Issue - meetings

To receive the Annual Report into Overview and Scrutiny at South Cambridgeshire District Council (enclosed separately).

The report is also available to view with the electronic version of the Agenda; please use the following link to the Council's website. (www.scambs.gov.uk)

A hard copy has been placed in the Members’ Room. Alternatively, please contact Democratic Services for a copy, telephone 01954 713016 e-mail democratic.services@scambs.gov.uk 

Council RECEIVED the Annual Report into Overview and Scrutiny at South Cambridgeshire District Council. 

Council RECEIVED the Annual Report into Overview and Scrutiny at South Cambridgeshire District Council.  Council welcomed the report and thanked the Scrutiny Development Officer for her hard work throughout the year. Members also took the opportunity to thank the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Scrutiny and Overview Committee, Chairman of the Policy Development Committee and Chairman of the Arbury Task and Finish Group for their work, as well as villages which had hosted meetings and shown great interest in attending to ask questions about the Council’s services and the Senior Democratic Services Officer for his efforts in arranging meetings around the district.

The Chairman introduced the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report which would be presented to annual Council on May 22.

Arbury Park

It was agreed that paragraph 1.8 be amended to include reference to Impington parish councillors, instead of just a parish councillor, and to state that the Group had worked with Cabinet members rather than “interviewed” them.

Scrutiny

The Committee expressed concern at the fact that neither the Chairman nor the Policy Development Committee Chairman had been consulted on the Constitution Review Working Party report on suggested amendments to the Council’s scrutiny arrangements. The Chairman asked that the Annual report be amended to reflect the agreed revised scrutiny arrangements.

Cabinet liaison

The suggestion of having a member of the executive to be responsible for communication between Cabinet and the Scrutiny Committee was welcomed in the hope that it would promote an equal relationship between the two bodies.

Holding meetings in the District

It was agreed that the Committee’s decision to holding meetings outside the Council’s offices had been a successful initiative, shown by the increase in the number of residents who had attended the meetings and the positive feedback received from them. It was agreed that this should be given greater prominence in the report.

Bus scrutiny

It was agreed that the Committee’s scrutiny of the bus service should be expanded.

The Scrutiny Development Officer was thanked for her work on this report and her support of the scrutiny process in the past year which had enabled the Council’s scrutiny function to develop.

The Scrutiny Development Officer presented a second draft of the annual report on overview and scrutiny, which will be presented to Council in May.

The following minor amendments were noted:

• The page number for “Plans for 2008/09” was amended to 15 on the contents page
• In paragraph 2.4 the month for the presentation of the Equalities Policy to Council was amended to July
• The reference to the workforce plan was removed from paragraph 2.11
• The reference to the grants process was removed from paragraph 4.5

Updating the report

The Committee agreed to give authority to the Chairman to update paragraphs 2.10 and 2.11 following the discussion at this meeting.

Number on the Committee

It was stated that there were not enough members on the Committee and it was agreed that the report be amended to include a reference to the more robust challenge that additional members could provide.

The Committee agreed the report with the above amendments.

The Scrutiny Development Officer presented this report on scrutiny’s progress for 2007/08. After a brief discussion the Committee agreed that the report should be updated to include the meeting’s review of public transport and details of the forthcoming interim report of the Arbury Park task and finish group.  The report should then be presented to the next meeting of the Committee on 17 April.

The Scrutiny Development Officer presented this annual report on overview and scrutiny which will be presented to Council in May.

Minor amendments

It was agreed to remove the first sentence of the second paragraph on page 15 as it was unnecessary to describe the similar roles of the two scrutiny committees.

It was agreed to remove the reference to Council at the top of page 22 as the kerbside collection of plastic bottles was a Cabinet decision.

Evaluating performance

It was suggested that the report should list the recommendations made by the two committees and detail how many had been accepted.

Liaising with the Executive

It was agreed that the two scrutiny committees needed to liaise more with members of the executive in order to fulfil the role of critical friend. It was suggested that formal meetings between the scrutiny chairmen and the Leader and senior managers should take place, as this could improve forward planning.

Scrutinising portfolios

It was suggested that members of this Committee should attend portfolio holder meetings, but it was agreed that Committee membership needed to be increased to ensure a presence at each portfolio holder meeting. The Scrutiny Development Officer advised that the Committee needed to avoid duplicating the work of the scrutiny monitors.

It was noted that the annual report would be discussed at the next meeting of the Committee.