Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Dev Dhillon.

To disclose any personal or disclosable pecuniary interests.

The Chairman declared an interest in Item 6 – Library Services in Bucks as he is a Trustee for The Old Gaol, Buckingham and landlord to Thames Valley Police.

Of the meeting held on 14 October 2014, to be confirmed as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on the Tuesday 18 November 2014 were agreed as a correct record.

Matters Arising

Timeline/scope of the internal review, the review being undertaken by Gate One and the Transport review are to be provided.

Action: Cabinet Member for Transportation/Gill Harding/Andrew Clarke

Forensic analysis report of the RJ contract is to be circulated to Committee Members when approved.

Action: Cabinet Member for Transportation/DSO

Details of the savings in the Transportation portfolio and re-investment are to be circulated to Committee Members when available.

Action: Gill Harding/DSO

Four Year plan is to be circulated to Committee Members.

Action: Cabinet Member for Transportation/DSO

A summary of the joint update on the grass cutting contract given at the Finance Select Committee meeting on the 30 September 2014 will be circulated to members of the ETL for information.

Action: Phil Gomm

This is an opportunity for members of the public to put a question or raise an issue of concern, related to Environment, Transport and Locality Services.   Where possible, the relevant organisation to which the question/issue is directed will be present to give a verbal response.  The member of public will be invited to speak for up to four minutes on their issue.  A maximum of 30 minutes is set aside for the Public Questions slot in total (including responses and any Committee discussion). This may be extended with the Chairman’s discretion. 

For full guidance on Public Questions, including how to register a request to speak during this slot, please follow this link:

http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/about-your-council/scrutiny/get-involved/

There were no public questions.

An informal question has been received relating to the Library Service about software which will be picked up by Mr Butcher under item 6, Library Services in Bucks.

For the Chairman of the Committee to provide an update to the Committee on recent scrutiny related activity.

The Chairman reported the following.

The Public Transport Inquiry report was presented at the November Cabinet meeting.  The report was agreed with only two of the recommendations agreed in part.  It was agreed with the Cabinet Member for Transportation that a progress update on the inquiry would be received in 6 months which gives the opportunity for the new business units to embed and give feedback on how they are starting to implement some of the recommendations. As most of the other recommendations were given a target date of the end of 2015, the Committee were keen to receive an update prior to this target date.

A meeting has taken place with the Chief Executive and the internal auditor to get an update on the Value for Money and Transport for Bucks exercise. It was a useful discussion but it was clear that there had been some misunderstanding about what the Committee has requested out of the recommendation. Further is awaited from the Chief Executive and the Auditor. This will be chased up. The Chief Executive will also be asked if minutes were taken at the meeting.

Action: Chairman

I was able to attend the Bus Expo at the NEC in October. It was interesting to gain an understanding about the bus industry, in terms of both the operators and the supply chain to the industry.  This reinforced some of the assumptions made in the inquiry report. It was also useful to catch up with the key note speech from the minister, Patrick McCloughlin. Two important points were made about the role of the commercial sector and making sure they are supported to provide the services they do as well as the acknowledgement of the growing role of community transport to fill the gaps the commercial sector is unable to.  It was noticeable that the community transport sector is seen as a small part of the industry and there was very little at the show on smaller vehicles, in particular accessible vehicles that can be used by a number of operators.

For members to receive an update and review the progress towards the committee’s recommendations as agreed on 8^th April for the development of a clear vision of the future of library services in Bucks.

Martin Phillips - Cabinet Member for Community Engagement

David Jones - Culture and Learning Manager

Julia King - Reading Development Manager

Ruth Page – Culture Development Project Officer

Martin Phillips, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement, David Jones, Service Director, Julia King, Reading Development Manager & Ruth Page, Culture Development Project Officer, were welcomed to the meeting.

The Chairman asked for a brief summary to reiterate in a succinct way the vision for the library service going forward for the next 5-10 years, and what the key elements and the core principles are.

Mr Jones explained that the version for the library service is predicated on the fact that emerging national picture for public library services is a year on year decrease in library usage.  A new vision for library services is needed in order to ensure relevance and sustainability.  This includes a way of maximising the asset – the building, and to increase the contribution that libraries make to priorities, both locally and nationally. The vision for the services is best articulated through the term; Face of the Council - Heart of the Community.

The Face of the Council is in recognition of the high footfall in libraries, the interaction with local residents and the fact we are IT intensive (there are all three channels in the libraries). Heart of the Community is in a sense, speaking of the high regard that residents have for the libraries and the attractiveness of the free, safe and accessible community spaces.  We are also able to position ourselves in a unique way in terms of driving forward the agenda for digital inclusion.

The significance of digital inclusion for the County Council is that in order to reduce costs through digital channel shift, the Council will need to ensure that residents who do not have a computer or have a computer but don’t know how to use it are not disenfranchised. The library service can position itself around that agenda.

In terms of key partnerships with organisations such as the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, as from 2015, when there is a Government shift to most information services having to be accessed on line, partnership working needs to take place with organisations such as the library which can provide the space, staff and free access to IT.

The key actions in terms of the visions being realised is to remodel library spaces, to co-locate services and have more services delivered from the same place; to develop partnerships; to increase and enhance the volunteer capacity and to position ourselves at the centre of the Council’s digital inclusion.

The Cabinet Member for Community Engagement explained that one aim is for the libraries to be developed into the public face of the Council. If people visit the library with a central council issue, they can be signposted into the right department to make the journey easier.  This is an enhanced role for libraries.

During the update, the following questions were asked.

The library services in Buckinghamshire are unique in the country in many ways.  Have visits taken place to libraries in other counties such as Tower Hamlets to look at other models to see how services can be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Members will receive a status update from the service area. They will also consider the next steps for the inquiry following Initial exploratory work carried out to identify and refine the key areas for further examination within the scope.

John Rippon, Policy and Planning Business Manager, Place

John Rippon, Policy and Planning Business Manager, Place was welcomed to the meeting.

Mr Rippon gave the following summary of the current position of the S106 process, the scope of future and ongoing lines of inquiry to identify and refine key areas for further examination.

The S106 inquiry is split into four key areas; governance, commissioning and delivery, local engagement and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).

Governance: Internal Policy and Process

This is about ensuring that robust systems are in place to effectively manage the creation and monitoring of S106 agreements, including payments and budget management.

Work that has taken place today includes;

·      Systems are currently being developed jointly with Finance, Legal Services, and Highways Development Management team

·      All of the funding is now held in the corporate reserve account

·      The creation of a central register of all the S106 agreements across the County Council. External Interim support has called in to help with this (2 days a week).

·      A stronger audit trail needs to be created within the process. The onus is currently on the developer to come forward with a payment once the trigger in the 106 agreement has been hit.  A more proactive stance approach is needed in terms of sending standard notifications to developers and presentation of invoices to they can be tracked through the system.

·      Better use of IT systems such as Uniform – the County Council’s planning database.  This system is used to record County Council planning applications and consultation responses.

·      The possibility of expanding the scope of the system to include highways responses

·      As part of the future shape programme, there will be a new s106 officer post created in the Transport, Economy and Environment structure.  Recruitment to the post will take place in the New Year.

Commissioning and delivery of s106 schemes

This is to ensure that schemes are effectively delivered and S106 funds are spent in a timely fashion.

·      This is an ongoing area of concern particularly where there are historic contributions and where there is the need to get the schemes delivered on the ground.

·      Work is taking place with TfB and Ringway Jacobs to produce a rolling annual programme of schemes.

·      TfB submitted a draft proposal which sets out how they would like to address this going forward. These programmes will be reported through the Business Investment Group to release the funds and allow the capital budget to be managed more effectively.

·      Close working is taking place with TfB and Ringway Jacobs to jointly develop project briefs, have clear time bound outcomes and objectives and have better communication and consultation with local residents and Members.

·      There could be potential economies of scale by tying elements together such as other work programmes for Local Area Forums and TfB

·      Bringing together historic S106 schemes as a priority. In some cases there could be the need to consider re-negotiation of the terms of the S106 agreements

Councillors and local influence in s106 agreements/contributions

To ensure that Local Members and Communities have a genuine  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Members will consider the written response to their letter of recommendation to the Cabinet Member following the committee’s investigative work in relation to the Council’s approach to external funding opportunities.

Peter Hardy, Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

Peter Hardy, Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources was welcomed to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member thanked members of the committee for allowing an update to be given on external funding opportunities and to be able to respond to the letter of recommendation sent following the committee’s investigative work in relation to the Council’s approach to external funding opportunities prior to a written response being provided.

The Cabinet Member said that the Committee’s anxiety that the Authority may be missing out on external funding streams is shared. Is this a real anxiety or a theoretical problem? Is it just transport where the Committee feels the Authority is missing out on external funding opportunities or is does this also apply to other areas of the Council such as social care. Evidence is needed of the areas where the Authority is missing out as well as numbers to support this investment in the additional resources and processes being put forward by the committee, is to be justified.

The Cabinet Member said that he is personally against the creation of corporate roles second guessing the new business units in future shape. The rationale behind future shape is to have a slim but very effective Head Quarters organisation with maximum responsibility devolved to business units.

Part of the mandate of the business units is to generate additional income and we would expect them to do so.  It is up to the business units to find funding wherever available.  The business units should allocate appropriate resources to enable this to be done.

The HQ role is to hold the business units to account against outcomes, not to do the work for the business units. Each business unit will be required to submit an annual business plan which goes via the One Council Board to Cabinet. The idea that the report should include a section in the plans reporting on possible external funding opportunities and how these are being taken advantage of is supported.

The Council is pursuing an active programme of devolving responsibility to delivery units such as Trusts and business units, with better access to external funding. A key element is for the options appraisal is a structure which has the ability to support external funding. Examples of this are the Museum pursuing lottery funding, Community groups running libraries and the decision in Transport to take up shovel ready schemes.

The local government is restricted in its ability to find external funding and has to work in different ways to achieve maximum advantage.

A way of taking this forward would be to include in the mandate for the new innovative units, the role of generating further proposals for delivery units that can attract external funding.

During discussions, the following questions were asked.

The Committee is saying that it thinks there are opportunities for external funding but how is this being harnessing and how can a clear corporate approach to this be developed. The innovation unit should look at new structures that can attract additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

Members will discuss the Committee Work Programme and forthcoming Committee items.

Members of the Committee NOTED the work programme.

The work programme will be discussed in more detail at the working group taking place in December.

The next meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 3 February 2015 in Mezzanine 2, County Offices, Aylesbury.  There will be a pre-meeting for Committee Members at 9.30am.

Meeting dates for 2015

The next meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 3 February 2015 in Mezzanine 2, County Offices, Aylesbury.  There will be a pre-meeting for Committee Members are 9.30am.

Meeting dates for 2015

17 March       21 July          

14 April          8 September

19 May           6 October

23 June         17 November