MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE HELD AT COUNTY HALL, NEWPORT, ISLE OF WIGHT ON THURSDAY, 27 JULY 2006 COMMENCING AT 6.00 PM

 

Present :

 

Cllrs Geoff Lumley (Chairman), William Burt, Deborah Gardiner, Heather Humby, Brian Mosdell

 

Co-opted Voting Members Present:

 

Mr Anthony Marvin, Mrs Sue Poston

 

Co-opted Non-Voting Member Present:

 

Mr Bob Blezzard

 

Apologies :

 

                 Cllr Anne Bishop

 

 

 


The Chairman announced that there would be a change in the order of items on the agenda as both the Water Planning and Strategy Manager from Southern Water and the Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Transport had been delayed in getting to the meeting.

 

8.                 MINUTES

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 22 June 2006 be confirmed.

 

9.                  DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

 

Mr Bob Blezzard declared a written personal interest in items 5,6,7 and 14 as he was a member of Sandown Town Council and Chair of the Town Council’s Planning Committee.

 

Cllr Gardiner declared a personal interest as she was in paid employment by Unison.

 

10.             PUBLIC QUESTION TIME

 

There were no public questions.

 

11.             USE OF COUNCIL’S RESERVES SC05/06

 

Members considered the termination of the enquiry. The use of the Council’s reserves would be absorbed into the revenue budget efficiencies enquiry.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the enquiry be terminated.

 

12.             REVENUE BUDGET EFFICIENCIES

 

The Chairman announced that this enquiry would run throughout the year to evaluate how the budget was being delivered and the impact the budget was having on services to people of the Isle of Wight.

 

The Committee were particularly concerned about the delivery of efficiencies announced in the budget, the income generation aspects of the budget and the impact of efficiencies.

 

The Committee would continue to explore the impact of efficiencies as they were delivered and would set up a series of informal meetings to continue to monitor the delivery of the budget. 

 

The Cabinet Member for Resources and Town/Parish Council Empowerment and the Director of Finance updated the Committee on how the budget was being delivered. There had been a change to the structure of financial management since the new Chief Executive had been in post. Service boards had been set up on a monthly basis to look at the budgets of individual Directorates in year in order to identify potential problems and prioritise resources at a corporate level. The service boards would look at both financial and performance management. Issues arising from the service boards would be fed back to Cabinet Members and Directors before being discussed at the Corporate Management Board and the Aim High Strategy Group.

 

The Committee were concerned that the grant to the women’s refuge had ceased. The Director of Finance stated that this was due to the women’s refuge obtaining grant funding from elsewhere.

 

The Committee’s task and finish group would set up informal meetings with the Cabinet Member and Director in order to look at the budget in more detail.

 

RESOLVED:

 

            THAT the update be noted and informal meetings be scheduled.

 

13.             DEVELOPMENT CONTROL – REPORTING PROCEDURES SC01/06 AND  DEVELOPMENT CONTROL – SPEED OF DETERMINATION OF MINOR AND MAJOR APPLICATIONS SC02/06

 

The Committee considered items 5 and 6 together.

 

The Committee considered the final reports of the two enquiries and stressed that there was a need to provide more resources to the planning department in order to assist planning officers in meeting targets and expectations of the public.

 

The final reports would be sent to the Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and Planning with the request for a response in three months time.

           

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the final reports be agreed and sent to the Cabinet Member for a response in three months time.

 

14.             PLANNING GAINS AND OBLIGATIONS SC03/06

 

The Committee asked the Cabinet Member for Environment, Planning and Transport to provide an update on the policy initiatives being looked into in terms of planning gains.

 

The Cabinet Member explained that this was a sensitive issue. In order to gain money from developers through Section 106 agreements the development must impact on the surrounding area or relate to the Council’s development plan.

 

The Cabinet Member stated that planning officers were currently restricted by the Unitary Development Plan (UDP) which gave poor support to Section 106 development aspirations. The Council would look to replace the UDP in the future with the Island Plan.

 

The Council was a leading authority in the speed of developing the Local Development Framework. The core strategy was complete and the Council was currently looking into creating area actions plans.

 

The Cabinet Member updated the Committee on future Government Plans. The Government was proposing to move away from the local system of 106 agreements and move towards a central system where money would be paid centrally to Government and then distributed locally. The Regional Assembly had agreed to this in principal. 

 

The Director was currently pursuing roof tax where the Council would levy a certain amount on each home and put the money into a central pot to be used for infrastructure and the impacts of development.

 

There was a need to appoint a new Section 106 officer. This would be on a self financing arrangement from Section 106 agreements.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the update be noted.

 

15.             SPRINKLER AND HOSEPIPE RESTRICTIONS SC15/06

 

The Water Planning and Strategy Manager from Southern Water gave a presentation to the Committee on the sprinkler and hosepipe restrictions in place. The presentation outlined the current position, Southern Water’s preventative actions, and future plans.

 

Members asked questions and were informed that 92% of Island homes were metered. Southern Water’s target on leakages had not been met by a small percentage. The target was 92% and Southern Water achieved 92.75%.

 

The Committee were informed that the Council had been supportive in the ban. The Council could help further with the publicity of saving water and turning water off in schools during the holidays.

The Water Planning and Strategy Manager would come back to Members at a later date regarding a question relating to low income houses being able to pay an average water meter price.

 

The Water Planning and Strategy Manager also agreed to come back to Members regarding future plans on the amount of water required as the number of properties on the Island increases.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the information be noted.

 

16.             WIGHTCARE SC06/06

 

The Cabinet Member for Island Health, Housing and Community Wellbeing acknowledged the Scrutiny Committee’s report on the Wightcare enquiry. A project officer had been appointed and would identify how the Council would move forward on this matter. A further detailed report would be presented to the Committee in due course.  

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the update be noted and a further report be provided to the Committee in due course.

 

17.             LOSS OF HOUSING GRANT

 

The Chairman announced that this item would be deferred to the next meeting on 14 September 2006 following the legal advice of the Deputy Chief Executive. The Cabinet Member for Island Health, Housing and Community Wellbeing had commissioned an investigation into the issue of the housing grant which contained elements of staffing matters which could not be discussed at the meeting. There would be a formal Scrutiny enquiry into the loss of housing grant.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the item be deferred to the next meeting.

 

18.             RESPONSIBILITY FOR ON-STREET PARKING ENFORCEMENT DURING 2006/7

 

The Cabinet Member for Safer Communities and Fire and Rescue provided an update on on-street parking enforcement. Decriminalised parking had been a manifesto commitment and had been looked into by the Policy Commission for Safer Communities. The Council did not yet have the powers to enforce on street parking. This would commence from April 2007. The Police were currently responsible for on-street parking enforcement.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the update be noted.

 

19.             WORK PLAN ITEM

 

The Committee considered the scoping document for the Aim High Progress Monitoring SC11/06 enquiry.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the scoping document be approved.

 

20.             FORWARD PLAN

 

The Committee reviewed the Forward Plan. The Committee enquired as to the status of a previous suggestion regarding the addition of a serial number to each item on the forward plan to enable items to be tracked. The Committee were assured that this was still being looked into.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the Forward Plan be noted.

 

 

 

                                               CHAIRMAN