Apologies for absence were received from:

·         Mayor Lutfur Rahman

·         Councillor Rabina Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing

·         Councillor Amy Whitelock-Gibbs

The Chair Moved and it was

Resolved

That the apologies for absence be received and noted

Action by:

Matthew Mannion (Committee Services Manager)

To note any declarations of interest made by Members, including those restricting Members from voting on the questions detailed in Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act, 1992.  See attached note from the Interim Monitoring Officer.

No declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interest were made.

To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 7^th January 2014.

TO FOLLOW

The Chair Moved  and it was:-

RESOLVED

That the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 7 January 2014 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record of the proceedings subject to the following correction being made:

That under Item 3 – Unrestricted Minutes the second bullet point to read:

·         He was disappointed that the Mayor had again given his apologies for the meeting and he intended to invite the Mayor to the next ordinary meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 4^th February 2014.

To receive any petitions (to be notified at the meeting).

No petitions were received.

To consider the information presented in the report together with any additional information requested by the OSC (7 January 2014) and prepare a response for submission to Council.

The Committee considered the report regarding the ‘Executive Mayor’s Car’, discussion of which had been deferred from the meeting held on 7 January 2014 due to the late presentation of requested information. Councillor Alibor Choudhury, Cabinet Member for Resources, and Chris Holme (Interim Corporate Director, Resources) were present on behalf of the Administration to answer questions from the Committee.

The Chair thanked officers for providing the information set out in the report and stated that this would help the Committee come to a view as to the decision making process that led to the Executive Mayor’s Car being acquired.

However, the Chair explained that a key issue the Committee had been asked to investigate related to whether the car was being used appropriately. In particular, the Committee had requested the Mayor’s and driver’s diary sheets in order to determine the number and nature of the events that the Executive Mayor had attended and to also determine whether these were events that should have been attended by the civic Speaker as set out in Article 5 of the constitution. Members were concerned to ensure a proper separation of the Executive and ceremonial functions of the Council.

Mr Holme and Councillor Choudhury reported that the requested timesheet information was not available at this time.

The Chair and a number of Members of the Committee expressed their frustration that the information was not available and, in particular, that local residents gave up their free time to serve as Co-opted Members of the Committee but they were then unable to fully examine the issues before them. Graham White (Interim Deputy Head of Legal Services) undertook to try and determine what information was available that could be presented to the Committee Members in time for the next meeting at which this issue was discussed.

Members also requested that, should officers not be able to secure the information, that Freedom of Information requests be prepared to request the relevant timesheets.

At the end of the discussion, the Chair explained that, despite that lack of some necessary information, it was nevertheless important that a report be prepared for reference back to Full Council. He stated that he would circulate his suggestions to Members of the Committee and that the reference back to Council would then be formally considered at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 4 March 2014. However, he confirmed that further attempts to secure the additional information must also be made.

Resolved

1.    That the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee be authorised to prepare a draft reference report back to Council on the issues discussed above.

Action by:

Graham White (Interim Deputy Head of Legal Services)

Mark Cairns (Senior Strategy Policy and Support Officer)

To consider the information presented in the draft OSC report and endorse the findings/ recommendations contained therein for onward reporting to Council.

The Chair introduced the Committee’s draft feedback report to Full Council following the Committee’s previous discussions on the Watts Grove Depot and related issues. He highlighted a slight amendment in the first bullet point under 2.0 where the third sentence should read: A partnership with an RP, or another more economically viable alternative model, would have been a better option. He explained that, if the Committee agreed the report, it would be presented to Full Council on Wednesday 22 January 2014.

The Chair Moved the recommendation to agree the report.

Resolved:

1.    That the report be agreed and submitted to Full Council on 22 January 2014.

2.    That the Overview & Scrutiny Committee recommends that the Council endorses the findings of the report, and that the Mayor and Cabinet members act accordingly.

Action:

Matthew Mannion (Committee Services Manager – to submit the report to Council)

To consider the General Fund, Capital and Revenue Budgets and Medium Term Financial Plan 2014-2017 in accordance with the Council’s Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules.

The Committee considered the report titled ‘General Fund Capital and Revenue Budgets and Medium Term Financial Plan 2014-2017’ that had been presented to Cabinet on 8 Cabinet 2014 and had also been initially considered at the OSC meeting on 7 January 2014. Councillor Alibor Choudhury, Cabinet Member for Resources, and Chris Holme (Interim Corporate Director, Resources) and officers from all departments were present to answer questions from the Committee.

Chris Holme provided a summary presentation to the Committee, he reported that:

·         The savings requirements due to the reduction in the government’s revenue support grant were a significant challenge for the Council.

·         The grant was being cut by 40% between 2013/14 and 2015/16 and then by a further 20% between 2015/16 and 2016/17.

·         In addition to the support grant reduction there were further changes such as a reduction in the New Homes Bonus.

·         Most reductions had been correctly anticipated but the Government’s Autumn Statement had resulted in an unexpected ending of the crisis and support fund grants of £1.7 million a year (£1.4 million in grants and £300k towards administration costs) and a few other changes which resulted in a net additional loss to the Council of around £1 million per year.

·         There would consequently be an updated Budget report presented to February Cabinet where the changes would be set out in more detail but the overall savings assumptions were unaffected.

Councillor Alibor Choudhury concurred with Mr Holme’s introduction and also highlighted that the Council had a balanced budget proposed for 2014/15 and so no further savings needed to be identified for that period but that significant new savings would be required after that.

The Chair opened the item up for discussion and the Committee explored a number of issues to which they sought officer responses, including:

·         The Council’s strategy for using its reserves. It was explained that the reserves would be used to smooth out the impact of the grant cuts but that the Council was committed to maintaining a minimum reserve of around 5-7% of overall spend as that was considered good practice.

·         On why there had been a significant increase in Third Party Payments and what they were for. Chris Holme promised to provide a written response but explained that in many cases it would be because of changes to services, for example, the new public health money would be classed as Third Party Payments.

·         Whether funding was being taken from public health budgets for other projects and whether there had consequently been an impact on service provision. It was explained that there had been no impact on public health service delivery and that the grant was ring fenced at least until 2015/16. However, the Council was looking at administrative efficiencies and new public health initiatives.

·         Whether plans for personalised homecare were still behind schedule and if the Council still directly employed homecare workers. Officers explained that there had been a reduction in directly employed staff due to voluntary redundancies and that work was ongoing on developing personalised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.3

To consider any other unrestricted business that the Chair considers to be urgent.

Nil items.