COMMUNITY SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
RECORD OF MEETING
HELD ON 9th JANUARY 2008
.
Present:
Councillor J Lewis (Chair),
Deputy Mayor, Councillor M A Martin;
Councillors D Bebbington, J D Bratherton,
D H D Charlesworth, S Conquest, C Goff, M
Grant, G Griffiths and R Jones
Officers in Attendance (for whole or
part):
J
Newman Environmental
Health Officer, Community
S Roper
Senior Accountancy Assistant, Treasury & Corporate
Support
S
Turner
Strategic Manager, Community
M Ward
Trainee Accountant, Treasury & Corporate Support
H Woodward
Senior Accountancy Assistant, Treasury & Corporate
Support
C Wyatt
Housing Technical Officer, Community
Apologies:
Councillor S J S Mottram
38.
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
No Member made any declaration of interest in
any item of business on the agenda.
39.
RECORD OF MEETING
AGREED: That the Record of the Meeting
held on 14 November 2007 be approved as
correct.
40. 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.
41. RESPONSES
FROM THE BOARD
41.1 Appeal
Contribution – Future Unitary Structures for Local
Government
At its meeting on 14 November 2007, the
Committee had considered the report of the Leader of the
Council. The report proposed the making of a financial
contribution to an appeal by Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council
and Congleton Borough Council against the High Court’s decision to
dismiss an application which challenged the right of the Secretary
of State to implement proposed unitary structures of government in
Cheshire.
The following comment was submitted to the
Board -
“That the Committee expressed its
concern about the further implications which could arise from
supporting this contribution”.
Having considered comments from the
Community and Organisation Scrutiny Committees, the Board’s
decision (No.80) was –
DECISION:
That the Board being satisfied in terms
of the powers available to it, the reasonableness of making a
contribution, being aware of the likely risks and that the decision
accords both with Council’s Policy and the Community
Strategy:
(A) Authorises
a contribution of up to (but not exceeding) £20,000
to Congleton Borough Council in respect of costs
incurred in an appeal to the Court of Appeal and that virement
of £20,000 be approved from the Interest and Investments
Income budget to the Democratic Representation and Management
(S500) – grants and contributions budget;
(B) In
the event of the appeal being lost, a contingency sum of up to (but
not exceeding) £6,250 be earmarked and be payable in the event of
appeal costs being awarded against Congleton Borough Council;
and
(C) That
of the contingency sum £5.000 (or any lesser amount) be vired from
the Interest and Investments Income Budget, with the remainder (if
required) being vired from the Nantwich Pool Fitness Suite
Miscellaneous Expenses Budget to the Democratic representation and
Management Budget (S500) – grants and contributions
budget.
41.2
Board Reports
The Committee was invited to consider the
following Board reports which fell under its remit –
Safeguarding Children Policy
Choice Based Lettings
Review of Crewe and Nantwich Private Sector
Housing Renewal Policy
No comments were forwarded to the
Board.
41.3 Referrals
from the Board/Council
There were no referrals from the Board or
Council to report on this occasion.
42. FORWARD
PLAN OF BOARD DECISIONS
The Committee noted the Board’s Forward Plan
for 21 February and 6 March 2008.
43. CONSULTATION
DRAFT BUDGET – 2008/2009
The “Consultation Draft Budget 2008/2009 and
Budget Prospects 2008-2012” had been distributed to
Members on 20 December 2007 as part of the Board papers for
its meeting on 3 January 2008.
The Senior Accountancy Assistant spoke to
the budget papers, drawing Members’ attention to -
Provisional Local Government Finance
Settlement
Favourable and adverse variances
Scale of fees and charges
Efficiency savings
The Committee noted that the medium term
position remained challenging as the Council would need to continue
to achieve 3% efficiency savings year on year.
No guidance had yet been provided to the
authority on budget planning for the new Cheshire East
authority. Members sought assurance that the
current schemes included in the Capital Projects Programme
would be completed by March 2009 and that one-off items agreed
as part of the 2008/2009 budget would commence within the
financial year in order to i) meet public expectations;
and ii) ensure that funding allocated was used for its
intended purpose.
44.
CHESHIRE LOCAL AREA AGREEMENT
This item had been deferred from the
Committee’s November meeting so that Members could receive a
presentation on i) performance of the Cheshire Local Area
Agreement (LAA) to date; and ii) changes proposed to the
LAA’s which would come into force in 2008.The Strategic
Manager (Community) provided an oral update for the
Committee.
44.1
Current Position
The Cheshire Local Area Agreement (LAA) had
commenced in April 2007; its aim being to improve public
services by means of a three year service delivery agreement
between the Government, local authorities and partner
organisations working through the Local Strategic
Partnership.
The first half year performance management
report had been presented to the Communities of Cheshire
Partnership and Cheshire Governance Board and the Strategic
Manager summarised the report for the Committee.
44.2 Changes
to Local Area Agreement’s (LAA’s)
From 2008, major changes were to be made to
LAA’s with emphasis on area based service delivery, freedom in
spending decisions, fewer central targets and reporting
systems. The Committee noted that ‘new style’ LAA’s
reflecting revised national performance indicators would need
to be in place nationally by July 2008 and work was underway
to achieve this.
45. REVISED
CREWE AND NANTWICH EMPTY PROPERTY STRATEGY
Crewe and Nantwich Borough Council had
published its Empty Property Strategy in 2004. Since that
time the Housing Act 2004 had come into force in April 2006;
giving additional enforcement powers to local authorities to deal
with empty property in the form of Empty Dwelling Management Orders
(EDMOs).
To reflect these additional powers and to meet
the Government’s continued commitment to reducing the
numbers of empty properties nationally, the
2004 strategy had been revised, building on the
experience and knowledge gained over the last few
years. The revised document had been published
for consultation purposes in November 2007 and the
Environmental Health Officer circulated to Members a copy of
the questionnaire which had been made available to
respondents. She reported that a limited number of responses
had been received to date but that the emerging issues
were -
Community Safety
Empty Property Discount on Dwellings
Lack of Awareness of Reporting Empty Properties
to the Council
46. PRIVATE
SECTOR HOUSING
The Committee received for information the
report of the Head of Housing hich summarised expenditure on
the four main housing renewal grants or assistance up
to 30th June 2007 –
1.
Decent Homes Grants
2.
Disabled Facilities Grants
3.
Empty Property Grants
4.
Energy Efficiency Grants
47.
WORK PROGRAMME
47.1
Community Grants Task Group
A Task Group of 3 members, led by Councillor
Lewis had undertaken a review of the procedures for the allocation
of community grants and its findings were submitted to the
Committee. Before opening the discussion, the Chairman
requested that the Task Group’s thanks to the officers be recorded
for the level of co-operation shown during the review.
47.1.1.
Findings
The Task Group considered that the procedure
for the allocation of Community grants was working well but there
were a number of anomalies in the administration of the
scheme. To address this, a number of improvement measures were
set out in the report under the headings of -
Grant Application Documentation
Application Process; and
Pattern of Awards Across the Borough
Whilst the Committee was supportive of the
recommendations put forward, the following matters were discussed
in more detail.
47.1.2
Delegation
Delegated authority to award community grants
rested with the Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhoods. On
occasion, the Portfolio Holder had declared a personal and
prejudicial interest which had resulted in an application having to
be determined by the Board. Given the comparatively low
monetary amounts involved it was considered that these occasions
would be best served by the applications being delegated to
officers for determination. Although there was no opposition
to this proposal per se, Members considered that there
should still be some form of member involvement in the final
decision.
47.1.3 Terms
and Conditions
Under the terms and conditions of the
community grants scheme, recipients of awards were expected to
submit evidence, usually in the form of invoices, of how
monies had been spent. Problems had been experienced with
some smaller groups not complying with this requirement despite
receiving funding of £500 ‘up front’. To address
this, the Task Group had suggested withholding part or
all of the grant payment until such time as the
necessary papers had been received by the
Council.
The Committee accepted that there was a need
to provide a clear audit trail of monies awarded by the Council but
that this should not be to the detriment of those receiving the
awards. There was concern that to withhold funding, even in
part, may lead to hardship for the Groups concerned. No
consensus of opinion was reached but the Committee agreed to
forward the following comment to the Board:
Comment to the
Board:
The requirement for public expenditure to be
fully accountable should be imposed on all recipients. The Board is
asked to consider the balance between audit requirements and the
need to encourage smaller organisations.
47.2 Climate
Change Task
Group
The Committee received for information the
notes from the meeting of the Climate Change Task Group held on 6
December 2007.
48.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
5 March 2008
……………….. Chair