Issue - meetings

(report to follow.)

10.1     With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 22 August 2019, there had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Customer and Communities which presented an update on subjects for Scrutiny review and information as part of the future Scrutiny work programme, to be approved by Council.  There were 13 subjects which were due to be taken forward and these were detailed in the appendix to the report.  In addition, at the Council meeting held on 19 December 2019, Members agreed that the Audit and Scrutiny Committee would undertake regular monitoring of the implementation of the Best Value Action Plan which had been drafted in response to the findings of the Best Value assurance audit of the Council and this work would be undertaken separately from the Scrutiny Work Programme.    With the publication of the information from the Local Government Benchmarking Framework 2018/19 at the end of January 2020, the Chairman had also suggested that the Audit & Scrutiny Committee carry out a follow-up scrutiny of the Council’s performance after 6 months of those areas where performance had slipped.  However, there were quarterly performance reports provided to the Executive Committee which over a year would cover these indicators.  The format of these performance reports was evolving but the Q3 performance report being presented to the Executive Committee on 11 February identified which were LGBF indicators and on what frequency they were being reported.

10.2     Given the number of subjects for review, it was unlikely that the Audit & Scrutiny Committee would have time over the coming year to deal with every subject.  It was therefore suggested that these should be placed in priority order.  When identifying that list, Members also bore in mind the Services which were being covered so that there was an even spread. Councillor Hamilton suggested that with regard to the Grass Cutting regime information, this should also include the effectiveness of any biodiversity measures and this was unanimously accepted.

DECISION

*        (a)  AGREED TO RECOMMEND to COUNCIL the subjects to be included in the Scrutiny Work Programme, as detailed in the Appendix to this Minute, with the subjects to be dealt with in 2020/21 prioritised as follows:-

(i)        Child Poverty

(ii)        Common Ridings and Festivals In-kind support;

(iii)      Police Community Action Teams

(iv)      Recycling and Waste Policy

(v)     Public transport and communities; and

(vi)    Balance between 20mph speed limits and street architecture.

(b)     AGREED that the first update to the Audit & Scrutiny Committee on progress with the implementation of the Best Value Action Plan would be brought to the meeting on Thursday 4 June 2020.