Agenda item

Councillor Cowling, the Leader of the Council, presented the following statement:

 

"At our first Council meeting of 2017 I would like to congratulate those members of the Ryedale community who have been acknowledged for their public work in the New Year Honours. Right Reverend James Jones on receiving a KBE for services to Bereaved Families and Justice, having chaired the Hillsborough Independent Panel and also to Councillor David Cussons on receiving an MBE for services to Agriculture and Rural Communities in North Yorkshire particularly through the Ryedale Agricultural Show.

 

Moving to our agenda for tonight, Members will be considering the budget for 2017/18 and our financial strategy to 2021. Members of this Council were quite clear about their wishes for the future delivery of services - they wanted to achieve the savings required of this Council without reducing services. Only a far-reaching restructure of the organisation could achieve that. Thanks to the hard work and commitment of all staff of the Council, savings in the region of £1m will be achieved by March 2018, no mean feat in itself, and on top of that there have been no compulsory redundancies. This has been the result of hard work and determination and made possible by Members allowing Officers to do their job. Under the direction of our Chief Executive staff are continuing to work on the redesign of Council services to maintain the range of high quality services delivered for our residents and customers, all within the budget parameters we will set this evening. I have to thank our Chief Executive for her courage and ability in implementing what has been a huge change. We are now a fit for purpose, modern council.

 

I welcome the Government's announcement that the York, North Yorkshire and East Riding area has been allocated £23.7m from the Local Growth Fund. Ryedale has been successful in attracting funding for a new employment site at Pickering (Thornton Road) to allow the expansion of the high tech engineering sector in Ryedale. This is excellent news for Ryedale and follows our previous success with funding for the Malton Business Park and Food Enterprise Zone. This continues to support the delivery of our priority of investing in better jobs in our area."

 

The following questions were received on the Leader’s Statement:

 

1.    From Councillor Potter

 

It's certainly good news that we've got the funding for several industrial estates and employment sites. The thing that worries me is that we have enabling development of  a business park, a food enterprise zone and at least three housing estates in Malton and Old Malton specifically for a new cattle market, which is conspicuous by its absence - where is it? Have we been hoodwinked now that the A64 has been breached for development?

 

The Leader replied:

 

Cllr Potter I don't believe so. The Livestock Market has always been an aspiration of this Council and we continue to support the people who are involved in making that happen.

 

2.    From Councillor Shields -

 

I'm glad to see there are no compulsory redundancies but I wonder how many more staff will be leaving - say in the next month or two?

 

The Leader replied:

 

There's a phased programme of people leaving and by the end of March all the staff that are leaving will have left. If you have a look at the chart that we've put up in the Members' Room, you'll see what the new structure is and the staff that will be remaining after March.

 

3.    From Councillor Ives

 

You reference the Council's restructure in your Leaders' Statement. May you confirm what the payback period is for the decision of this Council to make the previous Corporate Director redundant?

 

The Leader replied:

 

You've asked this question before Cllr Ives and you've had a written reply to that question and I do have the answer that you were given here. It was a bumped redundancy and that included bumping down the organisation. The total savings throughout the restructure  is a salary saving of £644,000 and there is a payback period of under one year.

 

4.    From Councillor Thornton

 

I am nearly reassured by the sentence "We are now a fit for purpose modern Council". Can we know how we are going to evidence that, how we're going to measure it please?

 

The Leader replied:

 

This Council has a system of continually monitoring performance. We have a set number of criteria that we look at, continuously as Members they come to Resources Working Party and they're available for any Member to log on and see on the website. So it will be through continuous monitoring.

 

5.    From Councillor Clark

 

You say Members of the Council were quite clear about their wishes for the future delivery of services. They want to achieve the savings required of this Council without reducing services. That's real apple pie and motherhood and I can't imagine myself in a sober state asking to deliver the same services and make a couple of million pounds, or even one million in savings. So could you tell me where it was in the Council meetings and structure, where this sentence comes from that Members had expressed that wish? Some Members may have but I don't remember Members collectively doing this.

 

The Leader replied:

 

I think many of you who are here will remember numerous occasions when we as a Council have tried to reduce services. In fact I've seen us take a decision to reduce services, we actually took a decision once to close some public conveniences  and it wasn't very long before we were back in this Council Chamber changing that decision again. So it isn't just through an actual formal decision in this Council Chamber, it's a well known fact that Members of this Council have been very reluctant and found it extremely difficult to accept any reduction in services. I think we've looked at things like  Pest Control and there's always a really legitimate argument about why we should continue to do it. So I think it's very clear that Members did not want to reduce services.

 

Councillor Clark then asked the following supplementary question:

 

The implication from the statement here which Cllr Cowling has just underlined is that there was £1 million + inefficiencies in this Council. Now that is a possibility but I actually think it is not the favourite. I think the favourite is that she should wait and see as to what the level of services are when the whole of this picture is put into place, not assume now that we've achieved something that's probably never been done before, probably won't be done in the future and that is maintaining everything the same as it was and cut people as well. On that basis does she believe that we are going to have no cuts at all, or does she believe that it was that inefficient  before?

 

The Leader then replied:

 

I'm absolutely positive that this Council was not inefficient before. what I do think is that your cup is always half empty and my cup is always half full. I think that are a lot of things that can be done to change the processes in the back offices of this Council and that is what the staff are telling us. They believe, they are very positive that they can make these improvements. For me it isn't a case of wait and see if we are successful or not. I'm 100% certain that we shall be successful. I'm not saying that services won't be delivered differently and that things won't change in the processes that we use to deliver those services. What I am absolutely certain of is that the staff of this Council will deliver as they always have.

 

6.    From Councillor Burr

 

As we all know, staff are the backbone of this organisation and with severe cuts to our staffing and the loss of very able staff to other organisations because of the uncertainties. I'm told that morale is very, very low in our building at this moment in time. I understand that the work load of our staff has increased. Are you concerned about the pressures that we have out on our staff and the reductions that appear in various departments?

 

The Leader replied:

 

I've spoken to the Member Champion about this and no one has approached the Member Champion to say that the workload is too high or that morale is low, so obviously you know something that I don't.

 

Councillor Burr then asked the following supplementary question:

 

Yes people do talk to me and I am not the Staff Champion anymore. I'd like to talk about the reorganisation. In early September we had a final structure agreed and our employees were asked to apply for their 3 preferences. The structure then changed after we appointed our Deputy Chief Executive and the new structure was then put in place. Why did this happen? Was that fair to the people who had actually applied for posts that didn't exist, were taken away and now new posts have been created?

 

The Leader then replied:

 

One thing I always wished to happen through the whole of this restructure was that it should remain flexible and that it should be responsive to the needs of the organisation, the authority and the delivery of services. I am confident that has happened.

 

7.    From Councillor Andrews

 

The last paragraph noted that the Council has been successful in obtaining money from the LEP. What steps is the Council taking to obtain money from the LEP or elsewhere in order to deal with the antiquated drainage and sewerage system in Malton and Norton?

 

The Leader replied:

 

I wish you'd given me notice of that question Paul, because it's a good question. I am going to have to say that I will get you a written answer. I will speak to Julian and find out if there is money available for that type of thing.

 

8.    Councillor Ives asked the following supplementary question:

 

Going back to my original question, I'm aware that I asked two of the same questions consecutively at Council which is what is the payback period for making the previous post holder of the Corporate Director redundant. The reason I asked that is because in the initial report it was quoted at about 18 months, it then got revised in a subsequent report to about 22 months and it was said that it was a Head of Service and yet I've not seen a Head of Service being made redundant  - in fact the numbers of Heads of Service equivalent has increased as a result of this restructure. I appreciate that you have given me a payback period for the total number of staff made redundant but my question is what is the payback period for the Corporate Director position? Payback periods were quoted in the report that went before Members so what is the finalised payback period please? If I can't get a response now, I would appreciate a written answer please.

 

The Leader then replied:

 

It's my belief that the redundancy process can not - no single position can be looked at in isolation. Each redundancy has consequences and a knock on effect for the organisation and it's only when you've finished the whole process that you see the benefits of the bumped redundancy.