Agenda item

M Brookes introduced the report and welcomed questions from the committee.

Councillor Tindall referred to paragraph 15 on page 46. He asked what assurances we had that residents will still have use of Tring swimming pool now that it is managed by Tring School. M Brookes advised they had a new school use agreement and funding agreement which closely mirrors the previous commitments to community use so there should be no significant changes.  Councillor Tindall asked what minor adjustments could be made by Tring School. M Brookes explained they could change the operating hours slight but the overall aim is to maximise community use. He highlighted that we wouldn’t have control over every operational decision anymore, it is down to them how they run it but there was no aim to stop community use as it is key to them generating income. 

Councillor Tindall referred to paragraph 16 and asked if the multi-storey car park was on target for May/June. B Hosier said the enabling works were due to be completed in June but they were waiting for one more statutory utility company certificate and they cannot commence further works until that has been completed.

Councillor Chapman referred to paragraph 4 regarding the Prosecution for breach of Health and Safety at Tesco and queried why the Sentencing was adjourned, and for how long. F Hussain explained that it had been to a case management hearing where they had produced 2000 pages of evidence to try to reduce any sentencing and that hearing is due to be scheduled for a couple of months’ time. M Brookes added that although they pled guilty to the offences but they still had an opportunity to put forward the facts to mitigate the fine.

Councillor Adeleke said the team had done very well to carry out two elections in a short space of time. He asked if we were prepared if another election was called. M Brookes explained the challenge with the European Election was the timetable was overlapping with the Local Elections and also it was called at short notice. He said getting all the staffing into place was the biggest challenge. Now that those Elections are all complete he said he felt satisfied that we had everything in place should another Election be called.

Councillor Adeleke asked if there was any progress on generating income from our CCTV as he believed it had been mentioned before. B Hosier said there were some ongoing discussions on this but he couldn’t expand on it further at the moment.

Councillor Symington referred to the 32 week construction period for Berkhamsted car park and asked what date this had commenced.  She also asked if there was a budget for the overall programme. B Hosier confirmed there was a budget for the overall project. He then explained that contractor took possession of the site on 2 January but cannot commence with the construction until certain planning conditions are discharged – one of those being the diversion of the utilities and for that to be certificated by the statutory utility companies. Until we have that the start date keeps moving, however the contractor will incur costs if it overruns so it’s not within their interests to not start work. He highlighted that their 32 week period doesn’t commence until they have the certificates. Councillor Symington asked if the budget for that was available to view. B Hosier advised that the budget was transparent and was available to view on the website from February’s budget OSC meeting. Councillor Symington asked if that could be sent to her or if she would have to find it herself but N Howcutt said he could send her the figures. Action N Howcutt

Councillor Symington referred to the car park income being below target by £7k and asked if there was a reason why it wasn’t as they expected. B Hosier said there were a number of reasons; one being the weather which causes it to fluctuate. He highlighted that last month it was above target possibly due to half term, the good weather, the splash park being open and the car park being extended. He added that it was nothing specific and certainly nothing to worry about.

The Chairman asked if CCTV was keeping crime levels down. B Hosier explained that obviously CCTV can capture crime happening and be used as evidence but whether it would actually led to a reduction in crime was difficult to say. He said the public seemed happy with the level of CCTV around.

Councillor Tindall referred to the Tesco case and asked if that stopped us claiming the costs back. M Brookes advised we could still claim the costs back as they pled guilty.

Councillor Tindall referred to page 48 regarding the out of target indicators for DPA requests and complaints and asked if there was a reason for this. M Brookes advised that the DPA indicator was due to one complex request that had taken a long time to resolve.

Outcome:

The report was noted.