Agenda item

A review of progress across the scrutiny task groups and initiation of any new work.

Review Draft Terms of Reference for:

 - Joint Planning Liaison working group

 - Sex trade (referred by Council)

Review proposed scrutiny topics
 -  from Cllr. Regan regarding Allotments

 -  from Cllr. Hall regarding maintenance of grass verges

The chair referred members to the summary which had been circulated with the agenda. This listed all the potential scrutiny task groups as well as other bodies where O&S was required to make a nomination or have some input. He did not intend to go through this in detail. 

It was noted that Councillor Driver had confirmed that she would like to join the Youth Services scrutiny task group.

Regarding the Joint Planning Liaison Group, the task group had now met twice and agreed some amended terms of reference which had been circulated at the start of the meeting. These were agreed.

Regarding the Event Submission Working group, Councillor Hall, as a member of the group, reported that it had met last week to review the final draft of an event submission form it had been developing. This was a very important topic to get right and with the holiday season approaching, the final report would not be ready to bring back to this committee in September. It was agreed that this would be deferred until the November meeting.

With regard to the review of the Sex Trade in Cheltenham the draft terms of reference had been circulated with the agenda. It was noted that Councillor Chard had expressed an interest in joining the group. Councillor Driver, as the proposer of the motion at Council, was happy with the terms of reference. Regarding the potential of a one-day enquiry she highlighted that some members of the public may want to speak to the committee in private. The chair responded that the level of confidentiality would be a matter for the working group to resolve.

A review of allotments had been proposed by Councillor Regan and draft terms of reference for a STG had been circulated with the agenda. Invited to speak by the chair, Councillor Regan highlighted a number of concerns arising from the Weavers Field matter which needed to be followed up, including the lack of financial figures. The council also received a number of queries from the public on unattended allotments and the council's policy on this needed to be reviewed.

A member suggested that the working group should also work with other parties to consider how potential allotment land in other ownership could be progressed. Others suggested that the group should liaise with members of the garden share programme under vision 21 and review the strategy for shared allotments.  The chair suggested these matters could be picked up as part of the allotment strategy. Referring to the terms of reference for the review he highlighted that i) to iv) were very much forward looking and v) was retrospective with the aim of identifying any lessons to be learnt from Weaver’s Field. The outcome of the review would be an allotment strategy that was fit for purpose.

The Chief Executive suggested that the working group might like to consider co-opting a parish council member as parish councils have responsibility for allotments in parished areas. The chair said that this and any other gaps on the form would be for the working group to consider. On this basis the terms of reference were agreed.

A review of the maintenance by the council of the grass verges throughout the borough had been proposed by Councillor Hall and draft terms of reference for a STG had been circulated with the agenda. Invited to speak by the chair, Councillor Hall said this issue was very important and she was looking for short-term practical improvements to come out of it. It was also addressing an issue of public concern.

Member suggested that the review should also look at weed control, parking and churning up of grass verges and the response to public complaints.

The committee considered whether this review should be consolidated into the scrutiny task group looking at UBICO planned to start in September. Councillor Hall was keen that this was a short-term practical piece of work and therefore should be kept separate. In response the chair said that the review of Ubico would be focusing on high-level performance figures and therefore agreed with Councillor Hall wanted this to be a separate piece of work.

Invited to speak by the chair, Councillor Jordan, highlighted that this was a county council function and therefore any recommendations would need to be presented to the county council. In response the chair said the review was about how the money was used not the source of funding and the review may come up with recommendations requiring the council to renegotiate the service level agreement with the county. The county council should also be consulted as part of the review, The terms of reference were agreed accordingly.

A draft terms of reference for a proposed ICT review had been circulated. A commissioning review of ICT was now underway and a project brief was currently being drawn up. The Democratic Services Manager had produced some draft terms of reference for the scrutiny task group for consideration by the committee.  The terms of reference were agreed.

Resolved that the following scrutiny task groups be set up with terms of reference as agreed at the meeting and the members as detailed below:

1. The Joint Core Strategy and Planning Liaison Group - Councillors Bickerton, Sudbury, Teakle, Harman, Chard, Godwin, Wall and McCloskey
2. Sex Trade in Cheltenham - Councillors Driver, Seacome, Regan, Chard and Massey.
3. Allotments – Councillors Regan, Smith, McCloskey, Britter and C Hay.
4. Grass verge cutting – Councillors Hall, Fletcher and Britter.
5. ICT review - Councillors Chard, Wall, Wheeler and C Hay.