COMMUNITY SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

RECORD OF MEETING HELD ON 5 MARCH 2008      

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Present: 

Councillor E Ankers (in the Chair), Deputy Mayor, Councillor M A Martin,

Councillors J D Bratherton, D H D Charlesworth, C Goff and M Grant     

Officers in Attendance (for whole or part):       

A Bain              Team Leader - Private Sector Housing    

L Carr               Policy and Performance Officer 

D Moulson        Democratic Services Officer

S Roper            Senior Accountancy Assistant, Treasury & Corporate Support

S Turner            Strategic Manager, Community

M Ward            Trainee Accountant, Treasury & Corporate Support 

Apologies:

Councillors D Bebbington, S Conquest, G Griffiths, R Jones. J Lewis and S J S Mottram         

49.          DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

No Member made any declaration of interest in any item of business on the agenda.          

50.          RECORD OF MEETING

AGREED: That the Record of the Meeting held on 9 January 2008 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.          BOARD BUSINESS   

52.1        Board Reports

The Committee made no comment on the reports falling under its remit which would be considered by the Board at its meeting on 6 March 2008. 

52.2        Referrals from the Board/Council

There were no referrals from the Board or Council to report on this occasion. 

53.          FORWARD PLAN OF BOARD DECISIONS

The Committee noted the Board’s Forward Plan for 15 and 25 June 2008.     

54.          PERFORMANCE MONITORING

54.1        Budget Monitoring

In accordance with its role, the Committee was invited to consider the financial monitoring report, submitted to Board on 21 February 2008, which provided information in relation to actual expenditure and income in the current financial year up to 31 December 2007, compared with profiled budgets.

The Senior Accountancy Assistant drew Members’ attention to a net under-spend identified in the report, which it was anticipated would not change significantly by the end of the financial year, resulting in a transfer to reserves.       

54.2        Performance Monitoring

The Policy and Performance Officer summarised for the Committee activity on   the key basket of Performance Indicators in the current financial year up to 31 December 2007. 

·             Presentation of Data

The Local Government and Public Involvement Health Act 2007 would abolish the existing set of Best Value Performance Indicators, replacing them from 1 April 2008 with a new set of 198 National Indicators; 64 of which would be monitored at district level. To supplement the national indicators, service managers had been asked to nominate which of the current local indicators they wished to retain and a report outlining the changes would be submitted to the Committee for consideration.         

·             Current Performance

Of the nine indicators monitored by the Committee, two were currently performing below target; affordable homes and food premises inspections. It was anticipated that the target in relation to food inspections would be met by the end of the year, however as the provision of affordable homes was reliant on partner organisations delivering the units, a similar assurance for this indicator could not be given.                                

55.          WORK PROGRAMME

55.1        Community Grants Task Group 

The Community Grants Task Group had recommended a number of improvements to the administration procedures relating to the allocation of Community Grants.  The Funding Team had considered the proposals and the report now submitted responded to each of the recommendations made. 

·             Terms and Conditions  

The difficulties associated with obtaining ‘receipt of works’ from some smaller groups had been explored by the Task Group.  To address the problem, it had been proposed that the full amount of any grant should cease to be awarded; instead grants would be split on a 60/40 basis with 40% payable on receipt of proof of works. 

The Committee had not supported this approach as it considered that withholding monies could lead to potential hardship for the groups involved.  To ascertain the extent of the problem, a review of applications had been carried out to establish the number of organisations which had failed to provide the evidence required.  Only four organisations (3% of the total) had not supplied documentation and, in view of this, no changes to the procedure were proposed.                           

55.2        Climate Change Task Group               

The Committee received for information the notes from the meeting of the Climate Change Task Group held on 12 February 2008.   

56.    DATE OF NEXT MEETING

18 June 2008

………………..  Chair