Agenda and minutes

There were no substitutes at the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors David Bimson, Christine Mason, Reg Silvester and Lance Stanbury.

To confirm the minutes of the meetings held on 10 September 2015 and 15 October 2015 (copies attached).

The minutes of the meetings held on 10 September 2015 and 15 October 2015 were accepted by the Committee and signed by the Chairman.

Members of the public who live or work in the District 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.

Report No: OAS/FH/15/013

The Cabinet Member for Operations has been invited to the meeting to give a short presentation / account of his portfolio and to answer questions from the Committee.

As set out in the Council’s Constitution, at every ordinary Overview and Scrutiny meeting at least one Cabinet Member would be invited to attend to give an account of his or her portfolio and answer questions from the Committee.  Therefore, to carry out this constitutional requirement, members were asked to consider the responsibilities of the Cabinet Member for Operations, who had been invited to the meeting.

Report No: OAS/FH/15/013, set out the overall responsibilities of the Cabinet Member for Operations, which were:

·         Car parking

·         CCTV

·         Cemeteries

·         Fleet management

·         Ground maintenance

·         Land drainage

·         Markets (delivery)

·         Operations

·         Property services and estate management

·         Public conveniences

·         Refuse/recycling

·         Street scene

·         Tourism (operations)

Councillor David Bowman, Cabinet Member for Operations opened his presentation by thanking the Committee for the invitation.  The presentation set out the areas of responsibility; structure; key facts; and current major projects.  There were three broad services areas with split Portfolio responsibility for the West Suffolk service with Forest Heath District Council:

-    Waste and street scene   (Cllr David Bowman and Cllr Stevens)

-    Property services            (Cllr David Bowman and Cllr Stevens)   

-    Leisure, cultural services (Cllr Andy Drummond and Cllr Jo Rayner)

A breakdown of operational costs was provided for waste and property only, and total operations including leisure for Forest Heath; St Edmundsbury and West Suffolk.

A number of statistics and major projects covering waste and property services were included, such as for West Suffolk:

·         5.7 million bins emptied each year containing 64,000 tonnes of material;

·         Maintaining a fleet of 200 vehicles covering 1 million miles each year; 

·         West Suffolk Operational Hub

·         Bartec (back office system and in-cab technology)

·         Owning 410 varied property assets;

·         CCTV control room dealt with over 1,600 incidents each year (mostly unreported) and new CCTV control room

·         Mildenhall Hub

·         Car parking reviews

Members discussed the presentation in detail and asked a number of questions of the Cabinet Member and the Head of Operations, to which comprehensive responses were provided. 

In particular discussions were held on the following:

(1)        Bartec – Members were advised that the Bartec in-cab technology would help in the management of the brown bins.  It would show who had subscribed to the service and generate bills etc.

(2)        Car Parking Strategy – Members were advised that a new Car Parking Strategy was progressing and would be presented to Cabinet in due course.  The Strategy would include capacity; how to manage existing car parks and a number of options for Newmarket, such as signage; free overnight parking and utilising spare capacity in pocket car parks.

(3)        CCTV – Officers were looking into the ability of having mobile CCTV cameras which could be deployed at special events such as the Christmas Market.

(4)        Depot Road, Newmarket – Open Door who managed the site had closed the recycling centre due to rising disposal costs and declining recyclate income.  The charity was no longer able to operate in the current format.  Officers advised that Suffolk County Council were in discussions with the charity to seek a way for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Directed Surveillance and Covert Human Intelligence Sources) Order 2010 requires that Members should scrutinise the authority’s use of its surveillance powers on a quarterly basis.

The Monitoring Officer advised that in Quarter 2, no such surveillance has been authorised.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Directed Surveillance and Covert Human Intelligence Sources) Order 2010 required that Members should scrutinise the authority’s use of its surveillance powers on a quarterly basis.

The Monitoring Officer had advised that in Quarter 2, no such surveillance had been authorised. There being no decision required, the Committee noted the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, Quarter 2 update.

Report No: OAS/FH/15/014

The Committee received Report No: OAS/FH/15/014, which requested that Members peruse the Cabinet Decisions Plan for the period November 2015 to May 2016, for which it would like further information on or which might benefit from the Committee’s involvement.

The Committee considered the Decisions Plan, and discussed the Core Strategy Single Issue Review, which was scheduled to be presented Cabinet on 1 March 2016.  The Chairman suggested having a short presentation on the Core Strategy Single Issue Review setting out what it is; the options and how it will be presented to the public.

With the vote being unanimous, it was

RESOLVED

That the Committee receives a short presentation on the Core Strategy Single Issue Review, setting out what it is; the options and how it will be presented to the public.

Report No: OAS/FH/15/015

The Committee received Report No OAS/FH/15/015, which updated Members on the current status of its rolling work programme of items for scrutiny during 2015-2016 (Appendix 1).

Members were reminded to complete the Work Programme Suggestion Form when submitting future items for potential scrutiny (Appendix 2).  This enabled suggestions received to be considered by the Committee at each meeting.

The Committee considered it’s rolling work programme, an there being no decision required, noted the items expected to be presented to the Committee during 2016.