Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes from the previous meeting.

The minutes of the meeting held on 1 December 2020 were agreed by the members present and will be signed by the Chairman at the next available opportunity.

Councillor Symington noted that the update report for Berkhamsted Leisure Centre had been removed from the work programme and asked when it was likely the committee would receive this report. M Brookes advised it was something they were looking at internally at the moment to consider their options but they should be able to come back to members soon with a timescale in terms of decision making.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

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 are no outstanding action points from the previous meetings.

There were no outstanding actions from the previous meeting.

N Howcutt introduced the report and drew attention to table one on page 12 of the report which highlights all the major financial changes other than the ones that James Deane discussed in his presentation, and these are one off growth request funded reserves.

L Roberts provided an overview of the additional funding items in the budget that fall under her directorate. She welcomed questions from the committee.

Councillor Tindall queried if and when the councillors would have sight of the proceedings for the new governance structure of corporate boards.

L Roberts advised that the boards hadn’t met yet, they were still in the process of setting them up. She said part of what needs looking at is how they disseminate the information from those boards so we are aware of how we keep the Council and Portfolio Holders etc. up to date, but she agreed that was something they needed to agree on.

Councillor Tindall said he would like every councillor to have some idea of what’s going on and particularly those in the opposition.

L Roberts explained that one of the things included in the budget was a replacement for the Rocket system that we use for reporting KPI’s and ultimately we would like to move towards using a form of dashboard so that members would easily be able to see the performance of our main services. She advised that they needed to implement that and to crossover from Rocket but expected to run some sessions with members to identify what other things they would like to see.

Councillor Tindall asked if there was any intention to recruit Apprentices in conjunction with the local college. He said young people have been through a really difficult time and their employment and future prospects have suffered terribly due to Covid.

L Roberts advised that Apprenticeships were already included in the budget and they were looking to take on a number of Apprentices. She continued by saying that there was a new government scheme which looks to provide work experience placements for 16-24 year olds so they were considering how they could do that too.

Councillor Tindall suggested that as we had some additional money this year which was going into reserves, we could consider using some of that to enhance our services for young people and help them get through this difficult time.

L Roberts said it was something to consider. She added that they were looking at the provision of community services and youth was included within that so they would be looking at the wider picture of how to provide support with employment opportunities, mental health awareness, health and wellbeing etc. We are looking at that as to how best we can deliver services to our residents.

Councillor Tindall asked to be kept in the loop by the relevant Group Manager as he took a keen interest in the matter. 

The Chairman highlighted that we have all had to become digital for nearly a year now but he  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Chairman asked if there would be a Covid update report in March. N Howcutt said he couldn’t answer that yet as it would depend on whether it could be produced on time but there would definitely be an update report going to Cabinet.

The Chairman reminded the committee to let him know if there was anything they would like to see on the work programme.