Agenda item

Members considered the reports within the District Executive agenda for 2 March 2017 and made the following comments:

District-wide Voluntary Sector Grants 2017/18 (Agenda item 6)

·      Members noted the slight reduction in grant to Access for All. Given the staff reductions at SSDC as we go through Transformation, Scrutiny queried if now was the right time to cut the funding to the Access for All.

·      Members noted the good work of Citizens Advice South Somerset (CASS) and queried if they would be under increased pressure due to the wider roll-out of Universal Credit? Some members were concerned that CASS may require more money due to the current environment and peoples change in circumstances and sought re-assurance that there was a process to measure how well CASS were managing.

·      Page 15 – top line of table refers to number of clients helped – Members queried the type of help provided and for what?

·      Page 35 participation at Youth Days – the target wasn’t met and members queried if there was any particular reason for this?

·      Page 42 – bullet point refers to the InspirED project whereby schools will be able to engage with Take Art. Scrutiny queried if schools needed to pay for this and if not what the funding criteria is.

·      Page 42 - members noted the participation figures for some Take Art activities had significantly reduced and queried if there was any reason for the trend?

·      Page 45 – members noted the craft exhibition with the National Trust. Members acknowledge the National Trust is a membership organisation and members sought reassurance that people were not required to be a member in order to view the exhibition.

·      In general Scrutiny felt narratives would be useful in future reports to explain targets or provide reasons for targets not being met.

Council Tax Penalties & Civil Penalties in Housing Benefit (Agenda item 7)

·      Page 54 – Civil penalties and housing benefit – members noted that the paragraphs did not detail what the penalty is.

·      Scrutiny noted the paragraph about Equalites was missing from the report, and sought reassurance that an Equalities Impact Assessment had been completed.

·      Members also wished to clarify their understanding that April would effectively be an amnesty period.

Proposed Changes to Business Rates Relief Policy (Agenda item 8)

·         Scrutiny endorsed the report and recommendations of the Task and Finish Group.

·         Scrutiny supported the recommendations in the District Executive report.

Review of Discretionary Housing Payments Policy (Agenda item 9)

·      Scrutiny noted that since the agenda had been published that the Scrutiny Manager and the Revenues & Benefits Manager had reviewed the proposed revised policy again and had suggested some slight amendments for greater clarity – these being:

o  Clarity about the DHP shortfalls – page 80

o  Slight word changes to points F, G and 2 on page 83

·      Scrutiny endorsed the report and recommendations of the Task and Finish Group.

·      Scrutiny supported the recommendations in the District Executive report.

Quarterly Corporate performance and Complaints Monitoring Report – 3^rd Quarter 2016/17 (Agenda item 10)

·      Members commented that few of the performance measures provided monitoring information about standards or services as we progress through transformation.

·      Scrutiny asked for narratives/suggested reasons for the fly-tipping indicators, especially as a rise is reported under PI 011.

District Executive Forward Plan (Agenda item 11)

·      Scrutiny queried if the item scheduled for May - Intelligent Enforcement Proposal for Council Car Parks – was the item about Automatic Number Plate Recognition or if it was for something different?