RESOLVED:               That Councillor Alex Williams be elected as Chairperson of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the Municipal Year.

To receive apologies for absence from Members.

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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)

Councillor Heidi Bennett declared a personal interest in the report on Revenue Budget Outturn 2021-22 and a prejudicial interest in the report on the Nomination to the Public Service Board Scrutiny Panel.

Councillor Paul Davies declared a personal interest that his partner worked for the Meals at Home service in Bridgend County Borough Council.

To receive for approval the minutes of 01/12/21, 12/01/22 and 02/03/22

RESOLVED:                      That the Minutes of the meetings of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee dated 1 December 2021, 12 January 2022 and 2 March 2022, be approved as a true and accurate record.

Invitees

Councillor John Spanswick - Cabinet Member for Communities

Councillor Hywel Williams - Cabinet Member for Resources 

Mark Shephard - Chief Executive

Janine Nightingale - Corporate Director - Communities

Carys Lord - Chief Officer - Finance, Performance and Change

Zak Shell - Head of Operations - Community Services

The Democratic Services Manager presented a report the purpose of which was to enable the Committee to consider the decision of Cabinet of 14 June 2022 in relation to the report on Recycling and Waste Service Post 2024.

She confirmed that, in accordance with Rule 18 of the Overview and Scrutiny Rules in the Council’s Constitution, 3 Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees, and a Scrutiny Chair, had requested that an Executive decision made by Cabinet on the 14 June 2022 be Called-In.

She advised that the Committee was recommended to consider the Cabinet decision of 14 June 22 relating to Recycling and Waste Service Post 2024 and to determine whether it wished to:

i)             refer the decision back to Cabinet for reconsideration, setting out in writing the nature of its concerns; or

ii)            decide not to refer the matter back to the Cabinet.

The Chairperson invited the Members who had signed the Call In to speak on the reasons for the Call In.

Members stated the main reasons for the Call In included:

-        The short-term contract was presented as the only option with no discussion regarding the viability of other options such as bringing the service in-house as a temporary measure which could potentially allow the Local Authority to tailor the service towards what the future provision may be. This option might have been cheaper and less disruptive, yet it had not been considered by Cabinet.

-       The possible contractual difficulties of the decision to outsource service with the authorisation to purchase Kier’s existing plant had not been properly considered. Concerns about the contractor being reliant upon operating the plant that the Authority would own and queries about who would be liable for breakdowns, given its age.

-       The rationale of purchasing an old plant and old vehicles rather than newer alternatives or out-sourcing, and leasing brand new fuel efficient, low emissions or even electric vehicles.

-        The £75,000 per annum additional revenue cost for the Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO). The need to reduce carbon emissions was acknowledged however it had not been clear from the Paper whether the £75,000 was the Council’s share or whether that was the total which the Council would pay half of.

-        There had been no mention of cost in the report to Cabinet, other than the HVO, and therefore the cost of the procurement exercise was unknown. Other unknowns were the estimated contract cost over the two years, whether the contract might have a clause to extend beyond 2026 or the profit that the contractor would be expected to make.

-        The last contract awarded to Kier for collection contained errors such as no provision for the collection of sanitary waste which resulted in a retro scheme with purple bags being implemented which residents had problems with. There had been no provision in the contract for the cleaning of food waste bins in communal errors which resulted in residents living with food waste bins not having been cleaned in three  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Invitees

Councillor Huw David - Leader of Council

Councillor Jane Gebbie - Deputy Leader of Council and Cabinet Member for Social Services and Early Help

Councillor Hywel Williams - Cabinet Member for Resources 

Councillor Jon-Paul Blundell - Cabinet Member for Education

Councillor John Spanswick - Cabinet Member for Communities

Councillor Neelo Farr - Cabinet Member for Regeneration

Councillor Rhys Goode - Cabinet Member for Wellbeing and Future Generations

Mark Shephard - Chief Executive

Carys Lord - Chief Officer - Finance, Performance and Change

Lindsay Harvey - Corporate Director - Education and Family Support

Claire Marchant - Corporate Director - Social Services and Wellbeing

Janine Nightingale - Corporate Director - Communities

Kelly Watson - Chief Officer Legal and Regulatory Services, HR & Corporate Policy

The Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change presented the report the purpose of which was to provide the Committee with an update on the Council’s revenue financial performance for the year ended 31st March 2022.

The Chairperson thanked the Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change and her teams for the comprehensive report and invited Members’ questions or contributions.

Members noted the impact Covid-19 had had on the budget, both positively and negatively and queried how easy it had been to work with Welsh Government regarding additional funding and how effective it had been.

The Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change confirmed that the last financial year had been the second of the hardship fund and therefore, the systems and processes in place to claim the money were already well established by the time of the claims last year. For 2021-22, the increased expenditure was claimed monthly and lost income was claimed on a quarterly basis to help with cash flow issues. The payment process had also been quicker during 2021-22 than in the previous year as Councils adapted to the system.

She advised that claims were scrutinised by Welsh Government but if any queries arose, they were sent back for clarification and monies released as soon as possible following the clarification. Additionally, if one element of a claim was being scrutinised, the other elements of the claim were paid in the meantime and did not, therefore, hold up the entire claim. The process had improved as familiarity with the systems improved.

Members asked for background regarding the amount of capital reserves held and confirmation as to why such large reserves were held.

The Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change confirmed that the reserves went up at the end of last year as a significant amount of money came through at year end which was unable to be spent effectively and efficiently so it had been carried forward. She confirmed that was one thing that reserves could be reused for.

In addition, a large sum had been moved into capital reserves to supplement the money from Welsh Government. She highlighted, particularly in the capital program, rising costs as material costs went up and supply chains were struggling, which had impacted on costs. In addition, the costs associated with the 2030 decarbonisation agenda and the Band B schools modernisation program were seeing increased costs so it was prudent to put some money aside to ensure that the commitment to that programme could be honoured. She reported that some spend on schemes involving highways and playgrounds were approved at the last meeting of Council and confirmed that some of the reserves were to help fund some big infrastructure projects whether funded alone or with some match funding from Welsh Government.

In relation to insurance costs, Members noted that the net budget set at £1.3 million had risen to an actual outturn of £2.84m and queried the nature and cause of the costs, whether there had been many small claims  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Scrutiny Officer presented the report, which requested the Committee to nominate one Member as its Corporate Parenting Champion to represent the Committee as an invitee to meetings of the Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting.

The Chairperson invited nominations, following which it was

RESOLVED:                        That Councillor Amanda Williams be nominated to represent Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee as an Invitee to meetings of the Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting.

The Scrutiny Officer presented the report, which requested the Committee to nominate three Members to sit on the Public Service Board Scrutiny Panel.

The Chairperson invited nominations, following which it was

RESOLVED:                        That Councillors Simon Griffiths and Freya Bletsoe be nominated by the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee to sit on the Public Service Board Scrutiny Panel, and one further nomination be sought at the next meeting of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee in July.

The Senior Democratic Services Officer – Scrutiny presented the Committee with the proposed draft outline Forward Work Programme (FWP) in Appendix A for discussion and consideration, requested any specific information the Committee identified to be included in the items for the next two meetings, including invitees they wished to attend, requested the Committee to identify any further items for consideration on the Forward Work Programme having regard to the selection criteria in paragraph 4.6 and asked the Committee to note that the Forward Work Programme for the Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committees would be reported to  a meeting of COSC, following consideration in the July cycle of SOSC  meetings.

Members referred to the Corporate Performance Assessment which identified several corporate risks, such as workforce issues, new legislation placing demands on services, inflationary pressures on service delivery and future procurement issues and asset management issues. It was proposed that the FWP be revisited following the scrutiny of the Performance Report at the next meeting of the Committee in July.

RESOLVED:                        The Committee considered and approved the draft Forward Work Programme, subject to consideration of any potential topics that may be proposed following the scrutiny of the Council Performance against its commitments for the Year 2021-22 report at the Committee’s July meeting.

To consider any item(s) 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.

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