Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Karl Gill and Mike Lewis.

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.

There were no members of the public present 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.

There were no issues raised from previous meetings.

The Chairman of Scrutiny Committee expressed his thanks to Councillor Crispin Raikes for all his work and leadership during his term as the Chairman of the committee.

There were no updates for reports considered by District Executive at the April meetings.

Members considered the reports within the District Executive agenda for 13 May 2021 (Informal Consultative meeting) and raised comments as detailed below. Responses to most questions and comments were provided at Scrutiny Committee by the relevant officers or Portfolio Holder – except those marked with an asterisk.

Approval of Somerset Electric Vehicle (EV) Strategy (Agenda item 5)

·        A member asked who would be signing off this strategy, in light of the recruitment of a new CEO.

·        Para 8 – it was queried it if it was known how the 46% of carbon emissions had been derived and whether it was a figure we could directly influence. Was the emissions figure directly related to the M5 and A303 travel corridors? *

·        A member asked if there was a formula used as to where charging points were being, or would be, located and the quantity? *

·        Para 16 – when would the results of the Co-Cars study be known as the findings would be of interest to Scrutiny. *

·        A member queried whether rapid charging points for commercial vehicles would also be looked into for the future? *

·        Members sought clarification that we would be looking at the installation of a variety of chargers as there were different types depending on the vehicle. *

·        A member asked what the council is doing to encourage more ‘active travel’ in the district. i.e walking and cycling.

·        Members queried the use of ‘precious metals’ in the manufacturing of batteries. Has this been considered and are we looking at any alternatives? *

Corporate Performance Report 2020-21: 4^th Quarter and End of Year Achievements Report (Agenda item 6)

·        With reference to the Environment KPI’s and SWP in particular. One member raised a query about difficulties some customers had recently experienced regarding renewal of green bins including a long wait time on the phones and that online some postcodes were not being accepted. He had recollections of some similar issues last year.

·        Page 15 – key at bottom of page – red – a member queried what was deemed to be significant?

·        Page 17, PCS 7 - A member expressed concern about the timeframes for Housing Benefit claims. The response of the officer to the comment was acknowledged, and members asked if an explanatory sentence could be included about DWP lead times?

·        Page 17, PCS 9 – a member acknowledged that the process for Council Tax new claims had changed and queried if the process change was starting to have a positive impact on timeframes?

·        Page 18, PCS 14 – a member noted the target was 10% for the appeals. It was queried if the target should be slightly reduced so that we could react sooner should the need arise.*

·        Page 19, PCS 15 – some members noted the indicator was difficult to interpret as the target showed as 100% - and this could be read as wanting to have 100% of applications with extensions of time. *

·        A member asked the Performance Specialist when they would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Chairman advised members that Councillor Charlie Hull wished to step down from Somerset Waste Board Joint Scrutiny Panel and, that Councillor Sue Osborne wished to step down from the Somerset Rivers Authority Joint Scrutiny Panel.

Councillors Paul Maxwell and Brian Hamilton noted they were happy to continue on their respective Joint Scrutiny Panels.

During a brief discussion it was agreed that the following members would serve on the Joint Scrutiny Panels:

The Chairman thanked those members who were standing down from the Panels for their time and work on behalf of the Scrutiny Committee.

The Specialist (Scrutiny & Member Development) provided a brief verbal update on the progress of Task and Finish groups including:

Productivity Analysis – no update since the previous meeting,

SSDC Environment Strategy – the group were looking into green energy procurement. There was an opportunity for the Council to transfer to a renewable energy supplier with minimal cost,

There were no updates on matters of interest.

The Specialist (Scrutiny & Member Development) suggested that as the Corporate Performance reports came to Scrutiny Committee when considering the District Executive agendas, that the Corporate Performance item could be removed from the Scrutiny Work Programme. This was agreed by members subject to the relevant officer attending the Scrutiny Committee meetings when the item was to be considered.

Some members suggested that an update would be useful regarding the latest position with high speed broadband across the district. In response, the Specialist (Scrutiny & Member Development) commented she would liaise with officers for an update.

Members were content to note the Scrutiny Work Programme.

Members noted that the next meeting of members of the Scrutiny Committee was scheduled for 10.30am on Tuesday 1 June 2021, with meeting arrangements to be confirmed.