Agenda and minutes

Prior to the start of the meeting Councillor King delivered a seasonal message for the consideration of Members.

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Juliet Brunner, Andrew Fry and Gareth Prosser.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 26^th September 2016 (enclosed).

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meeting of Council held on 26th September 2016 be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Mayor.

To consider Announcements under Procedure Rule 10:

a)            Mayor’s Announcements

b)         The Leader’s Announcements

c)         Chief Executive’s Announcements.

(Oral report)

a)        The Mayor

At the start of this item the Mayor circulated a list of civic engagements that he had attended over the past two months.

The Mayor then welcomed representatives of the Redditch LGB&T community and of Stonewall to the meeting, who were attending to celebrate the outcomes of the work of the Provision of Support Networks for the LGB&T Community Task Group, which concluded in July 2015.

To begin with Mr Peter Willis, a teacher from a local school in Worcestershire, delivered a presentation about the importance of the Task Group’s second recommendation, which encouraged schools to take part in the Stonewall Schools’ champions programme or to make use of the Birmingham LGB&T Group’s Schools toolkit.  Members were advised that significant progress had been achieved since the 1980s in terms of challenging homophobic and transphobic attitudes and behaviour towards the LGB&T community.  Schools which participated in the School Champions’ programme helped young people to feel confident about expressing their sexuality and gender identity in the school environment and encouraged young people to have positive attitudes towards equality.

Following this presentation the Chair and Vice Chair of the Redditch LGB&T Community Group, Ms Sharon Harrison and Ms Sue Smith, presented awards on behalf of the community group.  This included four awards to Councillors Joe Baker, Natalie Brookes, Gay Hopkins and David Thain in recognition of their hard work as members of the Task Group.  Councillor Baker also presented an LGB&T Hero award on behalf of the Redditch LGB&T Community Group to Jess Bayley, Democratic Services Officer in recognition of her work supporting the Task Group.

The Mayor subsequently invited Mr Daniel Smith from Stonewall to deliver a presentation about the work of Stonewall and the benefits for organisations of participating in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index.  Mr Smith explained that Stonewall had been established in opposition to S28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which had prohibited local authorities from promoting homosexuality or discussing sexual orientation within schools.  The organisation continued to campaign in support of the LGB&T community having supported recent initiatives such as the introduction of same sex marriage legislation in 2015.  Stonewall also managed the Workplace Equalities Index which over 500 organisations took part in every year, though only the top 100 were advertised on Stonewall’s website.  The benefits of participation included the potential to improve working policies and practices, enhanced opportunities to advertise staff vacancies to talented LGB&T staff and a chance to benchmark progress compared to other organisations.

Following the delivery of this presentation Mr Smith presented an award to the Leader of the Council on behalf of Redditch LGB&T Community Group in appreciation of the Council’s support for the LGB&T community locally.

b)        The Leader

The Leader provided an update on the civic engagements he had participated in over the previous two months.  This included attending a celebration at Evesham Rowing Club of the achievements of Olympians and Paralympians from Worcestershire, taking  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

To receive questions submitted under Procedure Rule 9.2 (if any).

The Leader responded to three questions submitted in accordance with Procedure Rule 9.2 from Councillors Tom Baker-Price, Jane Potter and Paul Swansborough.  One further question, which had been submitted for consideration by Councillor Juliet Brunner, was withdrawn in her absence and Members were advised that this would be re-submitted for consideration at the following meeting of the Council.

a)        Council Expenditure on Consultants

Councillor Tom Baker-Price asked the following question:

Would the Leader of the Council inform Council how much money has been spent on consultants since May 2012 in

i)       planning

ii)      leisure

iii)     transformation / systems thinking/Vanguard

iv)     revenues and benefits

v)      finance

vi)     community centres

The Leader replied as follows:

Thank you for your question.  I can confirm that the costs I am presenting are within budget and only relate to pure consultancy costs as opposed to use of temporary resources to cover staff vacancies which should be identified as interim rather than consultants.

i)          Planning

Nothing

ii)         Leisure

£4,202 (shared but mainly for the Leisure Appraisal for Redditch Borough Council).

iii)       Transformation / Systems Thinking / Vanguard

£209,362 for Redditch Borough Council only.

The Council has been working towards transforming services by considering customer need and systemically changing the way we work for the last four years (and for years before that).  During that time we have developed “locality working” for a number of our teams including Housing, Benefits, Environmental Services and more recently bringing together a number of different stakeholders within the Connecting Families team to deliver support to our residents.  We have required some external support over those years to ensure we develop radical solutions to fix problems in our Borough.

Whilst there has been a cost associated with this of £209,000 we have made significant savings of £800,000 over the last two years and have made other changes to our services (for example Benefits Officers working in locality offices) which may not have made savings but have improved access and quality of service to the most vulnerable members of our communities.  This will equate to £1.6 million over the four year planning period excluding any other savings that may be realised from future transformational work.

iv)       Revenues and Benefits

£29,883 (partly single system costs).

This relates to the project management of the unified revenues and benefits system.  Savings will be realised well in excess of this as a result of reduced waste and improved services to the public.  The costs are contained within the reserves and not against revenue budgets.  No bid for new money has been required.

v)         Finance

£37,000 shared across both Redditch Borough Council and Bromsgrove District Council with the charge to Redditch being £18,000.

This spend relates to the use of specialist risk and system advisors to improve Risk Governance arrangements and to enable automated use of the ledger system.  The savings with the financial service review in 2013 offset all associated costs.

      vi) Community centres

£0

A supplementary question was subsequently raised by Councillor Baker-Price asking the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

There were no Motions on Notice.

To receive the minutes and consider the recommendations and/or referrals from the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 1^st November 2016:

Minute no. 37 – Recommendations from the Budget Scrutiny Working Group;

Minute no. 38 – Parks Infrastructure – Use of Section 106 monies;

Minute no. 39 – Public Realm Scheme

Minute no. 40 – Council Tax Support Scheme

Minute no. 41 – Medium Term Financial Plan 2017/18 – 2020/21 – Budget Assumptions

Minute no. 42 – Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board – Enforcement Policy

Minute no. 47 – Development Management Shared Service Business Case

Please note the report about the business case and the minutes from the Shared Services Board are now open to the public as members of staff have been briefed about them.

The recommendations relating to these items are included with the supporting reports in the agenda pack.

Members considered the minutes of the Executive Committee meeting held on 1st November 2016.

During consideration of Minute No. 39, detailing a recommendation on the subject of the Public Realm Scheme, clarification was requested about whether damage to the surface would be covered under the terms of the scheme.  Members were advised that this matter had also been discussed during the Executive Committee meeting.  There was the potential to share a stockpile of materials with Bromsgrove District Council, Wychavon District Council and Wyre Forest District Council and Members had requested specific design features to enhance the integrity of the scheme.

The Business Case for the Development Management Shared Service was also discussed during consideration of this item.  Members were advised that whilst this item had been considered in confidential session during the Executive Committee meeting the documentation was now in the public domain following consultation with affected staff.

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Committee held on 1st November 2016 be received and all recommendations adopted.

To formally receive the minutes of the following meetings of the Council’s Regulatory Committees:

(a)  Audit, Governance and Standards Committee – 22^nd September 2016

(b)  Planning Committee – 12^th October

The minutes are included in Minute book 3.  There are no recommendations to the Council from these meetings.

The Council received the minutes from meetings of the Audit, Governance and Standards and Planning Committees.

RESOLVED that

1)        the minutes of the meeting of the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee held on 22nd September 2016 be received and adopted; and

2)        the minutes of the meeting of the Planning Committee held on 12th October 2016 be received and adopted.

To note any decisions taken in accordance with the Council’s Urgency Procedure Rules (Part 6, Paragraph 5 and/or Part 7, Paragraph 15 of the Constitution), as specified.  Details of the following decisions are attached:

1.    Town Centre Lighting Enhancement Scheme – transfer of monies from the S106 capital account;

2.    Tommy Wilson’s Fair.

The Executive Committee’s decisions in respect of the Town Centre Lighting Enhancement Scheme, involving the transfer of monies from the S106 capital account, and Tommy Wilson’s Fair were noted in accordance with the Council’s Urgency Procedure Rules.

To consider any additional items exceptionally agreed by the Mayor as Urgent Business in accordance with the powers vested in him by virtue of Section 100(B)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

(This power should be exercised only in cases where there are genuinely special circumstances which require consideration of an item which has not previously been published on the Order of Business for the meeting.)

There was no general urgent business for discussion.