Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2019 were agreed by the members present and then signed by the Chairman.

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Sinha, Symington and Tindall.

Councillor Stevens substituted for Councillor Tindall.

Councillor Hollinghurst substituted for Councillor Symington.

Councillor Elliot, Portfolio Holder for Finance and Resources, also gave his apologies.

To receive any declarations of interest

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered -

(i)            must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent

and, if the interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest, or a personal interest which is also prejudicial

(ii)           may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter (and must withdraw to the public seating area) unless they have been granted a dispensation.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests, or is not the subject of a pending notification, must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal and prejudicial interests are defined in Part 2 of the Code of Conduct For Members

[If a member is in any doubt as to whether they have an interest which should be declared they should seek the advice of the Monitoring Officer before the start of the meeting]

There were no declarations of interest.

An opportunity for members of the public to make statements or ask questions in accordance with the rules as to public participation

There was no public participation.

None.

There were no outstanding actions from the meetings held in September and October.

The Chairman made an observation that the quarterly budget reports were very similar. N Howcutt suggested he could create an executive summary of quarter on quarter changes to be placed at the beginning of the document if that was something the committee would prefer. The committee agreed that would be a good idea. Councillor Claughton said he didn’t find the report template very helpful and asked if it was something that could be reviewed. L Roberts said this matter had been discussed at the ‘away day’ with Cabinet and CMT, and they were looking at possible improvements.

N Howcutt introduced the report and summarised the key issues; a General Fund pressure of £126k, not significantly different to quarter one. The HRA has a surplus of £433k, a slight increase quarter on quarter. The Capital Programme has a slippage of £3.1m, which is less than 5% of the overall programme.

Councillor Townsend referred to the minimum revenue provision of the core funding. He noted that the provision was £165k lower as a result from 18/19 and asked why it wasn’t included in the original budget. N Howcutt advised that the budgets are set in November/December, but also they don’t know the actual outturn of the capital programme until May/June so it was a timing issue.

Councillor Sobaan Mahmood asked for some more information on the £35k Brexit fund and what it covered. N Howcutt explained that it covered the costs we had incurred to date for exploring the expenditure implications of Brexit. He advised they had set up the Brexit implication model and that had highlighted the areas that would need investment. They had also used some of those funds for training additional Environmental Health Officers. He added that we were in a secure period at the moment but once Brexit has happened we would need to spend significantly more than the current government funding.

Councillor Claughton referred to paragraphs 4.1 and 4.2. He queried if the £50k fuel costs were duplicates or if the spend had doubled. N Howcutt explained that the fuel had overspent slightly last year but also because they were changing the fleet around they haven’t had the correct vehicles available for certain routes so they’ve had to split routes and carry out double journeys.

Councillor Barrett drew attention to the additional £80k insurance income and asked if it could have been anticipated in the original budget. N Howcutt advised we had signed a new insurance contract in year this year and the costs were lower than we projected they would be. Also the volume of work going through had increased and we recharge the costs to a lot of external organisations that feed off of our insurance so we had benefitted from that.

Councillor Barrett referred to the £80k investment income and asked what cash balances we had to produce that. N Howcutt advised that our cash balances at present were approximately £95.2m, significantly higher than projected.

Councillor Chapman referred to paragraph 4.1 and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

N Howcutt introduced the report. He referred to the KPI’s and summarised that there were 14/15 green and the performance was still strong, and 1 amber which related to general fund expenditure discussed earlier. He said between now and year end they will look to bring that pressure down through various processes and they were hopeful to balance the budget. Overall the performance was strong.

There were no questions.

Outcome:

The report was noted.

Report to follow.

M Brookes introduced the report and highlighted a couple of issues with FOI and complaints. He said the service manages the process but it was down to individuals to respond so he has been working with the teams to try and improve on that. He advised that there was also a process review on complaints.

The Chairman asked if we were ready for the forthcoming Election. M Brookes said there had already been numerous meetings, there was a project plan in place and staffing was being organised.

Councillor Claughton asked if we knew how many eligible voters there were that hadn’t registered yet. M Brookes said he would need to come back to him with those figures.                                                                                  Action: M Brookes

Councillor Claughton referred to the work carried out by procurement relating to temporary agency staff. He welcomed that work but asked if we were becoming reliant on agency staff. B Hosier said there was a need for temporary agency staff across the council, some of which is seasonal. He said one of our largest contracts came to an end so there was a need to review that but also we needed to check that all departments were having their requirements met.

The Chairman expressed concern about the grievance procedure for taxi drivers within the Licensing department. He said he often receives complaints from drivers that the complaint process was not fair and that they don’t feel that they get the opportunity to explain themselves. He asked how we could make the process fairer for drivers. M Brookes advised that the Licensing Committee approved the three strike rule and that we do give drivers an opportunity to come in and explain themselves before we take a view on the issue. He said he would be interested to hear about specific cases and asked Councillor Mahmood to email him with the details of drivers that feel they have been treated unfairly so he could look into it. The Chairman said he didn’t have a problem with the three strike rule, it was the manner in which certain officers are dealing with the drivers and felt it was unacceptable. He said he would speak to the Licensing Committee and express his concerns and also speak to M Brookes separately. He added that all interviews with drivers should be recorded so that this issue can be avoided. M Brookes said he would discuss these concerns with Nathan March, Licensing Team Leader. F Hussain said she was surprised to hear that feedback. She said the matters she had dealt with where we had revoked licences, we had given the driver an opportunity to put their case forward and on occasions we have then reinstated the licence. M Brookes said they could look at recording meetings with consent in the future.

The Chairman asked how we choose sites for CCTV. B Hosier said in this instance we had been asked by the sheltered housing schemes to install CCTV and there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

L Roberts apologised for the lack of KPI figures in the report, and also that Matt Rawdon, Group Manager (People), wasn’t able to be here for this meeting.

Councillor Adeleke asked how sickness levels were currently and if we had improved since last year. L Roberts advised that the sickness improvement programme was put in place last year and meetings are held monthly with Sally Marshall as the Chair. She advised that this quarter the sickness performance was worse by 44 days but in comparison to last year we were performing better. She added that they now split the performance to show the difference between long term and short term sickness.

Councillor Townsend asked if the percentages were total number of sick days or by individual. L Roberts confirmed it was the total number of sick days in the organisation.

The Chairman asked what we did with our old ICT equipment. B Trueman explained that they go to a registered recycler and we’re provided with an instruction certificate to assure us that the data has been destroyed and the equipment has been recycled responsibly.

The Chairman asked if there had been any progress on creating a DBC app. B Trueman advised they were focusing on the website first and then will look at the possibility of an app. The Chairman suggested we could have a banner on the website with important information such as bin collections, snow, etc. B Trueman said he would need to speak to the Communications Team about that.

Outcome:

The report was noted. 

Councillor Williams introduced the report and explained that the approach of this review was slightly different to previous years as it wouldn’t usually come to an overview and scrutiny committee before going to Cabinet. The report covers several options but also includes his recommendations as the Portfolio Holder.

Councillor Barrett asked why we didn’t apply an RPI to parking charges annually rather than having to review them. Councillor Williams advised they used to review them annually, then every two-three years because they took a decision to freeze car parking charges. He said it was difficult to charge a RPI on car parking charges due to the coin acceptance on the machines. He said it was up to members what they would like to do but he didn’t feel increasing parking charges every year was a good approach.

Councillor Hollinghurst asked if there was a large variation in popularity on certain days of the week and if there was scope to vary the charge. Councillor Williams felt that would be extremely confusing for customers and he also wasn’t sure it the technology of the machines allowed it. He added that the most popular day for parking was Saturday. Councillor Hollinghurst asked about the possibility of making Sunday a free parking day like it used to be. B Hosier said that was a member decision.

Councillor Claughton asked if we had considered offering a free one hour of parking in each of the car parks like we do in Tring. Councillor Williams said it wasn’t an option they were considering due to the big loss of revenue and the free hour in Tring was a historic decision.

Councillor Townsend asked if the figures could be provided for how much the public actually pay for car parking. B Hosier drew attention to paragraph 3.3 which details the expenditure and income for each year but said he could break that down further if required. Councillor Williams advised that the £2.3m was the total of everything included in the parking service. Councillor Townsend felt that a breakdown would be beneficial.                                                                                                 Action: B Hosier

Councillor Stevens said thank you for letting the committee have sight of this document before it goes any further. He said it would be discussed at the Parking Forum next Tuesday and a few questions had already been raised regarding the proposed plans in Berkhamsted, in particular the multi-storey car park. He asked if it was fixed that season ticket holders would be on the upper floors. B Hosier advised that the upper floors must be closed by a particular time and the logic behind it was that season ticket holders and local businesses would have left the car park earlier than other members of the public.

Councillor Stevens felt that £4 for 10 hours parking was very competitive and attractive for commuters. He asked how we would police that. B Hosier replied that they want people to use the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

There were no changes to the work programme.