Agenda and minutes

Up to 15 minutes are allowed for public participation.  Participants are restricted to 3 minutes each.

There was no public participation.

Corporate Policy and Resources Committee meeting 14 June 2018.

The minutes of the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 14 June 2018 were agreed as a true record.

Joint Staff Consultative Committee meeting on 5 July.

The minutes of the Joint Staff Consultative Committee meeting held on 5 July 2018 were noted.

Members may make declarations of Interest at this point or may make them at any point in the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest at this stage of the meeting.

Setting out current position of previously agreed actions as at 11 July 2018.

The Executive Director of Resource circulated, as promised, the Surestaff Contracts and levels of placement numbers to Members; the text of this is attached below:

Surestaff Contracts and levels of placement (WLDC = West Lindsey District Council

WLDC Waste                                                              25 max 

WLDC Street Cleaning                                               2 max 

WLDC Customer Service                                           6 max (1 colleague transferred to WLDC)

WLDC Planning                                                          1 (current)

WLDC Finance                                                           2 max

Caspian                                                                       just started, 2, expected to rise to 15 operatives and 3 rivers once 2^nd machinery is up and running (approx. 2 weeks)

Poly pearl                                                                    up to 10 based on last season , but currently not put through more than 4  (packaging industry will increase output in the run in to Christmas)

Plum                                                                            up to 5 depending on volume

Brightstar                                                                    seasonal ….earlier start this year expected late July….between 20 and 30, doing 50 + hours per week.

Retford Wallcoverings                                                average 3 (1 just taken onto RWC books; fee paid)

Schaunberg                                                                average 2 fluctuating demand

Laburnhum House Educational                                  average 2 based on volume

FP Trading                                                                  occasional demand up to 3

Ewewmove                                                                 occasional admin up to 2

The other matter arising was noted.

Members received a verbal update from the Corporate Governance Officer, with a presentation of the proposed technology being provided on the computer screen.

The following information was provided:

·         Each service section within West Lindsey District Council (WLDC) was broken down into its component teams.  Users of the budget consultation software would be able to configure the budget figures as they saw fit;

·         The previous appearance of the budget consultation software was a lot simpler; there was now more information available to configure;

·         There was the opportunity to provide comments within the survey through free text boxes;

·         Members supported the idea of a glossary for users as it could be difficult to understand with no prior knowledge of the software;

·         A notification would be sent to parish and town councils and the local citizens’ panels about the survey.  The survey would be available on the West Lindsey website in a digital format, as well as being available in paper form.

Members considered a report requesting the approval of spending funds generated from the Community Lottery, approved by Prosperous Communities committee on 5 June 2018.

The following points were highlighted:

·         As a district, lottery money was already being received through the Big Lottery and other various initiatives.  The money from community grants was going straight into the community; it was not being channelled through WLDC;

·         On 18 July a number of people attended the Community Grants celebration event, which underlined the value that community organisations place in grant funding through the district council.  As well as money, advice was provided with this funding;

·         It was incumbent on Members to promote the community lottery as soon as it became available for sale.

RESOLVED to approve the allocation of funds generated from the community lottery to the council’s Community Grants Programme overseen by the Prosperous Communities Committee.

Members considered a report requesting the ability to draw down the planned expenditure for the ICT equipment and software refresh.

The ICT Manager introduced the item, highlighting the following points:

·         Currently the IT equipment that WLDC officers and partners use was coming to the end of its life, leading to a repeated number of hardware failures;

·         A significant number of batteries were failing; obtaining spares for this equipment was proving increasingly hard;

·         The switches were also at ‘end of life’, and they pose a security risk for the authority.  There were roughly 20,000 attacks per hour on the Council’s first line of defence;

·         Updating the software licensing on servers would provide the ability to work effectively and faster and keep up to date with security patches.

Following questions from Members, further comment was provided:

·         People’s expectation of what they can do without leaving home was increasing all the time;

·         West Lindsey was a very big district; IT helps to create equality, in that people at the extremes of the district were on a level playing field with people in Gainsborough (for whom it was much easier to attend the Council buildings).

RESOLVED to:

(1)  Approve the drawdown from reserves to purchase replacement desktop equipment and expenditure at a cost of £175,000. This would be funded from the IT Reserve and the procurement would be a joint procurement with North Kesteven District Council who would replicate the selected devices across their estates, whilst supporting mobile working allowing colleagues to work remotely as well as providing resilience on business continuity;

(2)  Approve the drawdown from reserves and the expenditure on the switch and Wi-Fi network equipment that was end of life at a cost of £105,000 for the infrastructure replacement and £15,000 revenue cost for a five year license to be funded from the IT Reserve. A joint procurement exercise had been undertaken with North Kesteven District Council (NKDC) who were replicating the work.

(3)  Approve the drawdown from reserves and the expenditure by the ICT Team on software license at a cost of £34,000 from revenue.

Members considered a report on creating a self-sustaining town with capacity to address social, economic and environmental issues.

The Executive Director of Commercial and Economic Growth reminded Members that there had been an addendum circulated to them containing a revised recommendation and some additional financial information.

The additional information asked the Committee to consider a preferable disposal option to offer Market Rasen Town Council a long term full repair and insure leasehold at peppercorn rent (term to be negotiated) on the building.  From a financial point of view, this option would result in the retention of the freehold of the property and would attract a peppercorn rent.  The full repair and insurance would ensure future maintenance and insurance costs were born by the leaseholder.

Members commended the work that had been put in by officers to get to this stage, and added that the strategy would be good news for Market Rasen and for the district as a whole.

Members moved and seconded the amended recommendations, and it was RESOLVED to:

(1)  Accept the recommendation from Prosperous Communities Committee on 30 January 2018 to approve an ‘in principle’ allocation of £200k funding from the Capital Programme towards the delivery of growth projects detailed within the strategy subject to:

Ø  Consultation and support for the strategy;

Ø  The setting up of an agreed implementation mechanism e.g. a Charitable Incorporated Organisation;

Ø  Suitable financial regulation

The Executive Director of Resources was granted delegated authority to make the final decision to award funding subject to the above and following consultation with the Chairman of the Corporate Policy and Resources Committee.

(2)  To conclude the disposal of the Market Rasen Area Office to Festival Hall through the option of a long term full repair and insure leasehold at peppercorn rent.

The Executive Director of Resources introduced the Progress and Delivery report for period 1 2018/19, and gave apologies on behalf of the Executive Director of Operations.

The Executive Director of Resources updated the Committee on pieces of work that the Council were undertaking, and whether they were above or below their achievement target.  These pieces of work are summarised below:

·         The green waste collection had seen a positive roll-out with a higher than expected number of subscribers;

·         The number of new users of the Leisure Centre was exceeding expectations;

·         The Trinity Arts Centre was achieving higher patronage than anticipated;

·         Council Tax and Business Rates collection to date was below target, partly due to the 12 month instalment option, meaning that rates cannot be collected as early as they previously had been;

·         Development Management had income currently below target;

·         A number of outstanding enforcement cases had been closed, which in turn had led to a higher average closure time for enforcement cases;

·         Regulatory services were subject to a briefing requested by Prosperous Communities Committee;

·         The use of bed and breakfast accommodation in home choices cases had been below target for at least the last five months.  This would be continually monitored;

Following this summary, the Housing and Enforcement Manager explored the issues being experienced by the Enforcement team, before addressing issues around food safety.  These topics are summarised below:

·         Over a period of time there had been a high demand for dealing with planning enforcement cases.  This had led to an agreement for an additional resource;

·         The audit of Enforcement requested by the Governance and Audit Committee recommended that some of the enforcement measures reported by Progress and Delivery be changed; this was in part because the timescales of cases in the hands of the inspectorate could not be controlled by WLDC;

·         Timescales of enforcement cases would be something that the new enforcement officer would look to address;

·         The aim was to provide an initial response to planning enforcement cases within 20 working days.  This had been achieved 77% of the time in the first three months of 2018;

·         In the first three months of this year 111 cases had been closed, compared to 210 closures in the whole of the previous year;

·         The average length of an enforcement case was 107 days if the legacy cases (of over a year old) were removed;

·         There was an ongoing internal audit covering food safety.  The targets were still not being met but officers were confident that the level will improve;

·         There were around 97% of food premises in the district rated at 5* or above.  The focus was always on Category A or B businesses, which are larger premises; all other premises were assessed in line with the Food Standards Agency guidelines;

·         There were more food safety visits than shown in the Progress and Delivery report, but they were not full visits;

·         Premises can fail on paperwork alone; in some instances the overall rating can be low as a result of this.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

Members considered a report on an updated mobile phone usage policy.  The updated policy had included references to social media, the use of pins or passwords, and driving whilst using a mobile phone.

Members were assured that as part of the desktop refresh across the Council, all job roles had been looked at so that the relevant technology would be available for certain posts that required them; for example, field workers would require a work mobile phone.  There would also be occasions where officers could request a mobile phone, but they would need to provide a valid business case to support that argument.

The Corporate Systems Development and ICT Manager agreed to look into the possibility of providing spare mobile telephones for staff.

RESOLVED to grant delegated authority to the Executive Director of Resources (S151 Officer) to make minor housekeeping amendments to the policy in future, in consultation with the chairman of the Corporate Policy and Resources committee and the chairman of the Joint Staff Consultative Committee.

Members considered a report reviewing the Council’s Equality Policy.  The report had been approved by the Joint Staff Consultative Committee.

The review as a whole made sure that WLDC were up to date with recent legislation.

RESOLVED to approve the Equality Policy and the policy is adopted for all employees of the council.

Delegated authority be granted to the Executive Director of Resources to make minor housekeeping amendments to the policy in future, in consultation with the chairman of the Corporate Policy & Resources committee and chairman of the Joint Staff Consultative Committee (JSCC).

Members considered a report setting out the revenue, capital and treasury management activity from 1 April to 31 May 2018.

The Executive Director of Resources highlighted the following points from the report:

·         There was currently a small underspend on salaries;

·         There was a retention on the previous leisure contract which wasn’t accrued for at year end, which meant that it fell into the current year;

·         A review into costs incurred by Property Services; this identified a number of pressures;

·         A legal costs settlement within the Policy and Resources directorate came to £19,000;

·         A higher than expected income had been received from the green waste collection;

·         A total of £64,000 from a loss of income;

·         There had been no breaches of regulatory requirements over the previous two months (the period covered by the report).

RESOLVED to:

(1)  Accept the forecast out-turn position of a £72k net contribution to reserves as at 31 May 2018, as at paragraph 1;

(2)  Note the use of Earmarked Reserves during the quarter approved by the Executive Director of Resources using Delegated powers, as detailed at paragraph 1.5.1;

(3)  Accept the Commercial Income position;

(4)  Approve the amendments to Car Parking fees and charges detailed within Appendix A;

(5)  Accept the Treasury Management and Prudential Indicators to 31 May 2018.

The Democratic and Civic Officer assured Members that the ICT Strategy – 6 monthly update would be added to the workplan for December.

Subject to that amendment, the workplan was noted.

To resolve that under Section 100 (A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph * of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

RESOLVED that under Section 100 (A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

There was an abbreviation of SBEM within the report – this stood for Simplified Building Energy Model.

The exempt appendix was noted.