Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on 4 September 2018.

The minutes of the meeting held on 04 September 2018 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Neil Bloomfield, Carol Goodall, David Norris and Gerard Tucker.  Councillor Stephen Page attended as substitute for Councillor Neil Bloomfield.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (as amended 26 February 2015), which includes all the provisions relating to Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI), personal and prejudicial interests, Members are asked to declare any DPI and also any personal interests (and whether or not such personal interests are also "prejudicial") in relation to any matter on the Agenda for this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members of the Committee.

There were no members of the public present.

This is an opportunity for Members to question the progress on issues arising from previous meetings.  However, this does not allow for the re-opening of a debate on any item not forming part of this agenda.

No issues were raised from previous meetings.

The Chairman welcomed Councillor Stephen Page as substitute member for Councillor Neil Bloomfield.

The Chairman advised that the Scrutiny comments had been noted and were included in the District Executive minutes which had been circulated.

Members considered the reports within the District Executive agenda for 04 October 2018 and made comments as detailed below.  Responses to most comments and questions were provided at the Scrutiny Committee by the relevant officer, Director or Portfolio Holder.

Direct Hostel Provision, Move-on Accommodation and Support (Agenda item 6)

Members received a short presentation on the homeless service in South Somerset and the support available to vulnerable homeless people by the Portfolio Holder and the Acting Welfare & Careline Manager.

• Scrutiny supported the recommendations of the report.
• Members queried what they could do and who to contact if they found someone sleeping outside. 
• Members suggested a small business card with the contact details of the SSDC Homeless Service to hand to vulnerable individuals to encourage them to contact the service.
• Clarification on the sources of the grants received was sought and explained by the Acting Welfare & Careline Manager.
• An explanation of the Tenancy Accreditation Scheme was given which helped individuals to complete modules on subjects such as cooking, good relations and maintaining a tenancy to help them in permanent rented accommodation.
• It was suggested that the financial information in paragraph 45 could be separated into a more readable format or table. 

The Chairman thanked the Acting Welfare & Careline Manager and her team of staff for their work in assisting single adults in need of accommodation.

Update on the Development Consent Order Application for the dualling of the A303 Sparkford to Ilchester (Agenda item 7)

The Specialist for Strategic Planning explained the progress made since her last report in July 2018 and the need to delegate authority for the Council’s Relevant Representations to the Lead Specialist for Strategic Planning in consultation with the Portfolio Holders due to time pressures.  She noted they were not progressing the Planning Performance Agreement to attempt to reimburse some of the costs any further also due to time issues. The public examination was due to start in December 2018 but Highway England now wanted it to start at the end of November. 

·         Members expressed concern that the process should not be delayed.

·         Members expressed concern that officers were stretched and the Lead Specialist for Strategic Planning acknowledged that additional support was needed.

SSDC Transformation Programme (Agenda item 8)

The Portfolio Holder for Transformation and the Strategic Lead for Transformation provided an update on the current position of the transformation Programme.  They confirmed that a communication plan for Councillors and officers had been agreed and the work with Civica on the final processes was progressing at pace.  There would also be a Members Workshop on 10^th October to look at the Members Portal.

·         Members asked if the Locality Teams would be fully operational in January 2019 and it was confirmed that this was imbedded in the plans and was integral to the new ways of working however, as with any new system, it would take time to bed in and develop over time.

·         Members asked for the position of the Streetscene service and it was confirmed that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

Members noted the updates provided by the Scrutiny Manager on each of the Task and Finish Groups currently in progress.

Customer Accessibility – some members had been involved in testing the new website and some work had been done on content to achieve a consistency of language.

Council Tax Support Scheme 2019 – there was a meeting at 1.00pm that day to discuss the comments received during the public consultation which ended on 2 September 2018.

Homefinder Somerset Plain English – no updates since the last meeting and the Scrutiny Manager would follow this up for the next meeting.

There were no updates on matters of interest.

The Scrutiny Manager advised that the Strategy and Commissioning team had requested to hold a workshop with all Scrutiny Committee members at the conclusion of their next meeting on 30^th October.  The workshop would last approximately 1 ½ hours and refreshments would be provided. 

The Chairman asked that a reminder of the workshop be circulated to all Scrutiny Committee members.

Members noted that the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee was scheduled for Tuesday 30 October 2018 at 10.00am in the Main Committee Room, Brympton Way, Yeovil.