Meeting documents

Venue: Large & Small Committee Room, King George V House, King George V Road, Amersham

Contact: Mat Bloxham  01494 732143; Email: mbloxham@chiltern.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

10.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 103 KB

To sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 21 June 2017.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting held on 21 June 2017 were agreed and signed by the Chairman.

11.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

12.

28 Day Notice pdf icon PDF 34 KB

Minutes:

The Committee reviewed the 28 Day Notices for the Cabinet meeting due to be held on 19 September and the Chiltern and South Bucks Joint Committee on 5 October.

 

Regarding the Cabinet 28 Day Notice it was advised that the Sustainable Development Policy Advisory Group due to be held on 11 September would instead be held on 14 September to enable a Special meeting of the Chiltern & South Bucks Joint Committee to take place to consider a report on the proposed northern extension of Slough within South Bucks District by Slough Borough Council.

 

The Chiltern and South Bucks Partnership Annual Report  would be considered at the Joint Committee meeting on 7 November, rather than 5 October.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the report be noted.

13.

Performance Report Quarter 1 2017-18 pdf icon PDF 75 KB

Minutes:

Members received a report providing an overview of the performance of Council services against pre-agreed performance indicators for quarter 1 2017/18.  Information regarding the five performance indicators that had not been met were noted in particular. 

 

There was concern regarding the progress on the delivery of additional affordable housing units. During the discussion Members noted that it was forecast that the target would be met within the year.  

 

Members, after noting that one family with children that had a history of rent arrears had been in bed and breakfast accommodation for longer than 6 weeks, suggested that the rent deposit guarantee scheme be considered an option to explore for that case.

 

There was a discussion regarding the number of household refuse collections missed per month. Members were reassured that the Joint Waste Collection Committee was monitoring the contract performance closely, and after a meeting with the contractor’s senior managers actions had now been implemented to improve  performance. The contractor was also liable to pay penalty payments where performance fell short of the levels specified in the joint waste collection contract.

 

The level of staff turnover was higher than the target however this included internal staff movements that would not, in future, be included in the statistics. Members were advised that the Joint Staffing Committee received these statistics in detail at its meetings. Members requested that further analysis be undertaken on the reasons why staff left the Council and that information be provided at the next meeting of the Committee on the main issues. There was particular concern regarding staff turnover in the Planning section.

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.      That the report be noted.

 

2.      That further information regarding staff turnover be provided at the next meeting of the Committee.

 

Note: Councillor C Ford entered at meeting at 18.45 pm.

14.

Write Offs 2016/17 Quarter 1-4 and 2017/18 Quarter 1 pdf icon PDF 66 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report providing details of the writing off of sundry debts, housing benefit and council tax support scheme overpayments, Council Tax, Business Rates and Penalty Charge Notices for the full year 2016/17 and quarter 1 2017/18.

 

In response to a question it was noted that Council Tax non-payment was pursued rigorously by the Council using various methods. Although the Council was one of the highest performing nationally for Council Tax collection there remained some concern from Members regarding the level of Council Tax debt written off, and some further analysis was requested to identify potential factors. Information on Council Tax debt was also available via the Council Tax Support Scheme Annual Report (attached).

 

In respect of excess parking notices there was concern that vehicle ownership information could not be traced for vehicles registered in Scotland. It was suggested that this be investigated further to see if this information could be obtained in future, and the Department for Transport be contacted to raise this as a concern.

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.      That the report be noted

 

2.      That further information regarding the level of Council Tax debt written off be provided to the Committee.

 

3.      That clarification be provided regarding why vehicle ownership information for vehicles registered in Scotland could not be obtained for the purpose of pursuing payments for penalty charge notices. 

15.

Joint Working Savings pdf icon PDF 58 KB

Minutes:

Further to a request made at a previous meeting, the Committee received a report providing information on the financial savings arising from shared services work with South Bucks District Council. The savings shown only related to shared services, and did not include additional transformation work that had also been carried out.

 

Members welcomed the report and were pleased to note the level of savings that had been made from the shared service programme.

 

Further clarification was provided in relation to the net saving of £660,000 arising from changes to senior management staffing. It was also noted that the number of staff redundancies arising from shared services was very low.

 

It was also confirmed that no financial savings had been made from the implementation of a shared Human Resources team due to team’s size and their direct involvement in the delivery of shared services across both Councils, and the work related to developing the culture of the new joint shared service organisation.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the report be noted.