To receive for apologies for absence from Members.   

None

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008 (including Whipping Declarations)

None

To receive for approval, the minutes of the meeting of the Partnerships and Governance Overview and Scrutiny Committee of 14 January 2016

RESOLVED:                That the Minutes of a meeting of the Partnerships and Governance Overview and Scrutiny Committee dated 14 January 2016, be approved as a true and accurate record.

The Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to present the items due to be considered at the Committee’s next meeting, to be held following the Annual meeting of Council.

The potential items to be considered at this meeting were shown in paragraph 4.1 of the report, whilst paragraph 4.2 outlined a further potential item for consideration by the Committee at a subsequent meeting.

The Scrutiny Officer added that Members would have an opportunity to look at potential further items, through a series of workshops that would be undertaken in the coming week specifically designed to compiling a Committees Forward Work Programme (FWP).

Other potential items Members put forward for the FWP were to revisit Crime and Disorder (including Sexual Exploitation) and the impact of this on legislation, the City Deal, partnership working involving Community Safety/Community Policing, partnership working within Emergency Planning and governance issues with regard to any dissatisfaction with or complaints made against the Authority.

RESOLVED:                    That Members noted the items contained in the report for possible consideration at the next two scheduled meetings, together with the other further suggestions as detailed above.

Invitees:

Councillor C E Smith - Cabinet Member - Regeneration and Economic Development

Andrew Jolley - Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Regulatory Services

Gary Jones - Head of Democratic Services

Emma Blandon - Marketing and Engagement Manager

Andrew Harries – Consultation and Engagement Officer

The Chairperson welcomed to the meeting the Invitees.

The Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services submitted a report, in order to advise Members of plans to develop public engagement with Scrutiny.

A Member noted that there were a considerable number of options in the report that could be pursued to improve public engagement regarding Scrutiny. However, he based on the fact that the Council had limited resources, what was the likely cost of the proposed options.

The Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services confirmed that any likely costs to improve such engagement could not be estimated until such time that Members had decided what items they were going to pursue through the Forward Work Programme.  He added that options such as voting pads were relatively inexpensive when compared with the costs associated with other options such as engagement events which would only be effective if you could guarantee that the public or organisational representatives would attend.  .

A Member asked when voting pads had been used to which the Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services replied that these had been used to increase engagement with the public in meetings regarding the MTFS proposals.

A Member considered that the public would only really be interested in engaging on matters that directly affected them, such as Waste Collection changes and Council Tax increases etc.

A Member noted that the number of hits from the public from Committees web cast to date was highest for the first meeting which was the Development Control Committee. She suggested that the reason for this was that the Committee sometimes dealt with the more contentious issues or those of public interest such as planning applications.

The Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services confirmed that planning applications did have a direct effect on the public, particularly the applicant and objectors etc. However, he felt that the public should also have greater interest than they have had in the Budget, as this impacted upon key services that affected them. However, public response to the engagement exercise carried out in respect of the MTFS for the forthcoming year had been poor.

The Cabinet Member Regeneration and Economic Development advised that there were a number of initiatives outlined in the report that if continued and pursued more actively, would improve public engagement and were relatively cost-free. In particular, students and younger people should be encouraged to use voting pads as well as social media. He questioned however how many members of the public were actually aware that they could sit in and observe meetings of Council and Cabinet which were high profile meetings, yet historically not much interest was shown in them through attendance by the public.

The Head of Democratic Services advised that in terms of encouraging the public to observe meetings of the Council, this could possibly be assisted by putting some appropriate wording to this effect on the Democratic Services Section part of the web site.

A Member advised that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

The Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Regulatory Services submitted a report, the purpose of which was to seek nominations for the Budget Research and Evaluation Panel.

RESOLVED:               That the following Members be nominated to sit on    the BREP:-

                                      Councillor N Clarke (Committee Chairperson)

 Councillor D Patel

                                      Reserve Member – KJ Watts

To consider any items of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency. 

None