Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: Room C1, 1st Floor, Town Hall, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, London, E14 2BG
Contact: Angus Taylor, Democratic Services Tel: 020 7364 4333 E-mail: angus.taylor@towerhamlets.gov.uk
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COUNCILLOR MOTIN UZ ZAMAN (CHAIR) IN THE CHAIR
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received on behalf of: · Mayor Lutfur Rahman. · Aman Dalvi (Corporate Director D&R) for whom Dave Clark (Acting Service Head Resources – D&R), Jackie Odunoye (Service Head Strategy Regeneration & Sustainability) and Ann Sutcliffe (Service Head Strategic Property) were deputising. · Mr Chris Holme (Acting Corporate Director Resources) for whom Paul Thorogood (Interim Service Head Finance & Human Resources Development) was deputising.
Noted
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DECLARATIONS OF DISCLOSABLE PECUNIARY INTEREST PDF 56 KB 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.
Minutes: Councillor Motin Uz Zamandeclared an interest in Agenda item 5.1 “Call-in of Mayoral Executive Decision 042: Community Chest and Community Events Fund - Round 3”. The declaration of interest was made on the basis that an element of the Mayoral decision set out in the report and, Called In for consideration by OSC related to approval of a grant application from the Bangla Mirror (CE85) for a gala dinner to launch the annual “Who’s who” for the Bangladeshi community and Councillor Uz Zaman had attended such a gala dinner launch previously.
Noted.
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UNRESTRICTED MINUTES PDF 163 KB To confirm as a correct record of the proceedings the unrestricted minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 1 October 2013.
Minutes: Matter Arising
The Chair informed OSC members that: · At the last OSC meeting he had indicated that: o He would be inviting the Mayor to attend the next OSC meeting [5th November], for one of a series of ‘spotlight sessions’ during the year. o He would also be requesting the Mayor’s diary commitments on future scheduled OSC meeting dates, so as to identify an OSC meeting he could attend if he could not attend on 5th November. · He had extended the invitation at Cabinet on 9th October and formalised this in a subsequent letter. Unfortunately the Mayor had declined the invitation, because of prior commitments and this was the fifth such declined invitation. · The Chair had received no response to his written request for the Mayor’s diary sheets. The Chair considered that as the spotlight was intended to focus on the challenges and opportunities the Mayor foresaw for delivery of improved quality of life for local people in the year ahead, with the passage of time the spotlight theme would be less meaningful. Additionally the Chair felt that the Mayor’s attendance should be congruent with the 2013/14 OSC Work Programme and to determine this he required details of the Mayor’s diary commitments on other scheduled OSC meeting dates. He considered that this OSC request was important, and the diary sheets should have been provided, so with regret he considered that a Freedom of Information Act request for the diary sheets would be necessary, although this would be wasteful of Officers resources. · Therefore, with OSC agreement, he intended to: Invite the Mayor to the next OSC meeting [3rd December} for the spotlight session, but also to submit a Freedom of Information request for details of the Mayor’s diary commitments on future scheduled OSC meeting dates, should he not be able to attend the meeting on 3rd December.
The Chair Moved and it was:-
Resolved
That the unrestricted minutes of the ordinary meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, held on 1st October 2013, be agreed as a correct record of the proceedings, and the Chair be authorised to sign them accordingly.
Action by: Angus Taylor (Principal Committee Officer, Democratic Services, CE’s)
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REQUESTS TO SUBMIT PETITIONS To receive any petitions (to be notified at the meeting).
Minutes: There were no petitions.
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UNRESTRICTED REPORTS 'CALLED IN' No decisions of the Mayor in Cabinet (9th October 2013) in respect of unrestricted reports on the agenda were ‘called in’.
To consider and adjudicate on the ‘Call In’ relating to the decision of the Mayor outside Cabinet – (Mayoral Executive Decision published on 10th October 2013 and Called In on 17th October 2013) detailed at agenda item 5.1 below
Minutes: The clerk informed OSC members that no unrestricted decisions of the Mayor in Cabinet on 9th October 2013 had been “Called In”.
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Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Motin Uz Zamandeclared a personal interest in this agenda item earlier in the proceedings (see minute above – agenda item 2).
The OSC considered the report “Mayoral Executive Decision ‘Call In’ Decision Log No 42 - Community Chest and Community Events – Round 3” comprising of the report considered, and subsequent decision taken, by the Mayor on 9th October 2013 (Mayoral Executive Decision published on 10th October 2013), together with the reasons for “Call In”/ alternative course of action set out in the Call In requisition, signed by Councillors Peter Golds, Gloria Thienel, Dr Emma Jones, Tim Archer and Craig Aston, in accordance with the provisions of 4 of the Council’s Constitution (Call In requisition presented 16th October and declared valid 18th October 2013).
The Chair welcomed: Councillor Peter Golds, one of five Councillors who had Called In the decision of the Mayor outside Cabinet and also Councillor Alibor Choudhury (Cabinet Member for Resources, Mr Dave Clark (Acting Service Head Resources Development and Renewal Directorate) and Mr Everett Haughton (Third Sector Programmes Manager) who were in attendance to respond to the “Call-in”.
Councillor Golds presented the “Call-in”: summarising the reasons for “calling in” the Mayoral Decision, outlining the key concerns of the “Call-in” Members, and setting out the action sought from the OSC to address these as follows: - · Concern expressed on the lack of transparency in respect of the Mayor’s decision making on this matter: The Mayor had considered the report and made his decision on 9th October, the day of a Cabinet meeting, but rather than making the decision in public at the meeting, the decision had been made outside Cabinet, under Executive Powers, and the report/ decision published on 10th October. There appeared to be a developing pattern of important decisions being made in secret and published in a way intended to avoid observation. · Concern expressed that the Mayor’s judgement of priorities for funding was misplaced. Grant application CE86 from the Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) for a series of information events on welfare reform had been rejected. The application for £5,000 was small in the context of the approximate total of £8 .75 million grant funding to date by the Mayor. The CAB provided an important cross community service for residents of Tower Hamlets, and although the Mayor emphasised his concern on welfare reform his decision indicated he was not sufficiently concerned. This contrasted with grant application CE85 from the Bangla Mirror (BM) for a gala dinner to launch the “Who’s who” for the Bangladeshi Community, where grant of £5,000 had been sought and £4,500 granted by the Mayor. The BM appeared so certain of receiving funding, the application appeared to have been copied from the previous year as the application was for a 2012 “Who’s who” not 2013. This also appeared to indicate a lack of forensic examination of applications by Officers before signing them off for recommendation to the Corporate Programmes Grant ... view the full minutes text for item 5.1 |
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SCRUTINY SPOTLIGHT - DEVELOPMENT AND RENEWAL DIRECTORATE To receive an oral presentation from Councillor Rabina Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing, with a focus on Decent Homes.
Minutes: Councillor Rabina Khan, Cabinet Member for Housing, gave a detailed presentation (PowerPoint slides Tabled, a copy of which would be interleaved with the minutes), focusing on Decent Homes and challenges/ opportunities for housing in the borough. Jackie Odunoye (Service Head Strategy Regeneration & Sustainability), Alison Thomas (Private Sector & Affordable Housing Manager) and Jamie Carswell (Director of Investment Tower Hamlets Homes) were also in attendance for this item. The following points were highlighted:- · THH Decent Homes (DH) -£94 million funding secured (second largest allocation nationally and programme progressing. The 2010 DH pilot achieved 802 against target 771 decent homes. Programme now being managed differently to optimise community benefits via local economy (examples given eg sponsorship work on TH Foodbank). Work with Registered Providers (RPs) on DH outlined including improvement needed on East End Homes estates at Island Gardens Mile End and Poplar HARCA at East India. · Progress on Housing Choice promises · Revised Lettings Allocations scheme approved and implemented - simpler for residents to understand and sanctions to discourage bids/ subsequent offers/ no move. · Highest number of affordable homes built and New Homes Bonus in country - Council nominated for awards. · Funding approved for 2 new Council housing schemes -? and Blake Way. · Homeless Statement approved. Welfare reform impacting on homelessness - £2.2million invested in temporary housing so people not homeless but living in Tower Hamlets · Overcrowding and Under occupation measures taken forward – pensioners not affected by benefit cap so Council working with partners on bespoke solution to address this. Under occupancy reduced from 2000 households to 1300 under current Lead Member term. · Highly proactive response to welfare reform in place – other councils seeking to follow this good practice. · Local Plan and Managing Development Document taken forward – pioneering “pod analysis” being used as basis for joint Judicial Review undertaken with neighbouring boroughs. · Challenges included:-
o Fuel Poverty
A comprehensive discussion followed, which focused on the following points: · Welcomed the Lead Member’s highlighting of partnership working with RPs in contrast to the Mayor’s recent criticism of them. It was the duty of the Mayor and Lead Member for Housing to praise RPs or hold them to account as appropriate, and the Lead Member did so eg writing to the HCA on the failings of the Guinness Housing Association. · Clarification/ assurance sought and given on the mechanism used to prioritise blocks for Decent Homes, given anecdotal information of some blocks being favoured for priority, particularly in the context of the forthcoming 2014 Mayoral and Local Government elections. Blocks were prioritised for DH on the basis of stock condition surveys undertaken by the Council together with the logistics of the managing the DH Programme. The DH Programme must be completed to timescale or face losing GLA funding. · Clarification sought as to whether Tower Hamlets Homes (THH ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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SCRUTINY SPOTLIGHT - MAYOR To receive an oral presentation from Mayor Lutfur Rahman.
Minutes: The Scrutiny Spotlight did not proceed as Mayor Lutfur Rahman had been unable to attend.
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UNRESTRICTED REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION |
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Reference from Council - Watts Grove Depot Project PDF 115 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: Please note that a significant element of OSC deliberations relating to this item of business took place in Part Two of the proceedings or “closed session” (Exempt/ Confidential Section of the agenda), for the reasons outlined by the Chair below. However, for ease of reference, the deliberations/ decision taken that pertain to the unrestricted report are set out below in the order detailed in the agenda.
The Chair informed the OSC that the report comprised of two parts: an unrestricted report now before the OSC for consideration, and several appendices thereto which contained exempt/ confidential information, the consideration of which was required in “closed session” (Exempt/ Confidential Section of the agenda: agenda Item 15.1). After an initial introduction of the unrestricted report and any discussion thereof in “open session”, it would therefore be necessary to exclude the public and press during consideration of the exempt/ confidential appendices. However he considered it was important that as much of the discussion as possible took place in “open session”.
Councillor Rabina Khan (Cabinet Member for Housing) and Councillor Alibor Choudhury (Cabinet Member for Resources) in introducing the report, which provided:- · An explanation of why this matter had been referred to OSC to investigate and report back to full Council. · All relevant information on the matter to enable OSC to undertake full scrutiny of the issues and reach an informed conclusion as requested by OSC (October meeting). summarised the salient points contained therein and highlighted key points for the information of the OSC. Ann Sutcliffe (Service Head Strategic Property), Dave Clark (Acting Service Head Resources D&R), Paul Leeson (Finance Manager D&R), Paul Thorogood (Interim Service Head Finance & HR Development) were also in attendance for this item.
The following points were highlighted:- · The Mayor had found it particularly difficult to take the decision not to proceed with the scheme to redevelop Watts Grove Depot, the way it had been structured. He considered that changed circumstances made the scheme unsustainable: o The Council’s financial position had changed during the procurement process due to Government Policy, in particular the Comprehensive Spending Review announced in June 2013 resulting in less funding for the Council, and also the announced reduction in funding through the New Homes Bonus. o The costs of the first model for delivering the Watts Grove Depot scheme had risen significantly from the first stage of the process (when they were benchmarked) to the point final bids had been received. o If the scheme had proceeded as originally planned this would have impacted on the Budget, and significant and continued compensatory savings would have been required which were considered likely to impact on the Council’s delivery of frontline services. o However the Mayor and the Cabinet Member for Housing continued to examine ways to deliver the scheme and in particular the 4000 new homes it had been expected to deliver. · The Dame Colet House and Poplar Baths schemes had been developed on a different model designed to give cost certainty ... view the full minutes text for item 8.1 |
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Covert investigation under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 PDF 102 KB Minutes: David Galpin, Head of Legal Services (Community), introduced and summarised key points in the report, which provided information concerning the Council’s authorisation of investigations (where directed surveillance or use of a covert intelligence source had been necessary), connected with targeted enforcement action it had undertaken relating to its broad statutory functions, under the provisions of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA). The Act recommended that elected Members had oversight of the Council’s use of its provisions.
The Chair noted that Councillor Ohid Ahmed (Deputy Mayor) was not present for this item, nor agenda item 8.3, both of which fell within the purview of his portfolio. His attendance would have been helpful in answering any questions OSC members might have had and he had not sent any apologies for his absence.
A discussion followed, which focused on the following points: · Welcomed the significantly reduction in the Council’s use of covert surveillance powers and the positive impact of this on collateral surveillance of the community. · Clarification sought and given as to whether any applications to the court for approval of directed surveillance or use of a covert intelligence source under the provisions of RIPA had been rejected. No. · Clarification sought and given as to whether applications under the provisions of RIPA had also made by other service providers such as Registered Social Housing Providers (RPs) and the Metropolitan Police, as this information had not been provided despite Member’s requests. Such organisations would have to follow a similar process to that of the Council if they wished to undertake covert investigations. The Council would share equipment and expertise to enable its partners to undertake approved investigations. Mr Galpin undertook to request the information from the Police on behalf of the OSC.
The Chair Moved and it was:-
Resolved
That the contents of the report be noted.
Action by: David Galpin (Head of Legal Services [Community], CE’s)
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Complaints and Information Governance Annual Report PDF 89 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: David Galpin, Head of Legal Services - Community, introduced, and highlighted key points, in the report which provided: · Details of the volume of complaints and information requests received by the Council in the period 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013, the outcomes of those cases and the standard of performance in dealing with them. · Appended the Local Government Ombudsman Annual letter 2012/13 which reflected the outcome of consideration of complaints it had received in relation to Tower Hamlets.
A discussion followed which focused on the following points:- · Commented that given the Council’s recent introduction of charges for bulk waste collection the number of collections was thought to be falling, and therefore a 34% rise in Stage 1 complaints relating to bulk collection (mainly due to missed collections) was statistically significant. Mr Galpin undertook to re-examine the statistical significance.
The Chair Moved and it was:-
Resolved
That the contents of the report, including Appendices 1 and 2, be noted.
Action by: David Galpin (Head of Legal Services – Community, Legal Services, CE’s)
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VERBAL UPDATES FROM SCRUTINY LEADS Minutes: Scrutiny Lead Member Resources – Cllr Eaton
Officers had met with Councillor Eaton to formulate the process for OSC scrutiny of the Council’s Budget in early 2014. The Chair requested that Councillor Eaton provide him with an outline of the OSC Budget process that she had formulated with Officers, so this could be formally agreed.
Resolved
That the verbal update be noted.
Action by: Frances Jones (One Tower Hamlets Service Manager, Corporate Strategy & Equality Service, CE’s)
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PRE-DECISION SCRUTINY OF UNRESTRICTED CABINET PAPERS To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.
Minutes: No pre-decision questions submitted to the Mayor in Cabinet [06 November 2013].
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ANY OTHER UNRESTRICTED BUSINESS WHICH THE CHAIR CONSIDERS TO BE URGENT To consider any other unrestricted business that the Chair considers to be urgent.
Minutes: Reference from full Council 18 September 2013 - Executive Mayor’s Car
The Chair informed OSC members that it had previously agreed (October meeting) to place this matter on the agenda for consideration at the November OSC. However due to the receipt of the Call In requiring urgent consideration, and the full programme of other business, he had considered that the business for the November meeting had become over-programmed and it would be more appropriate for the OSC to consider the matter at its December or January meeting and report to full Council in January 2013.
Action by: Angus Taylor (Principal Committee Officer, Democratic Services, CE’s)
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EXCLUSION OF THE PRESS AND PUBLIC In view of the contents of the remaining items on the agenda the Committee is recommended to adopt the following motion:
“That, under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting for the consideration of the Section Two business on the grounds that it contains information defined as Exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.”
EXEMPT/CONFIDENTIAL SECTION (Pink Papers)
The exempt committee papers in the agenda will contain information, which is commercially, legally or personally sensitive and should not be divulged to third parties. If you do not wish to retain these papers after the meeting, please hand them to the Committee Officer present. Minutes: The Chair Moved and it was: -
Resolved:
That in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985, the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting for the consideration of the Section Two business on the grounds that it contained information defined as exempt or confidential in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government, Act 1972.
SUMMARY OF EXEMPT PROCEEDINGS
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EXEMPT/ CONFIDENTIAL MINUTES Nil items.
Minutes: Nil items.
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EXEMPT/ CONFIDENTIAL REPORTS 'CALLED IN' No decisions of the Mayor in Cabinet (9th October 2013) in respect of exempt/ confidential reports on the agenda were ‘called in’.
Minutes: Nil items.
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EXEMPT REPORTS FOR CONSIDERATION |
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Reference from Council - Watts Grove Depot Project Minutes: Following a discussion the OSC agreed to defer the remaining consideration of this matter and all decisions until the next OSC (03 December).
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PRE-DECISION SCRUTINY OF EXEMPT/ CONFIDENTIAL) CABINET PAPERS To consider and agree pre-decision scrutiny questions/comments to be presented to Cabinet.
Minutes: Nil items.
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ANY OTHER EXEMPT/ CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS THAT THE CHAIR CONSIDERS URGENT To consider any other exempt/ confidential business that the Chair considers to be urgent.
Minutes: Nil items.
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