Chichester District Council
Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Assembly Room - The Council House (Chichester City Council), North Street, Chichester. View directions

Contact: Bambi Jones on 01243 534685  Email:  bjones@chichester.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

170.

Chairman's announcements

Any apologies for absence that have been received will be noted at this point.

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed all to the meeting, particularly to officers and to Mr Stuart Mills, Contract Manager of Everyone Active.

 

She referred to a recent note out to members of the committee seeking those interested in attending a regional scrutiny networking seminar which was taking place at East Pallant House on 12 October 2017. Mrs P Plant and Mrs C Neville indicated that they would like to attend.

 

171.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 117 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 13 June 2017.

 

To consider progress against any recommendations.

Minutes:

The committee considered the minutes of the last meeting held on 30 June 2016.

 

RESOLVED

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 30 June 2016 be agreed as a correct record.

 

Matters arising:

 

Mrs Jones updated the committee on progress against the recommendations made at the last meeting. At minute 163 the recommendation to the South Downs National Park Authority had resulted in a meeting being arranged with the South Downs National Park Authority on 3 October 2017 at 2.00pm. Mr Shaxson, referring to the recommendation to Cabinet, suggested that a report be brought back to the committee for consideration. Mrs Jones advised that she would discuss with officers the possibility of preparing an update report for the committee at its November meeting.

 

172.

Urgent Items

The Chairman will announce any urgent items that due to special circumstances are to be dealt with under the agenda item below relating to Late Items.

 

Minutes:

There were no urgent items.

 

173.

Declarations of Interests

Members and officers are reminded to make any declarations of disclosable pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests they may have in respect of matters on the agenda for this meeting.

Minutes:

No interests were declared at this meeting.

 

174.

Public Question Time

The procedure for submitting public questions in writing no later than 12:00 on 11 September 2017is available upon request to Member Services (the contact details for which appear on the front page of this agenda).

Minutes:

No public questions had been received.

 

Referring to the low number of public questions received by this committee, Mr Shaxson asked how this was advertised to residents in the district. Mrs Jones advised that there was currently a push to advertise our audio recorded meetings to the public and that she would investigate the inclusion of advice to the public on how to raise public questions at meetings.

 

175.

Environment Services Portfolio Holder address pdf icon PDF 477 KB

The Cabinet Member for Environment Services is invited to present his priorities and areas of focus over the coming months and to answer questions from the committee on progress towards achieving the priorities within his portfolio which appear in the Council’s Corporate Plan.

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Mr John Connor, the Cabinet Member for Environment Services, to the meeting.

 

Ms A Stevens, Environment Manager, was present to support Mr Connor and to answer any questions.

 

Mr Connor gave a presentation on his priorities and areas of focus over the coming months and on progress achieved over the last six months on projects within his portfolio which appear in the council’s Corporate Plan.

 

The committee made the following comments and received answers to questions as follows:

 

·             Areas which are designated as air quality management areas are monitored constantly. A monthly assessment of pollution levels is taken by diffusion tube in other areas. There had been a slight decrease in nitrogen dioxide figures however it was anticipated that there would be no overall improvement in air quality. Actions are being taken which are consistent with what the government would expect local authorities to be taking to manage air quality such as modal shift initiatives. A move to car clubs, improvement in technology with introduction of electric vehicles and cleaner petrol and diesel engines will improve the figures in the long term.

·             Mr Galloway had been asked to be a member of the Air Quality Working Group. Mr S Morley is Midhurst’s representative on the group.

·             Issues of pollution, traffic jams and highway repairs at Midhurst and the possible solutions: Traffic and congestion such as is found at Rumbolds Hill, which results in pollution, is outside of local authority control. Monitoring has been undertaken on Rumbolds Hill and results showed that it could possibly be declared an ‘air quality area’. Further modelling is required to support the monitoring and as such this problem is on the Air Quality Working Group agenda.  If an air quality management area (AQMA) was put in place it would allow the council more influence in areas such as local transport planning with WSCC, encouraging initiatives such as hybrid buses (which could be fitted with devices to allow them to automatically go electric once they hit certain areas). Emissions from diesel engines were constantly improving. The next generation would see more car sharing, more use of electric bikes and cars and a subsequent reduction in emissions. Routing lorries elsewhere was a regional transport issue. It was not possible to declare an area as an air quality management area immediately. We would need to undertake modelling, would need to consider possible mitigating actions and it would be a Cabinet and Full Council decision. Ms Stevens undertook to take this away as a matter of priority.

·             The vulnerability of our coastline to a 1:100 year flooding event: Coastal defences are robustly maintained however the risk of storm surge at any time cannot be predicted. Within 20-30 years we would need to look at raising coast defences by about half a metre. The Medmerry Realignment Scheme was built to reduce that risk to the coastline around Selsey.

·             LPG gas leakages in commercial site tanks (issue raised after explosion in Scotland recently): The council is actively investigating  ...  view the full minutes text for item 175.

176.

Leisure Services Performance Review pdf icon PDF 66 KB

The committee is requested to consider the Post Project Evaluation (PPE) report for the leisure procurement project and the 2016-17 Annual Report from Everyone Active (Sport and Leisure Management Ltd) and to confirm that it is satisfied that the contractor is achieving satisfactory levels of performance against the outcomes at paragraph 3.0 in the annual report.

 

Mr H Potter, the committee’s representative on the corporate Leisure Management Task and Finish Group, will support this review.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The committee considered the report circulated with the agenda.

 

Mrs S Peyman presented the report. Mr S Mills, Everyone Active Contract Manager, was in attendance to answer questions.

 

This report covered the period 1 May 2016 to 31 March 2017, a period of 11 months and considered the outcomes of the Leisure Services Post Project Evaluation. A corporate Leisure Task and Finish Group had been constituted to consider performance during the project and a representative of this committee had been assigned to that group.

 

Mrs P Plant reported back that she had been on the task and finish group and had made a point of going to visit all three centres. At the last meeting of the group the annual report was considered and performance against the project outcomes was noted as having been met. 

 

The committee made the following comments and received answers to questions as follows:

 

·             Have the savings in the first year been achieved? The savings reported are the overall savings agreed between the council and the contractor to be achieved over the ten year contract period. A risk to the council in the future would be if the contractor wasn’t able to deliver the set savings to the council and in this instance the contractor would be subject to penalties under the contract.

·             The financial information had been included in a confidential report to Cabinet in January 2016. This had been noted in the report as a background paper and members had access to this information.

·             IFI relates to the Inclusive Fitness Initiative which allows people with disabilities to fully access and use the fitness facilities.

·             There is a concessionary rate for older people. It was aimed at 65 and above but this had been changed to 60 and above.

·              A swimming loyalty scheme had been replaced with a new swim only membership which had worked out better value to the customer than the loyalty scheme.

·             Who do Chichester residents go to Bourne when they have everything at the Westgate Centre? Some customers prefer Bourne which is a quieter site. Everyone Active customers can use any similar site in the country.

·             A virtual class is a class without a coach but with a video screen.

·             A Quest assessment is a national quality standard scored through mystery customers, mystery phone calls and email.

·             Work on the changing rooms has been carried out. A report setting out customer comments is considered monthly to assess dissatisfaction levels.

·             Community sports and development plan is under way and initiatives will be discussed with the task and finish group

·             Clarification was sought on the three different companies under Sports & Leisure Management (SLM). Our contract is with SLM Sport and Development Limited; however there are three separate companies – SLM Fitness, SLM Community and SLM Food & Beverage – within the SLM group. When nearing completion of the contract in early 2016 the advice had been to transfer elements of the business to the three separate companies. The pension outcome would be the same.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 176.

177.

Southern Gateway, Chichester - Implementation pdf icon PDF 63 KB

The committee is requested to consider the draft Project Initiation Document, attached as Appendix 1 and to make any comments they wish to for consideration by Cabinet. The committee is also requested to nominate one of its members to sit on the proposed Chichester Growth Board as an observer.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The committee considered the report circulated with the agenda.

 

Mrs Hotchkiss presented the report. Mrs Shepherd was in attendance to answer questions.

 

The committee was reminded that the purpose of this report was not to consider the content of the Masterplan, which was going through a separate approval process via the Development Plan & Infrastructure Panel, Cabinet and Council, but to consider the draft Southern Gateway Implementation Plan and whether there were any gaps. This draft plan was being brought to the committee to consider in advance of the Masterplan being agreed.  A workshop on the Southern Gateway Masterplan, to which all members had been invited, was being held on 4 October 2017. The committee was also asked to nominate a member to sit on the Growth Board as an observer.

 

Mrs Hotchkiss drew members’ attention to amendments on page 67 – Mrs J Kilby replaced Mrs C Purnell as Cabinet Member for Housing Services; Mrs E Lintill has been added as Cabinet Member for Community Services and the representative from this committee would also be added once appointed.

 

The project outcomes, outputs, constraints, costs and governance arrangements were presented to the committee as well as the proposed project plan and proposals to develop a communications plan. This would be a phased project with some sites coming forward sooner than others. Key stakeholders would be kept informed and consultation carried out during the implementation phase. At all stages in the project the risks would be reviewed and rescored.

 

Mrs Apel referred to various questions submitted prior to the meeting by Mr J Ransley and the responses given by Mr P Over.

 

The committee made the following comments and received answers to questions as follows:

 

·             The law courts are to be closed and the courts will be handed over to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) which is a key partner in the project.

·             Significant new funding streams - Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) and the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP): Bids are currently being developed.

·             Closure of the Kingsham building sited on the current High School: This area and the astro turf area is included in the Masterplan.

·             Current land owners have supplied us with letters of support for the project (required for the LEP application). We have also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with our key partners like WSCC and the HCA.

·             We currently own the land at Basin Road car park and at the bus station and bus depot.

·             Total cost of the loss of the car park and revenue from Stagecoach totals just under £80,000. That loss of revenue would be picked up when we work with the developer to mitigate this loss. The council would need to assess whether it wanted to be an investor in the project going forward or whether it just wanted to mitigate the loss.

·             How much spent so far? Cabinet had agreed £75,000 in January 2017 and from this and other partnership money we had funded initial appointments for legal and property advice. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 177.

178.

Corporate Plan Mid-Year Review - Terms of Reference pdf icon PDF 51 KB

The committee is requested to consider and agree the Terms of Reference for this Task and Finish Group review, to agree the membership and appoint the Chairman.

Minutes:

The committee considered the Terms of Reference for this Task and Finish Group. The Chairman had received positive responses from two previous members of the group and was awaiting responses from the other two members. Mrs P Dignum had agreed to chair the group.

 

RESOLVED

 

1)      That the Terms of Reference for the Corporate Plan Task and Finish Group be agreed.

2)      That members be confirmed as Mrs P Dignum and Mr N Galloway, and Mr S Morley and Mr L Hixson, should they respond in the affirmative.

3)      That Mrs P Dignum be agreed as the Chairman of this group.

4)      That the Task and Finish Group report back to this committee at its November 2017 meeting.

 

179.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 155 KB

The Committee is requested to consider the latest Cabinet Forward Plan and to decide whether it wishes to enquire into any of the forthcoming decisions.

Minutes:

The committee considered the Council’s latest Forward Plan (Oct 2017- Jan 2018) for items to raise for scrutiny. The following issues were discussed:

 

·         Air quality – during a previous agenda item at this meeting officers agreed to keep members informed on this topic.

·         East Pallant House Options Appraisal – this was due to be considered by the committee at its January 2018 meeting.

·         S106 Allocation – Westhampnett Community Hall – Mr Hyland offered to update Mr Potter after the meeting.

 

The Chairman raised the issue of the council’s consultation process as there had been a number of concerns from members of the public and councillors following consultations on Southern Gateway, The Vision, Local Plan and recently the Street Audit. Members of the committee agreed that this item should also be added to the committee’s work programme.

 

RESOLVED

 

That a review be carried out on the council’s consultation process and this review be added to the committee’s work programme.

 

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