Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Lodge Road, Daventry, NN11 4FP

Contact: Tracy Tiff, Deputy Democratic Services Manager 

Items
No. Item

9.

Appointment of Chair

Minutes:

The Deputy Democratic Services Manager advised that in the absence of Cllr Gilford, the appointed Chair for the meeting, an alternative Chair needed to be agreed.  Following the list agreed at the previous meeting, Cllr Cooper would be next to take the chair but since she had also sent apologies Cllr Herring was next on the list.  It was proposed by Cllr Stone and seconded by Cllr Bambridge that Cllr Herring be appointed Chair for the meeting.

10.

Apologies

The Chair to note any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Cllrs Cooper, Gilford and Rumens.

11.

Declarations of Interest

Members are asked to declare any interest and the nature of that interest which they may have in any of the items under consideration at this meeting.

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

12.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 126 KB

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Co-ordinating Overview and Scrutiny Group held on 17 June 2021.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 June 2021 were agreed as an accurate record.

13.

Chair's Announcements

To receive any communications from the Chair.

Minutes:

There were no announcements from the Chair.

14.

Work Programmes 2021/2022 for the three Scrutiny Committees: Corporate, People and Place pdf icon PDF 606 KB

To consider for approval the Work Programmes for the three Scrutiny Committees – Corporate, Place and People.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair asked whether dates had been set for the Work Programme planning workshops since this would affect the duration of the short-term work programmes for the three Committees.  The Deputy Democratic Services Manager advised that the dates needed to be agreed by the three Overview and Scrutiny Committees together with other relevant parties.

 

In order to obtain suggestions of Scrutiny topics from the public it was agreed that a single survey should be used to gather ideas for all three Overview and Scrutiny Committees.  Consideration needed to be given to methods of distributing the survey to ensure they did not favour one area over another.  It was noted from previous experience in Northampton that survey results gave a good indication of the issues residents were concerned about and working with the public helped them to understand the process.  It was agreed that the survey should be sent out as soon as possible (September) to allow adequate time for response.

 

Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee outlined the key issues and topics to inform the short-term work programme for 2021/22, together with the longer term reviews and topics to be considered at the work programming event in autumn 2021 (Appendix A to the report).

 

Cllr Stone noted that the Social Values Act had a requirement for all LA contracts to be able to demonstrate added social value, for which scrutiny would be helpful.  The University’s changemaker hub was seeking to promote a social values pledge from all local businesses within an ethical framework.  WNC should seek to be part of this.

 

Briefings were planned for members on topics such as contract management and procurement, to enable effective scrutiny.

 

Cllr Herring noted that there was an item on the WNC Contracts Register of £8m to Shoosmiths for conveyancing and asked for more information.  The Monitoring Officer advised that this related to legal services in respect of the buy-back of Council properties for Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) and agreed to look at the costs involved.  The Monitoring Officer also outlined the current legal arrangements for WNC and advised that these were in the process of being rationalised. 

 

It was noted that WNC had come into being partly in response to financial problems and residents needed to be clear about how money was spent.

 

Car parking charges were identified as a possible cross-cutting topic, since all Committees would be affected.  Regeneration of the town centre was important and a balance needed to be struck between issues such as parking income, footfall and air quality.

 

Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Chair of the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee outlined the key issues and topics to inform the short-term work programme for 2021/22, together with the longer term reviews and topics to be considered at the work programming event in autumn 2021 (Appendix B to the report).

 

Potential cross-cutting issues were detailed in Appendix B, but also included

Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) – which had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.