Agenda item

The Committee considered a request from Councillor Jeff Osborn at the last meeting and agreed to hold a Rapid Scrutiny Exercise on the content of the Cabinet Member’s report.

The report on the outcome of the exercise held on 10 December is attached.

At its meeting on 5 November 2013 the Committee considered a request from Councillor Jeff Osborn to conduct a scrutiny exercise on the contract with BBLP (Balfour Beatty Living Places) and agreed to hold a Rapid Scrutiny Exercise on the content of the Cabinet Member’s report presented to that meeting. It was also agreed that a progress report would be presented to the Environment Select Committee after the winter to assess the operational performance, and that a full scrutiny exercise from the Environment Select Committee be undertaken from June 2014 to coincide with the first anniversary of the contract.

The report on the Rapid Scrutiny Exercise was presented, with the lead member for the exercise, Councillor Jeff Osborn, thanking all members and officers who had partaken in the exercise for their work, and the contributions of the Cabinet Member and Portfolio Holder. The Committee also expressed its thanks to all staff involved in work relating to the recent flooding in the county, for their dedication and intensive communication to the public.

The work of the Rapid Scrutiny Exercise was detailed, noting that conclusions had been that the contractor was performing satisfactorily in seven of the eight main areas of the contract, although the local highways and streetscene element of the contract had been identified as a main area of concern, with the IT system also of concern. The crucial role of active local councillors in assisting the relationship between parishes, area boards and BBLP was also emphasized.

The Committee discussed the recommendations of the Exercise as detailed in Paragraph 36 of the report papers, to include for the members of the Exercise to meet again to evaluate further work, receive additional information when available, for Legal to provide summaries of key contracts and for a full audit to be recommended. A debate followed, where points including the following were raised:

·         It was agreed that an additional meeting of the members of the Exercise should take place sometime in the Spring, with concerns a date of March 2014 could prove too soon for full information on the Winter work to be available

·         Some Members felt that although the contract had been considered by the Environment Select Committee, the lack of a Major Contracts Task Group to further consider such large contracts had hindered additional scrutiny of the topic, while others felt that appropriate scrutiny had taken place, with the Committees setting up appropriate measures when further problems had arisen following implementation of the contract.

·         The flexibility of the contract with regards grass cutting was raised, and it was stated that a map of all areas covered under the contract was being created for the use of all Members and Parishes. It was also confirmed that Wiltshire Council would only be responsible under the contract for maintaining land that it owned, and that only where ownership of the land was unclear and later clarified as being council owned would additional land be added to the maps of areas of council responsibility.

·         The proposal for there to be a re-launch of the Community Team Service was discussed, with concerns from some members that to begin the process anew would be unhelpful, with a need to assess if the current roll out had been effective and to clarify any existing confusion, and ensure there was consistent service and quality across all community areas.

·         Regarding the soliciting of feedback from all councilors, there were also concerns raised that many current local streetscene concerns in relation to operation of the contract would be out of date by the time of the second Rapid Scrutiny Exercise in the Spring

At the conclusion of debate, it was,

Resolved:

a)    The members who undertook the rapid scrutiny exercise meet again in Spring 2014 to evaluate the work undertaken on IT, local streetscene and the reporting/feedback procedure;

b)   Prior to the meeting in the Spring, the rapid scrutiny group is provided with:

•      up to date evidence of the effective reporting and feedback procedure;

•      information on the role of early warning notices and the absence of default notices, and copies of the standard clauses used in the contract;

•      evidence that the most appropriate grass cutting equipment is available, that personnel are fully trained to use the equipment and that productivity has improved.

c)    The outcome of the second rapid scrutiny exercise is reported to the Environment Select Committee to coincide with the presentation of a progress report addressing operational performance after the winter;

d)   The Highways team ensures the service and communication of the Community Team service is applied at a consistent high quality across all community areas.

e)    A copy of the report of the rapid scrutiny group should be sent to all councillors with a covering letter, requesting feedback from them on any outstanding issues on the local streetscene aspects of the BBLP contract.  Their feedback to be sent to the Scrutiny Team and collated to inform the second meeting of the rapid scrutiny group in Spring 2014. 

f)     The legal department should, in future, provide summaries of the key elements of large contracts for circulation to councillors.

g)   The Audit Committee should arrange for a full audit of the Highways and Streetscene contract as soon as possible, the outcome of which should be reported to the O & S Management Committee.

h)   The report should be forwarded to the relevant Cabinet members for response.

i)        To ask the Scrutiny manager to report to the next meeting on the potential role Overview and Scrutiny can play with regard to the letting and monitoring of major contracts bearing in mind its previous involvement.