PERFORMANCE AND OVERVIEW
COMMITTEE
LOCAL ECONOMY
& ENVIRONMENT
RECORD OF MEETING
HELD ON 6TH FEBRUARY 2007
Present:
Councillor S Roberts, (Chair); Councillors P K
Butterill, R Cartlidge, A Crawford,
P A Hallett, A C Johnson, S J S Mottram, R
Stafford and L T Wood
Officers in Attendance (for whole or
part):
J
Griffiths
Business Manager – Enforcement (Direct Services)
D Marren
Executive Director
(Direct Services)
A Millington Borough
Planning Officer
D Moulson
Democratic Services Officer
M
Slinn Cemetery
& Crematorium Manager (Direct Services)
In Attendance:
Councillor J Hammond, Portfolio Holder for the
Local Environment
Councillor S W Hogben
Apologies:
Councillor M A
Hollins
60.
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
No Member declared any personal or
prejudicial interest in respect of any item of business on the
agenda.
61. RECORD
OF MEETING
AGREED: That the record of the meeting
held on 9th January 2007 be approved as
correct.
62.
WHIPPING DECLARATIONS
In accordance with Paragraph 18 of the
Performance and Overview Procedure Rules, Members were invited to
declare in respect of items where the whip had been applied.
No such declarations were made.
63.
RESPONSES FROM THE BOARD
63.1 Timetable of
Public Meetings 2007/2008
In the 2006/2007 Timetable of Public
Meetings; meetings of the Board, Council and Performance and
Overview (P&O) Committees had been scheduled on a 6-week
cycle. Meetings of the P&O’s fell within the same week as
the Board to allow the Committees to comment on or make
recommendations to the Board on matters under consideration.
The proposal for 2007/2008 was to apply an 8-week cycle to these
meetings.
The Committee had not supported this proposal
and had recommended to the Board that the timetable should be the
subject of a review by the P&O
Co-ordinating Group, at an early meeting, with
a view to increasing the frequency of the P&O Committee
meetings only.
The response from the Board was
reported as follows –
“That the draft Timetable of Public
Meetings 2007/2007 be recommended for approval to Annual Council on
16th May 2007”.
64.
REFERRALS FROM THE BOARD/COUNCIL
It was noted that there were no referrals
from the Board or Council.
65. BOARD
REPORTS
The Committee considered but made no comment
on a number of reports which would be considered by the Board at
its meeting on 8th February 2007.
65.1
Financial Monitoring 2006/2007
The Assistant Director (Accountancy &
Audit) reported on the 3rd quarter financial position
which provided Members with information in relation to actual
expenditure and income in the current financial year, for the
period 1st April to 31st December
2006.
66. FORWARD
PLAN OF BOARD DECISIONS
The Committee received the Board’s Forward
Plan for 5th April 2007 and commented on the following
items.
66.1
Decriminalised Parking Enforcement
(Note: In accordance with
Procedure Rule 26(2), Councillor Hobgen spoke on the item with the
permission of the
Committee.)
Following the presentation made at the
previous meeting, the Committee sought clarification on matters
associated with the introduction of Decriminalised Parking
Enforcement (DPE) which were responded to by the Assistant Director
(Accountancy & Audit) and Executive Director, Direct Services
as appropriate.
The draft budget for 2007/2008 had been
published for consultation purposes and a Member queried whether
any provision for the introduction and operation of decriminalised
parking had been made within it. The Executive Director
confirmed that such a provision had not been included as a decision
on whether to approve the DPE business case had yet to be
taken. It was noted that the Board had approved the scheme in
principle, subject to financial viability and negotiations were
still on-going with the County Council on this
matter.
67. BUDGET
CONSULTATION 2007-2008
The Committee was invited to comment on the
draft budget proposals for 2007/2008. The Assistant Director
(Accountancy & Audit) identified the key issues arising and
drew Members attention to the medium term financial position
projections.
Members did not comment on the proposals
per se but did discuss briefly issues relating to public
realm improvements, parish compacts and refuse
collection.
68.
BVPI & LPI’S MONITORING: APRIL – DECEMBER
2006
The report of the Principal Policy Officer,
which provided service performance information on the agreed basket
of key National Performance Indications for the period April –
December 2006, was received by the Committee.
69. DOG
CONTROL ORDER
This item took the form of a preliminary
discussion and to assist Members’ a draft of the proposed Crewe and
Nantwich Borough Council Dog Control Order was tabled at the
meeting.
As a precursor to the review, the Executive
Director explained that, of the five proposals set out in the Dog
Control Order, section 3 (dogs on leads [designated areas]) had
generated the greatest number of consultation responses.
Whilst there was support for restrictions to be imposed, the issue
of where the Order would apply was a matter for
debate.
In agreeing the methodology to be applied, the
Committee suggested that, in addition to reviewing the Order on an
element by element basis, consideration be given to the issue of
fixed penalty notices and target
setting.
70. VACANCY
MANAGEMENT – MONITORING
Members received the report of the Human
Resources Manager and noted the decisions of the Vacancy Panel made
on 23rd January 2007 in relation to those posts falling
under the Committee’s remit.
71. CLIMATE
CHANGE
As part of its work programme, the Waste
Management Task Group had considered issues associated with climate
change. The findings from its discussions together with
impending government direction to local government on the subject
had informed the content of the report, which would be submitted to
the Board for consideration.
The Committee was invited to comment on the
report’s three recommendations:
Assign climate change policy research and
drafting to the Portfolio Holder for the Local Environment,
supported by the Waste Management Task Group
Three alternatives to this proposal were put
forward by the Committee -
Option 1Appoint a
Climate Change Task Group, made up of two members from each of the
P&O Committees and reporting back to P&O
LE&E;
Option 2Appoint two
members from each of the P&O Committees to sit on the existing
Waste Management Task Group to support the climate change work
being undertaken by the Group; or
Option
3Appoint a Portfolio Holder’s
Advisory Group to look at climate
change
The merits of each were discussed although no
consensus of opinion was reached. It was reported that a
meeting of the P&O Co-ordinating Group had been arranged for
1st March 2007 at which the options would be explored
further.
Waste Management Task Group to identify
divisional officer climate change ‘Champions’ to assist with the
task
The Committee accepted the importance of
identifying officer champions but considered that responsibility
for addressing climate change went beyond that of the Council
alone. It was suggested that individuals and partner
organisations should be invited to become involved, with the LSP
Sustainability Group being cited as a potential partner
organisation.
The Council to sign the Nottingham Declaration
on Climate Change and the North West Climate Change Charter in
order to publicly demonstrate Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council’s
commitment to addressing climate
change
The Committee endorsed this proposal.
AGREED: That an item on
Climate Change be included on the next agenda to allow for further
discussion to take place on the appropriate way
forward.
72. WORK
PROGRAMME 2007
72.1 Reporting
Mechanism for P&O Task Groups
The Chairman informed Members that
consideration had been given to the manner in which the Committee’s
five Task Groups reported back to the Committee.
At present, lead officers/Members from each of
the Task Groups reported verbally to the Committee on matters which
had been considered by the Group during their meetings. In
order to make the process more visible a more formal procedure was
proposed which would require each Task Group to submit a brief
written statement to each meeting of the P&O, outlining those
matters which it had considered. Any recommendations
emanating from its discussions would, as now, remain the subject of
a formal report.
The Committee supported this
approach.
72.2
Task Groups – Update
72.2.1
Waste Management Task Group
The paper submitted with the agenda from the
Waste Management Task Group addressed the first two principles of
the waste hierarchy (reduce/reuse) and was designed to encourage
people to adopt the principles in the report. A Member
questioned the absence of references to recycling however, it was
confirmed that this principle would be considered as a separate
topic at a later date.
………..……………. Chair