Agenda item

Updates from the various Task Group and Rapid Scrutiny Exercises are attached.

Recommendation:

The Committee is asked to note updates provided and comment as appropriate.

i)          Major Contracts

The discussion under item 107 above was noted.

ii)         ICT

Clarification was provided that scrutiny of the handover timetable had taken place.  The transfer of staff was also considered with confirmation that Steria had given notification of the numbers included to ensure as smooth a transition as possible.   

The next meeting of the Task Group is scheduled to take place on 3 December which was hoped to be the final meeting as the delivery of service would transfer from January 2011.

Cllr Hubbard would be attending a couple of sessions with the IT team to establish how future support would be provided.

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iii)        Partnerships

Clarification was provided that a positive meeting had taken place on 28 October.  The Chairman of the Community Safety Partnership Board would be attending the next meeting.  The Group hoped to bring a final report to Committee at it’s next meeting in January.

iv)        Workplace Transformation Programme (WTP)

The next meeting was scheduled to take place at the Olympiad, Chippenham on 29 November.  Cllr George Jeans would be replacing Cllr Phillip Brown on the Task Group.

The Committee considered the update provided by the Corporate Director, Resources in relation to the PFI Agreement for the provision of office accommodation at Monkton Park, Chippenham.

Resolved:

To note the latest position regarding the future of the Monkton Park site.

v)         S106

In addition to the information provided with the Agenda, the Chairman of the Group clarified that 4 meetings had taken place to date.  The Task Group had concluded an increase in resource was required to ensure the completion of the database that would store details of the anticipated 820 agreements.

The importance of completing this task was highlighted as currently there was no consistency over the approach to payments made in relation to S106 agreement across the County. 

14 agreements had already been identified as significant with approximately £300k planning gain per agreement.  The Task Group were concerned that the S106 Officer estimated the exercise of sourcing the relevant details and updating the database with this information alone would take approximately one month to complete and the impact that could have on the organisation.

Ensuing discussion included that as part of the ‘invest to save’ approach, providing additional resource in this area would prove of benefit to the organisation and that the potential merging of hubs could result in the sourcing of information becoming more problematic in the future.

Clarification was also provided that Cllr Tony Deane would replace Cllr Phillip Brown on the Task Group.

The concerns raised by the Task Group were supported by the Select Committee.

Resolved:

1)                 To thank the Task Group for its continued good work in scrutinising Wiltshire Council’s management of Section 106 agreements since receipt of its interim report in July 2010;

2)                 To support the ongoing work to create a Corporate database to monitor Section 106 Agreements since the inception of Wiltshire Council;

3)                 To request that the Cabinet Member note the concern of the Committee on the progress made towards cataloguing S106 Agreements approved by the 5 former councils and the potential risks this presents to:

i)                   infrastructure developments not taking place due to funds not being used; and

ii)                 developers requesting their contributions back as they had not been used within the designated time.

4)                 To endorse the Task Group’s recommendation to the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Development to ensure adequate resources were put in place to complete the cataloguing of historic S106 agreements and to ensure that the balance of information on S106 agreements with financial conditions is available to the Task Group within 12 months of its formation (May 2011);

5)                 That the Scrutiny Committee be kept fully up to date on the development of the work undertaken;

6)                 To note the S106 Officer’s commitment to circulate to the Task Group details of the 13 largest S106 agreements on or before 8 December 2010;

7)                 To note the recent establishment of the Cabinet (Capital Assets) Committee which has within its terms of reference responsibility for the strategic overview of the Council’s policy on S106 funding and the use of funds;

8)                 To advise the Cabinet (Capital Assets) Committee of the Task Group’s concerns including the recommendation to the Cabinet member to identify sufficient resources to complete the database;

9)                 To received the Task Group’s final report in due course to include the Council’s approach to any potential ‘roof tax’ based tariff and the encouragement of future development within Wiltshire; and

10)             That the Cabinet Member, Corporate Director and Head of Planning be invited to appear and report on this matter at the next Committee in January 2011.

vi)        Member Support in the Locality

In relation to the Executive response following the recommendations made by the Task Group, members of the Committee felt that Point (2) in respect of e-mails informing Councillors of Cabinet Member delegated decisions required further development to include an explanation of the decision.

Members also felt that Councillors should be given the opportunity to link their independent websites to the Council’s webpage, with an appropriate disclaimer attached.

vii)       Library Review

A report following the Rapid Scrutiny Exercise would be presented to the Committee at its next meeting in January 2011.