Agenda and minutes

Introduction by the Chairman

The Chairman introduced the meeting and outlined the order in which the agenda items would be taken.

In accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct, Members are requested to declare any interests orally at the start of the meeting and again immediately before consideration of the matter. Members are reminded to specify the agenda item number to which it refers and whether the interest is of a personal or prejudicial nature. Members are also reminded of the requirements of Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 that they should declare and not vote on specified matters if they are two months or more in arrears with their Council Tax payments.

Call-in item: Avenue centre – site disposal proposals

Councillor Evans declared a personal interest in this item by virtue of being a governor at Hampton Wick Infant School.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Councillor Churchill gave apologies for her absence. Councillor Knight attended as her substitute.

To consider and approve the minutes of the Finance and Performance Overview and

Scrutiny meeting held on Monday, 6 June 2011 – attached.

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 June 2011 were approved and the Chairman was authorised to sign them.

This report seeks to address the reasons for call-in of the Avenue Centre – site disposal proposals, Cabinet decision.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, and the Assistant Director of Environment Property, Parks and Sustainability were present for this item.

Councillors Churchill, Gibbons and Williams had called in the decision of Cabinet for Scrutiny by the Committee. Councillor Knight, who was substituting for Councillor Churchill, introduced the reasons for call–in to the Committee:

·         Hampton wick Infants School was in need of expansion. The Cabinet report had made no reference to the proximity of Hampton Wick Infants School to the Avenue Centre site.

·         The report to Cabinet should have included details of the consideration given to using the surplus land at the Avenue Centre and Silver Birches sites for affordable housing.

Councillor Eady spoke as an interested councillor. He showed the Committee site plans of Hampton Wick Infants School and the Avenue Day Centre. Councillor Eady made the following relevant points:

·         A temporary expansion of Hampton wick Infants School was not cost effective and would cause a lot of disruption. The Avenue Centre site should be used as a swing site while Hampton Wick Infants School was being developed. This would allow a permanent expansion to be put in place and negate the need for temporary classrooms which were expensive. It would also allow for an acceptable level of outside playing space to be maintained during re-development.

·         The need for school places would increase as birth rates in the borough continued to rise year on year.

·         Hampton Wick Infant School had already taken a bulge class to cope with increasing demand.

·         Parents from Hampton Wick Infants School had expressed concerns over the lack of provision for outside playing area during the schools expansion. This could be offset by using the Avenue Centre site during the development process.

·         The re-development of the Avenue Centre should have been postponed until Hampton Wick Infants School’s expansion was completed.

The following points were raised through questions asked by members of the Committee:

·         Collis School could be developed to negate the need to develop Hampton Wick Infant School.

·         Local residents were being forced to move outside the borough due to a lack of affordable housing, especially for families.

·         Council owned land presented the most viable option for development by registered social landlords.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources made the following representations:

·         The original report to Cabinet had been made out of the need to improve the facilities of the Avenue Day Centre. The existing building was no longer fit for purpose.

·         He assured the Committee that every viable option had been explored for the site prior to recommendations being made.

·         Council officers had provided a long term calculation for the local communities needs in relation to the Avenue Centre development. The results predicted that the current local school sites could be managed to meet demand for a further 15-20 years.

·         Stanley Infants School was being expanded and this would help ease the local demand for places.

·         A percentage of the Avenue Day Centre site  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

This report provides an update on the work to implement the Council’s new strategic direction as agreed by Cabinet in November 2010.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, the Assistant Director of Finance and Corporate Services and the Assistant Director of Commissioning, Corporate Policy and Strategy were present for this item.

The following pertinent comments were made by the Committee:

·         The Committee asked if the de-commissioning of the bulk fuel facility would mean all fuel would now be purchased from forecourts and would this affect the use of bio fuel. It was agreed that the Committee would be provided with an update on this matter.

·         The Committee noted that the devolution of the management and governance of all cultural services to a not-for-profit organisation would be implemented by 2013 not 2012.

·         An overview of efficiency proposals should be presented to this committee. Relevant proposals would then go to the other Overview and Scrutiny Committees in due course.

·         It was suggested that a list of figures be produced to demonstrate that the Council was meeting its efficiencies targets.

·         It was agreed to feedback to Council Officers with ideas regarding how the Committee wanted to be involved in the Council’s efficiency and transformation programme, and future commissioning arrangements moving forward.

·         There would be an opportunity for Finance and Performance to scrutinise the shared human resources services with Kingston Council before it went to Cabinet on 24 November.

It was RESOLVED that:

·         The Committee note the report

·         The Committee be provided with a update on the de-commissioning of the bulk fuel facility in and its impact upon the use of bio fuel.

This report gives details of the Council’s revised operating model for procurement and sets out proposals for a new procurement governance framework.

The Deputy Leader and the Director of Finance and Corporate Services and the Assistant Director Commissioning, Corporate Policy and Strategy were present for this item.

The Deputy Leader responded to questions from the Committee:

·         The revised operating model for procurement would give the Committee a greater level of input on procurement decisions.

·         Raising the threshold for cabinet member decisions would allow for greater effectiveness of decision making and reduce bureaucracy. 

·         The Committee was asked to consider which procurements they wished to scrutinise in the future. The criteria for reports coming to scrutiny committees would remain flexible and the Cabinet Member was willing to consider all members comments. 

·         The Chairman of this Committee would be provided with a list of future procurements over an 18 month period.

The following pertinent comments were made by the Committee:

·         It was hoped that small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) would be encouraged to deliver services during the procurement process. The Assistant Director assured the Committee that the report provided was still flexible and additional criteria could be added, if necessary, but the key issue to be resolved was that of managing risk in relation to enabling smaller enterprises to bid.

·         It was difficult to accurately pre-empt which decisions the Committee would wish to scrutinise. Their interest in a decision was often determined by the public’s interest rather than strictly its financial implications.

·         The Committee wished to be involved at the earliest stage in the procurement process. The Assistant Director anticipated member involvement at this early stage when their suggestions would have the most impact.

The Deputy Leader and Assistant Director Commissioning, Corporate Policy and Strategy responded to the following issues raised by the Committee:

·         Other than those already set out in the Priority Programme, additional pooled services between the South London Partnership were unlikely to be a common occurrence and the Council did not foresee any concerns regarding their management.

The Council had thoroughly assessed other Council’s financial thresholds for procurement before making its recommendations. However, the Committee would benefit from the opportunity to review the impact of the revised procurement process over time.

·         The Assistant Director confirmed that stage 3, Tollgate decisions would also be made publically available.

It was RESOLVED that:

• A meeting of all Overview and Scrutiny Chairmen be held to underline how they intended to scrutinise future procurements.

• That the procurement process would return to the Committee in November.

This report presents an update on performance during Quarter One and highlights areas of the Council’s performance that the Committee may wish to investigate further.

The Assistant Director of Commissioning, Corporate Policy and Strategy presented the report to the Committee and was available to answer questions.

The following pertinent comments were made by the Committee:

·         The Committee suggested that an indicator showing the number of Planning Committee decisions being lost at appeal would be useful.

·         In relation to indicator PR0748 the Committee noted that the Logo Cloud, a high speed network connection between SLP, had been halted. The Council was disappointed that funding from Capital Ambition had been suspended which was essential for the project to progress. Officers were working to re-establish the funding if possible.

·         The Committee agreed that there was no need for a Task Group to be set up at this stage.

It was RESOLVED that:

·         The Committee note the report.

·         In relation to indicator PR0646, secondary school places, the Committee requested an update on the status of the second secondary school that was needed and who the Council were in discussions with.

The attached monitoring report (appendix a) provides details of the Council’s projected expenditure position as at the end of June 2011 based on

expenditure to the end of May 2011. It makes reference to 8 areas that were projecting overspends of £100k or more.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Finance and Resources and the Director of Finance and Corporate Services were in attendance to present the report to the Committee.

The Committee asked for further detail on the Special Educational Needs overspend of £150k arising from increased pupil numbers (18) and routes (2), in particular the overall level of budget. The Director agreed to provide an update and circulate to Members.

In response to questions from the Committee the Deputy Leader made the following pertinent comments:

·         Financial savings had been made by early payment for the ICT contract with SERCO.

·         There was an additional risk figure for parking enforcement of £1.1m based on the complete repayment of a number of parking fines.

·         In the sprit of the Department of Transport issued guidance, the Council had changed its approach on parking enforcement and cited examples such as the issuing of warnings for first time offences.

It was RESOLVED that:

·         The Committee note the report.

·         The Committee be provided with further detail on the Special Educational Needs overspend of £150k arising from increased pupil numbers (18) and routes (2), in particular the overall level of budget.

This report looks at budget development in relation to: specific changes being implemented, ideas under development and other areas being considered which will have a significant impact on relevant service’s future budgets.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet member for Finance and Resources and the Director of Finance and Corporate Services were in attendance to present the report to the Committee. The Director introduced and described the background to the report:

The report was a result of the 6 April Finance and Performance, Overview and Scrutiny meeting where it was agreed that each Scrutiny Committee would receive a report in September outlining issues already implemented or under consideration, which were likely to have a significant impact on the future budgets of services. The intention being that the Committees would have an earlier opportunity to input into budget development.

The Director highlighted the following substantial items for the Committee to note:

·         Local government resources review: This was expected to change the way local government was financed.

·         Council tax benefit: £12.7m of benefit award payments were to be localised with a 10% reduction in the grant to pay for them.

·         Asset Management and treasury: The Committee noted that investments of the Council might not yield the returns budgeted due to continuing low interest rates. This had been an area that historically underspent.

·         Penalties associated with landfill allowances were now much less likely and the Council’s landfill waste to be charged based on tonnage. This would negate the need to contribute towards the Waste Disposal Contingency resulting in a £1.1m revenue budget saving for 2012/13.

It was RESOLVED that:

·         The Committee note the report.

This report gives details of the proposed work programme for the municipal year 2011/2012, as discussed with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the committee.

Report of the Head of Democratic Services attached.

Additional proposed items for the next meeting were agreed as:

·         Efficiencies and Transformation, headline updates, including HR efficiencies - November

·         Procurement Governance Framework update – November

·         Capital Programme update - November

·         HR shared service update

The Assistant Director of Finance and Corporate Services and the Assistant Director of Commissioning Corporate Policy and Strategy were present and provided an update in the Income Generation Task group:

·         A paper regarding income generation and advertising was being prepared for the Cabinet Member for Performance for October. This would focus upon the web, billboards, lampposts and event sponsorship.

·         A meeting with external witnesses would be arranged for late September to address any concerns moving forward.