Agenda and minutes

Due to Chair’s late arrival and apologies sent by Vice-Chair, Councillor Flinders moved and Cllr Brooks seconded the nomination of Councillor Reid to chair the meeting until such time as the appointed Chair arrived. It was then

Resolved:                     That Councillor Reid be elected to chair the meeting until the arrival of the appointed Chair.

At this point, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

Members were asked to declare any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests, any prejudicial interests or any disclosable pecuniary interests that they had in respect of business on this agenda.

No additional interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 22 January 2018.

The minutes from the meeting held on 22 January 2018 were presented to Members.

Councillor Flinders requested addition of the items in bold to the last bullet of item 43 (Work Plan 2017 and Discussion on Further Potential Scrutiny Topics):

·        A six-monthly review of the One Planet York Strategy to include a briefing on how social value is considered and achieved with regards to corporate investments and within the Council’s commissioning, procurement and divestment policies.

Resolved:                     That the minutes from the meeting held on 22 January 2018 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record, subject to the amendments as set out above.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. The deadline for registering is 5.00pm on Tuesday 17 April 2018. Members of the public can speak on agenda items or matters within the remit of the Committee.

To register to speak please contact the Democracy Officer responsible for the meeting, on the details at the foot of the agenda.

Filming, Recording or Webcasting Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this meeting will be filmed and webcast, or recorded, including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The broadcast can be viewed at http://www.york.gov.uk/webcasts or, if recorded, this will be uploaded onto the Council’s website following the meeting.

Residents are welcome to photograph, film or record Councillors and Officers at all meetings open to the press and public. This includes the use of social media reporting, i.e. tweeting.  Anyone wishing to film, record or take photos at any public meeting should contact the Democracy Officer (contact details are at the foot of this agenda) in advance of the meeting.

The Council’s protocol on Webcasting, Filming & Recording of Meetings ensures that these practices are carried out in a manner both respectful to the conduct of the meeting and all those present.  It can be viewed at http://www.york.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/11406/protocol_for_webcasting_filming_and_recording_of_council_meetings_20160809.pdf

It was reported that there had been one registration to speak under the Council’s scheme of public participation.

Marie Dowling spoke in relation to item 4 of the agenda (Schedule of Petitions), referring to Petition 101 (Installation of a zebra or pelican crossing on York Road, Haxby), due to be considered by the Executive Member for Transport and Planning on 17 May 2018. She highlighted the following arguments supporting the request for a pedestrian crossing to be installed on York Road:

·        the petition had been signed by over 1,000 residents;

·        a few incidents and near-misses (including children) on the road;

·        location of two primary and one secondary school in the area;

·        local public provision such as Older Persons Accommodation and sports facilities in the area.

In view of the submission made by Ms Dowling, Members requested that the minutes of this meeting relating to her participation and to relevant petitions’ item be forwarded to the Executive Member for Transport and Planning in advance of his decision session held on 17 May 2018.

This report provides the committee with details of new petitions received to date, together with those considered by the Executive or relevant Executive Member/Officer since the last report to the Committee.

Members were presented details of new petitions received to date, together with those considered by the Executive Members, Officers and the Executive since the last report to the Committee. There was no Officer update to the report. Members were reminded that they would have an opportunity to review any actions taken in relation to petitions reported and that the role of the Committee was to ensure whether the petitions had been handled appropriately.

It was

Resolved:                     (a) That Petition 92 (Petition on behalf of Friends of Holgate Community Garden and local residents in the Holgate Ward to Stop York Council from Bulldozing through Holgate Community Garden and Play Park) be reviewed again by the relevant Directorate as part of the Masterplan Development.

                                      (b) That a briefing note be provided on the following:

                                      - progress on action point (v) (That the use of enforcement to supplement the existing awareness-raising activities to reduce stationary vehicle idling in York be approved) in relation to Petition 86 (Petition for a Clean Air Zone)

                                      - length of waiting time on the Residents’ Priority Parking waiting list in relation to 15-37 Albemarle Road

Reason:                        To ensure that the Committee carries out its requirements in relation to petitions.

This report provides a high level analysis for the services falling under the responsibility of the Customer and Corporate Services Scrutiny Management Committee, which includes all corporate, strategic and business services.

[At this point in the meeting, Cllr Williams returned in his capacity as the Chair]

Members considered a report providing a high-level analysis for the services falling under the responsibility of the Customer and Corporate Services Scrutiny Management Committee, which included all corporate, strategic and business services. The Corporate Finance & Commercial Procurement Manager and the Shared Intelligence Bureau Group Manager were in attendance to answer Members’ queries.

In response to Members’ questions, the following information was clarified:

·        there was no set time for managers to complete Performance Development Reviews (PDRs) on staff; the only requirement was that one PDR be completed every rolling 12 months;

·        compared with Q2, the number of complaints that had been responded to within 5 days increased by approximately 4.6%.

Including the following in future reports was then suggested:

·        additional information on the Freedom of Information (FOIs) requests where in-time compliance had not been achieved as well as FOI benchmarking figures in the end-of-year Finance and Performance report;

·        more specific measures relating to staff morale and staff survey;

·        classification of customer complaints & identification of complaint trends, particularly customer satisfaction with online services;

·        update on CYC’s digitalisation targets and progress on targets set as part of the “Re-wiring project” in 2014;

·        quantitative benchmarking and quantitative performance comparison (fluctuations) with previous periods in the performance framework table;

·        quantitative performance comparison with previous periods in the procurement performance table.

It was also suggested that the updated report on sickness absence, due to be considered by the Committee, included the following information:

·        identification of departments / sectors with particularly high sickness absence;

·        identification of work practice and varied terms & conditions on sickness;

·        influence of the new self-service reporting system on sickness records.

Resolved:                     That the report be noted.

Reason:                        To update the Committee on the forecast position for 2017/18.

This report provides Members with further information on the administration and monitoring of Section 106 agreements, including the implementation of the planning mitigation measures secured by these agreements

Members considered a report providing further information on the administration and monitoring of Section 106 agreements, including the implementation of the planning mitigation measures secured by those agreements. The Assistant Director for Planning and Public Protection, the Principal Planning Enforcement Officer and the Planning Enforcement Officer were in attendance to answer Members’ queries.

The Officers explained that a simplified template had been designed to make the relevant S106 information more accessible for public view. However, it was not always possible to include all information in a simplified table due to the differences in developers’ requests within the S106 agreements.

On being requested for feedback, Members suggested the following:

·        introducing the system showing the progress of S106 arrangements (e.g. tracked changes);

·        working with other local authorities (and the Local Government Association) to see how the simplified S106 agreement template could be developed further;

·        including the breakdown of financial sources in future case reports;

·        including the high-level summary on the CYC website and providing more details about the S106 agreements upon request.

The Officers were thanked for their hard work in their efforts to make the detail of S106 agreements more accessible and it was

Resolved:                     That the information received in the report be noted and a further update be received in six months.

Reason:                        To ensure Members are aware of the follow-up of the agreed actions from the 2015/16 audit of Section 106 agreements and the anticipated further audit work during 2018.

Members are asked to consider the Committee’s draft work plan for the remainder of the municipal year.

Members considered the Committee’s draft work plan for the remainder of the municipal year. It was

Resolved:                     (a) That item 2 of the meeting taking place on 14 May 2018 (Update report on Attendance and Wellbeing Project: Sickness Absence) be deferred to the meeting in June.

(b) That item 4 of the meeting taking place on 14 May 2018 (Update report on ways of working in scrutiny and effectiveness of scrutiny) be deferred to the meeting in June.

                                      (c)That the work plan for the municipal year be approved, subject to the above amendments.

Reason:                        (a) To allow for wider consultations with Members of the Overview & Scrutiny Committees and Members of the Council Management Team to take place.

(b) So that the end-of-year sickness absence figures can be included in the report.

(c) To keep the work plan maintained.