Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillors Glenis Ansell, Simon Killane, Howard Greenman, Jon Hubbard and Bridget Wayman.

Councillor Wayman was substituted by Councillor Paul Oatway QPM. Councillor Hubbard was substituted by Councillor Ian Thorn. Councillor Greenman was substituted by Councillor Anna Cuthbert.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 1 November 2016.

The minutes for the meeting held on 1 November 2016 were presented for consideration and it was,

Resolved:

To approve and sign as a true and correct record.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

As item 8 – Request for Scrutiny Review of an Officer Decision – related to public conveniences, Councillor Chuck Berry clarified for information that he no longer worked in the public convenience industry.

To receive any announcements through the Chair, including the following:

·         Scrutiny Legacy Workshop 17 January 2017

Details were provided for the Overview and Scrutiny Legacy Workshop to be held for members on 17 January 2017 from 2-4pm in the Council Chamber, County Hall. The workshop formed part of the approved learning and development programme, and would provide an opportunity for members to reflect on the Overview and Scrutiny approaches, successes and challenges during the 2013-2017 council period. Attendees would be asked to consider what messages and recommendations should be made to the succeeding 2017-2021 council as it established its priorities.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution.

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on 22 December 2016 in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on 28 December 2016. Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There were no questions or statements submitted.

To receive updates from the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Select

Committees in respect of the topics under scrutiny in their areas, including any recommendations for endorsement by the Management Committee.

The Forward Work Programmes for the Select Committees and updates on previous work was received. Additional updates were received as follows:

Health Select Committee

Particularly attention was drawn to the meeting on 15 November 2016 and monitoring of developing urgent integrated care. AN update had been received from the Clinical Commissioning Group and further updates would follow in March 2017, along with further information from Great Western Hospital responding to the recent disappointing Care Quality Commission report. It was also reported the Better Care Plan Task Group would be meeting to complete their final report on 3 January 2017.

Children’s Select Committee

The Committee was informed of recent activity, including a briefing on the Health Schools scheme which councillors were encouraged to raise with schools in their area, as well as an update from the Wiltshire Assembly of Youth representative, also a member of the Wiltshire Youth Parliament, who had attended the Houses of Parliament where discussion of mental health among young people had been raised as a priority.

Resolved:

To receive the updates from the Select Committees and approve the Forward Work Programme.

A report is attached presenting an update on recent activity on the following:

·         Financial Planning Task Group

·         Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership Task Group

·         MyWiltshire System Task Group

The written update from the Task Groups was received. Additional updates were received as follows:

Military-Civilian Integration Partnership Task Group

The Task Group was awaiting updates from partners and would formulate a recommendation to the forthcoming Council once received.

Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership (SWLEP) Task Group

A meeting with the new Chairman of the SWLEP, Mr John Mortimer, would take place within the month.

MyWiltshire System Task Group

At the request of the Task Group the committee considered proposed changes to the terms of reference as a result of an extension to the timescale for the implementation of the new system to accommodate the development of the council’s digitisation strategy. It was,

Resolved:

That the Committee approve in principle to amend the terms of reference of the Task Group to include monitoring development of the council’s digitisation strategy, and to received proposed wording to that effect at the next meeting.

To consider a request from Councillor Chris Caswill, Chippenham Monkton Division, for a Scrutiny Review of a decision taken under delegated powers by officers in respect of the demolition of former public conveniences on Bath Road, Chippenham.

Under Paragraph 1 of Part 3D(1) of the Constitution (Scheme of Delegation to Officers), it states ‘any member of the Council may request that decisions taken under delegated powers are scrutinised by the appropriate overview and scrutiny committee’.

On 3 December 2016 the council’s Designated Scrutiny Officer received such a request from Councillor Chris Caswill, Chippenham Monkton Division, relating to officer delegated decisions to demolish a block of former public conveniences situated on Bath Road, Chippenham, which lies within his electoral division.

A report from Paul Kelly, Head of Corporate Support (Democracy and Performance) and Designated Scrutiny Officer was prepared for the Committee in response to the request. The report set out the constitutional authority for the request, details of the officer delegated decisions that had been taken and their context in relation to agreed council policy, and set out Councillor Caswill’s argument as to why scrutiny should be taken in respect of the decisions and the initial officer response to that argument.

It was also noted that the request was the first of its kind that had been received by the council, and the process for consideration by the Committee had been developed by the Designated Scrutiny Officer and Monitoring Officer in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee. Further, it was clarified in the report that a request for scrutiny of officer decisions did not halt progression of a decision as with formal ‘call-in’ of Executive decisions taken under Part 8 of the Constitution (Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules).

The background to the decisions in question had been the approval of the Financial Plan 2015/16 by Full Council on 24 February 2015, which included the transfer of the cleaning and securing of unmanned/attended public conveniences to town and parish councils. On 15 March 2016 Cabinet resolved, among other things as detailed in the report, to transfer public conveniences to towns and parishes that wished to manage them following undertaking of cost benefit analyses, and to authorise specific Associate Directors in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Member to enter into formal arrangements as necessary to carry out the resolved actions.

Councillor Caswill was invited to detail to the Committee why he believed decisions taken by Barry Pirie, Associate Director, People and Business, required further scrutiny.

Councillor Caswill began by clarifying that while he believed the evidence showed some serious mistakes had been made in the process of the decisions, he had no concerns about his interactions with officers throughout the process, which had been courteous throughout. He also clarified that an element of the issues related to planning, and while the Committee could not and should not become involved in any aspect of determining planning applications relating to the officer decisions in question, decisions leading up to those planning applications required scrutiny.

It was stated that the Cabinet decision from March 2016 had been clear that the primary intention was that public conveniences should, where possible, be delegated to towns  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive an update on the council’s attendance at the CfPS Annual Conference.

Slides from sessions at the conference are available here.

Some written highlights from the CfPS are available here.

The written update from the Chairman of the Committee on his attendance at the Centre for Public Scrutiny Conference (CfPS) Annual Conference on 1 December 2016 was received in the agenda supplement.

Resolved:

To note the update.

To note the following upcoming meetings of the Committee:

10:30 on 1 February 2017 in the Kennet Room, County Hall, Trowbridge – Consideration of Budget Proposals

11:00 on 14 February 2017 in the Council Chamber, Monkton Park, Chippenham – Consideration of Opposition Budget Proposals.

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as 1 February 2017 to scrutinise the administration budget proposals. A meeting had also been arranged for 14 February 2017 to scrutinise any opposition budget proposals that were submitted.

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.