Agenda and draft minutes

Any Member who is substituting for another Member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant absent Member.

The following substitution was declared:

Councillor Patricia Warby for Councillor Sarah Stamp.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Clive Springett and Sarah Stamp.

Councillor Andrew Speed was also unable to attend the meeting.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 9 January 2019 (copy attached).

Councillor Paul Hopfensperger expressed concerns regarding the accuracy of the minutes, in relation to the minutes from 7 November 2018, Minute Number 275 (b) -(Christmas Fayre).  The minute of 7 November 2018 had been amended at the meeting on 9 January 2019, following detailed discussions and Councillor Paul Hopfensperger questioned the accuracy of the recording of the meeting of 7 November, and the process followed to agree the minutes, to which the Monitoring Officer provided comprehensive responses.  He then sought to propose amendments to the minutes accordingly, however did not receive the support of a seconder.

The substantive minute was then proposed by Councillor Mike Chester and  seconded by Councillor Patricia Warby.

Councillor John Burns then drew members attention to Minute Number 281 (Car Parking Update), page 9, paragraph 6.  Councillor John Burns proposed that the words “… were not required to …” be removed and the words be replaced with “.. do not …”. This was duly seconded by Councillor Margaret Mark, and with the vote being 7 for, and 4 abstentions, the inclusion of the amendment was duly carried.

Subject to the inclusion of the following amendment, the minutes of the meeting held on 9 January 2019, were then proposed and seconded, and with the vote being 7 for, 1 against and 3 abstentions, the minutes were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman:

That in respect of Minute 281, “Car Parking Update January 2018 to November 2018” the following sentence to read:

In respect of (g) above, there was no statistical data available as car park users were not required to do not obtain a ticket during the free periods.

Members of the public who live or work in the Borough are invited to put one question/statement of not more than 3 minutes duration relating to items to be discussed in Part 1 of the agenda only.  If a question is asked and answered within 3 minutes, the person who asked the question may ask a supplementary question that arises from the reply.

A person who wishes to speak must register at least 15 minutes before the time the meeting is scheduled to start.

There is an overall limit of 15 minutes for public speaking, which may be extended at the Chairman’s discretion.

There were no questions/statements from members of the public.

The Chairman advised that the Vice-chair attended the Joint Executive (Cabinet) Committee on 22 January 2019 in her absence, and presented the Committee’s report on items it considered on 9 January 2019, which was noted.

The Chairman advised she attended the Joint Executive (Cabinet) Committee meeting held on 12 March 2019, where the recommendations of the Public Space Protection (PSPO), (Bury St Edmunds) – Addition of Conditions was considered, and passed on thanks from the Cabinet. Councillor Rayner specifically recorded that her resident was grateful for our input into the PSPO.  The Chairman noted that she had reported back to members of the Committee by email that following the meeting in January the Families and Communities team consulted with the Police and the Council’s legal team regarding the PSPO.  As a result the consultation draft was amended so that the PSPO would be effective e for 24 hours a day, and reference added to “racing”.  The consultation received a very positive response, and the change to the PSPO was approved by Cabinet on 12 March 2019.  Unfortunately, the request to include idling refrigerated lorries was not included.  Advice from the legal team was that this was not appropriate for addition to the PSPO as nuisances was covered under the Environmental Health and Planning Regulations.

The Chairman also provided the Committee with a reply from Jesse Norman, MP regarding Civil Parking Enforcement, in which he had indicated we might receive positive news this month.  Unfortunately, no further update had been received.

Finally, the Chairman had chased several times the information on insurance pay outs.  An officer from Suffolk County Council had promised to provide details for the last financial year to date, and the previous full financial year 2017-2018.  These will be forward to members of the Committee once received.

Report No: OAS/SE/19/007

On 7 March 2018, the Committee received a presentation from the Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance, setting out responsibilities covered under his portfolio.

At this meeting, the Cabinet Member had been invited back to provide his annual update, and Report No: OAS/SE/19/007 set out the focus of the update.  The Cabinet Member was also provided in advance of the meeting with some key questions identified by scrutiny members on areas they wished to be appraised on during the annual update, which were included in the report along with responses.

The Cabinet Member, Councillor Ian Houlder thanked the Committee for the invitation and the questions submitted, as set out in the report.  He explained that from 1 April 2019, the new West Suffolk Council email address would become a primary email address for all councillors.  The report set out information on “Bring Your Own Devices” (BYODs) and the need to be technically up to date.  The Learning and Development team was developing the new member induction/training for all councillors after the election.  Finally, ICT had been looking at the interface of the Intranet to make it easier for councillors to use.

The Committee asked a number of follow-up questions, in particular:

·         Post-election: newly elected members receiving their electronic devices swiftly and the ability to receive emails from day one;

·         Length of time to upgrade equipment, and the ability to bring in and swop devices;

·         Password notifications/resetting;

·         Treasury management: interest on the value of capital.

The Portfolio Holder and officers responded to the questions, and confirmed that the ICT team was looking at a number of options to make it as smooth a process as possible for all councillors.  ICT had looked at Airwatch; BYODs, having emails ready in a couple of hours following the election; and support for councillors if devices were not working.  It was recognised that the upgrade to Windows 10 had been particularly challenging.  All new devices would also be pre-installed with the software councillors required.    

In response to a question raised regarding passwords running out, officers explained that ICT was looking at self-serve password resets and how best this could be rolled out to councillors.  Officers would also look at providing guidance on how to change passwords.

A member of the Committee advised that Suffolk County Council had recently changed to having annual passwords, to which officers agreed to follow this up with the Infrastructure Manager with regards to annual password changes for West Suffolk.

In response to a question on treasury management, the Portfolio Holder explained that he reported on interest received quarterly to the Performance and Audit Scrutiny Committee.  Interest rates remained at an historic low.  The council had recently changed Treasury Advisors to Arlingclose Ltd.  Members were reminded that in the future the council would start to move into a borrowing position. 

A member of the committee wished it to be noted that her computer had failed several times, but the ICT team were wonderful and so patient in resolving the issues.

The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 289.