Agenda and draft minutes

SWT Corporate Scrutiny Committee
Wednesday, 2nd March, 2022 6.15 pm

Venue: The John Meikle Room - The Deane House. View directions

Contact: Sam Murrell, Email: s.murrell@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk and Jess Kemmish, Email: j.kemmish@somersetwestandtaunton.gov.uk 

Webcast: View the webcast

Items
No. Item

11.

Apologies

    To receive any apologies for absence.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Chair advised before commencing the meeting that the order of agenda items had changed so that the Capital, Investment and Treasury Strategies 2022/23 to 2024/25 report would become item 9 and then be followed by the Capital, Investment and Treasury Strategies 2022/23 to 2024/25 report then finally the Corporate Performance Report as at Quarter 3 2021/22.

     

    The Committee held a moment of reflection for Ukraine before starting the meeting.  

     

    Apologies were received from councillors Barrie Hall, Habib Farbahi and Nick Thwaites who was substituted by councillor Roger Habgood.  

12.

Minutes of the previous Corporate Scrutiny Committee Meetings held on 26 January and 2 February 2022 pdf icon PDF 170 KB

13.

Declarations of Interest

    To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary or prejudicial or personal interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

     

    (The personal interests of Councillors and Clerks of Somerset County Council, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Members present at the meeting declared the following personal interests in their capacity as a Councillor or Clerk of a County, Town or Parish Council or any other Local Authority:-

     

    Name

    Minute No.

    Description of Interest

    Reason

    Action Taken

    Cllr M Barr

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr N Cavill

    All Items

    West Monkton

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr S Coles

    All Items

    SCC & Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr L Lisgo

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr J Lloyd

    All Items

    Wellington & Sampford Arundel

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr V Stock-Williams

    All Items

    Wellington

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr B Weston

    All Items

    Taunton Charter Trustee

    Personal

    Spoke

    Cllr L Whetlor

    All Items

    Watchet

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

    Cllr G Wren

    All Items

    Clerk to Milverton PC

    Personal

    Spoke and Voted

     

14.

Public Participation

    The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

     

    For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

     

    Temporary measures during the Coronavirus pandemic

    Due to the temporary legislation (within the Coronavirus Act 2020, which allowed for use of virtual meetings) coming to an end on 6 May 2021, the council’s committee meetings will now take place in the office buildings at the John Meikle Room, Deane House, Belvedere Road, Taunton. Unfortunately due to capacity requirements the Chamber at West Somerset House is not able to be used at this current moment.

    Following the Government guidance on measures to reduce the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19), the council meeting rooms will have very limited capacity. With this in mind, we will only be allowing those members of the public who have registered to speak to attend the meetings in person at the office buildings, if they wish. (We will still be offering to those members of the public that are not comfortable in attending, for their statements to be read out by a member of the Governance team). Please can we urge all members of the public who are only interested in listening to the debate to view our live webcasts from the safety of their own home to help prevent the transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19).

     

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    There were no requests for public participation.  

15.

Corporate Scrutiny Request/Recommendation Trackers pdf icon PDF 1005 KB

16.

Corporate Scrutiny Committee Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 123 KB

17.

Executive and Full Council Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 131 KB

18.

Corporate Scrutiny Chair's Annual Report pdf icon PDF 397 KB

19.

Capital, Investment and Treasury Strategies 2022/23 to 2024/25 pdf icon PDF 224 KB

    This matter is the responsibility of Executive Councillor Ross Henley

     

    Report Author:  John Dyson, Corporate Finance Manager (Interim)

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Corporate Finance Manager introduced the report and gave a presentation. The following points were raised:  

    ·        The report included the capital strategy, investment strategy and the treasury management strategy. It also included the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Policy Statement, Prudential and Treasury indicators and laid out the Council’s parameters for treasury management and borrowing.   

    ·        The report was a legal requirement of the Local Government Act 2003. It was made in line with the CIPFA Codes of Practice.  

    ·        The purpose of the report was to define how the capital programme was affordable and fit for purpose, to map investments and to control how treasury management activities were conducted within the Council.  

    ·        The report and the strategies would need Full Council approval.  

    ·        The strategies aligned with the revenue budgets, Housing Revenue Account (HRA) business plan and the capital programme.  

    ·        The report was produced as part of an annual cycle. 

    ·        Internal borrowing was used by the Council as part of treasury management to reduce risk exposure for the Council.  

    ·        It was clarified that within the report short-term borrowing was classed as borrowing under a year in length, whereas long-term borrowing was borrowing which was for a period greater than a year.  

     

    During the debate the following points were raised:  

    ·        It was asked what provision was in place for hyper-inflation. Officers responded that there was no specific provision for hyper-inflation as at the time the report was written it was not a possibility. Where borrowing was undertaken by the authority it was sought to be undertaken at a low rate which protected against rising interest rates and inflation.  

    ·        It was suggested that it was good that CIPFA rules had been tightened and it was raised that it seemed likely CIPFA rules would tighten further and that auditors would become stricter at year end.  

    ·        Concerns were raised about the impact of sudden changes in interest rates on borrowing. 

    ·        It was asked how many staff within the finance team were CIPFA trained. It was responded by the Section 151 (S151) Officer that the Council was very fortunate in terms of the number of staff within the finance team who were CIPFA trained. Team members regularly attended training and kept up with government guidance.  

    ·        It was asked how the risk register would be managed going forward regarding borrowing. Officers responded that there was a live risk register across the authority, which was regularly updated and reviewed, including reports being taken to the Audit and Governance Committee on a quarterly basis. The Council had treasury management advisors who would contact the Council as soon as they believed there was something the Council should respond to.  

    ·        It was asked about the complexity of the borrowing model now due to sources of borrowing having increased and whether this meant managing borrowing took greater officer time. Officers responded that it did take more officer time and that great care was taken in the management of the borrowing portfolio. The officer time invested paid off as it allowed better rates to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

20.

General Fund Financial Performance Report for Quarter 3 of 2021/22 (31 December) pdf icon PDF 435 KB

    This matter is the responsibility of Executive Councillor Henley, Corporate Resources

                                                 

    Report Author: Emily Collacott (Lead Finance Business Partner and Deputy s151 Officer)

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Resources introduced the report: 

    ·                     The General Fund was forecasting an underspend of £620,000 after taking into account the total amount of proposed carry forwards which was just over £2m and a transfer of £570,000 to capital financing. Full Council approved the £570,000 transfer to capital financing last week.  

    ·                     Covid-19 and the pace of economic recovery had continued to significantly impact the Council. Car parking income still remained significantly decreased. Nationally there have been similar reductions in car parking income as behaviours had changed.   

    ·                     The Council remained in a strong financial position and continued to have General Fund reserves above the minimum required. Significant financial risks, including the transition to a new unitary authority, remained so holding reserves above minimum remained prudent.   

    ·                     The current forecast for the financial year was an underspend of £1.7m and slippage of £8.3m.  

     

    During the debate the following points were raised:  

    ·                     It was raised that parking income was being lost as a result of barriers failing to work, meaning that they had to be left open. The portfolio holder agreed that barriers malfunctioning was not good and noted that any malfunctions should be reported to the responsible officer.  

    ·                     It was asked how much the Council had received in grants from the government over the past two years. Officers responded that they would provide a written answer.  

    ·                     It was raised that there was not sufficient car parking in Watchet and that the car parks there were often full in Watchet.  

    ·                     It was raised that within Taunton it was possible more people were using the park and ride at present as it was free.  

    ·                     It was raised that the Community Scrutiny Committee had requested a report on car parking but had not received it yet.  

    ·                     It was raised that Somerset West and Taunton Council had acted rightly in saving the park and ride for Taunton.  

    ·                     It was suggested that it should be shown transparently what car parking income was used for.  

    ·                     It was raised that there was a shortfall on expenditure at the end of the quarter as not as much money had been spent as expected. This appeared to happen every year. Allocation of budgets needed to be managed better so that there would be more certainty and less volatility in figures particularly given local government reorganisation and how the Council’s budgeting would feed into the budgeting for the new unitary authority. The Section 151 Officer responded that it was not possible to always predict the future with complete accuracy, but finance officers and budget holders worked closely together and met monthly to review forecasts and update assumptions in order to identify changes against budget as soon as possible so early reporting was enabled.  

    ·                     Thanks were given to officers for their hard work. 

    ·                     It was raised that there was complex spend across the Council meaning it was more difficult to accurate predict spend. It was asked what the average variation from planned budget was at the end of each financial year. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

21.

Corporate Performance Report as at Quarter 3 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 2 MB

    This matter is the responsibility of Executive Councillor Member Ross Henley.

     

    Report Author: Malcolm Riches, Business Intelligence and Performance Manager.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    The Portfolio Holder for Corporate Resources introduced the report:  

    ·                     The report included the position in respect of the Council’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and a summary of the Council’s key business risks and issues together with the current status of actions being taken to address the risks and issues.  

    ·                     There were five red and two amber indicators for KPIs which were being monitored closely.  

    ·                     The report detailed five business risks and three issues. 

    ·                     The response rate for freedom of information (FOI) requests had improved.  

    ·                     Call response wait times had increased. This was due to more calls being received and average call durations having increased. Issues with waste and the rollout of RecycleMore had increased calls. Staff turnover within the team had also contributed to call response wait times increasing. Calls on average were answered in 2 minutes 44 seconds.  

    ·                     Overall performance was strong in most areas. Over 88% of the year’s council tax had been collected. Planning applications for large developments determined within 13 weeks was 100%. 

     

    Durning the debate: 

    ·                     It was asked if figures were available for how many repeat calls were received for issues which were not dealt with in the first instance. Officers would provide a written response.   

    ·                     It was asked whether improvements to Firmstep were being considered. Officers responded that Firmstep was being continually improved and recently work had been done around improving how complaints were processed.  

    ·                     It was asked how many calls could be attributed to the rollout of RecycleMore. Officers responded that waste calls and the increase in calls this resulted in had been dealt with relatively well, particular team members were assigned to take waste calls and that system worked well. However, more generally in all areas the numbers of calls and length of time of calls had increased.  

    ·                     It was asked if much time was lost to staff sickness, in particular stress due to the nature of the role of customer services being quite stressful. Officers responded that days were lost to stress and sickness but that it was managed closely, and time was spent investing in the staff and regularly checking in on their welfare.  

    ·                     It was asked what directions councillors could give to their constituents to help with the tax rebate government was offering to help with rising energy bills. Officers responded that councillors could encourage residents to sign up to pay for their council tax by direct debit as this would mean they would receive the rebate payment faster. Managing expectations around when the payments would go out was also important as payments would not be received until late April.  

    ·                     It was asked in which areas the higher numbers of complaints were being received and if these were the usual areas higher numbers of complaints were seen in. Officers responded that they would provide a written response as to the different areas where higher numbers of complaints were received. Some areas such as Housing had seen a significant increase in complaints, and this was a trend which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.