To receive a presentation by Councillor Lynda Needham, Leader of the Council.
Decision:
Councillor Lynda Needham, Leader of the Council, thanked the Chairman for the invitation to address the Committee and gave a presentation regarding that included:
1. A review of the previous year;
2. A summary of the coming year;
3. What went well;
4. What needed to be improved upon.
Minutes:
Councillor Lynda Needham, Leader of the Council, thanked the Chairman for the invitation to address the Committee and gave a verbal presentation as follows:
Waste Contract
The Leader of the Council commented that, even though a charge was now being made for the collection of garden waste, the Council continued to heavily subsidise this service.
A Review of the Previous Year
The Leader of the Council advised that it had been a very busy year.
The waste contract had been one of the most significant service changes/new contracts that the Council had implemented. In addition to this it was easy to forget that we had also managed the integration of the waste teams of this Council and East Herts Council. We were the first of the Authorities in Hertfordshire to embark on this and have engaged with Hertfordshire County Council’s Scrutiny work programme as an exemplar of how Councils can work more effectively together.
The Office Accommodation Project had been an excellent example of project management and delivery. The project was delivered on time and within budget tolerances (£23k overspend and the final capital budget was £6.1M).
The Refurbishment works to the Letchworth Leisure Centre had been completed, which again was an excellent project that, despite some financial challenges in delivering a project at a reasonable cost, had demonstrated excellent outcomes with a new learner pool and totally refurbished facilities including: sports hall, lighting, flooring, additional studio, new café and boiler refurbishment.
Finally, the Local Plan was adopted by Council for submission to the Secretary of State. The Examination process was extensive to say the least, with the Inspector starting off with a 5 week timetable finishing before Christmas, but this soon changed and the Examination concluded in March after many hours of representations and lots of ‘homework’. We are expecting the Inspectors modifications in the summer and there will need to be further consultation by the Inspector on them.
The Leader of the Council took the opportunity to thank the Planning Team, who had gone above and beyond the call of duty, working very long and unsociable hours.
A Summary of the Coming Year
The Leader of the Council advised that most of the information regarding the coming year was included the Corporate Plan, which Members would all be familiar with and drew attention to the following:
• Local Plan
Got to get through the modifications and on to consultation, adoption and implementation;
• Crematorium
The Council would be moving forward with the crematorium project, now that the planning applications had been submitted;
• Waste Contract
Ensure that the Waste Contract was embedded and running smoothly;
• Museum
The Town Hall had been open, running effectively and earning income for over two years. It was now important to get a resolution to the ownership of the entrance thereby allowing the full opening of the Museum;
• BIDS
Work with our BIDs to ensure that the re-ballots are undertaken effectively. The Council undertook the re-balloting process at no cost to the BIDS as part of the Council’s financial contribution to them.
• Careline
Continue to develop our Careline operation with our private clients, Herts County Council and corporate clients looking at new deployment opportunities. Technology was enabling people to remain in their own homes for longer and Careline was service supporting this.
The Leader of the Council recommended that Members arrange to visit the Careline Manager, who would explain upcoming technologies and their uses.
• Commercial Service Delivery
Develop our commercial approach to service delivery;
• Churchgate
Ascertain what options exist for Churchgate and the market area of Hitchin.
What Went Well
• Office Accommodation
There was a huge amount of commitment from all parties including staff, project team. contractors and Councillors;
• North Herts Leisure Centre
This was well organised in order to minimise disruption whilst delivering a project of significant complexity;
• Shared Service Waste Team
This was brought forward from the original proposal of mid 2019 to late 2017. This was to ensure that new shared team was in place for start of the contract.
• Elections
Administrative arrangements for the snap General Election, which was called whilst we were in the run up to the County elections.
The administrative complexity of running two elections on different timetables with huge resource pressures went well.
What needs to be improved Upon
The Leader of the Council stated that, in her view, you can always improve and it was important to recognise that identifying improvements was not an implied criticism and drew attention to the following areas
• Being ambitious whilst recognising resource constraints and being realistic about what we could deliver. Sometimes our enthusiasm exceeded our ability to deliver.
• Communication could always be improved upon and that relates to everyone associated with the organisation including officers, Councillors, residents and partners.
• Having a common purpose. Once a decision was made, acting on it for the good of the Council and the residents of the District.
• Having the ability to think longer term and strategically. There would be increasingly difficult decisions to take in the future and that would take a shift in mind-set.
Members asked for an update regarding the Hitchin Town Hall and queried why an interim arrangement had not been made.
In respect of the interim deal, there was a privately arranged public meeting in Hitchin, at which it was mentioned that an interim deal regarding access was being offered to the Council. This offer was not made to the Council, but it was looked into. The deal offered related to disabled people and not the general public and the other party wanted this arrangement to be under licence. The options were to stop the negotiations already taking place in order to negotiate a licence o to continue with the negotiations already in hand. It was decided that it was more expedient to continue the existing negotiations.
In spring 2017 an amount of money had been agreed for the purchase of 1415 Brand Street and the Council understood that a deal regarding this was agreed and was ready to sign. Following a Board meeting of the other party, the negotiating team changed and 10 additional clauses were submitted. The Council had considered each of these clauses, seven were now agreed on, two were close to resolution and one needed more negotiation.
This process had so far taken 19 months.
Members commented that it was a matter of some urgency that the Council push forward with the commercialisation agenda and asked about the appointment of the senior person to take this forward. The noted that the SIAS repot recommended some cross party working to take this forward and sked whether this would be supported.
The Leader of the Council agreed that the commercialisation agenda was urgent. In respect of cross party working, she would look at how this could be introduced.
Members expressed concern at the comments made regarding the brown bin service being heavily subsidised, as they were under the impression, from papers presented to Cabinet, and considered by this Committee, that the service would provide a significant profit.
The Leader of the Council did not recollect any papers that talked about profit in relation to brown bin collections. However she would take this away and clarify the position.
She confirmed that the aim was for the service to become self-funding and, if it became profit making, a debate would be held as to what any surplus fund would be used for.
Members referred to the Gender Pay Gap, they noted that NHDC had faired particularly poorly against other Local Authorities in this area and asked what actions would be taken to reduce the gap.
The Leader of the Council advised that the Gender Pay Gap was particularly low, mainly due to the number of outside contracts that were mainly staffed by male employees, resulting in the ratio of female employees employed directly by the Council being particularly high. Local Authorities were very generous with flexible working including the ability to work from home and flexible hours, which appealed particularly to young females.
The Council needed to encourage female workers to apply for any internal promotions as well as senior positions.
The most recent senior appointment was for the Deputy Chief Executive, the short listed people for this was four females and two males.
Female employees should be encouraged to request training, which would support them in applying for more senior roles.
A Member commented that it was important for NHDC to encourage females to apply for senior roles, but also to support their needs and queried whether there was a plan in place to address these issues.
The Leader of the Council advised that there was not a specific plan in place, however NHDC had always offered training and support to all staff. Any further plans and actions would be for the Head of Paid Service (Chief Executive) to produce and implement.
In terms of pay scales, which was a different issues to that of the Gender Pay Gap, the Council had one pay scale that applied to everyone and there was no pay inequality.
The Chief Executive advised that further work was be undertaken through coaching and mentoring as well as the opportunities in regular performance reviews and professional development and these actions were underpinned by the People Strategy and the Workforce Development Plan.
In response to a question, he advised that a considerable amount of work had been undertaken regarding coaching training and this continued.
A Member noted that an area identified in previous years for potential savings had been the abolition of Area Committees and sought assurance that Area Committees, together with their grant making powers would not be abolished.
The Leader of the Council reminded Members that there would be increasingly difficult financial decisions to be made in the future, particularly if the Government continued to increase the negative grant for NHDC. As funding was reduced, so the amount available for grant funding had reduced, and it was possible that grant funding would no longer be available in the future.
In respect of Area Committees, she could not give any guarentees that these would continue in perpetuity. NHDC had maintained the Area Committees so far and were the only authority in Hertfordshire to do so.
RESOLVED:
(1) That the Leader of the Council be thanked for her presentation;
(2) That the Chief Executive be requested to investigate the queries regarding the finances surrounding the brown bin collection service and report back to Members of this Committee.