Councillors' Attendance Statistics

Agenda and minutes

Special meeting, Environment, Sustainability and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 12 October 2010 7:00 pm

Venue: Council Chamber - York House. View directions

Contact: Gary Lelliott; 020 8891 7275; Email: gary.lelliott@richmond.gov.uk 

Note: People wishing to register to speak at the meeting must do so by 2.00pm the working day before the meeting. If registering by e-mail, in order to ensure that we can register your request, please include your full name, details of the item you want to speak on, a brief outline of what you would like to say and telephone number. 

Items
No. Item

21.

APOLOGIES

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

22.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

23.

BUDGET REVIEW pdf icon PDF 84 KB

This report contains the results of the Base Budget Review exercise undertaken by Leading Members and officers over the last 3 months in response to reducing public funding and the Council’s aim of minimising Council Tax.

 

Report of the Director of Environment attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

General efficiency discussion

 

Following questions from members of the committee on the general efficiencies drive, the meeting was advised that:

 

·        Many of the proposals centred around reducing management layers, although the council was committed to no re-introducing deleted posts.

·        Funding the cost of redundancy payments would be managed by the Director of Finance and Corporate Services.

·        There were support mechanisms available to staff, which had been set out by Human Resources.

·        Morale was an issue, but senior management was aiming to address this by keeping staff informed of what was happening.

·        Most of the proposals would be delivering a ‘flatter’ management structure.

·        Public expectations of council services would need to be addressed going forward, with some services being delivered more slowly, but still within statutory timescales. An area where this might be applicable, is in dealing with appeals against penalty charge notices; the council was performing well within the expected timescales, so could perhaps reduce staffing and deal with such matters more slowly, but still within the relevant timescales.

·        The corporate approach was to retain people with the necessary skills in the places that they were needed.

·        Public consultation on matters should be used effectively and it was not efficient to consult of everything.

·        As a general rule, older staff were keener to seek voluntary redundancy and because some of these staff had been employees for significant amounts of time, their redundancy payments were greater.

·        The Director would send committee members the formula for calculating redundancy payments.

·        There was a separate work stream looking at alternative ways of delivering services, although this was not going to give any short-term gains.

·        The average payout to staff was likely to be less than one year’s salary for each staff member.

·        Revenue generation was being looked at within directorates and formed a separate work stream.

·        Statutory services had been looked at at the beginning of the process.  Issues arose when there was no guidance about what levels of service should be provided.

·        Details of rejected options could not be released as this would have an even greater effect on staff morale.

 

Environment Directorate

 

The Director of Environment introduced his section of the report.  He confirmed that most of the savings outlined in appendix A to the report would be brought around by a staffing restructure.  More firm proposals were expected to be available by the end of the month, with a view to beginning to implement them by April 2011.

 

Currently, there were around 45 posts to be deleted, although final numbers and the associated cost of redundancy was not yet known. 

 

Areas such as facilities management and construction services would be working with more efficient processes.

 

The committee sought clarification on specific areas contained within appendix A of the report, including the number of full time equivalent posts expected to be lost within each service area.

 

[This area of discussion is appended to these minutes.]

 

Adult and Community Services

 

The Assistant Director, Commissioning Corporate Policy and Strategy, introduced this section of the report.

 

[Specific areas of discussion on information contained in appendix B are appended to these minutes.]

 

Cultural Services

 

The Head of Culture and Service Improvement introduced this item.

 

[Specific areas of discussion on information contained in appendix C are appended to these minutes.]

 

FInal comments from the committee

 

The following comments were received from committee members:

 

·        Redundancy costs should be factored into the calculations.

·        There needed to be quality support services available to staff being affected.

·        The council’s reserves needed careful scrutiny, although meeting the savings targets from the council’s reserves was not a viable option in the long-term.

Appendix to the minutes

Appendix to minutes

 

 

Environment Directorate

 

Service area

FTE reduction

Comments on questions raised

Finance and Performance

Unknown at present

·        Savings in this team would be achieved by transferring functions to a central team.

Cemeteries and Registration

None

·        Some minor alterations to staffing arrangements and a view to making the service self sustaining.  Some functions, it was expected, would become seasonal.

Facilities Management

Min. of 4

·        A reduction in posts would be achieved by introducing more generic job descriptions.

·        A new post would also be created, which existing officers may be interested in applying for.

·        There was also an attempt to focus the printing service on high volume black and white printing.

·        It was intended to retain the catering services, although there were some concerns over the cost of doing so, considering the number of eateries within easy reach of the council’s offices.

·        The printing service was currently not an income generator, but the Director agreed to look into this.

Sustainability Team

1

·        There may be more than one FTE post lost in this service area, once central government grants cease.

·        There was going to be a reduction in the number of statutory functions dictated by central government.

·        It was suspected that many local authorities were reducing their sustainability functions.

Construction Services

Min. 4, with the possibility of 5/6

·        This would be achieved by streamlining processes.

·        Some posts would be lost as grants from central government were cut or reduced, resulting in less work to be carried out.

·        There would also be a realignment of responsibilities within directorates.

Parks and Open Spaces

1

·        Shared services were an area for exploration, with Richmond possibly assuming a lead role for councils in doing this.

·        It was hoped more could be done via Way2Work.

·        Also looking to increase income from the council’s parks and open spaces.

Economic Development / Tourism

Min. of 4

·        Would be recruiting for a retail champion to support all town centres.

·        Looking to distribute literature for tourism through local shops and other areas with high levels of footfall.

·        Smaller shopping areas would be able to access funding that was previously not available to them.

·        There would be communication with business representatives about these changes.

·        There would no longer be town centre managers responsible for individual locations.

Waste Disposal / depots review

Min. of 3

·        The proposals in this area were a few weeks behind other proposals.

Development Control Planning/Planning Policy/Urban Design/Special Projects/Consultation

3/4

·        A large amount of this money had already been saved by terminating retention payments available to some staff.

·        Further savings would be sought in other areas such as urban design and consultation.

·        The cost of planning applications was set by central government.

Street Scene and Enforcement

Up to 3

·        There would be a merger of the two teams, currently managed by different assistant directors.

Licensing/Trading Standards/Environmental Health

3

·        This would involve a restructure and change to job descriptions.

·        A flatter management structure was also being sought.

Transport Planning

Min. 5.5

·        There was a wide ranging review taking place, with a focus on linking this service area to demand and the number of projects taking place.

·        Less work in this area would be done, but projects with an emphasis on safety and the environment would be prioritised.

·        Some of the services in this area might also be affected by changes to Transport for London funding.

 

Administration staffing review

7

·        Looking to create teams of shared administration support.

·        There may be an additional review of administration within the directorate when the customer services centre review finishes.

General staffing costs and other minor restructures

5 in Health and Safety

2 in parking enforcement

·        There was a strict line being adopted on vacancy control and the merger of teams.

·        There was a £240k saving being made in vacancy control; £50k from the health and safety team; and a further £50k from parking enforcement.

Ward Champions

n/a

·        The directorate management team would carry out ward walks with members.

Procurement, Commissioning and contract management

Min. 2

·        Improved processes and centralisation.

Staff car allowances and parking changes

n/a

No further additions.

 

Growth items:

 

Car Parking Charges (ongoing cost) and free Richmond Card

·        This included the cost of promoting the RichmondCard and changing the parking arrangements.

Admin for likely introduction of over 75 discounts in key service areas

·        This did not include the cost of the actually project, just the administration of it.

Flood risk management

·        This did not include money for an additional post, but it was expected to be enough to manage the additional duties placed on the council around this area. Not sure what this means?

Flowering the Borough

·        There was work taking place, to decide where such improvements should be sited.

·        Shopping areas and entrances to the borough would be focussed upon, along with various wildflower projects.

Playbuilder scheme maintenance

·        The government grant for this had ceased, but it was proposed that this scheme be continued.

Introduce Retail Champion

·        An aim of this role would be to increase outside investment in the borough.

·        Success indicators for this role would include increased footfall in the borough and more businesses opening in the area.

·        The Directorate Management Team did not necessarily have the expertise required to fulfil the retail champion role.

·        Success indicators for the retail champion would include increased footfall in shopping areas and more businesses establishing themselves in the borough.

 

Adults and Community Services Directorate (Community Safety)

 

Service area

FTE reduction

Comments on questions raised

Community Safety

2

·        There was a consultation exercise taking place which was looking at support services.

·        As community safety was an area involving a lot of partnership working, there was a need to consult.

·        Policing was not being looked at by the Council, although there was work taking place around potentially linking public events, in order to gain the best value for money from them.

·        The Community Safety Task Group’s work was being linked to a wider area of work.

 

Education and Children’s and Cultural Services Directorate (Culture)

 

Service area

FTE reduction

Comments on questions raised

Libraries

7.5 (inc. 1.5 management)

·        The savings made here were a result of the 2009 library efficiency review, with some of the savings already gained.

·        It was proposed to close Heathfield Library at the beginning of March, with the land there being sold at the end of that month.

·        Cabinet had not made any decisions on what to do with the funds gained from the sale of the land.

·        Heathfield Library had been selected as it was the least used of the borough’s libraries

·        Only 433 members of Heathfield Library lived in its catchment area.

·        There were over 4000 members of Whitton Library.

·        There was 0.6 miles between Heathfield and Whitton libraries.

·        The household library service was being maintained, although the eligibility criteria were being revised to ensure that residents were not unduly affected by the closure of Heathfield Library.

·        There was originally £400k budgeted for the relocation of Heathfield Library, although this would now be reinvested.  Some of it could potentially be used to refurbish Whitton Library.

·        The review had cost £325k and was delivering annual savings of £676k.

·        There was talk around merging the two libraries in Richmond, although this was a long term aim and there were issues around listed building consent and capital investment.

·        Income targets were never met for the libraries service, as there was constant investment in new technology.

Sports

 

·        Disabled parking bays were not charged for.

·        Usage of Pools in the Park had increased since the area outside became a bus stand.

·        There could be discussions about linking the leisure service car parks with the rest of the borough’s.

Other cultural services

 

·        The Orleans House Trust was registering as a charity and any savings  made would be retained by the trust.

·        The Orleans House Trust would be responsible for building and maintenance.