Agenda and minutes

1.         This meeting is to be webcast. Members are reminded of the need to activate their microphones before speaking.

2.         The Chairman will read the following announcement:

“This meeting will be webcast live to the Internet and will be archived for later viewing. Copies of recordings may be made available on request.

By entering the chamber’s lower seating area you consenting to becoming part of the webcast.

If you wish to avoid being filmed you should move to the public gallery or speak to the webcasting officer”

The Chairman reminded everyone present that the meeting would be broadcast live to the Internet, and that the Council had adopted a protocol for the webcasting of its meetings.

There were no substitute Members for the meeting.

Decisions required:

To confirm the minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 09 June 2015.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the Committee meeting held on 9 June 2015 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(Director of Governance). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

Councillors S Murray declared a non pecuniary interest in agenda item 10 (b) – the PICK form submitted by Councillor Angold-Stephens on the 6^th form consortium, by virtue of being a teacher at the Roding Valley High School. He advised that he would remain in the meeting for the duration of the item.

To receive a short talk on the time banking initiative by Marc Balkham, the Time Banking Co-ordinator.

The Committee received a short talk on volunteering through time banking, from Marc Balkham the Voluntary Action Epping Forest (VAEF) time-bank co-ordinator; with him was Chris Overend the EFDC policy officer. His presentation is attached to theses minutes for information.

Mr Balkham noted that this scheme covered the Epping Forest District as well as Harlow. This was about an exchange of time and skills between time bank members. They need only do what they wanted, when they wanted to. As they volunteered they built up time credits and were able to claim it back.  Some examples of things that could be done were gardening, DIY, help with IT, languages, music or dance tuition. The scheme was free to join, with any exchanges covered by insurance. There was a simple online registration process that also required two referees. This was a requirement for joining, and both referees would be contacted and asked to provide a reference.

Some activities were best avoided such as providing direct care; anything carrying a financial risk; or repairs to cars and motorcycles for critical mechanical works such as breaks, steering or suspension; and childcare and anything connected with children.

Groups of members could become mini time banks, if they had a shared location or shared aims. Also, an organisation could become a mini time bank so that volunteers could bank hours to that organisation. Organisations that were members include Sue Ryder and Epping Forest Arts.

The meeting was then opened up to questions from members present.

Mr Balkham was asked how many members they had at present. He said that they had about 90 in all, covering the Epping Forest and Harlow area.

Councillor Surtees said he was reassured about them not working in child care but he needed more assurance about working with vulnerable persons of any age. Mr Balkham replied that everyone went through a vetting process. They did not allow one-to-one activities and no one under the ages of 16 was to be involved in time banking. But there was only a certain level of checks they could undertake and they relied on their national society to help and if necessary, carry out a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Councillor Sartin asked if they followed up on the references given and also were they hopeful of getting out into the more rural areas of the district. She was told that that they sent out a standard reference form to each referee. If satisfactory they would not need to follow up with a DBS. As for rural areas, they were trying to get as far as they could into the rural areas of the district.

Councillor Murray said that this service was new to him. Were they talking about Epping or Epping Forest; and what about the urban areas such as Loughton or Waltham Abbey? Also, what about the hours that people could take out or put in. He was told that they had moved into the Loughton area, but funding was finite  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor C Whitbread, introduced the Corporate Plan, Key Action Plan 2016/17 report. The Corporate Plan included the aims and objectives which are the Council’s highest level strategic intentions. He noted that they were putting this out earlier this year to get as much input as possible. This was an early opportunity for members to have some input into the Corporate Plan for 2016/17. This report was first seen by the Finance Cabinet Committee the night before who made several comments.

The report was then gone through page by page, with comments being taken as they went along.

Aim 1(b) 4) – to facilitate the delivery of St. Johns Road redevelopment scheme – this set a target date of April 2016. Councillor Angold-Stephens asked if they had alternative locations in mind as the time scale looked ambitious. Councillor Stallan replied that they were looking at other sites around the district. Officers would be providing reports on these; some strong sites have been identified so far.

Councillor Murray thanked the Cabinet for this early look at the Corporate Plan, it reflected the quality of the Cabinet that we had at present. Given the recent Budget and the impact it would have on councils, would it also have an impact on Council housebuilding programme. Councillor Stallan said that there would be a report about this going to a Council meeting and added that our Housing Revenue Account was in a better state than a lot of other Councils.

Aim 1(b) 9) – secure planning phase 4 of the council housebuilding programme to provide up to 50 new affordable rented homes at various small sites in Loughton – Councillor Neville asked if this should be Buckhurst Hill and not Loughton. Councillor Stallan said that his understanding was that this was right, but he would check with officers.

Councillor Murray said that he was happy to see that the support for Local Business Partnership and for the Council’s Apprenticeship scheme was still there as this helped individuals and acted as a role model for other employers. He would also like to express his formal thanks to the Cabinet for letting this Committee make these early comments.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee considered and provided comments on the proposed Corporate Plan, Key Action Plan for 2016/17.

(Director of Neighbourhoods) to consider the attached report.

The Projects Officer, Planning Policy, Ian White introduced the consultation document on the replacement Waste Local Plan, revised preferred approach. He noted that Essex County Council (ECC) and Southend Borough Council are Waste Planning Authorities (WPAs) and were required to prepare a Replacement Waste Local Plan (RWLP) under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (2004) and the revised EU Waste Framework Directive (2010). The RWLP (programmed for adoption in December 2016) would replace the Essex Waste Plan 2001, and would cover the period up to 31 March 2032.

The current consultation included 3 main documents – (i) the Revised Preferred Approach, (ii) Areas of Search Assessment and Methodology, and (iii) Sites Assessment and Methodology Report (much of this work was carried out by Land Use Consultants). The consultation ran from 18 June to 30 July 2015 – a period of six weeks, but the lead-in time for this Committee has meant that officers have had only one week to familiarise themselves with lengthy and quite difficult  documentation to prepare this report.

Officers believed that this was a wholly unreasonable approach by the WPAs, unfair to all consultees because of completely inadequate time to get to grips with a very important, but very complex, issue. The formal response by this Council to the consultation should emphasise the dissatisfaction that was shared by officers and Members. With future consultations, and with issues of this complexity, the Waste Planning Authorities must make full allowance for the lead-in period required by local authorities to prepare and publicise Committee reports.

At this Council’s request, a meeting had been held on 1^st June involving officers from this and Harlow Councils and officers from the County representing the Waste Planning Authorities. EFDC and Harlow officers stated that the WPAs had failed to comply with the Duty to Co-operate, but even at this meeting the WPAs were unwilling to share any details of their proposals, site assessments and other options which had been considered – all the detail would only become publicly available on the first day of the consultation period.

The WPAs have indicated that there would be another round of “formal public consultation in October/November 2015” on the Pre-Submission version of the Plan, but this stage was not normally an opportunity for further comments, as it tended to be restricted to representations concerning soundness, i.e. the Planning Inspectorate should not be expecting further changes or challenges to the content of the Plan at this late stage of preparation.

The Committee noted that the draft responses to the questions posed by the consultation document were in the appendix to the report. Only two sites had been identified within our district, one at the Hastingwood roundabout and one at Langston Road neither of which were found to be suitable and officers had suggested that both be objected to.

Councillor Wixley had a lot of sympathy with the officer’s comments about the short time to reply and said that he supported the recommendations made.  He was surprised about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report and agree the draft Terms of Reference of the newly commissioned Select Committees.

Resources Select Committee Terms of Reference to follow.

The Committee considered the newly established Select Committee’s Terms of Reference following the Council’s procedure rules for the operation of the Overview and Scrutiny Function.  The terms of reference were developed between the lead officers and the Chairmen of each committee before they went to the first meeting of that select committee for consideration and agreement. The terms of reference were intended to reflect the scope of each committee who were to provide regular progress reporting on relevant matters to be made to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Housing Select Committee had requested that consideration be given to some concerns that they had. They were unhappy with the approach required by the Overview and Scrutiny rules. They considered that undue delays may be caused by them having to first report to the O&S Committee instead of just going straight to either the relevant portfolio holder or the Cabinet. They also considered that approach was overly bureaucratic.  However it should be noted that the current procedure rules did allow direct reporting of the type favoured by the Select Committee, with the prior agreement of the parent Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Select Committee therefore considered that the terms of reference for either all of the select committees (or just the Housing Select Committee) should allow:

(a)       the Select Committee to be able to report and make recommendations directly to the Cabinet or relevant Portfolio Holder when appropriate, particularly where the Cabinet/Portfolio Holder had requested them to do so; and

(b)       the Cabinet or a Portfolio Holder to be able to request (direct) a Select Committee to look at a particular issue and report/make recommendations to them (direct).

Although the Housing Select Committee had suggested that the ability to report and make recommendations directly to the Cabinet or relevant Portfolio Holder could be extended to all of the select committees, this concern has not been raised by any of the other committees.

The Housing Select Committee has also identified that it would be helpful for the select committees to be able to establish small ‘working groups’ of members when necessary to consider specific issues. Although this approach was agreed by the Task and Finish Panel that undertook the review of the overview and scrutiny framework, the Housing Select Committee has raised concerns that this ability was not explicitly referred to in the proposed terms of reference for the select committees.

However, there was nothing within the current overview and scrutiny rules to prevent a Select Committee from setting up such a member group, provided that the specific issues were within the remit of that Select Committee (i.e. not a function of the Executive, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee or another Select Committee) and that any decisions are made by the select committee itself, including making recommendations to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee or the Executive (via the Overview and Scrutiny Committee).

It should be noted that the Council’s procedure rules for the operation of the overview and scrutiny function  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

(a)          To consider the updated work programme

The current Overview and Scrutiny work programme is attached for information.

(b)          Reserve Programme

A reserve list of scrutiny topics is required to ensure that the work flow of OSC is continuous.

OSC will ‘pull out’ items from the list and allocate them accordingly once space becomes available in the work programme following the completion of existing reviews.

Members can put forward any further suggestions for inclusion in the reserve list either during the meeting or at a later date.

Existing review items will be dealt with first, then time will be allocated to the items contained in the reserve work plan.

At present we have had the following PICK forms submitted for the Committees’ consideration. They are:

·        Waste Services – from Councillor W Breare-Hall; and

·        6^th Form Consortium – from Councillor Angold-Stephens

(a)          Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Committee considered their work programme. They noted that the new draft rules for the Overview and Scrutiny would be going to their October meeting.

They agreed that:

(a)  Item 3 of the work programme, meeting with Essex Children Services, to be deferred to the April 2016 meeting;

(b)  Item 11, the County Fire and Rescue Service, that the County Portfolio Holder responsible for this service be invited to attend this meeting as well; and

(c)  Item 10, Bart Health Services should come back to their February 2016 meeting.

(b)          Select Committees

Housing Select Committee

Councillor Murray updated the meeting on the progress made by the Housing Select Committee at their first meeting, when they considered the Homelessness Strategy, Housing Standards, energy efficiency, the Housing Service Strategy and the KPI outturn for 2014/15, all of which were achieved.

Governance Select Committee

In the absence of the Chairman Mr Hill reported on the Committee’s first meeting, when they looked at their Terms of Reference and work plan for the year and received reports on the recent elections in May, public consultation and their KPI outturn for 2014/15.

Neighbourhood and Community Services Select Committee

Councillor Sartin updated the meeting on their recent meeting when they looked at their Terms of Reference and work programme; they asked that some of the minutes that the Safer Cleaner Greener Scrutiny Panel used to received should now be put into the Council Bulletin for general consumption; they also looked at the KPI outturn report for 2014/15 and received feedback on the waste contract form the portfolio holder.

Resources Select Committee

Councillor Mohindra reported that there were intending to spend as little time as possible on looking at KPIs unless they were considering things that had gone wrong. They would concentrate on things that were doing really well or really badly.

Grant Aid Task and Finish Panel

The Committee noted their revised deadline of winter 2015, with a final report to the O&S by January 2016.

Youth Engagement Task and Finish Panel

Councillor Murray reported on the work of this Panel. They were looking to produce a final report and send it to the O&S Committee by October 2015.

(c)          Reserve Programme

(i)           PICK Form submitted by Councillor Breare-Hall on the Council’s Waste Management Contract.

The Committee agreed that it should go to the Neighbourhood and Community Services Select Committee and that a special meeting be held to consider this, and that all members and the public be invited to take part and that the meeting should also be webcast.

Councillor Wixley asked that they also consider the emptying of public litter bins at the same meeting.

(ii)          PICK Form submitted by Councillor Angold-Stephens on the Progress of the new 6^th Form Consortium for our District.

The Committee agreed that this should go to the February 2016 meeting of this Committee. And to ask appropriate head teachers to attend and to give a presentation on how the new consortium  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

To review the Cabinet Forward Plan (Key Decision List) on a meeting by meeting basis.

The Committee noted the Cabinet’s Forward Plan for June 2015. They had no specific items they wished to consider, other than to ask for the plan to include mention of the Leisure Contract as this would be coming within the next few months.