Agenda item

Consider Action Tracker.  (Copy attached.)

1.1          With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 9 December 2021, there had been circulated copies of the Scrutiny Business Action Sheet.  The Clerk to the Council advised that actions had been added from the Meeting held on 9 December 2021 including a review of Festival Funding.  With regard to Rural Proofing, the Clerk to the Council was due to follow up on this action with the Director Resilient Communities.  Communications Officers were to attend the Meeting of the Committee to be held on 14 March 2022 to allow Members to have a discussion about a programme of communication in regard to climate change, including waste and recycling.  With regard to the Teviot Day Service action from the Meeting held on 30 November 2021, the Chairman advised that he had written to the Director Social Work & Practice who had confirmed that the two actions had been carried out.  With regard to Responsible Dog Ownership, Members considered that the action was to determine how dog waste was processed and that a short notification may only have been required.  Mr Hedley advised that dog waste could be co-mingled in general waste so long as it was not more than 5% of the total waste collected.  It was not practical to have special uplifts of dog waste for separate processing.  Members agreed that this action would now be closed.

1.2          The Chief Officer Audit and Risk referred to  action 1 (a) from the Meeting held on 29 June 2021, regarding the proposed review of the Income Management Policy, advising that this Policy had recently been reviewed and approved at the Executive Committee meeting held on 17 August 2021.  With regard to the benchmarking of charges, these had been related to the Fees and Charges approved by Council in February/March each year as part of budget setting.  The Chairman responded that the understanding was that for the 2022-23 budget, work on benchmarking fees was ongoing.  The Chief Officer Audit and Risk advised that findings from internal audit reviews would reference the Income Management Policy as part of wider policy.  Members agreed that this review be removed.

1.3          The Clerk to the Council advised that with regard to the proposed review of the Management and Maintenance of Public Halls, which would focus on the community contribution e.g. through management committees, public halls were still affected by Covid-19 restrictions.  The Clerk to the Council was liaising with the Director Strategic Commissioning & Partnerships on the most appropriate way to bring this forward to Members.  Public transport and communities action was to be addressed in the 14 March 2022 Meeting of the Committee.  The action regarding the Jedburgh Contact Centre and Library from the Meeting held on 25 November 2019 was to be addressed by the Director Resilient Communities.  In response to a question from the Chairman enquiring whether the action regarding Jedburgh Contact Centre and Library was out of date, the Clerk to the Council advised that an update on the action would be brought to the next Meeting of the Committee.

1.4          With regard to the action from 24 October 2019 on Community Access to Schools, the Chairman advised that he had had constructive discussions with the Director Education and Lifelong Learning with regards to the policy aspect of this issue.  The Chairman advised that the use and booking of schools by community groups was the result of historic practices in different areas so was complex.  On a wider policy point, reference had been made over the years to “community schools” but that had different meanings in different contexts.  Referring to community facilities within schools rather than community schools may be the way forward.  Determining which schools would have facilities available for use by community groups may be best taken forward as part of the Place Making conversations with communities.  Not every school would be made available in this way as there could be other facilities already available within communities or schools in towns could be close together.  The Chairman had agreed with the Clerk to the Council that the Committee return to the issue with a scrutiny discussion organised to address community access to schools facilitated by a brief report outlining the issues which would allow Members to express their views on what was meant by community access to schools and how this could best be taken forward.

DECISION

AGREED that:

(a)          the actions regarding the Teviot Day Service petition were now complete;

(b)          the Responsible Dog Ownership Strategy review action could now be marked as complete;

(c)          the Income Management Policy would be removed from the Work Programme as the Policy had recently been updated and the benchmarking of charges was undertaken as part of preparation of the Fees & Charges paper for the annual budget;

(d)          there would be a discussion at a future meeting of Audit & Scrutiny on the use of school facilities by community groups and how this could be taken forward through the Place Making discussions.