Venue: Anglia Room, The Conference Suite, Elizabeth House, Dereham
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- Mr R. Goreham, Vice-Chairman in the Chair - A statement from the Chairman was read to the Commission to urge members, bearing in mind there were new members of the Council who had not participated in Scrutiny, either in Panel or at full Commission meetings, to give close attention to the agenda papers prior to meetings so as to enable better scrutiny through questioning of officers and guests alike.
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To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 5th July 2007 Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 5 July 2007 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
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Apologies To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Messrs. S.G. Bambridge, S.H. Chapman-Allen, J.P. Cowen (Chairman) and B. Rose.
Apologies for late arrival were given by Mr. R.G. Kybird.
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Declaration of Interest Members are asked at this stage to declare any interests that they may have in any of the following items on the agenda. The Members’ Code of Conduct requires that declarations include the nature of the interest and whether it is a person or prejudicial interest. Minutes:
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Non-Members wishing to address the Meeting To note the names of any non-members or public speakers wishing to address the meeting. Minutes: Mr A.C. Stasiak, Executive Member (Strategic Alliance) was in attendance.
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Policy Development and Review Panels (Agenda Item 6) To consider reports from Panel Chairmen in respect of the following meetings: |
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Panel 1 - Confirmed minutes of the meeting held on 22 May 2007 Minutes: (a) Local Transport Review (Minute 36/07)
(b) Royal Mail –
Postal Address for Watton and Carbrooke
(Minute 37/07)
(c) Adoption
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Panel 1 - Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2007 Minutes: (a) Breckland Local Development Framework Progress Report and Update on Recent Best Practice and Advice (Minute 43/07)
The
Chairman reported that Mr Cowen had raised concerns that the
reference (on page 16) that the density for villages could be
reduced to 22 homes/hectare or 9 homes/acre sent out the wrong
message. Mr Cowen asked whether it
would not be more appropriate to have an appraisal of each village
that identified the density in the particular location. If an existing village density was four or five
homes per acre, then only reducing to nine would change the form
and character of the village completely. Similarly, he felt it might be that the larger
villages had a spread of densities from the higher in the centre to
lower on the periphery and that a ‘one size fits all’
would not be appropriate here either.
A member
supported this view, commenting that such densities were not
appropriate in rural locations.
(b)
Norfolk Minerals and Waste Development Framework – Draft Core
Strategy and Policies: Issues and Options (Minute 44/07)
(c) Adoption
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Panel 2 - Confirmed minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2007 Consideration of these minutes was deferred at the last meeting as a number of members had not received their copy in time for the meeting. Minutes: (a) Review of the Breckland Council
Website (Minute 29/07)
The Commission noted the Panel’s views and recommendations in
this matter, together with the various officers’ comments on
each of the items, and accordingly
(1) The layout of the home page
be reconsidered to ensure that it is not
overburdened with information whilst at the same time it is user
friendly and clear for users. The Corporate and e-communications Officer has
advised that the navigation tree was currently in process of being
changed to comply with the Local Government Navigation List making
it easier for users to navigate the site. A report regarding the website “First
Impressions” quoted as follows: “Nice home
page. Easy to see what each section is
about and geared directly to the general public. Good.” (2) The website should adopt a “four
click” approach to ensure that information can be found
quickly and easily. The
Website Officer has advised that a two-click approach had been
implemented from the Council’s home page to the planning
search page. In addition, it has been
confirmed that web trend software has been installed which enabled
the monitoring of public ‘hits’ to the website. This
software enabled web officers to receive information on how
frequently their pages were being visited and if they were not
being visited very often, they could be given help to improve the
pages’ functionality. (3) Information on the planning process
should be bolstered on the website enabling the public to access
pending planning applications and associated maps and
forms. The Website Officer
has explained that the planning process had been bolstered on the
website by an addition to the link already provided on the left
hand navigation list. To make the
search more user friendly when using the
search function, the user would be taken directly to the main
planning search page. (4) A link is established with the Eastern
Daily Press Events Page and action be taken to ensure that news
items on the website are removed promptly once they are no longer
current. The Corporate and
e-communications Officer has advised that a link to the EDP Events
page has been established for a trial period of three months, which
would be reviewed regarding the number of ‘hits’ the
pages received. It has been confirmed
that all news items were live on the site within two hours of being
released to the press and that old news items were archived
automatically, enabling the user to search for old press
releases. (5) Images are limited in size to obviate long download times, especially for dial-up users. The Website Officer has advised that all images on the website are optimised before they are published onto the site to avoid the use of images that would take too long to download for the user. It has also been confirmed that the monitoring of this would ... view the full minutes text for item 8507c |
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Panel 2 - Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 25 July 2007 Minutes: RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of Policy Development and Review Panel 2 held on 25 July 2007 be adopted.
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Panel 3 - Confirmed minutes of the meeting held on 12 June 2007 Members are reminded that the following recommendations contained in these minutes have already been determined at previous meetings:
Minutes: It was noted that the recommendations contained in minutes 27/07 (Breckland Housing Register – Award of Contract) and 28/07 (Big Lottery Children’s Play) had been dealt with at previous meetings.
RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of Policy Development and Review Panel 3 held on 12 June 2007 be adopted.
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Panel 3 - Unconfirmed minutes of the meeting held on 10 July 2007 Minutes: The minutes were presented by the Vice-Chairman of the Panel, who also encouraged members to attend the next open day of the Anglia Revenues Partnership in September.
In regard to minute 36/07 (Work Programme), the Chairman proposed that the recommended review of Emergency Planning should include, as well as issues on flooding, a review of the information available to the public such as emergency contact telephone numbers, how to obtain sandbags, etc., as he felt it was important that such information was disseminated to the public.
The Chairman of the Panel added that he hoped the aim of the review would be to provide as authoritative a list as possible as to what was constituted in the Emergency Planning function.
RESOLVED that
(1)
a review of the Emergency Planning function be incorporated into
the work programme for Panel 3; (2) the minutes of the meeting of Policy Development and Review Panel 3 held on 10 July 2007 be adopted.
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Elections Review Task and Finish Group - Interim Report (Agenda Item 7) To receive an interim report from the Elections Review Task and Finish Group.
Members may wish to note that the evaluation report on behalf of the Electoral Commission on the e-counting pilot scheme is due to be published on 2nd August, which will give an opportunity for that to be taken into account, or conclusions compared with those of the Working Group. Additional documents: Minutes: The Scrutiny Officer presented the interim report of the Working Group, which had been established to examine issues surrounding the local elections on 3rd May, with particular regard to the e-counting pilot.
The review was being conducted in two parts: part 1 looked at the counting of votes, the initial findings of which were set out in the interim report. Part 2 would look at other relevant issues such as polling stations and training of polling of staff, etc. A final report would be submitted to the Commission in due course.
Members also had regard to the official report on the Breckland electronic counting pilot published by the Electoral Commission on 2nd August 2007.
Members felt that the Electoral Commission’s criticism of Breckland was unfair and that Indra should be held much more accountable for the failings of their electronic voting system.
Members strongly expressed their appreciation and support for the way in which the Returning Officer and his staff had conducted themselves during the very difficult circumstances of the count, which was always a stressful event at the best of times.
The Electoral Commission’s admission that not least of the factors contributing to the problems experienced was that there had been insufficient time for testing and planning of the system was felt to be extraordinary. Some of the blame for this, it was felt, lay with the Government, who had also recommended Indra as one of the providers for the pilot.
A member questioned the fact that Indra appeared not to accept any responsibility for the problems experienced with the operation of the system, despite their claim that they had operated successful electronic counts elsewhere both in this country and abroad. Why, therefore, should this count have been so markedly different compared to the others?
The only aspect which a member felt the Council should have noticed at the time of scanning of ballots was in the two cases of discrepancies in the counting of votes in two wards. However, the member felt that this was also part of the role of election agents and therefore they should also have noted and reported the discrepancies at the time, rather than to make allegations after the event.
Another member made reference to the costs of the pilot as compared to those for a manual count, and bearing in mind the questions which had been raised about the Indra’s responsibility for the problems encountered, he wondered whether the Electoral Commission intended to make full payment to them for the pilot and suggested they should not.
In concluding that neither of the objectives of the electronic count – which had been to improve accuracy and to improve the speed of counting – had been achieved, the Chairman raised the question of whether the Council should not have anything to do with electronic counting in future, or whether, despite the problems experienced in this instance, it was something the Council might look at again?
So far as the second part of ... view the full minutes text for item 86. |
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Local Government Ombudsman – Annual Letter (Agenda Item 8) Report of the Operations Manager (Cabinet) Additional documents: Minutes: RESOLVED that the report be received and noted.
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Project Match Funding Reserve (Agenda Item 9) At the last meeting, the Commission requested an update on the progress of this review. The following position statement has been provided by the Senior Leisure Manager:
A report was presented to the Executive Board in June who considered a range of issues relating to the Project Match Funding Reserve. The Board requested that a further report be presented which addressed the following issues:
a)
Future funding awards need to be aligned to
the Council’s priorities
b)
There needs to be a ring-fenced fund for small
projects.
c)
There needs to be a rural/urban divide on the money
available (officers need to determine how this could be
undertaken).
d)
The process for making applications needs to be
streamlined. e) Applications for funding should be determined on a quarterly basis, using a bidding process.
f) That all work involved in managing the Match Funding Reserve needs to be met from within existing staffing resources.
In addition to the above it is evident that any system of match funding or grant aid needs to be sustainable within the Councils corporate financial model.
While the above issues are being addressed the process and procedures for match funding remain in place enabling local communities to bid for grants as before. In addition the work to develop a new match funding framework is being managed in conjunction with other competing priorities. It is intended to provide a further report which addresses these issues in September
Minutes: The Senior Leisure Manager outlined the present position in the ongoing review of the project match funding reserve and answered a number of questions from members. A report with proposals was planned to be submitted to the Cabinet in October 2007.
While the report was at a draft stage at this point, proposals being considered were for small grants up to £3,000, larger grants up to £20,000, with categories extended to include gifted and talented people, and the possibility of awarding interest-free loans etc.
Area Partnerships funding was assumed not to be continued in future on the basis that the Partnerships were now in a position to be self-supporting but they would be eligible to apply for grants under the revised project match funding reserve.
A suggestion from a member that budget allocation should be ward-based was felt not to be viable, since it would be very difficult to step-change larger projects in this way and bearing in mind that there would be a very large number of smaller applications to be processed. The allocation of funding would, however, be monitored to ensure a reasonable equality of funding between rural and urban areas of the District.
RESOLVED that the position be noted.
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Performance Management (TEN System Monitoring) (Agenda Item 10) To note any issues arising from performance monitoring as may be raised by members for future consideration.
A short presentation on the TEN System will be given for the benefit of new members and as a refresher for other members. Minutes: The proposed presentation was deferred due to the ill-health absence of the officer concerned.
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Work Programme (Agenda Item 11) (a) A copy of the Commission’s work programme is attached, together with a copy of the current issue of the Forward Plan of the Executive for members’ information. The Commission is asked to agree any additions, deletions or amendments to the programme as appropriate.
(b) Member Issues: In accordance with the Commission’s protocol for member leadership, which states that members of the Commission will take the lead in selecting topics for overview and scrutiny and in the questioning of witnesses, members are invited to put forward items for selection for future review. Additional documents: Minutes: The following items were proposed and agreed for incorporation into the Commission’s or appropriate Panel’s work programme:
In answer to questions, the Scrutiny Officer confirmed that
Finally, as part of the members’ induction process on scrutiny, the Scrutiny Officer invited members to let him know if they were interested in attending the next Norfolk Scrutiny Conference to be held on 16 November 2007 at the UEA, Norwich.
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