Chichester District Council
Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 2, East Pallant House

Contact: Katherine Davis on 01243 534674  Email:  kdavis@chichester.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

279.

Chairman's Announcements

Any apologies for absence will be noted at this point.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Mr Bell and Mr Palmer.

280.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 149 KB

To approve the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 12 March 2019.

 

To receive an update on progress against recommendations made to the Cabinet and the Council.

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 12 March 2019 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

 

Matters Arising: Minute 274: Ice Skating Review – Mrs Apel read out the Committee’s recommendation made at its last meeting to Cabinet and the Cabinet’s resolution.   

 

Miss Davis read out an update from Mrs Peyman on the reinstatement of Priory Park, Chichester. 

 

Mrs Peyman advised that full details of all the costs involved to the Council had not yet been completed, as the project had not yet been signed off.  She undertook to provide a cost breakdown to the Committee for the reinstatement works once the project had been completed.

281.

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.

282.

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:

Mrs Apel declared a personal interest as the Chichester District Council’s representative on the Pallant House Gallery Trust and Company.

283.

Public Question Time

The procedure for submitting public questions in writing no later than 12:00 on 17 June 2019 is available upon request from Democratic Services (the contact details for which appear on the front page of this agenda).

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

284.

Pallant House Gallery Monitoring Report pdf icon PDF 62 KB

To receive the annual report from Pallant House Gallery and assess performance in line with the monitoring framework.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered this report circulated with the agenda.

 

Mrs Peyman was joined by Mr Simon Martin who presented the report and provided a summary of the year. 

 

Mr Martin expressed thanks to Mrs Pam Dignum, the Council’s previous representative on the Pallant House Gallery Board of Trustees and was delighted to have Mrs Apel as the Council’s new appointee. 

 

He outlined Pallant House Gallery’s annual report.  In particular he explained how children and young people were encouraged to visit the gallery and the range of incentives in place to encourage everyone to visit.  With regard to the art on view, the Gallery was trying to be more diverse in the types of paintings on display.  A number of the paintings were loaned out to other organisations in this Country and to other countries, which was a great advert for the Gallery.   With regard to financial governance, the 2018-2019 accounts were currently being audited. 

 

Mrs Peyman added that as part of the monitoring framework an annual report was reported to this Committee.  The Gallery’s funding was spilt into two tranches, being released on 1 April and 1 October each year, but was first subject to confirmation that the Arts Council England funding was in place.  Confirmation had been received that it was in place until 2022.  Paragraph 4.1 set out the activities and the required measurements to be achieved under the monitoring framework.   Mrs Peyman confirmed that having reviewed the monitoring framework she had no concerns with the performance of Pallant House Gallery, and advised that all the requirements appeared to be covered clearly in the report.

 

Members asked the following questions of Mr Martin:

 

-     We have heard some of the initiatives in place to attract young people.  Are there other initiatives in place for other age ranges?: Mr Martin advised that visitor numbers for older people were very good.  The initiatives for young people were in place as the Gallery struggled to attract this age group, as they were working, had less free time and a wide range of different choices of what to do with the spare time they did have.  It had been noticed that a key way to attract this age range was programming.  The contemporary artist Nick Goss had held his first museum exhibition at the Gallery, which had attracted younger people, largely through social media.  The post-impressionist Harold Gillman had attracted a different audience.  Having both these exhibitions at the Gallery at the same time had created a cross fertilisation as their exhibitions were, therefore, seen by both the young and old, creating a cross fertilisation.  The evening yoga was an opportunity to attract people who would not normally visit.   The ‘summer lates’ evenings were created to attract young people who often did not want formal learning experiences but were looking for different types of experiences.  The Gallery was also attracting younger families to take part in creative activities with their children.

-     How was the Gallery embracing new  ...  view the full minutes text for item 284.

285.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee's 2018-2019 Annual Report and 2019-2020 Work Programme pdf icon PDF 64 KB

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee is requested to consider the agenda report and its two appendices and to make the following resolution and recommendation:

 

A – RESOLUTION

 

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee's 2018-2019 Annual Report and the 2019-2020 Work Programme be agreed.

 

B – RECOMMENDATION

 

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee's 2018-2019 Annual Report and the 2019-2020 Work Programme be noted.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered the report circulated with the agenda.

 

Mr Hyland introduced the Annual report and provided a brief overview of the process.  The previous Chairman, Mrs Apel advised that the Committee had done a large amount of good work during the previous year. 

 

Officers undertook to circulate the results of the annual survey on scrutiny at Chichester District Council sent to members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the wider membership.

 

Mrs Rudziak undertook to chase up the report requested from the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner for a detailed account of how the precept increase has been spent.

 

Mr Hyland explained that the draft Work Programme had been agreed at the Committee’s Annual Workshop, which was held to look back at the Committee’s work over the past year and to look at the work to be undertaken this year.

The Chairman asked members for any suggested changes and additional topics they would like added to the work plan, in particular for the next meeting on 10 September 2019. 

 

During the discussion the Committee made the following amendments to the Work Programme received answers to questions including the following:

 

-     Task and Finish Groups (TFGs): The terms of reference for the Corporate Plan TFG presented to the Committee each year were broadly the same and the Committee could amend if they wished.  In formulating the TFG it was helpful for the whole Committee to have a broad understanding of the projects being monitored to help direct the TFGs in terms of where they should be scrutiny is best placed.  The Corporate Plan was available to all members to view if they wished to view the Council’s priorities.  When considering the Terms of reference, members would be able to identify the topics that the TFG should be concentrating on.  Officers undertook to provide the Committee with the terms of reference for the three TFGs.

-     Sickness Level Report - It was felt that a deeper investigation was required, in particular concerning staff workloads, which were considered a strategic issue:  Mrs Rudziak explained that the Committee’s discussions had resulted in the Absence Management procedure being revised and suggested that members wait to see the impact of the revisions before deciding if more work was required.  It was noted that sickness levels were already falling.  Mr Hyland undertook to circulate the papers previously circulated to the Committee so that members could see the work previously considered.  Add update report for six months’ time.

-     There should be more communication between the rural Midhurst, Selsey and Petworth vision delivery plans and the City Chichester Vision, with the sharing of ideas as some were relevant to both the rural and city areas, with equal focus on all:  Mrs Rudziak suggested that the Committee could add this as a future item in itself for the Committee to consider to see if there were any further particular issues that required further investigation.  The issue would be discussed further outside of the meeting, to include input  ...  view the full minutes text for item 285.

286.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 143 KB

Members are requested to consider the latest Forward Plan and whether any items should be added to the Committee’s Work Programme.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the Cabinet’s Forward Plan for the period July to October 2019.

 

Mr Hyland explained that the Forward Plan listed future items proposed to be considered by Cabinet.  The Committee could suggest adding items from the Forward Plan to this Committee’s Work Plan if they wished.

 

The Chairman asked the Committee to look at the Forward Plan in more detail outside of the meeting to see if there were any particular items that this Committee should think about for consideration at its next meeting.  With regard to the 9 July entry for the appointment of a Climate Change Officer, this item would be removed from the Forward Plan as the terms of reference only required approval at the Environment Panel.  The Chairman advised that there would be the opportunity for members to feed into the terms of reference and he would submit a paper for consideration.

 

With regard to food waste collection trials, a member commented that the Government may in future issue a directive concerning this.  The Chairman advised that this matter would be discussed at both the Environment Panel and Cabinet. He suggested that members read the report in detail and if they considered it should be brought to this Committee, they should do it in good time before Cabinet as this Committee needed to think further ahead in its work programming.

287.

Late Items

Consideration of any late items as follows:

 

a)    Items added to the agenda papers and made available for public inspection.

b)    Items which the Chairman has agreed should be taken as matters of urgency by reason of special circumstances reported at the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no late items.

 

Top of page