Agenda item

The Chair of the Scrutiny Task Group will present the report.

Councillor Sudbury and two other Members of the Scrutiny Task Group, Councillors Barrell and Harman were invited to address Cabinet.

They made the following points :

·         Thanks were given to those officers who had assisted in the work of the group, namely Mark Nelson, Duncan Turner and Sophie McGough.

·         When considered at the recent Overview and Scrutiny meeting the Committee did not take a vote on the report. The committee had questioned why the task group had not considered egg oiling in more detail but the group had closely followed the Terms of Reference agreed by O&S and this had not been specifically raised as an issue and no officers, members of the public or Councillors had raised it as an issue. That said during the review it had become apparent that there was a level of dissatisfaction with the availability of egg oiling treatment as the focus of the £9 100 was on treating eggs in Kingsditch and on the High Street rather than in other areas such as Tivoli or St Lukes which appeared to be areas of concern.

·         The increase to the budget of £10k would be spent on new things and she gave the example of the media plan and the potential purchase of a drone. Since publishing the report Members had been aware that Worcestershire were considering commissioning a private operator to undertake training/licensing

·         The drafting of a Supplementary Planning Document was in the view of the task group an important consideration and it was hoped that ideas from Gloucester and Bath in this respect could be shared.

·         It was highlighted that gull populations in the town was on the increase which coincided the views of residents

·         The task group was grateful for the support of the Cabinet Member. Flexibility would be required and officers would have the chance to comment on technical issues.

·         Drones were widely used. If acquired it could be potentially be used by other parts of the council.

·         It was important that a written strategy of what council already did in terms of gulls was produced

In responding to the report the Cabinet Member Development and Safety thanked the members of the scrutiny task group. It was an excellent report and would have a wider impact. He believed that at this stage it was premature to accept the recommendations as laid out but would request officers to look at the detail and come back with a report. He confirmed that the £10k offered to address the issues remained and he welcomed the potential solutions that the task group had identified although it was not necessary at this stage to allocate the budget for specific actions.

The Leader added that it was therefore proposed for Cabinet to note the report but to produce a formal response in due course.

The Chair of the Scrutiny Task Group thanked Cabinet for their comments and looked forward to receiving the formal Cabinet response.

RESOLVED THAT

1.    The report be welcomed

2.    A formal Cabinet response to the report be brought back to a future meeting.