Meeting documents

To approve the minutes of the Resources Overview Committee held on 31 January 2019.

The minutes of the Resources Overview Committee held on 31 January 2019 were approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record. 

There were no declarations of interest.

The Committee reviewed the attached 28 day notices of executive decisions and requested that where decisions had been made by Cabinet at its February meeting these items be removed. A query was raised in relation to the HS2 report and whether this had been seen by / would be presented to the HS2 Members Working Group. Clarification would be sought and fed back.

It was explained that the review of remaining recycling centres item had been removed from the 28 day notice for March’s Cabinet meeting as officers were still undertaking work. A report would be presented to a future Services Overview Committee ahead of going to Cabinet. Further, the date of the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre Scrutiny Sub-Committee meeting had changed and would be reflected in the next 28 day notice.

The Committee was advised that the 28 day notice for the Joint Committee had been updated since the agenda had been published and the ICT Strategy Progress report and Customer Experience Strategy progress report would be presented to the next cycle of meetings (dates to be confirmed). This was at the request of the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee to allow Members to focus on the Joint Local Plan submission at its March meeting.

A Member questioned whether the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee should be reviewing joint finances ahead of the transition to unitary. It was explained that the scrutiny function would be the responsibility of the Shadow Authority who would appoint an Overview and Scrutiny Committee to scrutinise the decision making of the Shadow Executive.

RESOLVED

To note the 28 Day Notices.

Note 1: Councillors R Jones and M Harrold entered the meeting at 6.36 pm and 6.41 pm respectively.

The Committee considered a report which sought Council approval of the refreshed Joint Business Plan 2019 - 20. The Joint Business Plan was refreshed each year to reflect the changing needs of the locality and the communities that live and work within Chiltern, as well as the service planning process.

An updated ‘purposes’ page (page 29 of reports pack, page 7 of the business plan) was handed out at the meeting and would be included in the final report presented to Cabinet. The Committee was advised that final figures from quarter 4 2018/19 would be incorporated in to the final document when they were available.

The Committee is asked to consider and comment on the attached Cabinet report.

The Committee considered a report which attached the Service Plans for each of the service areas within the Council. Service Plans were an important part of the Council’s performance management framework and provided a summary of achievements from the current year and an overview of what each service aimed to deliver in 2019-20.

The service plans had been significantly reduced in size, had changed format and aimed to include only key information so that both staff and the public can easily reference the document.

During discussion the Committee raised the following points and comments for Cabinet to consider:

• The significant improvement to the presentation and layout of the service plans, compared to previous years was noted.
• Targets had not changed for a large proportion of performance indicators (PIs) from 2018/19 to 2019/20. Where targets were being met, the Committee encouraged these being set higher to further challenge teams to improve and avoid targets being set as projections rather than aspirational targets.
• The business continuity plan should be reviewed to reflect the migration to cloud IT systems. The cloud servers had built in resilience, with providers having back-up systems meaning that whilst not risk free, there was increased security over individual onsite servers. Each of the District Councils in Buckinghamshire was moving toward cloud migration with AVDC having made the most progress, followed by Chiltern and South Bucks.
• Further, with the new authority commencing from April 2020 the Committee agreed that all potential new contracts should be carefully considered to ensure value for money was achieved and to avoid spending on areas which would likely be changed in the new authority.
• Page 71 of the reports pack detailed an action for the Environment service area in relation to working with the EA to realign the River Misbourne to its original route. Members raised concern that this had risks attached and there was no guarantee that the original riverbed would have remained meaning that the river could ultimately disappear.
• A Member queried whether the parking arrangements at KGVH were being reviewed following previous plans to increase the parking. As the multi-storey car park extension had now been completed which had been the main reason to consider extra spaces, and with the impending move to unitary it was unlikely this would be revisited at this time.
• The procurement of a new three way waste contract was ongoing and it was noted that there was likely to be a substantial increase to costs as contractors were not keen to take risks on recycled products. The Committee asked that clarification be provided on whether the option had been explored to combine operations with AVDC who ran their own waste scheme.
• The Committee commented that the recycling targets set appeared unambitious both to Members and residents, although it was explained that recycling levels nationally had dropped and the Council was achieving above national benchmarks. New campaigns were planned to increase recycling rates, with a particular focus on paper recycling. It would be reported back to Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Committee is asked to consider and comment on the attached Cabinet report.

The Committee received a report which provided an update on the outcomes of the Performance Indicator (PI) review for 2019/20 and sought approval for the proposed changes to reporting. Reviewing PIs allowed each service to adjust targets, add in more relevant indicators and removed those indicators which did not provide valuable information.

The Committee was advised that targets had been increased where appropriate and Enforcement PIs had been moved from Priority to Corporate so that they were more visible to Members. Once quarter 4 figures for 2018/19 were available, actual figures would be included as necessary.

The Customer Services PIs were placeholders only at this stage for when the Customer Experience Programme had been implemented. At present, the service area was measuring its own PIs.

The Committee is asked to consider and comment on the attached Cabinet report.

The Committee considered a report which outlined the performance of Council services against pre-agreed performance indicators and service objectives for Quarter 3 of 2018-19.

The Committee was pleased to note that the percentage of food hygiene inspections of category A - D food businesses achieved against the inspections due by quarter was above the target of 91% at 93% and this had been due to vacant positions having been recruited to.

The Committee raised concern that a balance would need to be struck to ensure that when Serco focus on addressing the number of missed assisted collections, there was not a detrimental effect to other services.

Whilst the availability of ICT systems to staff from 8am to 6pm was just under target, the main issues had been when there was a change of infrastructure, such as the vWorkspace rollout. ICT had generally been stable, with positive response times from the helpdesk when queries had been raised.

The Committee asked that PI CdCL2 be made clearer to reflect that the number of visits per annum was just for those participants participating in activities through the GLL community engagement plan and the 5,000 target was number of visits rather than number of people.

It was clarified that PI CdPED43 related to planning appeals allowed and therefore 4.8% was significantly better than the target of 9.99%. The Committee requested that the target of 9.99% be prefixed by the words ‘up to’ for clarity.

Members were further advised that the cumulative CO2 reduction from local authorities followed a DEFRA set method of calculation and would be published in the annual greenhouse gas emissions report.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.