·         The workings of a select committee

·         The requirement for Councillors to communicate their key lines of enquiry to officers

·         The breakdown of political barriers at scrutiny meetings

Members of the Group also gave positive feedback to the scrutiny conference and found it useful to learn best practice from other Councils. It was concluded that scrutiny was a vital function where resources had to be proportionate and that officers and councillors had to have open discussions with each other. The Executive Manager – Finance and Corporate Services encouraged members of the Group to inform officers if there were any further conferences or training courses which they would like to attend.

Verbal update by the Chairmen

The Chairman of the Governance Scrutiny Group reported that there was little change to their work programme. The Vice Chairman of the Governance Scrutiny Report was pleased to be attending a finance training course.

The Chairman of the Communities Scrutiny Group was grateful for the opportunity for the Trent Bridge Community Trust to present to councillors before the scrutiny meeting so that new councillors could find out more information about their projects. It was noted that it enabled Councillors to ask more specific questions during the scrutiny meeting and allowed the discussion to be more focused on the future of the Trent Bridge Community Trust Service Level Agreement with the Council.

The Chairman of the Growth and Development Scrutiny Group was pleased to note that the Group had comprehensive discussion during their first meeting and were able to be a ‘critical friend’ in contributing to policy development as two recommendations for the Abbey Road development were recently recommended to Cabinet. The Chairman also requested that the implementation of Community Infrastructure Levy be scrutinised further before the Council start to receive financial payments from the Levy in approximately 2 – 3 years’ time. It was suggested that Councillors had a different view to officers in how the levy should be spent and that Parish Councils would need guidance in how to spend the levy so they would not face criticism from residents. 

It was noted that the current format of the Council’s scrutiny meetings would be in place for a further 18 months and that if there were to be any further changes to the scrutiny model, a report with recommendations would be presented to Council in March 2021.

The Report of the Executive Manager – Finance and Corporate Services is attached.

It was noted that amendments to the constitution had been added to the Governance Scrutiny Group work programme. The Service Manager – Finance and Corporate Services explained that these were only minor amendments which the Monitoring Officer had made under delegated powers and would then be recommended to Full Council in March 2020.

The Chairman of the Growth and Development Scrutiny Group noted that they would invite the developers of the Abbey Road to their meeting in March 2020. It was also suggested that the Fairham Pastures development could be scrutinised in June 2020 however clarification was needed as to whether this would be too late in the process in order for the Group to have an influence on the development.

The work programme for the Communities Scrutiny Group was not set in stone as the government’s proposals for the resources and waste strategy had not yet been publicised. It was also agreed that Borough wide facilities would be discussed under the ‘West Bridgford Community Facilities’ topic in January 2020.

The Service Manager – Finance and Corporate Services suggested that the Group should fill out the scrutiny matrix form and provide additional detail when requesting topics to be discussed at scrutiny meetings such as the community infrastructure levy, management of housing developments and fly tipping. It was agreed that officers would research the topic of public engagement in scrutiny meetings and report their findings at the next meeting. 

It was RESOLVED that the work programmes as set out in the report be approved.

The Report of the Executive Manager – Finance and Corporate Services is attached.

The Financial Services Manager presented the report of the Executive Manager – Finance and Corporate Services which highlighted the Council’s quarter two position in terms of financial and performance monitoring for 2019/20. It was noted that the financial position for the year was positive with overall service revenue efficiencies of £390k and business rates providing an additional income of £68k with an overall revenue efficiency position of £454k. The Financial Services Manager stated that the £454k variation represented -3.95% against the net expenditure budget and that the Council anticipated £650k to be transferred to reserves to meet in particular business rates risk going forward and to enable the Council to fund investment to support its climate change agenda.

It was explained that the capital programme showed a planned underspend of £13.530m largely due to sums no longer required such as for Fairham, Abbey Road and the Asset Investment Strategy. In the case of the latter this may be revisited subject to the Council’s position regarding the Crematorium. Furthermore, some projects require sums to be carried forward such as for the Bingham Leisure Hub.

The Service Manager – Finance and Corporate Services was pleased to report that the Corporate Strategy 2019-2023 was adopted at Full Council on 19 September 2019 and performance measures would be developed to align with strategic tasks in line with the delivery of annual service plans. There were 17 tasks and 30 indicators on the strategic scorecard. The Service Manager explained that it was important to look at both the strategic and operational tasks together  as for example, operational planning performance could be viewed as poor; however, the strategic indicators, and arguably more important, in terms of the Council meeting its stated goals, are performing very strongly.

It was RESOLVED that

a)    the projected revenue position for the year with £454k of budget efficiencies and the capital underspend of £13.530m be noted

b)    the idenfiied finance and performance exceptions be noted

c)    the finance of this report to be considered at Cabinet to be considered at Cabinet in December 2019.