Agenda and minutes
Venue: Conference Chamber West (FR1-09), West Suffolk House, Western Way, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3YU
Contact: Christine Brain: Democratic Services Officer
Email: christine.brain@westsuffolk.gov.uk
Items
No. |
Item |
1. |
Substitutes
Any Member who is substituting for another
Member should so indicate, together with the name of the relevant
absent Member.
Minutes:
The following substitution was declared:
Councillor Jim Thorndyke substituting for
Councillor Marion Rushbrook.
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2. |
Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from
Councillors Simon Brown and Marion Rushbrook.
Councillor Paul Hopfensperger had also sent
his apologies in advance, however arrived at the meeting at
5.50pm.
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3. |
Public Participation
Members of the public who live or work in the
District are welcome to speak and may ask one question or make a
statement of not more than three minutes duration relating to items
to be discussed in Part 1 of the agenda only. If a question is asked and answered within three
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 Chair’s
discretion.
Minutes:
There were no members of the public in
attendance on this occasion.
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4. |
Community Safety Monitoring Report PDF 159 KB
Report No: OAS/WS/19/001
The Chair of the Western Suffolk Community
Safety Partnership, Councillor Joanna Spicer has been invited to
the meeting to present the report to the Committee.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
[Councillor Paul
Hopfensperger arrived at 5.50pm, during the consideration of this
item].
It was the duty of the Committee, as the
Council’s Crime and Disorder Committee designated under the
Police and Justice Act 2006, to scrutinise the work of the
Partnership.
The Committee received Report No:
OAS/WS/19/001, presented by the Chair of the Western Suffolk
Community Safety Partnership, Councillor Joanna Spicer, and the
Council’s Cabinet Member for Families and Communities,
Councillor Robert Everitt.
The report set out the background to the
partnership and the statutory bodies involved which Councillor
Joanna Spicer expanded on, as well as updating Members on the
community safety activity in West Suffolk, including the Western
Suffolk Community Safety Partnership (WSCSP) for 2018-2019.
Over the past year the WSCSP had continued to
meet and discharge its statutory duties by carrying out an annual
assessment of crime and disorder in the area, continuing to deliver
the three year plan and action plan to reflect the priorities of
the partnership, and carrying out Domestic Homicide Reviews.
Attached at Appendix A to the report, was the
WSCSP Plan 2019-2022, which was required to reflect the Suffolk
Police and Crime Plan published by the Police and Crime
Commissioner.
In May 2018, the WSCSP considered its
priorities for 2018-2019. Based on the
outcomes of partnership discussions and a strategic assessment of
crime, the following priorities were identified as the focus of the
WSCSP:
- County
Lines;
- Violence
against women and girls (including men and boys);
- Domestic
homicide reviews;
- Hate crime;
and
- Prevent
Councillor Robert Everitt, the Council’s
Cabinet Member for Families and Communities then drew relevant
issues to Members’ attention from the report, in particular
providing an overview on each of the five areas set out
above.
The Chairman then invited Councillor Margaret
Marks, Ward Member for Haverhill West to address the Committee in
respect of this item. She thanked the
Committee for allowing her to speak, and informed members she had
attended a County Lines training event, and questioned how this
would be rolled out to community groups. She also suggested that it would be useful for the
St Johns Ambulance to receive training on county lines, as well as
sending out general information to all town/parish councils as not
everyone understood what county lines meant.
In response to Councillor Marks’
question, members were informed that county lines had been ongoing
for over 18 months, and the Partnership was engaging with the
voluntary sector on this. Work was
being carried out in encouraging the public and members to report
any incidents they saw relating to county lines via
the 101 police non-emergency telephone number, the police’s
website or crime stoppers. Training and awareness was a
priority for the Partnership, and was being provided firstly in
schools and to all frontline staff within the
Partnership. An introduction about
county lines had also been provided at a recent Parish
Conference.
Councillor Spicer expanded on county lines by
explaining this was a serious issue, which linked into other
crimes. The ...
view the full minutes text for item 4.
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5. |
Draft West Suffolk Councils' Annual Report (2018-2019) PDF 101 KB
Report No: OAS/WS/19/002
The Leader of the Council, Councillor John
Griffiths has been invited to the meeting to present the report to
the Committee.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
[Councillor Diane
Hind left the meeting at 6.30pm during the consideration of this
item, and prior to the vote being taken.
Councillor Ian
Shipp left the meeting at 6.55pm during the consideration of this
item, and prior to the vote being taken].
The Leader of the Council, Councillor John
Griffiths thanked the Committee for the opportunity to present
Report No: OAS/WS/19/002, which outlined the draft West Suffolk
Councils’ Annual Report (2018-2019), and was before the
Overview and Scrutiny Committee for their comments.
This was the final report of Forest Heath
District Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council working
together as West Suffolk councils.
2018-2019 saw years of hard work by both members and officers come
to fruition with the establishment of a new West Suffolk Council,
putting us in pole positon for the future to face challenges and
seize opportunities. It reported
retrospectively on achievements over the financial year 2018-2019,
and therefore referred to the “councils”
throughout. In 2019-2020 the Leader
looked forward to presenting the first West Suffolk Council annual
report.
The draft West Suffolk Councils’ Annual
Report (Appendix A) before the Committee, highlighted the key
activities and developments that had been achieved over the
financial year 2018-2019, with regard to the priorities set out in
the West Suffolk Strategic Framework 2018-2020. The draft report contained a number of case
studies and examples from West Suffolk to illustrate the
achievements described.
The Leader then highlighted relevant issues
for the attention of the Committee, such as West Suffolk continuing
to develop a strategic partnership with the Cambridge and
Peterborough Combined Authority.
Discussions were underway with the Combined Authority examining the
opportunity to bring the Cambridge Autonomous Metro (CAM) to both
Haverhill (estimated 2025) and Mildenhall (estimated
2028). The CAM would provide a rapid
mass transit solution between areas of West Suffolk and Cambridge,
connecting people to jobs, housing and educational
opportunities. He explained that there
was no doubt that in West Suffolk we were the envy of many parts of
the country. We were a national leader
in our ability to deliver to high quality services for the
communities we serve whilst being able to invest in housing and
businesses to encourage growth and prosperity. From talks with Government and other councils, we
were seen as innovators in how we deliver better outcomes, both
socially and financially for our residents.
The Leader wished to thank all members and
staff who had not only shared our ambitious vision but were making
it a reality. This was a team effort
across parties and even council and organisational boundaries.
The Committee examined the document in detail
and particular comments were made on the following areas of the
draft Annual Report:
(1)
Page 27: Parks and green spaces: officers agreed to look at adding
reference to bio-diversity in its parks, in this section.
(2)
Page 43: Anglia Revenues Partnership:
officers agreed to reword this section.
Detailed discussions were also held on the
following areas of the draft Annual Report, to which the Leader of
...
view the full minutes text for item 5.
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6. |
Cabinet Decisions Plan: 7 May 2019 to 31 May 2020 PDF 108 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received Report No:
OAS/WS/19/003, which informed Members on forthcoming decisions to
be considered by the Cabinet for the period 7 May 2019 to 31 May
2020.
The Committee considered the Decisions Plan
and requested further information on Housing Delivery Plan: Update
on First Phase.
In response to a question raised regarding the
item on Delivering a Sustainable Budget 2020-2021, members were
informed that the report to the Performance and Audit Scrutiny
Committee would set out proposals for balancing the budget for
2020-2021. It would also include
proposals for closing the budget gap for the subsequent years up to
2023-2024, in line with the Medium Term Plan.
There being no decision required, the
Committee noted the contents of the 7 May 2019 to
31 May 2020 Decisions Plan.
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7. |
Appointments to the Suffolk County Council Health Scrutiny Committee (2019-2020) PDF 100 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Committee received Report No:
OAS/WS/19/004, which sought nominations (annually), for one full
member and one substitute member to serve on the Suffolk County
Council’s Health Scrutiny Committee for
2019-2020.
The Chair explained that district council
members of the Health and Scrutiny Committee should ideally be
nominated from that council’s Overview and Scrutiny
Committee, although this was not essential as the necessary
training would be provided by Suffolk County Council
(SCC). The only caveat was that the
nomination must not be a member from the nominating Council's
Cabinet.
The Health Scrutiny Committee was responsible
for scrutinising wellbeing and health services across the
County. The Committee had 10 members in
total: - five county councillors and one co-opted representative
from each of the district and borough councils in
Suffolk. Attached at Appendix 1 to the
report was an extract from the SCC’s constitution, setting
out the role of the Health Scrutiny Committee.
The Committee meets four times a
year. Since the report was published
the July and October 2019 dates had been changed, and the revised
dates for 2019-2020 were as follows:
Thursday 11 July 2019
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Endeavour House, 8 Russell Road, Ipswich
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10am
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Thursday 10 October 2019
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Endeavour House, 8 Russell Road, Ipswich
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10am
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Wednesday 15 January 2020
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Endeavour House, 8 Russell Road, Ipswich
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10am
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Wednesday 22 April 2020
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Endeavour House, 8 Russell Road, Ipswich
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10am
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The Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered
the report and two nominations for the position of the West Suffolk
Council’s nominated representative on the Suffolk County
Council Health Scrutiny Committee were received, which were both
duly seconded. These being Councillor
Margaret Marks and Councillor Paul Hopfensperger.
Councillor Joe Mason, who had proposed
Councillor Margaret Marks, explained why he felt she would be an
excellent full representative on the Health Scrutiny Committee for
the new West Suffolk Council given her extensive background in the
health profession and participation in various health organisations
and initiatives over many years (including being a substitute
member of the Health Scrutiny Committee for the former St
Edmundsbury Borough Council).
Councillor Richard Rout then explained his
reasons for proposing Councillor Paul Hopfensperger. This was followed by a personal statement from
Councillor Paul Hopfensperger himself.
Through these two supporting statements, the Committee was advised
of Councillor Paul Hopfensperger’s own background in health
matters, including his own wellness business; Councillor
Hopfensperger’s record as the full representative of the
former St Edmundsbury Borough Council on the Health Scrutiny
Committee over the last 3½ years; and why Councillor
Hopfensperger would be best placed to continue this work as the
full representative for the new West Suffolk Council. Reference was also made to an email from the Chair
of the SCC Health Scrutiny Committee, expressing her support for
him to continue on the Health Scrutiny Committee. Councillor Hopfensperger also questioned why
nominations for this role were sought each year.
Councillor Terry Clements then also explained
why he supported Councillor Paul Hopfensperger in continuing his
role on the Health Scrutiny Committee.
Nominations were then put to the vote by
...
view the full minutes text for item 7.
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8. |
Developing a Scrutiny Work Programme (Verbal Discussion)
Minutes:
The Director, Alex Wilson introduced this item
on developing an effective scrutiny work programme. He explained that a scrutiny work programme needed
to be timely and relevant, by having:
-
A good understanding/split of roles between the Executive (Cabinet)
and scrutiny.
-
A range of meeting and decision-making styles tailored to the
topic, with proper evidence.
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A work programme that was deliverable and well resourced.
The work programme also needed to be balanced,
by including:
-
Holding the Executive and others to account (with the need to have
space in the work programme to do this as needed).
-
Monitoring or oversight work (scheduled items in the work programme
such as the annual reports considered earlier at this meeting)
-
Reviews and developing new policy and practice (with the need to
develop a structured work programme, and provide time to do this
properly).
Ideally a scrutiny review in
the latter category needed to have several of the following
characteristics:
-
Reflect the councils and community
priorities
-
Reflect a strong consensus on the need for the
review
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Be led by scrutiny
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Not contrived (i.e. needed to take place)
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Genuine scope to add value/form ideas
The Director then informed the Committee that
one of Cabinet’s projects for the coming year would be to
look at car parking, and the Portfolio Holder for Operations would
be contacting the Chair and Vice-Chair to discuss how Overview and
Scrutiny could be involved in the review.
The Chair and the Committee were keen to be
involved in the review and suggested that the scope should be
broader than it had been in the past.
Members felt that car parking fitted into a bigger picture around
the whole environmental review; and specifically felt
residents’ parking schemes, bus timetables and why people
were not using buses should also be taken into consideration.
The Chair and Vice-Chair agreed to meet with
the Portfolio Holder for Operations as soon as possible to discuss
the scope of the review, before a report was brought to the
Committee for its consideration.
The Chair then informed the Committee of the
importance of not overloading its agenda.
Finally, the Chair informed the Committee of a
change of date for its September 2019 meeting. This had been rescheduled and would now be held on
Monday 2 September 2019 at West Suffolk House, and not Thursday 5
September 2019.
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