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)

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To receive for approval the minutes of a meeting of the Community Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee dated 20 October 2016.

RESOLVED:                  That the Minutes of a meeting of the Community, Environment and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Committee dated 20 October 2016, be approved as a true and accurate record.

The Corporate Director – Operational and Partnership Services submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to present the items due to be considered at the Committee’s meeting to be held on 26 January 2017, and also to present a list of further potential items for prioritisation by the Committee.

Paragraph 4.1 outlined the items for the meeting scheduled to take place on 26 January 2017, whilst paragraph 4.2 listed potential items for the subsequent meeting scheduled to be held on 30 March 2017.

The Chairperson advised that he would be unable to attend the meeting on the 30 March 2017, and he asked Members if they would have any objection to the date of the Committee being moved to a week or so before or after the 30^th March and they agreed to this request.

RESOLVED:                  Members noted the agenda items to be considered at the next two scheduled Committee meeting dates on 26 January and 30 March 2017.

Invitees:

M. Shephard – Corporate Director Communities

Z. Shell – Head of Neighbourhood Services

S. Pryce – Head of Regeneration, Development and Property Services

J. Norman – Finance Manager Education, Communities and Transformation

Councillor H. Williams – Deputy Leader

The Chairperson welcomed the Invitees to the meeting, following which the Corporate Director – Communities introduced the report.

The Corporate Director – Communities advised, that Members would no doubt understand the challenges the Authority face as a whole, and that a significant amount of savings were required in his Directorate in order to meet these challenges.

He added that his Directorate had made significant savings under the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy for a number of years, and whilst this was easier in the past, he was now finding it very difficult to meet the ongoing required savings whilst still providing adequate front line services.

The service areas where savings were required to be made were outlined in the Appendices that supported the covering report, and he was taking steps already to look to make the amount of savings required as aligned to these areas. If the savings required in respect of any of the Budget Reduction proposals were not made in any of these required areas, then they would still need to be made in other areas of his Directorate.

Members then referred to the Budget Reduction Proposals as detailed in Appendix B to the report for the period 2017-18 to 2020-21.

In respect of COM 1, a Member asked Invitees to explain further the budget reductions proposed in respect of the provision of public toilets.

The Head of Neighbourhood Services advised that as part of the budget cuts going forward, it was intended to close all public toilets by 2018-19 (to achieve £103k savings) and introduce in 2017-18, mobile public toilet cleaning attendants for the towns of Bridgend, Porthcawl and Maesteg only. There was also a proposal in conjunction with this, for Town & Community Councils to be approached for funding to help maintain the cost of providing these facilities.

A Member noted that cleaning of public toilets by mobile attendants would be introduced in the next financial year, and asked how this would affect opening/closing times for the continued provision of these services. He also asked how it was intended to keep these toilets clean, as presumably the service and presence of attendants would only be at certain  times of the day. He also felt that the saving required for this appeared to be challenging and asked if the Corporate Director – Communities felt it was achievable.

The Corporate Director – Communities confirmed that there would be a challenge opening and closing these facilities at the allotted times,, as the cleaning attendant(s) would be moving from one facility to another in situate in separate areas of the County Borough. So there would in all probability be a case of ‘rolling’ opening times. Wherever possible however, this task could be allocated to other designated blue collar staff. The Corporate Director – Communities added that the finer detail regarding operational proposals had yet to be confirmed. He added that he was keen to work with Town/Community Councils, as this was the type of service that they could support and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78.

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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