Agenda and draft minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

At this point in the meeting Members were invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

Councillors Pierce and Aspden both declared a personal non-prejudicial interest in Item 4 (Hungate Review – Draft Final Report) as they are both members of English Heritage.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the committee’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of the agenda. The deadline for registering is Thursday 30 April 2009 at 5.00pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme on areas within the remit of the scrutiny review. However the Chair had agreed to allow Mr G Miller to speak on issues surrounding the sale of land.

Mr Miller circulated a copy of information provided to him under a Freedom of Information Act request. He spoke about the purchase of the ambulance station and the sale of land on Hungate to Hungate York Regeneration Limited (HYRL). He questioned whether the confidentiality clause restricting the actual sale price to be made public was valid. He also asked what the financial consequences to the Council were now that HYRL could not do the work on the Hungate office site. The Head of Property Services agreed to provide a written response to these queries.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2009.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2009 be approved as a correct record subject to part (iv) of the resolution being amended to read

“that the Secretary of York Civic Trust and ….. be invited to attend a private informal consultation session on 9 April 2009.”

This covering report presents the draft final report arising from the Hungate Ad-hoc Scrutiny Review and asks Members to conclude that every effort has been made to seek all the relevant information pertinent to the review, and to agree the recommendations arising.

Members considered the draft final report of the Hungate Ad-Hoc Scrutiny Review.

Members discussed the covering report which outlined the options available to them at Paragraph 9. Members agreed that the Committee had made all necessary efforts required to gather relevant information for the review and that they were now in a position to draw conclusions from the review.

Members discussed the draft final report (Annex A) and the Head of Property Services answered Members queries in relation to specific issues. Members discussed and agreed amendments to the report.

Members agreed that information provided by English Heritage, in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, should be appended to the final report as an annex.

Members agreed to amend the wording of the conclusion to Objective (i) regarding the budget to include an explanation of why the budget had to be increased. 

Members discussed Objective 5 “to identify whether time was a factor in reaching the decisions made throughout the process – eg in agreeing the design”. They agreed that while time was a material factor, it was not a considerable factor and that the project was neither rushed nor delayed.

Members then discussed the draft recommendations arising from the review as shown in Annex A and agreed amendments to the wording of these.

RESOLVED:

(i)         That it be agreed that every effort had been made to seek all the relevant information and that all the available information had been fully considered.

(ii)        That the draft conclusions relating to each objective of the review (as shown at paragraphs 17,26, 34 and 47 of Annex A), as amended at the meeting, be agreed

(iii)       That the draft recommendations, as amended by Members at the meeting and shown below, be agreed

Recommendations:

The Hungate Ad-Hoc Scrutiny Committee recommends that the Council:-

(i)         Carries out pre-project public consultation before commencing on any major project to identify and take account of the level of public support, aspirations and expectations in order to inform the project including the budget.

(ii)        Continues with its best practice approach to pre-application consultation.

(iii)       Agrees a predefined Code of Practice with statutory consultees which seeks to ensure that they provide clear, consistent, timely and documented responses to consultations from persons in authority within that organisation.

(iv)       Always provides full and consistent feedback to all consultees, no matter whether the Council is able to respond positively or negatively to the issues being raised.

(v)        In all major projects, ensures that the Chief Executive and senior directors take ownership of the project and give consistent support to the project team.

(iv)       (a)            That the Scrutiny Officer update the final report to include amendments agreed at this meeting.

(b)            That delegation be given to the Chair to agree the final report and that copies be provided to Councillors Gunnell and Brooks before being submitted to Scrutiny Management Committee.

REASON:      To enable the review to be completed in line with scrutiny working practices and protocols.