Agenda item

To receive a presentation from the Portfolio Holder for Community Leadership and Partnership on themes proposed by members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

(Report attached).

The Chair welcomed the Portfolio Holder for Community Leadership and Partnership, Councillor Gandy, to the meeting.  Councillor Gandy presented her Portfolio Holder Annual Report in accordance with the questions set by the Committee.

a)           What do you wish to achieve for Redditch?

Councillor Gandy noted that when considering this question it was important to distinguish between what she wanted to achieve and what was possible to achieve, (as set out in her answer to question b) below).

Councillor Gandy explained that she wanted Redditch to be a place that people were proud to live and work in.  Consequently, reviews of the Arrow Valley Countryside Centre and of Forge Mill Needle Museum had recently been proposed.  She informed Members that she aimed to ensure that there were attractive places within the town.  The estate enhancements process had therefore been encouraged as a way to ensure that this principle was met within the Borough.

She also explained that she wanted to promote the positive aspects of the town and of living and working in the town to members of the public.  The Council’s newspaper, Redditch Matters, had been re-introduced to help facilitate this process.  Moreover, she wanted to attract more businesses into the town.  Consequently, a new Council priority of Sustainable Communities had been introduced.

In addition, Councillor Gandy explained that she wished to ensure that the services delivered by the Council were of a high quality.  She was keen to learn about the weaknesses, successes and opportunities for Council services and had recently joined the Council’s refuse collectors to observe service delivery at first hand.

Finally, she added that she wanted to ensure that there was a thriving Voluntary and Community Sector within the Borough.  She had been pleased with the work of the Third Sector Task and Finish Group and had been impressed by their recommendations. 

b)           What difficulties, if any, are you encountering in achieving your aims and objectives for Redditch?

Councillor Gandy noted that, when she became Leader of the Council in May 2008, few people could have anticipated the scale that the economic crisis would reach.  She informed Members that the economic crisis had impacted on the Council’s ability to deliver all of the projects which she had hoped to complete, such as the Abbey Stadium project. 

She informed Members that, in the previous month, the number of new people applying for Job Seekers’ Allowance had been the highest in the West Midlands area.  She praised the Benefits Services team for their hard work during this time.

Members were informed that unfortunately some members of the public continued to have negative assumptions about Redditch.  Councillor Gandy noted that this represented a barrier to creating civic pride in the town.  She suggested that all Councillors and Officers could help to alter this view by speaking positively about the Borough. 

c)            What are your views on partnerships? The future of local government?

Councillor Gandy explained that she felt that partnerships, in large part, represented the future of local government.  She noted that the new local authority performance framework, the Comprehensive Area Assessment, would incorporate a review of how local partnerships were working.  One of the main challenges of this new performance assessment framework would be to make local partners aware of how important their roles and activities would be in the Comprehensive Area Assessment process.

Members were informed that Worcestershire County Council, through negotiation with partners, including local district authorities, had set the Local Area Agreement targets and stretch targets.  However, although these targets applied across the County they did not always necessarily correspond with the needs of the Borough.

Members discussed how local services could be delivered so as to achieve value for money for local customers.  Councillor Gandy explained that any review of services would be undertaken not with a view to increasing profit margins but rather to identify the most efficient method for delivering services.  This could involve the delivery of services currently provided by the Council by a local partner organisation. 

Members discussed the level of understanding within the Council and local community of partnerships and the contribution made by partnerships to local service delivery.  There was some question as to whether local partnerships were adequately held to account and whether the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could do more to assess the work of those partnerships.

Officers informed Members that the Local Strategic Partnership had recently been reformed.  The priorities for the partnership would be agreed in due course.  Moreover, Officers reported that local partnerships within Redditch had made a number of significant achievements such as the introduction of the Smart Water scheme by the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP).

d)           In the current budget basked of service cut options, which would you keep and which would you save?

Councillor Gandy noted that there had only been a limited number of proposals for service cut options.  These had included a reduction in the number of Neighbourhood Group meetings during the year; the closure of Pitcher Oak Golf Course; cancellation of the Council fireworks display; and cancellation of the Christmas lights.

She noted that as part of the budget review, a basket of options for further consideration had been identified.  These comprised a number of non-mandatory services that were delivered by the Council.  For example, the Forge Mill Museum had been identified as a service appropriate for review.  Councillor Gandy acknowledged that the museum was an important cultural asset for the town staffed by enthusiastic volunteers.  However, she suggested that more needed to be done to promote the museum and that there was a need to assess whether an alternative provider would achieve greater value for money in delivering the service. 

Councillor Gandy noted that responsibility for the Matchborough West Community Centre and Batchley Community Centre had been transferred to Worcestershire County Council and the Batchley Support Group respectively. However, she explained that these centres would remain a part of the community.

Councillor Gandy concluded that she ultimately felt the collective view of the budget basket was more important than any one individual’s view of the budget options.  For this reason the Council had sought views from local residents through consultation.  Moreover, Council staff had been encouraged to make proposals about how to address the budget situation.  Councillor Gandy hoped that by April 2009 both residents and Officers would feel that they had had an adequate opportunity to contribute to this debate.

RESOLVED that

subject to the comments above the report be noted.