Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on Tuesday 1 July 2014 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Pauline Clarke, Nick Colbert, Pauline Lock and Paul Maxwell.

In accordance with the Council's current Code of Conduct (adopted July 2012), 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. A DPI is defined in The Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 No. 1464) and Appendix 3 of the Council’s Code of Conduct.  A personal interest is defined in paragraph 2.8 of the Code and a prejudicial interest is defined in paragraph 2.9. In the interests of complete transparency, Members of the County Council, who are not also members of this committee, are encouraged to declare any interests they may have in any matters being discussed even though they may not be under any obligation to do so under any relevant code of conduct.

Councillor Sue Osborne declared a personal interest in item 7 on the District Executive agenda (Commercial Property Disposal – Winsham Allotment and Band Hut) as she is the ward member for Winsham.

Councillor Nigel Mermagen declared a personal interest in item 7 on the District Executive agenda (Commercial Property Disposal – Winsham Allotment and Band Hut) as he is a resident of Winsham.

There were no members of public at the meeting.

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.

When the Council Tax Reduction Scheme had been discussed at the previous meeting the Revenues and Benefits Manager had indicated he would source some information that had been requested at the meeting and circulate to Scrutiny members. It was noted that the information had not been circulated.

There were no Chairman’s announcements.

The Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) presented the report as detailed in the agenda. She explained the background, risks and context to the review and NNDR relief. The process for the review was highlighted including how consultation responses had been fed into the review to develop the new proposed policy and that everyone directly affected had been consulted.

It was explained that the fundamental reason the review had been done was to limit liability and financially protect SSDC into the future, and it had not be done as a cost cutting exercise.

During discussion members acknowledged that the topic was complicated and some aspects were very technical. In response to concerns raised about potential constraints on start-up businesses and the risks if government were to claw back mandatory relief, the Assistant Director (Finance and Corporate Services) clarified that the review would develop a new policy and the policy could be tighter if members wished to recommend that to District Executive.

Members agreed that the Task and Finish Group report be endorsed, as detailed in the agenda, and recommended to District Executive.

The Chairman thanked all members for their involvement in the Task and Finish review, which had not been easy at times, and also particularly wished to mention Donna Parham (Assistant Director, Finance and Corporate Services), Helen Miller (Revenues Officer), Jo Gale (Scrutiny Manager) and Jo Morgan (Equalities Officer).

Members considered the reports outlined in the District Executive agenda for
7 August 2014. It was agreed that the following comments would be taken forward to District Executive for consideration:

Wincanton Car Parks – Income Compensation Scheme – item 6

·         Members sought clarification as to why the town council wished to terminate the agreement, and whether it was possible for the town council to implement a charging system themselves.

Commercial Property Disposal – Winsham Allotments and Band Hut – item 7

·         Concern about the many detailed restrictions and conditions regarding use of the site / on the parish council – was there a risk that the facility might be lost.

·         It was noted that the map shown in the agenda was incorrect – the arrow should be pointing to the area shown in green.

Enhancement of Yeovil CCTV – item 8

·         Members were content with the recommendations in principal but did raise concern about which budget the SSDC funding would come from. It was queried if funding could come from the Local Delivery Vehicle (LDV) budget in the Area South Portfolio (page 59 – capital budget monitoring) – as this mentioned that the remaining budget for the LDV will be allocated to Yeovil Vision projects.

Somerset Intelligence Partnership – Data Sharing – item 9

·         Members raised a number of concerns regarding privacy and requested clarification as to what postcode level would be used – the first part of the postcode or the whole postcode e.g. TA20 or BA20 2HT.

·         Members queried the implications of releasing information that was, or might, be incorrect.

·         Scrutiny asked if there were likely to be any equalities implications as there was no mention of any in the report.

·         Paragraph 3 (page 33) refers to SSDC joining the partnership in December 2014, should this read 2013?

·         Paragraph 3 (page 33) refers to an annual fee of £4,600 but page 37 indicates that the other district councils fee is £2,675 – Scrutiny requested an explanation for the differing figures.

·         Members noted that some of the sources of information, such as the Census 2011, may now be out of date as people will have moved. Members asked that some checks were in place to ensure information was up to date before release otherwise the information would skew data.

SSDC Partnerships – Annual Update – item 10

·         Members were content with the recommendations.

2014/15 Capital Budget Monitoring for Quarter 1 to 30^th June 2014 – item 11

·         It was queried if funding from the Local Delivery Vehicle (LDV) budget in the Area South Portfolio (page 59) could be moved to fund the Yeovil CCTV (agenda item 8)

·         Page 68 – Scrutiny asked for an explanation of ‘drawdown’.

·         Members sought clarification that deadlines were monitored for when S.106 money would need to be returned to the developer and if local ward members were informed. It was also asked what happens to the interest on the deposits..

·         Deposits by developers – members commented that legalities often seemed to slow  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

The Chairman and Task and Finish Group Chairman updated members on the progress of current Task and Finish reviews.

Discretionary Rate Relief

The final report of the Task and Finish Group had been considered earlier on the agenda.

Somerset Strategic Housing Framework

The group would not meet again until a 12 week consultation period had finished, when they would consider the responses.

Connecting Devon and Somerset Broadband

The Task and Finsh Group met for the last time on 17 July. It had been agreed that they would comment on a draft report over the summer.

Civil Contingencies

An initial meeting had taken place and a further meeting was arranged for early September to look at how the Somerset Local Authorities Civil Contingencies Partnership is structured and how actions are commissioned and delivered. The meeting would be attended by officers from both SSDC and SCC.

The Chairman updated members that the Flooding Steering Group had met in July and would meet again in September to discuss the future of the Steering Group and its relationship with the 20 year Flood Action Plan.

It was noted that the Task and Finish Report for Civil Contingencies would be rescheduled for the meeting on 30 September 2014.

Members noted that the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee would be held on Tuesday 2 September 2014 at 10.00am in the Main Committee Room, Brympton Way, Yeovil.