Issue - meetings

Councillor Penny Hall, Chair of the Scrutiny Task Group, will present the report.

RESOLVED that                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

1. the report of the Scrutiny Task Group be noted.
2. a further report from the Cabinet Member Housing and Safety be brought back to a future meeting of Cabinet outlining how the recommendations of the Scrutiny Task Group could be implemented
3. the scheduled follow up of the implementation of the recommendations by Overview & Scrutiny in November 2013 be noted.

The Chair of the Event Submissions Scrutiny Task Group (STG), Councillor Penny Hall, was invited to address Cabinet. She explained that the STG had been formed in February 2012 at the last meeting of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee and a number of individuals and organisations had expressed their unease at a major event being proposed in Cheltenham at Council in February 2012.

The Chair of the Event Submissions STG explained that the working group set out to investigate current practice both within the council and other local authorities and the findings were outlined in paragraphs 4.12 and 5. The report was first considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in October 2012, was debated in full Council in December and brought back to O & S in January. It had been a challenging experience and the Chair wished to thank the working group for their input. Particular thanks were given to Rosalind Reeves and Saira Malin from Democratic Services and to all other officers involved. The introduction of a Safety Advisory Group (SAG) represented a great step forward for the council.

When asked what would happen should proposals for major events come forward for the same date the Chair of the STG explained that further work was being undertaken by officers to address such potential issues. She emphasised that the SAG had no decision making powers but it made recommendations to the final decision-maker.

The Leader of the Council agreed that it was sensible to have one point of contact for anyone wishing to hold an event. He asked how many SAGs one could expect to have in an average year. In response the Chair of the STG explained that this was an unknown but as O&S intended to follow up the implementation of the recommendations in November 2013 this would be examined then. The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety explained that there had already been 5 meetings of the SAG since the beginning of the year. The Leader questioned whether the SAG would have to be convened each time should there be a regular annual event. The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety explained that this would very much depend on what was being planned.

The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety said it was now necessary to tidy up the loose ends of the process but it was a good basis to start from. He was mindful of resources that these groups would involve and he also raised the issue of communication between the SAG and the Events Consultative Group. The Chair of the STG commented that the process was now in place so in her view this should not necessarily be more costly than how events were dealt with previously.

Further questions were raised as to the requirement to stipulate on the form the number of people expected to an event. This was often difficult for community events. In response the Chair of the Scrutiny Task Group explained that this requirement followed current practice but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5

The report of the scrutiny task group will be presented by Councillor Penny Hall as the chair of the group. The O&S committee are asked to consider the report before it goes to Cabinet on 15 January, taking into account any comments or recommendations from the Council debate held on 17 December 2012.

The chair invited Councillor Penny Hall, as chair of the working group to introduce the report of the scrutiny task group.

Councillor Hall thanked the committee for providing the opportunity to take their report to Council as this had given all members a greater awareness of the report and its recommendations.  She thanked all the members of the working group and commended the efforts of Saira Malin and Rosalind Reeves from Democratic Services who had supported the review along with Grahame Lewis, Louis Krog and other officers from Parks and Gardens, One Legal, Integrated Transport and Public Protection.

In responding to the report, members commended the working group and acknowledged the great deal of work that had gone into producing their final report and were happy to endorse the recommendations and forward them to Cabinet.

Resolved that the recommendations of the Events scrutiny task group be endorsed and forwarded to Cabinet.

A report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee - to be introduced by the vice-chair of the committee, Councillor Klara Sudbury who will ask Councillor Penny Hall as chair of the scrutiny task group to introduce their report.

Councillor Klara Sudbury, introduced the report of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee of the scrutiny task group - Events Submission, as the vice-chair of that committee.  She commended Councillor Penny Hall for her excellent work as chair of the scrutiny task group and explained that the report had been brought to Council so that all members would have an opportunity to comment on the findings. She felt that the recommendations set out in 2. needed clarification and suggested the following amendment:

That Rec 2 reads – “to request that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet take note of the comments raised by Council when they consider the report of the task group”

This amendment was agreed.

Councillor Sudbury invited Councillor Penny Hall to introduce the report of the scrutiny task group.

Councillor Hall explained that she was very pleased to bring this report to Council as it was such an important issue and she would welcome any proactive suggestions from members. In her introduction she explained the background to the review and why the task group had been initiated. The review had highlighted that currently there was a lack of any coherent process in the procedures for dealing with event requests in the town and there was often no notification to members or the public at an early stage. To tackle these issues, the scrutiny task group had come up with a number of recommendations based around an Events Advisory Group and a Safety Advisory Group. She acknowledged that the review had been challenging at times and commended the efforts of Saira Malin and Rosalind Reeves from Democratic Services who had supported the review along with Grahame Lewis, Louis Krog and other officers from Parks and Gardens, One Legal, Integrated Transport and Public Protection.

In responding to the report, members commended the working group and acknowledged the great deal of work that had gone into producing their final report and recommendations.

A member asked how the council should prioritise events where more than one applicant was interested in holding an event at the same location at the same time and suggested the task group should give this further consideration.

Another member requested clarity on whether a local street party would fall under category A or B. The guidelines suggested a category B event was over 500 people but this would be difficult to assess.

Members had some discussion about the reference in para 6.4 that ward councillors involved in the ECG could keep the public and local interest groups informed of any potential events and represent their views. One member was concerned that the onus should not be on the local councillors to inform their residents as they did not have the tools available to the authority for communicating with residents and local interest groups on a mass scale. Councillor Hibbert, as a member of the working group, advised that the use of the word "could" was deliberate highlighting that this stage in the process provided an opportunity  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12