PERFORMANCE AND OVERVIEW COMMITTEE

LOCAL ECONOMY & ENVIRONMENT

RECORD OF MEETING HELD ON 9^TH JANUARY 2007      

Present: 

Councillor S Roberts, (Chair); Councillors P K Butterill, A Crawford, M A Hollins,

A C Johnson, A Moran, R Stafford and L T Wood    

Officers in Attendance (for whole or part):       

P Burns            Business Development Manager (Direct Services)

M Cairns          Project Leader, Cheshire County Council

D Marren          Executive Director (Direct Services)

A Millington     Borough Planning Officer  

D Moulson       Democratic Services Officer 

In Attendance:

Councillor J Hammond, Portfolio Holder for the Local Environment

Councillors D H D Charlesworth and S W Hogben  

Apologies:

Councillors D N Bebbington, R Cartlidge, P A Hallett and S J S Mottram      

49.         DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

No Member declared any personal or prejudicial interest in respect of any item of business on the agenda.   

50.         RECORD OF MEETING

AGREED: That subject to the inclusion of Councillor R Stafford amongst those listed as present, the record of the meeting held on 28^th November 2006 be approved as correct.        

51.         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. 

52.         RESPONSES FROM THE BOARD     

52.1    Vacancy Management Monitoring

The Committee had expressed its concern to the Board about the delay in appointing to the post of Tourism Development Officer and regretted that the appointment would only be on a 12 month temporary contract. 

Members considered that tourism was too important to the borough as a whole to be dealt with on a temporary part time basis and the Vacancy Panel was asked to reconsider its decision with a view to appointing an officer on a full time permanent basis.         

The response from the Board was as follows –

“It was reported that the post was to be filled on a 3-day per week basis for

 a period of 12-months.  External funding in respect of this post was being

 sought.”

53.         REFERRALS FROM THE BOARD/COUNCIL  

The Committee noted that there were no referrals from the Board or Council.           

54.         BOARD REPORTS

The Committee discussed the following report which would be considered by the Board at its meeting on 11^th January 2007.

54.1     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-weekly 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 2007/208 was to apply an 8-weekly cycle to these meetings. 

The Chairman considered that the current ‘link’ with the Board did not allow enough time for the P&O Committees to look at issues in depth and that the matter would be exacerbated should the number of meetings be reduced.  Instead he suggested that the Committee should make more use of the Board’s Forward Plan which would provide Members with the opportunity to take a more active role in formulating proposals and policies.      

Members supported the views of the Chairman, adding that it was generally accepted that the work of the P&O’s needed to be refocused.  With regard to the scheduling of meetings, P&O Organisation had, at its meeting, proposed that the matter be referred to the P&O Co-ordinating Group for consideration. 

AGREED:  That the timetable 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.

55.         FORWARD PLAN OF BOARD DECISIONS                             

The Committee received the Board’s Forward Plan for 8^th February and 5^th April 2007.

55.1     Dog Control Orders      

The proposal to make a Dog Control Order under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environmental Act 2005 and the Dog Control Order (Procedures) Regulations 2006 had generated public debate.  The Committee requested that a presentation on consultation responses received to date be made to a future meeting.         

56.         VACANCY MANAGEMENT - MONITORING 

The Committee received the report of the Human Resources Manager and noted the decisions of the Vacancy Panel made between 23^rd November and 11^th December 2006 in relation to those posts falling under the Committee’s responsibility.    

57.          WORK PROGRAMME

57.1         Work Programme 2007

(Note: In accordance with Procedure Rule 26(2), Councillor Hogben spoke on this item with the permission of the Committee.)

Each year, the Performance and Overview Committee was invited to set its work programme for the next twelve months.  Local Economy and Environment had chosen to establish four Task Groups (Affordable Housing, Town Centres’ Car Parking, Town Centre and Retail Economy and Waste Management) to carry out specific roles and had nominated two subjects for consideration by the Committee; Evening Economy and Job Creation and Skills Development.  Members were asked to agree the programme for 2007. 

In accepting that there remained a need for the four Groups to continue; Members acknowledged that the work of the Task Groups should not be self perpetuating although some topics, such as waste management, would require long-term consideration. 

Topic - Evening Economy

An overlap was identified between the remit of the Town Centre and Retail Economy Task Group and the topic of evening economy. To avoid duplication it was –

AGREED: That the issues identify under the topic of the evening economy be included in the remit of the Town Centre and Retail Economy Task Group.

Members were informed that a draft Evening Economy Strategy had been drawn up within the last two years and it was suggested that the document could be used as a starting point for the Group’s discussions. 

Topic – Job Creation and Skills Development

The Chairman suggested that, should the Committee be minded to retain the subject of job creation and skills development in its programme, the subject would be best served by a Task Group rather than by the full Committee.  Members were asked to nominate three colleagues to sit on the Group. 

AGREED: That Councillors M A Hollins, A C Johnson and S Roberts be appointed to the Job Creation and Skills Development Task Group.       

57.2       Task Group Update

57.2.1    Affordable Housing

No meetings had been held since the Task Group’s report to the last Committee, although it was anticipated that a meeting would be held by the end of the month. 

57.2.2    Town Centres Cark Parking  

At the previous meeting, the Committee had considered the report of the Task Group which recommended the introduction of a “pay and display” charging policy on four Council owned car parks; Thomas Street, Browning Street, Edleston Road, Wood Street.  Of these, Browning Street was referred back to the Task Group for further consideration.

The Task Group reported that, having reconsidered the proposal, it was still minded to recommend the introduction of pay and display at Browning Street.  However, concerns remained amongst the ward councillors that the loss of free parking at this site would add to problems with on-street parking in the vicinity.  To enable the matter to move forward, it was suggested that a meeting be arranged between the Task Group and the Ward Councillors to discuss areas of concern.      

57.2.3    Town Centre and Retail Economy

The Borough Planning Officer confirmed that he was to replace the Executive Director Environment and Development as lead officer for the Group.     

57.2.4    Waste Management

(Note: In accordance with Procedure Rule 26(2), Councillors Hammond and Hogben spoke on this item with the permission of the Committee.) 

As part of its consideration into climate change, the Task Group had reached a number of conclusions.  Contained in the Climate Change and Energy Strategy report, which would be submitted to the Board, was a suggestion that officer Climate Change Champions should be identified for each directorate.  In addition, Member Champions would also be nominated, the intention being for this to be the members of the Task Group and the Portfolio Holder for Local Environment.   

In supporting this approach, a Member suggested that within the report the opportunity could be taken to propose the formation of a cross-party working group to consider all aspects of climate change. 

AGREED:  The Committee endorsed the approach proposed by the Task Group and requested that a paper be submitted to a future meeting outlining the proposals in more detail.

58.         DECRIMINALISED PARKING ENFORCEMENT                

Mike Cairns from Cheshire County Council attended the meeting to provide an overview for the Committee on the latest position relating to Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE).  Members of the Town Centres’ Car Parking Task Group had received a similar briefing at a recent meeting. 

Background

Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) would transfer responsibility for yellow line restrictions from the police to local authorities.  Under DPE, illegal parking would become a civil contravention with appeals being dealt with by Independent Adjudicators rather than the Magistrates Court.  A new legal system would be required to regulate DPE, which was currently being implemented.         

Process

A draft application to transfer DPE powers from the Police to the County Council was submitted to the Department of Transport (DfT) in February 2006.  The response identified issues which would need to be addressed prior to a full application being submitted.  It was anticipated that that application would be submitted by the County within the next two months.  Once confirmed as satisfactory by the DfT, a statutory instrument would need to be laid before parliament before the transfer could come into force.  It was anticipated that the expected ‘live’ date would be August 2007.  Although the County had applied for the relevant powers, DPE would be operated and enforced by the local authority. 

Issues to be Addressed

Ø            Traffic Regulations Orders would need to be reviewed and updated

Ø            Signs and lines had to be satisfactory to enable enforcement to take place.  This was in hand and was due to be completed by July

Ø            IT equipment would be required  

Ø            Additional staff would need to be recruited to operate the scheme and as training would be provided 2 – 3 weeks in advance of the implementation date, staff would need to be in place at that time

Cost

The County Council would cover the set up costs which would be refunded by the Council within 5 years of implementation.  Based on the financial model from RTA Associates it was anticipated that this could be achieved.  Members were made aware that any time delay during the initial introduction could result in the scheme falling into deficit in the first year but this was a worst case scenario based on a conservative estimate.       

Discussion/Comment

A Member queried the potential role of the Police Community Support Officers (PCSO’s) in the enforcement process.  In response it was confirmed that the Police would only be able to enforce on matters of obstruction. 

A question was raised in relation to the hours that Parking Enforcement Officers would be required to work and it was noted that as the majority of contraventions were likely to occur during office hours, this would be covered on a rota basis.  However, there would be some areas where restrictions would be in force 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and consideration would be given as to how this would be dealt with.      

The Committee expressed its support for the proposal and requested that its views be expressed to the Board. 

AGREED: That the Board be informed of the Committee’s support for the introduction of Decriminalised Parking Enforcement.       

The Chairman thanked Mr Cains for his presentation.  

59.         DATE OF NEXT MEETING

6^th February 2007

…………………….  Chair