Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Ian Albert, Steve Deakin-Davies, Ben Lewis, Michael Muir and Val Shanley.

Having given due notice Councillor Stears-Handscomb advised that he would be substituting for Councillor Ian Albert.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Ian Albert, Steve Deakin-Davies, Ben Lewis, Michael Muir and Val Shanley.

Having given due notice Councillor Stears-Handscomb advised that he would be substituting for Councillor Ian Albert.

To take as read and approve as a true record the minutes of the meeting of this Committee held on the 21 March 2017

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 21 March be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chairman.

RESOLVED:That the Minutes of the Meeting of the Committee held on 21 March be approved as a true record of the proceedings and be signed by the Chairman.

Members should notify the Chairman of other business which they wish to be discussed by the Committee at the end of either Part I or Part II business set out in the agenda. They must state the circumstances which they consider justify the business being considered as a matter of urgency.

The Chairman will decide whether any item(s) raised will be considered.

No other business was submitted for consideration by the Committee.

No other business was submitted for consideration by the Committee.

Members are reminded that any declarations of interest in respect of any business set out in the agenda, should be declared as either a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or Declarable Interest and are required to notify the Chairman of the nature of any interest declared at the commencement of the relevant item on the agenda. Members declaring a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest must withdraw from the meeting for the duration of the item.  Members declaring a Declarable Interest which requires they leave the room under Paragraph 7.4 of the Code of Conduct, can speak on the item, but must leave the room before the debate and vote.

(1)       The Chairman reminded those present that, in line with Council policy, the meeting would be audio recorded;

(2)       The Chairman informed Members that there was no sound amplification and asked Members to speak loudly and clearly;

(3)    The Chairman drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question;

(4)    The Chairman advised that the order of business would be varied as follows:

(i)    Item 14 – Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of larger Projects would take place immediately after Item 5 – Public Participation;

(ii)   Item 16 – Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme would take place immediately prior to Item 8 – Presentation by the Chief Executive;

(iii)   Item 10 – Corporate Objectives 2018/23 would take place immediately prior to   Item 9 – Information Note: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

(1)       The Chairman reminded those present that, in line with Council policy, the meeting would be audio recorded;

(2)       The Chairman informed Members that there was no sound amplification and asked Members to speak loudly and clearly;

(3)    The Chairman drew attention to the item on the agenda front pages regarding Declarations of Interest and reminded Members that, in line with the Code of Conduct, any Declarations of Interest needed to be declared immediately prior to the item in question;

(4)    The Chairman advised that the order of business would be varied as follows:

(i)    Item 14 – Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of larger Projects would take place immediately after Item 5 – Public Participation;

(ii)   Item 16 – Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme would take place immediately prior to Item 8 – Presentation by the Chief Executive;

(iii)   Item 10 – Corporate Objectives 2018/23 would take place immediately prior to   Item 9 – Information Note: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

To receive petitions, comments and questions from members of the public including:

1.    Management of Larger Projects – Mr Robin Dartington.

Public participation requests received within the agreed time will be notified to Members as soon as practicable.

Members of the public who have contributed to Task and Finish groups are invited to attend the meeting at which the report is presented.

Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of Larger Projects

Mr Robin Dartington, Mr Bernard Eddleston, Mr Mike Clarke and Mr David Leal-Bennett gave presentations regarding the Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of Larger Projects.

Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of Larger Projects

Mr Robin Dartington thanked the Chairman for the opportunity to address the Committee and advised that he was speaking on behalf of Keep Hitchin Special.

Mr Dartington stated that the redevelopment of the Churchgate Area was the largest, longest, most complex, most expensive and least successful development that the Council had ever attempted.

Perceptive Scrutiny by this Committee would be a testing task, which Keep Hitchin Special wished to help with for both the Council’s and the community’s interests.

When making criticisms, Keep Hitchin Special appreciated that the officer team worked very hard even when they were over-worked.

The community was deeply involved in the initial Planning Brief but was then deliberately excluded by the Council and sat resentfully on the edge waiting for the inevitable collapse of all the Council’s hopes.

It was the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s job to investigate what went wrong by delving into history in order to uncover the crucial decisions that dictated the course of events that led to failure to lay a single brick after ten years of planning and spending £1 million, mostly on abortive fees and this would not be an easy task.

Although this was now history it still mattered, as clearly the council still hankered after redeveloping this historic area that was so important to the enduring character of Hitchin as an attractive market town.

A market town meant a place for the community, in the town and in the outlying villages, to come together for all social needs including shopping, the market and socialising.

Community meant people united by a common interest, in this case, the town that was home and people we socialise and talk with. It was questionable whether the Council understood this either in the past or present.

Keep Hitchin Special was one group within the community whose interest was to protect the special qualities of Hitchin as a place in which to live, work and enjoy company in the town centre and regretfully concluded that the Council understood nothing of such community needs and was just not interested. The council kept to itself and was certainly not a part of the local community, viewing us as just customers.

Keep Hitchin Special saw little difference between the failed Simons scheme and the re-vamped policy in the Local Plan which presented developers with the opportunity to add 4,000 square metres of town centre space, which were Council-speak for more shops. 

Developers, like Simons, were motivated solely by profit; they come, build, sell, and go without a care, leaving a chunk of Hitchin under the control of some foreign sovereign fund for the next 125 to 250 years.

The policy did include some enhancements to and protection for historic buildings but non-commercial elements were liable to be suppressed if the council again handed over the lead to a commercial developer. 

Keep Hitchin Special believed that the failures ultimately stemmed from the inappropriate management culture within the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Chairman to report on any urgent or general exception items which required his agreement.  At the time of printing the agenda, the Chairman had not agreed any urgent or general exception items.

No urgent or general exception items were received.

No urgent or general exception items were received.

To consider any matters referred to the Committee for a decision in relation to a call-in of a decision. At the time of printing the agenda, no items of business had been called-in.

Since the last meeting, no decisions had been called-in by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Since the last meeting, no decisions had been called-in by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

To receive a presentation from Mr David Scholes, the Chief Executive.

This presentation was given during the debate on the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme (Minute 16 refers).

This presentation was given during the debate on the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme (Minute 16 refers).

The Chief Executive advised that the starting place for any Overview and Scrutiny and the cascade of documents was the Corporate Vision to make North Hertfordshire a vibrant place for people to live, work and prosper, which was created by the Council and its partners and had been a long held corner stone for the way that the Corporate Plan and objectives were dealt with.

The Corporate Plan normally lasted for five years, this document started to focus in on what the objectives would be for that period. The objectives were reviewed annually and had been amended during the period of the Plan, although not in any major way.

In the past the Corporate Plan had tended to focus on large projects and key long tdeliverables, rather than the business as usual activities that the Council undertook. The projects mentioned in the Plan tended to be the things that people could see happening and those for which the Council had key performance indicators.

It may be that future Corporate Plans included more business as usual work undertaken by the Council, whilst considering the capacity and funding of the organisation.

Service Plans linked in with the Corporate Plan, by identifying which Corporate Objective was being addressed for each action in the Action Plan. If actions were not one of the Corporate Objectives, then it should not be undertaken.

A Member asked whether this happened in Service Plans.

The Chief Executive confirmed that it did. It could be argued that, if objectives were broad enough then anything could be made to fit in with it, however when setting objectives it was a balance between setting snappy objectives that people could identify with and looking at what local authorities do and carrying that forward.

The Action Plans included in the Service Plans generally identified things that were up coming regarding projects or service areas, ongoing work being undertaken in order to deliver something within a particular year or the point that had been reached for something to be delivered in future years. Additionally the Action Plans captured all the business as usual items and identified what the Council would be doing, the quantum associated with that task and any performance targets.

Actions with associated performance targets and progress against key projects were then reported to this and other Committees on a quarterly basis and these reports showed any areas of concern, which meant that there were checks and balances in the monitoring systems.

Service Plans gave some measures regarding the scope of the service, resourcing, service activities and priorities. In some service areas there was a balance between statutory service delivery and discretionary elements, it should be noted that it tended to be the discretionary elements that people liked to see.

The Service Plans also gave a performance profile by looking at the previous year’s performance, how would things be done for the forthcoming year  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

INFORMATION NOTE OF THE CORPORATE LEGAL MANAGER

To receive the quarterly update regarding the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

The Committee received an information note entitled Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

The Committee received an information note entitled Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

REPORT OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF FINANCE, POLICY AND GOVERNANCE

To consider the Corporate Objective 2018/23 prior to consideration by Cabinet.

RESOLVED: That the recommendations contained in the report entitled Corporate Objectives for 2018/23 be supported.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to comment on the report entitle Corporate Objectives for 2018/23 prior to consideration by Cabinet.

Members noted that the objectives in the Corporate Plan remained the same as the previous year.         

RESOLVED: That the recommendations contained in the report entitled Corporate Objectives for 2018/23 be supported.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to comment on the report entitle Corporate Objectives for 2018/23 prior to consideration by Cabinet.

REPORT OF THE HEAD OF FINANCE, PERFORMANCE AND ASSET MANAGEMENT

To consider the Performance Indicator Monitoring Report for the end of year 2016/17.

RESOLVED:

(1)     That the report entitled Year End Performance Indicators Monitoring Report 2016/17 be noted;

(2)     That the Controls, Risk and Performance Manager be requested to include benchmarking data in respect of sickness absence in all future reports.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to monitor performance against targets.

The Controls, Risk and Performance Manager presented the report entitled Year End Performance Indicators Monitoring Report 2016/17 and drew attention to the three amber indicators as follows:

BV8 – Percentage of Invoices Paid on Time

This had been reported as amber for some time and was due to 36 invoices out of 5,370 not being paid within time.

BV12a – Working Days Lost due to Short Term Sickness Absence per FTE Employee

This had been reported as amber for some time. The sickness levels remained above what was expected, but had reduced significantly since the levels seen some years ago.

The Chief Executive advised Members that, whilst the target had not been achieved, on terms of performance, the Council remained in the top quartile and had very low levels of sickness.

Members asked that benchmarking data regarding this indicator be included in the report in  future.

NI192 – Percentage of Household Waste sent for Reuse, Recycling and Composting

This remained slightly under target, although the LG Inform Benchmarking Data showed that the Council was 6th out of 51 nationally.

RESOLVED:

(1)     That the report entitled Year End Performance Indicators Monitoring Report 2016/17 be noted;

(2)     That the Controls, Risk and Performance Manager be requested to include benchmarking data in respect of sickness absence in all future reports.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to monitor performance against targets.

REPORT OF THE HEAD OF FINANCE, PERFORMANCE AND ASSET MANAGEMENT

To consider the 4th quarter report regarding projects identified in the Corporate Plan.

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the report entitled 4th Quarter Monitoring Report on Key Projects for 2016/17 be noted:

(2)       That the Controls, Risk and Performance Manager be requested to include a record of any Prince II documentation produced for projects in all future reports.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to monitor delivery of key projects against targets.

The Controls, Risk and Performance Manager presented the report of the Head of Finance, Performance and Asset Management entitled 4th Quarter Monitoring Report on Key Projects for 2016/17 and drew attention to the following:

Relevant Considerations

The requests made by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had all been incorporated into this report.

Delivering Identified Projects from the Adopted Green Space Strategy

There were three milestones marked as red and they were all due to lack of funding.

The Council was either seeking Section 106 funding or looking for other sources of funding to complete these projects.

Redeveloping and Improving the North Herts Leisure Centre

There had been a delay in this project although a large amount of work had been completed including the changing rooms and sports hall and other work were progressing well.

Complete the Fit Out and Open the North Hertfordshire Museum and Community Facility

The fit out of the museum was nearing completion on the land owned by the Council and the project team were working with the contractors to finalise a programme to complete the work on 14/15 Brand Street once this had been purchased by the Council.

Members queried whether this should be marked as amber as this is so far behind schedule, with little information forthcoming about what is happening.

The Chief Executive advised that Cabinet had received a report in March which set out the context of the current situation and assured Members that Officers were expending every effort but there was nothing that the Council could do to move this forward more quickly.

The contract for the museum was awarded on a partial basis and the fit out was in the final stages of everything that could be done on Council owned land.

Discussions were taking place regarding the opening of the museum at the earliest opportunity, whether or not the issues with 14/15 Brand Street had been resolved.

Members were concerned that there was insufficient detail in the paperwork, they understood that some areas were covered by commercial sensitivities, but felt that Members should be made aware that the reasons for a particular lack of information was for this reason.

Renewing our Waste and Street Cleansing Contract

The current project plan showed slippage to the original milestones. This would not affect the contract commencement date which remained as May 2018; however, the amendments may have implications for the contract award date and encroach into the contract mobilisation period post tender award.

Exploring Further the Potential for Development of a Crematorium in North Hertfordshire

A Member commented that outline planning permission should be sought as soon as possible as it was likely that housing developments would be built near the proposed site.

Other Issues

Members asked whether, on larger projects, details such as whether Prince II had been utilised could be recorded on this report.

The Controls, Risk and Performance Manager advised that, if Prince II documentation was produced, it could be recorded in future reports.

Members queried whether staffing levels were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To receive and respond to any questions from Members either set out in the agenda or tabled at the meeting. 

No questions had been submitted.

No questions had been submitted.

REPORT OF THE SCRUTINY OFFICER

To consider the report of the Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of Larger Projects.

            RESOLVED:

(1)     That the Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of Larger Projects be requested to consider the comments made by this Committee regarding the recommendation contained in the report paying particular attention to the following:

Recommendation 1

Members suggested that the recommendation be amended to reflect the need to move forward and the need to assess risks and recognise when a project should be stopped.

Recommendation 2

Members queried whether this recommendation applied to only one project and therefore should be clarified as such, or whether this was something that should be applied generally and maybe be re-worded.

As a point of clarification the recommendation should be to be clearer about its tender invitations and then put it out to tender.

Recommendation 9

It was suggested that the recommendation be amended to reflect that the Council should not embark on a project unless they were confident that proper and meaningful consultation had been undertaken, but it was important to continue to engage with the public at stages throughout project.

                   Recommendation 10

          It was suggested that the recommendation be amended to ensure that use of the Competitive Dialogue Process was not excluded, but that it was used appropriately and not used on highly sensitive and visible projects.

(2)       That the Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of Larger projects be requested to consider whether the comments made and documents presented in public participation would add any value to their discussions.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider the Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of Larger Projects report prior to consideration by Cabinet.

Prior to consideration of this item, the Chairman drew attention to the second submission from Keep Hitchin Special that had been made available to Members at this meeting. She noted that it contained some additional suggestions regarding recommendations and gave Members time to read this document.

Councillor Michael Weeks, Chairman of the Task and Finish Group on the Council’s Management of Larger Projects, presented the report of that Group.

Councillor Weeks thanked those who had assisted and taken part in the Task and Finish Group.

Seven reviews were carried out over a four month period being one major regeneration project, one initiative to collaborate with other district councils in Hertfordshire, one internal reconstruction scheme, two public facility enhancements and two town centre enhancements.

The content of the report was supported unanimously by all members of the group.

The Task and Finish Group was not intended to be an enquiry body looking to criticise past projects, nor was it intended to be a scrutiny exercise. Instead it was an exercise to see what the Council could learn from its past projects.

It would appear that the four public speakers aimed to criticise the Churchgate project, using the Task and Finish Group as a vehicle to do so. This sort of criticism was not part of the Task and Finish Group brief and it was primarily for this reason that public participation was refused during the early stages of the review, when considering Churchgate.

Councillor Weeks explained that in reviewing these projects the Task and Finish Groups aim was to identify aspects that should be avoided in future projects.

He then summarised the reviews undertaken for each project and explained the evidence and reasoning behind each recommendation, as detailed in the report.

Points of Clarification

Prior to Councillor Weeks guiding the Members through the recommendations of the Task and Finish Group several points of clarification were raised.

A Member queried whether that Task and Finish Group had asked for any evidence that the Prince II process had been followed, when used on projects.

The Scrutiny Officer advised that there were very detailed documents regarding the Churchgate project, but for most of the projects there was little evidence produced regarding the use of Prince II. An officer had commented that they had used Prince II appropriately, but there was no need to use all aspects and therefore used what was useful and did not use aspects that were bureaucratic or deemed as unnecessary.

A Member asked for clarification regarding whether the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could amend the recommendations of the Task and Finish Group if it so wished.

The Chairman confirmed that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could amend recommendations of Task and Finish Groups.

The Chief Executive advised that one option was for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to ask the Task and Finish Group to reconvene in order to consider any comments and reformulate its recommendations.

Councillor Weeks informed Members that the recommendations made by the Task and Finish Group  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

REPORT OF THE SCRUTINY OFFICER

To consider the outcome of Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolutions.

RESOLVED: That the actions resulting from the resolutions of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee be noted.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review and monitor the progress of resolutions made.

Members agreed that the detail included in this item should be considered at the next meeting.

In respect of future workings of the Committee, discussions were needed regarding how the Committee could more effectively track the resolutions and find out the reasons given for any that were not accepted. This could be by way of letter to the Executive Member or by questioning Heads of Service or Executive Members at a meeting.

There was a need for a process to close off the resolutions of Task and Finish Groups by asking what had been achieved and what lessons had been learnt for future Task and Finish Groups. Suggestions for achieving this were either by removing it from the list as no action would likely be taken or by questioning the Executive Members.

RESOLVED: That the actions resulting from the resolutions of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee be noted.

REASON FOR DECISION: To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review and monitor the progress of resolutions made.

REPORT OF THE SCRUTINY OFFICER

To consider the issues that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee plans to review at future meetings and the activities of its sub-groups.

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme be noted;

(2)       That the Chairman, Chief Executive and Scrutiny Officer be requested to develop the outline for a workshop that would enable Members to identify issues and topics for discussion at future meetings of this Committee;

(3)       That the Scrutiny Officer be requested to produce a scope for a Task and Finish Group on Communication and Engagement and present this to the next meeting of this Committee;

(4)       That Head of Development and Building Control be requested to formulate a discussion paper regarding the Strategy for a New Settlement to be presented at the next meeting of this Committee;

(5)       That the Communications Manager and Customer Services Manager be requested to formulate a discussion paper regarding Channel Shifting and present it to this Committee on 19 September 2017.

REASON FOR DECISION:To enable the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to plan and carry out its workload efficiently and effectively.

The Chairman advised Members that the main consideration in this report was the findings of the workshop, attended by Members that considered how this Committee could scrutinise issues more effectively in the future.

The Scrutiny Officer presented the report entitled Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme and drew attention to the following:

Future methods of Scrutiny

The Committee had expressed a wish to have an earlier and more effective input into policy and an earlier awareness of potential problems and consideration had been given, over a period of time, as to how this could be achieved.

A workshop for Members of the Committee was held in April 2017 from which a number of options were identified and these were set out on Pages 91 and 92 of the report.

Any changes adopted by the Committee were not intended to be particularly onerous for officers, but aimed to get the Committee to understand more and enter the process earlier and this could be achieved in a number of ways as follows:

The Corporate Plan

There was a feeling that the current Corporate Plan did not reflect the activities of the Council in an effective way and needed to be re-drafted.

Service Plans

Some Service Plans had already been published, although some had yet to be so.

Each Service Plan had an action plan attached, which gave an outline of the things that the Council would be undertaking during the next Civic Year and this gave an opportunity for the Committee to identify projects, reviews and issues that were coming up and have an input at an early stage.

The Development and Building Control Plan identified an action to Develop a Strategic Approach to the Local Plan 2031 New Settlement and that this could be an opportunity to invite the Head of Development and Building Control to come to the Committee to share his thoughts and for the Committee to provide feedback and ideas.

The same document identified that the Council was considering the introduction of a Community Infrastructure Levy in December 2017 and this could be considered at later date.

The Communications Service Plan contained a project regarding Channel Shifting, which was about encouraging use of on-line methods of communications in order to reduce the amount of direct customer contact with the Customer Service Centre. This project was due to report in March 2017, but had been deferred to report in March 2018 and this may be a subject that the Committee would be interested in.

The Chairman stated that considering items identified in action plans could be less burdensome for Officers and would enable the Committee to have an input into the though processes before the project was developed.

If the Committee chose a new method of choosing issues to consider, tools such as the Forward Plan should continue to be used and not forgotten,

A Member commented that one of the challenges was to make sure that officers put their projects on the Forward Plan in good time.

Top Risks  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.