Agenda and minutes

Cllr. Britter

(Cllr. Andrews substituting)

Cllr. Britter sent apologies, with Cllr. Andrews substituting.

Cllr. Harvey declared a direct interest in item 12 as a member of the Cheltenham Trust’s board, and his intention to leave the Council Chamber for the duration of that item.

Minutes of meeting held on 27^th February.

The minutes of the 27^th February meeting were approved and signed as a correct record.

There were none.

Briefing from Councillor Hay, Leader (if she has an update, or if O&S Members have questions for her)

Objective: An update from the Cabinet on key issues for Cabinet Members which may be of interest to Overview and Scrutiny and may inform the work plan

The Leader did not have a briefing at this time, but was happy to respond to any questions from Members.

The Chair recalled that the Deputy Leader had been asked at the last O&S meeting about the reasoning given for the council’s unsuccessful bid for Levelling Up funding. The Leader was happy to circulate the letter she had received on this topic. It was not that their bid had not been good enough, but rather that others were better. Not getting the funding was disappointing but it would not stop them going ahead with the Innovation Centre.

Two matters referred to O&S by Council on 20^th March.

Two matters had been referred to O&S by Council on 20^th March. It was agreed that both matters would be the responsibility of the Chair’s group, as they related to future items.

Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel (24^th March) – update from Cllr. Clucas

Gloucestershire Economic Growth O&S Committee (30^th March) – update from Cllr. McCloskey

Gloucestershire Health O&S Committee (14^th March) – update from Cllr. Bamford

Cllr. Clucas’ update from the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel on 24th March, Cllr. McCloskey’s update from the Gloucestershire Economic Growth O&S Committee on 30th March and Cllr. Bamford’s update from the Gloucestershire Health O&S Committee on 14th March were taken as read.

Cllr. Harvey thanked the representatives on other scrutiny committees for raising important issues on Overview & Scrutiny’s behalf.

Cllr. Tooke queried the mention of reducing over-recording of crime within the Police and Crime Panel report, suggesting that the under-recording of crime might be the issue rather than the opposite. If it was indeed under-recorded, then he wanted to know the impact on victim experience, the impact on resource planning and why this was the case. The Chair was happy to feed this back to the council’s representative to see if she could get a direct response. Cllr. Tooke added that the Police and Crime Commissioner could be invited back to O&S too, which the Chair agreed with.

Cllr. Chelin asked about the procedure for asking questions of the Economic Growth O&S Committee. The Executive Director Place and Communities was happy to look into this and respond offline.

Cllr. Payne noted that the statistics in the HOSC report did not paint a rosy picture of health in Gloucestershire, especially regarding out-of-hours services. A recent update on dental provision had led him to ask the Deputy Leader to contact the Chair of HOSC directly, though he had not yet received a reply.

Update from Scrutiny Task Group on Tackling Multiple Deprivation.

The update from the Scrutiny Task Group on Tackling Multiple Deprivation was taken as read.

The O&S workplan was taken as read. The Chair noted that the 5^th June agenda was looking particularly busy at the moment, so it might be necessary to consider some deferrals in consultation with officers.

Cllr. Tooke hoped the future item on accessibility would look at access for all groups and demographics, rather than just wheelchair access. The Chair added that the accessibility forum also looked at these issues, and he would pick the question up offline.

Cllr. Harvey suggested that the race week scheduled for June could benefit from input from a police representative at bronze or silver command level. The Chair agreed that this could be useful. Cllr. Fifield asked whether there could be representatives from the county council and Jockey Club too. The Chair responded that the chair’s group would consider how best to review the issue, and agreed that a good range of invitees would be appropriate.

5^th June.

5^th June.

The committee is recommended to approve the following resolution:-

“That in accordance with Section 100A(4) Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the remaining agenda items as it is likely that, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, if members of the public are present there will be disclosed to them exempt information as defined in paragraph 3, Part (1) Schedule (12A) Local Government Act 1972, namely:

Paragraph 3; Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular

person (including the authority holding that information).”

The committee resolved to move into exempt session.

Objective: How is the Trust performing relative to its business plan? Risks, opportunities and challenges.

Richard Gibson (Head of Communities, Wellbeing and Partnerships)

Laurie Bell (Chief Executive Officer)

Louis Eperjesi (Chair of the Board)

Discussion paper to follow.

Richard Gibson (Head of Communities, Wellbeing and Partnerships), Laurie Bell (Trust CEO) and Louis Eperjesi (Chair of the Board) gave a presentation on the ongoing situation with the Trust and responded to Member questions.