held at Ryedale House, Malton on Thursday, 3 July 2008
Present
Councillors Mrs Shields (in the Chair), Andrews, Clark, Cussons,Hawkins, Raper, Mrs Wilford and Windress.
In Attendance
Mrs A Adnitt, J Barnet, P Cresswell, P Hancock and J Ingham.
Minutes
91. Apology for Absence
An apology for absence was received from Councillor MsWarriner.
92. Minutes
The minutes of a meeting of the Overview & ScrutinyCommittee held on 24 April 2008 (previously circulated) weresubmitted.
Resolved
That the minutes of a meeting of the Overview & ScrutinyCommittee held on 24 April 2008 be approved and signed by theChairman as a correct record.
93. Urgent Business
The Chairman reported that there were no items to be dealtwith as a matter or urgency by virtue of Section 100(B)(4)(b). ofthe Local Government Act 1972.
94. Declarations of Interest
No declarations of interest were received.
95. Matters Referred for Decision in Relation toCall-in
There were no items to report.
96. Responses from Full Council, Policy &Resources Committee and Community Services & LicensingCommittee to Reports of Overview & ScrutinyCommittee
There were no matters to report.
97. Annual Internal Audit Report2007/08
The Audit Manager submitted a report (previously circulated)in order to present the Annual Internal Audit report for2007/08.
Full details of the audit report were appended and summarisedthe work done by the Internal Audit for the year ending 31st March2008. Members were advised that the Annual Audit Report provided astatement of assurance to the Chief Financial Officer that wouldsupport the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) that was required tobe included with the Council’s Financial Statement.
In addition the report highlighted an emerging issue that theCouncil would need to continue its commitment and effort into theestablishment of Risk Management,
especially to continue to ‘embed’ it into the everydayoperations of the Council. It was expected that internal auditwould assist with this, by promulgating the understanding andimplementation of risk management across the council.
Resolved
That the report be received and the AnnualInternal Audit Report for 2007/08 be approved.
98. Waste Management Scrutiny Review
The Performance Manager submitted a report (previouslycirculated) in order to update Members on the progress of thereview.
Members were reminded that at the last meeting of theCommittee, it had been agreed to consider a programme of briefingpapers/presentations/other information on topics of interest toMembers.
a) Packaging – the regulations in place and how localcompanies were dealing with these;
b) The likely future impact of the landfill allowance tradingscheme on the Council and its finances and ultimately the impactfor the Council Tax payer.
c) The opportunities for waste minimisation – Ryedalecontinued to see a year on year increase in the level of householdwaste collected - what can be done to reverse this trend so thatoverall levels of domestic waste reduced;
d) The state of the market for recycled material and itsimplications for the Council and its costs;
e) The results of the plastics and cardboard recycling trials-the Committee was to consider what recommendations to make;
f) What was the likely future for the disposal of waste andwhat implications might this have for residents and theCouncil;
g) How trade waste was dealt with particular regard to re-useand recycling, including the results of the recycling trial inMalton and Norton.
h) The potential for joint waste authorities and the costs andbenefits this may bring.
Papers for the first two areas had previously been consideredby the Committee, further briefing papers on the remaining topicswere in preparation and would be presented to the Committee in duecourse.
The dates for the following had been agreed:
- A visit to a high performing council, North KestevenDistrict was to be made on the 11 July 08.
- A Waste Management Champion, Councillor Cottam wouldaddress the Committee accompanied by the Commercial ServicesManager on the 15 July 08.
- The Assistant Director (Waste Management) North YorkshireCounty Council would address the Committee on 15 July 08, regardingstrategic issues facing the County and their impact inRyedale.
Areas for further consideration by the Committee included:
a) Arranging a focus group with customers, and to decidewhether that consists of:
- either a sample of complainants and other householders,in order to establish their views of the current service and ofpossible future changes in the service to guide futurestrategy.
- Or a sample of residents currently receiving the trialkerbside recycling of plastic and cardboard.
b) Any other relevant information available from reports or fromcomparisons with other Councils that may inform the recommendationsof the Committee.
c) Outcomes from the review – recommendations on the futureoperation of the waste collection service to improve customersatisfaction.
d) Reporting timetable – The aim was to publish a final reportby October 2008.
Resolved
a) That the report be received.
b) That topic of trade waste be givenpriority.
c) That the focus group consist of asample of residents currently receiving the trial kerbsiderecycling of plastic and cardboard.
99. Work Plan 2008/09
The Performance Manager submitted a report (previouslycirculated) the purpose of which was to consider the Work plan forthe forthcoming year.
Members were reminded that the 2004 CPA Report on RyedaleDistrict Council had identified the need to develop and focus theactivities of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and, in response,the Authority had committed to the production of an annual workplan to provide better links to corporate priorities. The draftwork plan was attached to the report for Members’consideration.
When considering the reviews to be undertaken in the comingyear, the Committee were requested to have regard to the followingissues:
- The request by Full Council of June 2007 that theextended two year agreement with Community Leisure Ltd be reviewedafter a year. The Community Leisure Working Party had made arequest that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee carry out thiswork.
- The request from Councillor Andrews that the report byCommunity Services & Licensing Committee at its meeting on the31st January 2008 be referred to Overview and Scrutiny Committee,together with all reports referred to including the LockwoodReport, the Yorkshire Forward Renaissance Report and therepresentations of the Car Park Fees Action Group;
- Although the Committee had from time to time touched uponaspects of affordable housing it had not considered the continuingimpact on the community of a lack of affordable homes, theperformance of the Council to date, the views of the AuditCommission and the high priority the Council gave to affordablehousing.
- That there should be a focus on the implementation of therecommendations from the Audit Commission as contained in theAnnual Audit Letter;
- The Committee could examine in detail the way in which theAudit Commission assessed the Council and ensure that it improvedits overall score so that it was ranked amongst the best districtswithin its audit family group and within North YorkshireDistricts.
Following a detailed discussion it was
Resolved
a. That Affordable Housing be consideredthe next major scrutiny review for the Committee after thecompletion of the Waste Management Review.
b. That a scoping report to review thereport on Car Parks received by Community Services and LicensingCommittee at its meeting on the 31st January 2008 be brought to thenext meeting of the Committee on the 7 August 2008 for furtherconsideration.
c. That the review of the agreement withCommunity Leisure Ltd be considered at a later date provided it wasreferred by the Community Services and Licensing Committee asrequired by the Constitution.
100. Monitoring of Council ImprovementPlan
The Performance Manager submitted a report (previouslycirculated) in connection with the Council Improvement Plan.
The monitoring report was presented in the format of the LocalCode of Corporate Governance, this enabled Members to consider howwell the Council was delivering against this important framework.The Improvement Plan had been updated in response to recent auditand inspection.
A number of areas of potential concern arising from the reportwere highlighted, along with action to address these areas, aslisted below:
- It was recognised that governance issues required a widerreview rather than focusing solely on the Local Code of CorporateGovernance. As such a comprehensive review of the CouncilConstitution had been commissioned which would pick up some of thedetail included in this improvement action. The Members hadrequested a user-friendly summary of the Constitution, but thismust await the outcome of this review of the Constitution.
- A decision was still required on whether to proceed with a newcitizens panel and/or state of the district debate. A report wouldbe brought to a future Policy and Resources Committee following ananalysis of the duty to involve communities announced byGovernment.
- Provision of further training on risk management to all Memberswas to be arranged.
- A draft of the new Health & safety policy had beendeveloped. Training on the final policy would follow approval andadoption.
- An interim approach to staff development reviews was in placepending the development of a new approach.
- A response to the corporate manslaughter and Corporate HomicideAct 2007 was in progress with training arranged for managers.
- Desktop testing of the Council’s Business Continuity Plan(following further officer training and external review) was totake place prior to adoption.
- Partnership risk registers for Community Leisure Ltd and forother significant partnerships along with their governancearrangements needed to be reviewed and reported.
Resolved
That the report be received, the concernsnoted, and the actions to address them approved.
101. Risk Management Annual Report2007/08
The Corporate Director (S151) submitted a report (previouslycirculated) in order to summarise the progress made during 2007/08,and update Members on proposed actions for 2008/09.
The report highlighted a number of key successes achieved indeveloping the risk management framework during 2007/08:
- Corporate Risk Register reviews – O & S 21 February2008
- Member training for Overview & Scrutiny – February 08 andBetter Governance – January 08.
- Office training – April 07
- Risk Management Strategy reviewed – O & S 21 February2008
There were several proposals in the draft Forward Plan for2008/09:
- Nominate Member and Officer Risk Champions – O & S 7 August08
- Corporate Risk register and action Plan Review – O & S 9October 08 and 9 April 09
- Review of six Service Risk Registers and Action Plans 9 (oneper Head of Service) on a rolling basis.
- Risk Management Strategy review – O & S 7 August 2008
- Further development of the Performance management software(Covalent) to further the integration of the risk managementprocess.
- Review of governance arrangements for key partnerships –progress report to O & S 9 October 2008.
- Further embed the process through awareness and inductiontraining for new staff.
- Opportunity management to be promoted (positive riskmanagement).
- Ensure compliance with CPA/CAA
The proposals were discussed in detail.
Resolved
That the report be received, and theproposals for developing the Risk Management Framework beapproved.
102. Progress on Scrutiny ReviewRecommendations
The Performance Manager submitted a report (previouslycirculated) in connection with progress on the previous ScrutinyReviews undertaken by the Committee.
The Performance Manager reported that this Committee hadundertaken a wide range of reviews over the past few years, andMembers were reminded that in February 2008 a report had beensubmitted to the Committee, which had set out in summary therecommendations arising from these reviews.
This report updated Members on recent progress in thefollowing areas;
- Review of Agricultural Land Drainage – July 2004
- Review of Leisure Services – February 2006
- Review of Public Conveniences – April 2007
- Review of Value for Money – April 2007
Resolved
a) That the report be noted
b) That the Committee progress with theimplementation of the agreed outcomes from previous reviews.
c) That the future actions detailed in thereport be implemented.
103. Attendance at PolicyCommittees
The Performance Manager submitted a report (previouslycirculated) to provide members with a draft rota for attendance toobserve at policy committee meetings and to agree guidance toassist with the process.
Members were reminded that one of the four key legislativeroles of the Committee was holding the Executive to account. InRyedale’s case this meant examining policy committee minutes,forward plans in detail and using call-in or other mechanisms tocomment or intervene in the decision making process. It hadpreviously been agreed that Members of the Committee would taketurns to attend both the Policy and Resources Committee and theCommunity Services and Licensing Committee for the purpose ofobservation. Subsequently this had also been agreed at Full Councilthat this be an approved duty for Members of this Committee.
At the last Committee meeting Members had requested guidanceto assist them in undertaking this responsibility. A draft guidancedocument and draft rota were appended to the report.
Resolved
1. That the draft rota for attendance atPolicy Committee meetings be approved.
2. That the draft guidance beendorsed.
3. That the rota be extended to includeMay and June 2009, with the potential for 3 Members to attend toensure the work continued in the period directly following theAnnual Council Meeting.
104. Decisions from Other Committees
Lists of decisions from the following Committees weresubmitted:
- Community Services & Licensing Committee – 29 May2008
- Policy & Resources Committee – 26 June 2008
Resolved
That the lists of decisions of theCommunity Services & Licensing Committee held on the 29 May2008 and the Policy & Resources Committee on the 26 June 2008be received.