Issued on: 03/03/08 NORTHAMPTON BOROUGH COUNCIL OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE 1 - PARTNERSHIPS, REGENERATION, COMMUNITY SAFETY AND ENGAGEMENT The next meeting will be held at the Guildhall in the Jeffrey Room on Thursday, 13 March 2008 at 6:00 pm Chair - Councillor Andrew Simpson Deputy Chair - Councillor Joy Capstick Councillors - Caswell, Chaudhury, Clarke, Conroy, Palethorpe, Reeve, Varnsverry and Wilson AGENDA 1. Apologies 2. Minutes Members are asked to approve the minutes of the meetings held in November and January. 3. Deputations/Public Addresses 4. Declarations (Including Whipping) 5. URGENT ITEM Call in of Cabinet decision- Response to Voluntary Sector Task and Finish Group Councillors Palethorpe and Hadland have submitted the following call in- Decision 5E paragraph 3 taken on Monday 3 rd March 2008 “The amendment to Task and Finish group’s recommendation 4 to read; ‘The budget for the Community Enabling Fund will be for those organisations that have in the past been funded from the budget plus any new organisations meeting the funding criteria for CEFAP’ It is formally requested that the decision taken by the Cabinet under Item 5E para 3 above be called in for scrutiny by Overview & Scrutiny 1. Reason for call in. 1. The decision has been taken after the formal invitation for applications, which may compromise the integrity of the current procedures and leave Northampton Borough Council open to challenge from organisations that have not been afforded the opportunity to apply for funding. Councillor David Palethorpe Councillor Tim Hadland Dated 7 March 2008 In accordance with the constitution this item has been referred to this meeting for consideration. 6. Local/Regional/National issues effecting the area This is a new agenda item, which Management Committee agreed to put on the agenda of all committees to ensure that Overview and Scrutiny is examining issues currently affecting the local area. County-wide Sustainable Communities Strategy Nicci Marzec, Corporate Manager, Governance and Communication, will be in attendance to provide a full briefing to members. Other items Members are asked to decide what items they would like to cover at the next meeting under this heading. 7. Feedback from Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee This is a new agenda item, which the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed to put on the agenda of all committees to give Chairs and Vice- Chairs opportunity to report issues, or decisions that effect the work of their committee. 8. Best Value Performance Indicator Monitoring Members are asked to examine the performance indicators and make observations on them. Members are asked to note that as agreed at the last meeting Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee to use the new performance-monitoring form. This will used from the next meeting of this committee. This form is attached for members information. 9. Forward Plan This is a new agenda item which Management Committee agreed to put on the agenda of all the committees, to ensure that they are getting involved with policy development at a early stage. Members are asked to examine the forward plan and decide if there are any items they wish to pre-decision scrutinise. 10. Final report of the Historic Buildings and Regeneration Task and Finish Group Historic Buildings and Regeneration Task and Finish Group- Chair John Caswell Members are asked to examine the final report and make recommendations to Cabinet. 11. Task and Finish Group Updates Councillor Call for Action Task and Finish Group- Chair Councillor Andrew Simpson Members are asked to note the progress of this Task and Finish Group and also examine the Task and Finish Groups comments on the Government consultation on Councillor Call for Actions and Local Petitions. Members are asked to make observations to the Chief Executive as he will be responding to the consultation on behalf of the Council. Attached is the Government consultation paper which needs to be read in conjunction with the groups comments. Alcohol Related Violence/Polycarbonate glasses Task and Finish Group (Joint review with NCC)- Councillors Paul Varnsverry and Portia Wilson Members are asked to note the progress of this joint Task and Finish Group. 12. Report back on Cabinet response to outstanding Overview and Scrutiny recommendations Members are asked to note that there were outstanding Task and Finish Group recommendations, which Cabinet have now taken a decision on. Members are therefore asked to decide on monitoring arrangements for each report. 13. Work Programme Monitoring Members are asked to review the work programme and note that the order in which the outstanding Task and Finish Groups will operate is a matter for the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee to determine. Members are also asked to note that the Councillor Call for Action Task and Finish Group will report in May- not April as stated in the report. Agenda Item 2 OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE ONE – PARTNERSHIPS, REGENERATION, COMMUNITY SAFETY AND ENGAGEMENT (14 January 2008 DRAFT MINUTES) Present: Councillor Andrew Simpson (Chair), Councillors Joy Capstick (Deputy Chair) John Caswell, Sadik Chaudhury, Tony Clarke, Jenny Conroy, David Palethorpe, Kevin Reeve, Paul Varnsverry and Portia Wilson In attendance: Councillor Woods, David Kennedy, Dale Robertson, Debbie Ferguson, Ashley Gunn Ann Davies, Mark Farmer, Ben Bix 1. Apologies Apologies were received from Thomas Hall and Dale Phillipson 2. Minutes The minutes of the meeting held on 7 th November were deferred for agreement at the next meeting, 13 th March 2008 3. Deputations/Public Addresses • Mr Norman Adams would address the committee in respect of item 5 • Mr Chris Swinn would address the committee in respect of items 5, 6 and 10 4. Declarations (Including Whipping) None 5. Corporate Plan Consultation Councillor Woods presented the Corporate Plan and informed the committee that; • This was a refresh of the previous Corporate Plan • The Council is awaiting the completion of the Sustainable Community Strategy • Public consultation meetings have been scheduled and are underway Additionally, Cllr Woods informed the meeting that a Cabinet ‘visioning away day’ had been held in September with both the previous and current Chief Executive. The outcomes of this meeting would be published in a further ‘Cabinet Prospectus’ supporting the Corporate Plan. Mr Norman Adams addressed the meeting and explained that; • The previous Corporate Plan contained a target that all Council Houses would meet the Decent Homes Standard by 2010. This had been substantially changed in this plan to say that the Decent Homes Standard would be met at the ‘earliest opportunity’. (page 3) • Mr Adams questioned why this target had been changed. Mr Chris Swinn addressed the meeting and questioned; • How the results of this consultation would be fed back to citizens • The lack of performance reporting and review to NTACT In response, Cllr Simpson informed the meeting that Housing Performance was due to be considered at the meeting of Overview and Scrutiny 2, 31 January 2008. Additionally Cllr Palethorpe concurred with Mr Swinn that community engagement with Tenants is not good. The responses from Councillor Woods were; • That the 2010 Decent Homes target was a ‘stretch target’ due to challenges in some estates relating to design, construction and location. Whilst overall the Council was trying to meet (and exceed) the Decent Homes target in some cases different solutions may be more appropriate in particular areas. • Housing Performance data will be made available to NTACT - there had been some issues with the upgrading of the electronic reporting system. Committee Councillors then commented on the Corporate Plan as follows; • The Plan did not deliver a picture of the long term direction of the council • There is no mention of a desire for Northampton Borough to become a unitary council • That the most prominent need is to ensure that the council is fit for purpose • Why there is annual consultation on the plan • Why both the Corporate Plan and the Budget were being consulted on at the same time when it was commented that the plan should drive the budget • How Overview and Scrutiny could be more involved in future Corporate Planning Councillor Woods responded; • There was an aim to make the Corporate Plan document more vibrant and interesting • The structure of local government in Northampton was noted during CPA 2004 as not being fit for purpose but also that the Borough Council appeared to be ‘fixated’ with pursuing Unitary status to the point of damaging its performance. It was important to concentrate on improving performance at this stage. • The Corporate Plan has consistently been prepared too late in the year and that next year the plan would be brought forward earlier • That the ‘Cabinet Prospectus’, when prepared, will be made available for Overview and Scrutiny to review. And that; o Scrutiny could examine the County Councils Sustainable Community Strategy as it appears to not to fully recognise the status of Northampton itself o Scrutiny should examine the LAA 2 document to ensure that it covers the challenges and opportunities associated with Northampton itself The Chief Executive explained that the plan was subject to rolling updates and that these would take place annually. LAA priorities were subject to change at county level with the move from LAA 1 to LAA 2. This would have implications for the Corporate Plan. LAA 2 would be more fluid and contain more than the four current themes. Additionally, the LAA 2 process would take place around May 2008 and would be a good opportunity for cross authority scrutiny. 6. Budget Consultation Mr Chris Swinn addressed the meeting and commented; • That more detailed information was presented last year • In Mr Swinns’ opinion, the Council should not be allocating £440,000 to funding the Royal and Derngate Theatre as the funding could be used in other ways to meet the needs of residents • The council should not be funding leisure centres as again this wasn’t the best way to meet the needs of all residents • That the community development function of the council had been ‘decimated’ in recent years.