CHILTERN DISTRICT COUNCIL

MINUTES of the Meeting of the SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

held on 21 JANUARY 2003

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE were received from Councillors A Campbell and A Walters.

     ABSENT (WITHOUT APOLOGIES) was Councillor P T Lole.

Note: Councillor A Campbell gave his apologies for the meeting therefore Councillor P Priestley took the Chair.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 17 December 2002, copies of which had been previously circulated, were signed by the Chairman as a correct record subject to the following amendment: -

Councillor Meacock wished the Minutes to be corrected to show that he had given his apologies for the meeting held on 17 December 2002 and therefore was not present without apologies as recorded.

54.     DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

     None were declared.

55.     FORWARD PLAN

The Committee was asked to look at the Forward Plan to identify potential topics for review. A verbal update was given at the meeting by the Chief Executive, advising Members of amendments made to the Forward Plan as agreed by the Executive on 14 January 2003.

Members raised concerns that significant changes had been made since the Executive meeting on 14 January 2003. It was noted that the plan was difficult to scrutinise as there was no indication to the status of reports or what the likely decision of the Executive would be. In addition the column for consultees was still not being completed in full.

The topic of an update of the plant report for the Chiltern Leisure Centres would be before the Committee for consideration at the next meeting on 18 February 2003. Members identified three further topics for review by the Committee, namely: -

The Committee were in agreement that an updated draft of the work programme should be circulated with the Minutes of every meeting.

It was noted that there needed to be valid reasons for subjects to come before the Committee for review. The Committee should not serve as an arena to provide Members with information alone. It needed to have an active role.

RESOLVED –

Note: Councillor Mrs E P Stacey entered the meeting at 7.00pm

56.     SCRUTINY BENCHMARKING

At the Scrutiny Committee held on 25 July 2002 (Minute No. 13 refers), Members expressed an interest in making contact with the members of the Benchmark Club to see how other Councils had coped with the development of the scrutiny function.

At the meeting held on 17 December 2002 it was agreed that a meeting of the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Benchmark Club members various Scrutiny Committees be arranged for March 2003, with the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Scrutiny Committee and the two sub-committees to represent Chiltern District Council.

Members were informed that the proposed date for the meeting was 26 March 2003. A draft agenda for that meeting was circulated for consideration by the Scrutiny Committee.

     RESOLVED –

     That the draft agenda be agreed.

At the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on 17 December 2002 (Minute No. 48 refers) Members agreed that discussion on the follow up report to the training workshop led by Andy Holder held on 19 November 2002 (Minute No. 39 refers) should be deferred. The reason for this was to allow Members more time to read the papers that had been circulated at the meeting.

The Chief Executive outlined the action report, which resulted from the training. It was noted that the Committee had already made progress with the Members becoming involved with the formulation of the agenda.  

Discussion took place on the new Scrutiny Committee structure that had been considered by the Constitution Review Committee meeting on 16 January 2003.

Members were advised that the Constitution Review Committee had resolved that the principle of creating three (Scrutiny ?) committees with no sub-committees or PAGs be supported. The officers were requested to submit a further report to the next meeting of the Constitution Review Committee to be held on Tuesday 25 February containing proposed amendments to the Constitution to bring the changes into effect. It was intended that the new arrangements would be introduced in the Council year commencing in May 2003.

The Chief Executive advised that the provision of officer support for the scrutiny function would effectively be increased, as resources for PAGs would be transferred to the work of the Scrutiny Committee.  

The Committee agreed that the review of PAGs should be removed from the work programme.

     RESOLVED –

58.     REVIEW OF HOUSING IN THE DISTRICT

The Scrutiny Working Group met on 29 November 2002 and the notes of the meeting were before the Committee for consideration.

The conclusion of the Working Group was that the efforts of Scrutiny should be focussed on scrutinising the proposed change to Policy H6.  To do this effectively the Director of Planning and the Environment had been requested to produce a flow chart of the stages in the process where there was a role for Scrutiny, and to organise a Seminar on the planning aspects of housing provision to assist the Scrutiny Committee in understanding the issues involved in making an informed response to the Executive's proposals.  The flow chart had been circulated to Members prior to the meeting.

Members agreed that a Seminar was not required. It was suggested that it would be more appropriate to hold the Seminar in time for the review of the Local Plan next year.

     RESOLVED –

The Executive considered an amendment to Policy H6 of the Chiltern District Local Plan at their meeting on 14 January 2003.  As a result the report and their recommendations were formally referred to the Scrutiny Committee for comment because an amendment to a Policy Framework document was proposed.

The Scrutiny Committee was advised that they had six weeks in which to comment.  The Committee could consider the report and recommendation at this meeting (21 January 2003), or could defer consideration to their next meeting on 18 February 2003.

The Executive could not consider Scrutiny's response until the six weeks had elapsed.  Members agreed that the proposed change to Policy H6 would be considered at the Scrutiny meeting of 18 February 2003. This would not incur any additional delay.

The Committee agreed that it would be useful if the Director of Planning and the Environment gave a brief presentation on Policy H6 prior to discussion on this topic.

     RESOLVED –

That consideration of the proposed change to Policy H6 of the Chiltern District Local Plan and comments/recommendations to the Executive be deferred to the meeting to be held on 18 February 2003.

The meeting ended at 7.37 p.m.