Agenda and minutes

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

Members were asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on the agenda.

Councillor King declared a personal non-prejudicial interest as a Member of the Fire and Rescue Authority.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 7 July 2009.

RESOLVED:            That the minutes of the meeting of 7 July 2009 be confirmed and

                        signed by the Chair as a correct record.

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.  The deadline for registering is Monday 21 September 2009 at 5.00 pm.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report presents the current workplan of the Committee for 2009/10, and recommends that Members update the workplan, taking into consideration the information provided both at this meeting and the meeting held on 7 July 2009.

Members received a report that presented the current workplan of the Committee for 2009/10.  Consideration was given to updating the workplan to include topics for possible scrutiny review. 

It was noted that when the Effective Organisation Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered the Corporate Year-end Performance and Financial Report for 2008/9, they had raised concerns regarding the information pertaining to graffiti and litter.  They had referred this matter to Scrutiny Management Committee (SMC) for clarification as to which overview and scrutiny committee had the remit to deal with this issue. SMC had identified the Community Safety Overview and Scrutiny Committee as the committee responsible and had requested that this be considered as a possible topic for review. 

Members were informed that, in June, the first of three planned surveys for the year on litter, detritus, graffiti and fly-posting had been carried out.  The results of the survey were detailed in paragraphs 39-42 of the “First Monitoring Report – Finance and Performance” (minute 14 refers).  The findings had been favourable in terms of graffiti and litter but less encouraging in respect of detritus.  Officers reported on the action that was being taken to tackle these issues, including a particular focus on the removal of detritus in terraced streets.  It was agreed that it would be helpful to await the results of the next survey before determining whether to proceed with a review on the issues surrounding graffiti and litter.

Concerns were expressed regarding proposed changes to the organisation and staffing structures for North Yorkshire Police.  It was envisaged that this would result in the situation whereby there was no longer a Chief Superintendent based in York.  Members expressed concern that the proposed arrangements may be detrimental to the city and have an adverse effect on crime figures.  It was agreed that the policing arrangements for York through to 2012 was an issue that the committee may wish to review.

It was suggested that the issue of alley gating was a topic that the committee may also wish to consider but that further information was required before making a decision as to whether to proceed with a review.

RESOLVED:            That the workplan be updated to include the following items:

·        An officer report on the policy on alley gating to be presented at the meeting on 1 December 2009.

·        An item on the policing of York through to 2012 to be included on the agenda for the meeting on 1 December 2009.

·        An item on graffiti and litter to be included on the agenda for the meeting of 19 January 2010.

REASON:            In order to progress the work of the Committee.                 

This report presents two sets of data:

• The latest projections for revenue expenditure for the Neighbourhood Services portfolio.
• Progress against the Directorate Plan priorities and key performance indicators.

Members received a report that presented two sets of data:

(i)                 The latest projections for revenue expenditure for the Neighbourhood Services portfolio.

(ii)               Progress against the directorate plan priorities and key performance indicators.

Officers gave details of the significant variances to the budget (as outlined in paragraph 7 of the report) and responded to Members’ questions as to the actions that were being taken to address these issues.

Members questioned officers on issues referred to in the report and were updated on the following:

• Security at Towthorpe HWRC
• Delays in the construction of the Silver Street toilets
• The Elvington Airfield case
• Equality Impact Assessments¹
• Waste collection and recycling

RESOLVED:That the Scrutiny Committee noted the financial and performance position of the portfolio.

REASON:      In accordance with budgetary and performance monitoring procedures.

The purpose of this report is to:

• Inform the Scrutiny Committee of the likely outturn position of the 2009/10 Capital Programme based on the spend profile information to June 2009;
• To notify of any resulting changes to the programme;
• Inform the Scrutiny Committee of any slippage and associated funding to be slipped between the relevant financial years to reflect this.

Members received a report that:

(i)                 Informed the Scrutiny Committee of the likely outturn position of the 2009/10 Capital Programme based on the spend profile and information to June 2009;

(ii)               Notified Members of any resulting changes to the programme;

(iii)             Informed the Scrutiny Committee of any slippage and associated funding to be slipped between the relevant financial years to reflect this.

Members questioned officers on issues referred to in the report and were updated on the following issues:

• Highway resurfacing arrangements
• Verge maintenance
• Street lighting

RESOLVED:            That the Scrutiny Committee noted:

(i)     The 2009/10 revised budget of £6.429m as set out in Table 2 of the report.

(ii)   The additional grants for Detrunking and Air Quality Monitoring.

(iii)The transfer of £443k from City Strategy for Structural Maintenance.

(iv)  The slippage of £8k on Silver Street Toilet into future years.

REASON:      To enable the effective monitoring and scrutiny of the Council’s capital programme.