Meeting documents

The Committee will receive a short presentation to update Members on the progress of Transport for Buckinghamshire services which have been devolved to Town and Parish Councils. In addition, Members will be informed of work that is underway to identify other Council services which could potentially be devolved to Town or Parish Councils or other local community organisations in future.

Contributors:

Mr Mark Shaw, Cabinet Member for Transportation

Mrs Jacqueline Austin-Lavery, Business Improvement Senior Officer

Mr Bradley Ford, Project Officer, TEE

The Chairman welcomed Mr Mark Shaw, Cabinet Member for Transportation, Ms Gill Harding, Commercial Development Director, TEE, Mrs Jaqueline Austin-Lavery, Business Improvement Senior Officer, TEE and Mr Bradley Ford, Project Officer to the meeting. 

The Cabinet Member reported that he was very excited by the devolution of services and officers were investigating alternative arrangements for High Wycombe which was unparished.  The Committee were given a presentation which provided an overview of the number of Parish and Town Councils that had agreed to take on services which had traditionally been delivered by BCC (latterly via Transport for Buckinghamshire).  During the presentation and in response to subsequent questions from Members, the following main points were noted:

·         There had been some historic agreements with Parishes between 2006 and 2012.  These had mainly been with Parishes in the south of the county and did not include a fixed range of services or consistent rates of pay.

·         In 2015, BCC made a concerted effort to offer a fixed set of services which could be devolved to Parish and Town councils – this was Tranche 1(T1). These services included grass cutting, hedging, weed killing and maintenance of signage. 44 out of 169 Parishes signed up.  BCC received positive feedback from the Parishes involved and complaints about grass cutting to BCC’s Call Centre fell by 50%.

·         Tranche 2(T2) has been introduced for 2016. A further 12 Parishes had already signed agreements to date and more were expected   – it was hoped that across T1 and T2, 90 out of 169 Parishes would take on responsibility for devolved services. This would leave 79 Parishes relying on TfB for these services and TfB were currently developing their work programme for 2016-17. The team working on this project had achieved a 90% response rate from Parishes which was very positive.

·         The Cabinet Member advised that he had recently written to all Parishes advising that grass cutting would be reduced from six cuts per annum to four, which had prompted further enquiries about devolution.

·         Through devolution of these services Parish and Town Councils were able to have more control over how their local area is presented.  In some areas, larger Parish or Town councils, provide services for smaller Parishes surrounding them.

·         Further devolution opportunities were being explored. A Parish and Town Council conference had been held a few months ago and a number of Parishes had volunteered to undertake pilot projects with BCC.

·         A Member asked if funding was allocated with the devolved services and whether this would cover the costs. It was explained that TfB activity and rates had been calculated and the corresponding funding had been passed down to Parishes in T1. In T2, the funding was slightly less due to budget cuts.  Some Parishes had found that the budget was sufficient, whilst others were concerned that it was not enough.  The funding was protected for the duration of the agreement.

·         A Member suggested that it would be useful for County Councillors to know which services had been devolved to Parishes in their area, as this would help with queries from residents.  It was agreed that once T2 had been completed a Member Newsletter would be produced to advise Members of the Parishes who had taken on devolved services and what those services were.

ACTION: Business Improvement Senior Officer, TEE

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and all the officers for attending the meeting and requested that the Committee should be kept updated of any progress towards further devolution of services.