To receive apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor H E Morgan and Councillor G Phillips.

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 a meeting of the Community Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee dated 27 September 2016.

RESOLVED             That the minutes of the meeting of the Community, Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee of 27 September 2016 be approved as a true and accurate record. .

Invitees:

Cllr PJ White – Cabinet Member Adult Social Care, Health and Wellbeing

Susan Cooper – Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing

Andrew Thomas – Group Manager Sports and Physical Activity

Simon Gwynne - Partnership Manager HALO

Scott Rolfe - Chief Executive Halo

The Group Manager-Sport, Play and Active Wellbeing introduced Simon Gwynne, Partnership Manager HALO and Scott Rolfe, Chief Executive HALO to the Committee. The HALO representatives then presented a report informing the Committee of the end of year performance of Halo Leisure Ltd with regard to the eight leisure centres and swimming pools they managed on behalf of the Council within the Healthy Living Partnership Programme. The report also advised the Committee of the service objectives set for 2016/17 and the areas of focus within the service development plan. 

The report provided detail on the fourth annual year of performance and the objectives identified for year five of the contract. There were 11 years remaining of the original 15 year contract. The completion of the capital works supported the achievement of performance targets including increased levels of participation, improved customer experience and investment into assets. The report also covered the three corporate priorities and how HALO was working to respond to them.

In partnership with Public Health Wales, the National Exercise Referral Scheme successfully supported 1,186 people to access services including people with chronic conditions. The “over 60” Free Swimming initiative continued to achieve the highest participation rates in Wales with 83,000 visits. This supported the loneliness and isolation reduction targets of the Ageing Well plan for Bridgend.

HALO supported social services by providing 214 looked after children with free membership to leisure facilities with evidence suggesting 86% were regularly making use of this support. The Access to Leisure programme supported the removal of price as a barrier with 1962 people making use of the support.

The partnership contributed to achieving financial efficiencies linked to the medium term financial strategy with further reductions expected over the next three years.

Halo Leisure continued to coordinate the aquatic development programmes with 100% of primary schools now engaged in the intensive schools swimming model.

Recruitment and retention of membership was a core business target and during 2015/16 there were 12,157 members representing 12% growth from the previous year.           

Positive results were received following a staff survey and HALO Leisure remained a significant employer of a workforce that included 278 people and 123 full time equivalents. It had also developed an Apprenticeship programme and currently there were two apprentices in place with plans to commence support for two additional posts within Bridgend. 

Members noted that an Advisory Panel was in place with representation including Public Health Wales, Sport Wales and the Chair of the Community, Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee and compared the arrangement to the one in place for Porthcawl Marina where there was no Local Member representation on the Harbour Board. Members were advised that their comments were noted however this was an advisory body and not part of the board structure and no decisions were taken apart from where there was a surplus on a contract.

The Committee referred to the National Exercise Referral Scheme and asked for further information on how it linked to the outdoors particularly when the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

Invitees:

Cllr C Reeves – Cabinet Member Communities

Mark Shephard – Corporate Director Communities

Zak Shell – Head of Neighbourhood Services

The Corporate Director Communities presented a report advising Members of the impact of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy on Highway Services. Between 2011/12 and 2015/16 there had been ongoing savings to meet reductions in public funding resulting in a reduction in the Highways and Transportation services budget of £2.5 million. This had resulted in a reduction in staff and service levels at varying degrees in different sections.

Members requested that the budget reduction in the Highways and Transportation for 2011/12 to 2015/16, (£2.5m) as detailed in the report be presented to Members as a percentage so they were able to better understand the scale of the reductions so far.  

The report also listed proposals that would have to be considered if there were further reductions to Highway Services budgets. Various solutions were being considered to mitigate the impact, including regional collaborations eg City Deal and Regional Transport Authority.

The Committee asked how the authority mitigated against the inability of the service to deal with service requests, FOI requests and correspondence. The Corporate Director Communities explained, for example, that two staff dealt with highway comments on planning applications. If one staff member was off the burden fell on the other officer or work was escalated upwards. This meant there was less capacity for more strategic managerial work which meant external agencies such as Capita were used more than envisaged. The Group Manager – Highway Services added that any absence quickly impacted on the remaining staff requiring a new person to make a decision, not always  with the necessary background knowledge or experience and recruitment was also a massive issue in some areas, for example in Engineering. The ability to respond to enquiries was stretched and backlogs had increased. Members remained concerned at the reduction in staffing levels and stated that they were concerned that they were at a worryingly low  level whereby the service would soon be unable to respond to statutory service requests. The Cabinet Member-Communities explained that she had been making this point vociferously and that this area dealt with 80% of member referrals and had disproportionately high  percentage budget cuts compared to ant other ‘ front facing ‘ service in the Council..

Members asked if the impact on residents was taken into account when considering the removal of a bus service. They were advised that a matrix originally devised by Rhonda Cynon Taff was used which looked at issues such as isolation and proximity of other services or alternatives before removing a service. BCBC had removed some services; other authorities had removed 100% of subsidies because this was a non- statutory area.  Officers advised that previously engagement held with the bus operators, when services had been cut,  had resulted in them agreeing to run 7 of the 12 services that had been cut,  commercially, and that work was still being undertaken on the remaining 5. The commercial sector had tried to pick up the services where the cost per passenger was relatively low.

Members asked if there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

The Scrutiny Officer presented a report which detailed the items to be considered at the next meeting of the Committee and sought confirmation of the information and invitees required.

RESOLVED               That the Committee

i)      Requested that the MTFS item on 19 December 2016 include percentage cuts across the various directorates for information.

Requested that the next Highways Update be presented to Committee in March 2017 and that the Cultural Partnership Project be brought forward to January 2017. .  

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.

There were no urgent items.