Agenda item

To receive a presentation from the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Management, Councillor Braley, based on the questions proposed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. 

(Report attached)

The Chair welcomed Councillor Braley, the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Management to the meeting.  Councillor Braley presented his report in accordance with the questions set by the Committee. 

a)                 What in your view is the future of the Business Centres?

Councillor Braley informed the Committee that he felt the purpose of and any future arrangements for the centres needed to be considered by the Council.   He explained that the Council owned the Business Centres which consisted of approximately 80 units varying from light industrial units to office space.  He felt that any review of the Business Centres would need to examine the current lettings pattern of the units and the rent structure.  A review could also consider what motivated businesses to move into units like this and whether the provision of additional facilities or reduced rents was a determining factor. 

b)                 How do you rank the different elements of your portfolio?

Councillor Braley explained that there were two areas of his portfolio which he felt were especially significant.  Personnel and staffing issues were important and he emphasised that what made an organisation were the people working within it.  He expressed the view that the number of people who were absent from work through sickness and the impact this had on remaining staff was concerning. 

The management of the Council’s assets was an aspect of his portfolio that he felt was important.  He advocated the need for the Council to invest continuously in its assets to ensure their upkeep and proper functioning. 

c)                  What are you doing to modernise the Council’s IT systems, and in particular, improve IT access for Members?

Councillor Braley informed the Committee that he felt there were a number of actions that could be taken to modernise the Council’s IT systems.  He explained that it was important that the Council invested in the Town Hall to ensure it became a WiFi building.  This could help to improve the business functioning of the Town Hall and to make Civic Suite more marketable to business users. 

Furthermore, he felt it was imperative for the Council to make the intranet system readily available for Members and to generally improve email access for Members.  Good access to the intranet was important for Members as it enabled them to easily obtain copies of Council reports.  Councillor Braley had found establishing email access at home to be difficult and he was aware that other Members had experienced similar problems.  He also acknowledged that Members required training on using the new printers that had been installed in the Town Hall and also to enable them to use new social networking systems and technology. 

Councillor Braley informed Members that he was planning to convene meetings with the Head of Customer and IT Services and the Head of IT to discuss these issues.  He also proposed discussing the issue with the Member Development Steering Group.

d)                 How robust are the Council’s disaster and emergency recovery plans?  When were the plans last checked and what were the results of assessments?

Councillor Braley informed Members that the Council had a generic emergency plan in place which was based on the County Council’s emergency plan procedures.  Revisions of this plan had been undertaken.  A recent business continuity exercise had looked at the way in which the Council would deal with the swine flu pandemic.  He commented that Member involvement in the emergency planning process had traditionally been quite minimal.  However, it was recognised that in an emergency situation affecting the Borough Members should act as spokespersons to the community by ensuring that reassurance and information was provided to their constituents.

e)                 What are your views on the amount of money the Council writes off in debt?  Do you have any suggestions for improving the processes currently used by the Council?

The Committee was informed that the Council had recently agreed to write off debt totalling approximately £48,000.  The debt was a combination of overpaid housing benefit, tenancy arrears, voids, and unpaid commercial rents.  He commented that a clearer idea of how much the Council writes off in debt per year was needed and he had asked to be provided with this information.  Councillor Braley explained that he felt very strongly that the level of debt that the Council was willing to write off was unacceptable and that more needed to be done to reduce the current levels. 

The Chair thanked Councillor Braley for attending the meeting.

RESOLVED that

the report be noted.