Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Gay Hopkins.  Councillor Roger Hill attended the meeting in pace of Councillor Hopkins.

The Chairman confirmed that he had spoken to Councillor Hopkins and she had requested that it be noted that she had been advised not to attend the meeting due to the perception of a personal interest in respect of item 4 of the agenda.

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

There were no declarations of interest nor of the party whip.

RESOLVED that

The minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 4th November 2013 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To discuss future arrangements for Redditch United Football Club.

(Oral report)

The Chair introduced Mr Chris Swann, Chairman of Redditch United Football Club (RUFC), and invited him to give his presentation.  Mr Swan was accompanied by Mr Jim Ralphs and Mr Otto DeWeizer from Dutch Architects and Design Ltd.

Mr Swann explained that the aim of the presentation was to show the work that the Club had undertaken in conjunction with Council Officers and the Football Association (FA) during recent years to ensure the long term viability of the Club.  The Committee was informed that a formal presentation, detailing the Club’s future plans, had been received by Members of the Council in June 2013.  Following consideration of those plans, Mr Swan had received a formal letter form the Council rejecting those plans.

Members were advised that RUFC had two aims; to be a financially sustainable community football club, which did not rely upon public funds and to have appropriate facilities for the current 20 teams.  The five year plan which RUFC had compiled with the FA, anticipated that this would grow to in excess of 50 teams, which would accommodate approximately 1,000 young people and their families.

Currently the Club operated from the Valley Stadium which, Mr Swann informed Members, was a dilapidated facility owned by the Council and leased to the Club.  RUFC also had access to Terry’s Field which had a significant drop from one corner to another and a number of potholes.

Mr Swann provided background information on how he had taken over RUFC.  At that time the Club was about to go into liquidation and Mr Swan’s first action had been to bring the Club’s finances under control and to look at improving the facilities in order to ensure that the Club could cater for the young people and disabled users and visitors to the Club.  Mr Swann had injected a substantial amount of money into the Club and ensured that the rent and rates payments were up to date. Repairs had also been undertaken to the fabric of the building to limit further deterioration where possible and provide access to the first floor function room.

After a time it had become apparent that more fundamental action was required and the Club appointed consultants who had football experience to investigate how best to improve the current facilities.  Mr Swann showed Members two slides, the first of which showed the layout of the existing facilities which restricted the Club from fulfilling some of its community obligations and the second slide showed an initial re-modelling of those facilities.  Mr Swann had worked closely with Council Officers to produce a proposal to provide an artificial pitch (on Terry’s Field) and a re-design of the internal layout of the main stand in order to provide a better, upgraded facility.  These proposals had been discussed in detail with Council Officers on 6th December 2011.

Following that meeting, the Council had prepared a scheme for the improvements required to Terry’s Field in order to move the proposal forward.  This included proper drainage and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.

To receive a presentation providing an overview of the Medium Term Financial Plan for Redditch Borough Council in 2014/15.

(Presentation to follow)

The Chair informed Members that following the presentation should they have any particular areas of concern which warranted further investigation these should be raised as soon as possible in order for the appropriate Heads of Services to be given the opportunity to attend the meeting on 9th January 2014 when the budget would be discussed in more detail.

Officers delivered a short presentation which provided Members with an overview of the budget position 2014/15.  This included an overview of the cost of all staff included within those shared services which were broken down into three categories; those which created value (for example bin men), those that added value (for example those in a supervisory role) and those that enabled, (for example a manager).  Members were informed that there was an initial shortfall of £1.6m due to a reduction in government grant, business rate reduction, reserves being used and unavoidable pressures.  A number of issues had been taken into consideration when calculating the position including a 1% pay award, the impact of a reduction in the new homes bonus, the cost of borrowing, potential capital receipts and the impact of cuts at a county council level.  Members discussed the following areas in more detail:

·                The “top slicing” of the New Homes Bonus – it was understood that this would be allocated to the Local Enterprise Partnerships ( LEPs) and as the Council was a member of both the Worcestershire and Solihull LEP Members requested clarification as to how this would be dealt with.

·                It was confirmed that Capital receipts referred to Threadneedle House and any funds arising from this could be used for future capital expenditure.

·                Members were informed that a presentation was due to be delivered by Deloitte on 4th December in respect of fees and charges which would include any recommendations where there was potential for improvements to be made.

It was confirmed that there was currently an actuarial pension review being undertaken which could lead to increased costs and that the Council anticipated that it would receive the final settlement figure in late December. Heads of Service had been asked to identify additional costs and income and given an allocation of the amount of savings each area needed to make, without a reduction in frontline services.

The Finance team were also looking at the figures for 2015/16 and 2016/17 with Heads of Service in respect of the cost of services together with the strategic purposes of the Council.  Heads of Service would be taking into consideration the impact of the Worcestershire County Council cuts, which would have a knock on effect on Borough Council services.

RESOLVED that

Members inform Officers of any areas of concern in order for the relevant Head of Service to be given the opportunity to attend the meeting to be held on 9th January 2014.

To consider the latest quarter update on progress to date with implementation of recommendations made through the Overview and Scrutiny process.

(Report attached).

Officers provided a brief update on the tracker which detailed action taken to implement recommendations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee together with details of those recommendations where action remained outstanding.  Members raised concerns that in some instances recommendations had taken an unacceptable amount of time to be implemented, particularly in respect of Dial a Ride service which might have led to income being lost.  Officers agreed to provide further information to Members in respect of this item. 

The Chair asked Members to look at this report in more detail and inform officers of any areas of concern in order for the relevant departments to be asked to provide feedback at the meeting to be held on 9^th January 2014.

RESOLVED that

Members provide officers with details of any areas of concern in order that further information be provided at a future meeting.

To consider the minutes of the latest meeting(s) of the Executive Committee and also to consider whether any items on the Executive Committee’s Work Programme are suitable for scrutiny.

(Minutes from the Executive Committee meeting on 12th November attached, minutes from the 26th November meeting and Executive Work Programme to follow).

The Chair drew Members’ attention to resolved item 2 of the additional papers where the Executive Committee had requested that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee “engage in an exercise with Officers that will seek to establish the demand for future provision within the Borough and that the Portfolio Holder and Officers hold a public consultation event to engage with residents and clubs to help to inform this exercise.”  Members expressed concerns that such work would be a repeat of that which had already been carried out by Redditch Utd (as detailed in the presentation received at item 4). 

The Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Tourism, Councillor Phil Mould, informed Members that the Executive Committee was asking for assistance in liaising between those involved with this matter.  He welcomed the Task Group exercise, though suggested that it should cover football throughout the town and not just activities provided by Redditch Utd.  However, he acknowledged that it remained within the Committee’s discretion to consider this proposal and hot to respond.

(Due to the inclusion of details about the Executive Committee’s discussions of Redditch United in the minutes of the meeting from 26th November Members considered this item immediately after item 4 on the agenda.  At the end of discussing this item there was a brief adjournment in proceedings).

RESOLVED that

the Portfolio Holder be consulted in the completion of a scoping document for the Redditch Utd Task Group.

Officers confirmed that the meeting to be held on 9th January 2014 would concentrate on providing further information in respect of the budget.

RESOLVED that

the Committee’s Work Programme be noted.

To consider progress to date on the current reviews against the terms set by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The current reviews in progress are:

a)    Abbey Stadium Task Group – Chair, Councillor Carole Gandy;

b)    Landscaping Task Group – Chair, Councillor Gay Hopkins;

c)    Joint Worcestershire Regulatory Services – Redditch representative, Councillor Alan Mason; and

d)    Voluntary Sector – Chair, Councillor Pat Witherspoon.

 (Oral reports)

The following updates in respect of current Task Group reviews were provided:

a)    Abbey Stadium Task Group – Chair, Councillor Carole Gandy

Councillor Gandy informed Members that, due to Members being on annual leave, no meetings had taken place since the last report. However a meeting was due to be held on 5th December when senior officers would be interviewed.  A site visit to Evesham Leisure Centre was also planned for 12th December.

b)    Landscaping Task Group - Chair, Councillor Gay Hopkins

Officers informed Members that the Task Group Members had visited the Crossgates’ team, the Trees team and Winyates Place team.  A meeting would take place on 3rd December which would include further interviews with officers with a further meeting taking place the following week.

c)    Voluntary Sector Task Group – Chair, Councillor Pat Witherspoon

Councillor Witherspoon informed Members that several meetings had taken place, the most recent having been an interview with the Chair of the Grants Panel.  The Task Group already had some ideas about potential recommendations and had received a great deal of useful information from various sources. 

It was confirmed that, following receipt of legal advice, Councillor Baker had stood down from the review due to the potential for conflicts of interest to arise if he continued to participate In the exercise.  Although he had not yet been replaced the group were working well together.  It was suggested that it might not now be appropriate to seek a replacement at this stage in the investigation.

d)    Joint Worcestershire Regulatory Services – Redditch Member, Councillor Alan Mason

As Councillor Mason had been unable to attend the previous two meetings of the Task Group officers drew Members’ attention to the summaries provided in the agenda.  The Members had attended a meeting of the Worcestershire Shared Services Joint Committee followed by an interview with the Chair and Vice Chair of that Committee. The following meeting of the Task Group would take place on 4th December when a recap of work carried out so far would take place together with the setting of questions for future witnesses, which included a further interview with the Head of Regulatory Services on 18th December.

RESOLVED that the update reports be noted.

Councillor Witherspoon provided a brief verbal update on the latest meeting of the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) which had taken place on 6th November.  The main topics of discussion had been the concern over timings of ambulances and the reintroduction of the 111 service, which would go live across Worcestershire and replace the current GP service. 

Information about the workload of paramedics was raised by Members and Councillor Witherspoon asked for any concerns to be referred to her in order for her to feed this information back to the HOSC.