Agenda item

Report of the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Tim Harman

Councillor Harman introduced the annual report as the chair of the Overview and Scrutiny committee. He thanked the Vice Chair Councillor Walklett and Councillor Payne who worked with him as a strong team coordinating the committee’s work. O&S had received presentations from the Cheltenham Trust, the BID, the Festivals and Stagecoach and noted that one of their most successful visits was to hold their meeting at the St Georges and St Vincent’s Centre and the committee had been important in terms of the Changing Places facilities supported by the Cabinet Member. He finished by encouraging all members to raise any matters with the scrutiny committee.

Although he had no criticism of the work of tO&S, a member did wish to raise a concern about the change of position of the current chair of O&S who since he had been appointed at Council, had taken a position as Cabinet Member at the county council. Scrutiny had since looked at a number of issues which involved the county council and he suggested that the chair should have withdrawn from any discussions. He gave Stagecoach, devolution and broadband as examples where the county council would have been directly involved in decisions on these issues.  Ubico was another area that had been scrutinised where the county council would be making a decision on what happens to waste and Councillor Harman was now the Executive member of the Health and Well Being Board.  He commended the fact that the Council had in its Constitution that the O&S committee is chaired by an opposition member but he encouraged the opposition to consider who is most suitable for that position and he suggested that it was inappropriate for Councillor Harman whilst he was a Cabinet Member at GCC. However well he carried out his role he had a clear pecuniary declarable interest in some of the items detailed in the annual report.

The vice chair of O&S, Councillor Walklett, took on board the comments raised but he had not experienced any difficulties due to Councillor Harman’s role on the county council. If anything did come up in the future he would bear in mind the comments made. Generally he felt the committee was performing a pretty strong scrutiny role.

In response Councillor Harman agreed to look into it but emphasised that he had been chosen by the opposition group to carry out the role for this municipal year and unless it was a serious issue he wish to carry on until then. He was not aware of any conflict but if he felt there was at any time he would take advice from officers.

Another member felt the challenge was reasonable but close working between this council and GCC was necessary and he suggested that the advantage of the chair of O&S being in a position of influence on the GCC Cabinet shouldn't be dismissed.

One member commented about the readability of the annual scrutiny report and suggested that the accounts of each working group needed to go into more detail, particularly on some of the challenges they had faced during the course of a scrutiny task group and the difficult questions they had raised. Another member suggested the requirement for detail could be covered by inserting an electronically link to the relevant scrutiny reports.

Another member suggested the annual work programme should be circulated with the annual report. Another member suggested that Council should also be informed of the work carried out by Cabinet member working groups. Whilst noting that they were not part of the scrutiny function they could provide some reassurance to the scrutiny process.

The Mayor raised concerns about the lack of women on any of the working groups and suggested that one of the reasons might be that unlike the old committees, meetings of task groups were not diarised in advance and were therefore none known commitment. Diversity of membership was important and perhaps the scrutiny structure should be reviewed to facilitate this.

In conclusion, Councillor Harman noted the points raised and payed particular thanks to Saira Malin and the rest of democratic services for their continued support to the scrutiny function.