Agenda and minutes

To authorise the Chairman to sign the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25 January 2021, at a later date, as a correct record of proceedings.

The Chairman was authorised to sign the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25 January 2021, at a later date, as a correct record of the proceedings.

The Chairman to ask if any Member present is substituting for another Member and, if so, to declare his/her name as substitute Member and the name of the absent Member.

There were no apologies for absence.

To receive any disclosure by Members of personal and disclosable pecuniary interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the Member regards the personal interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct. Members are reminded of the need to repeat their declaration immediately prior to the commencement of the item in question.

Declarations of interest were made by Councillors in the Minutes as indicated below:

P.C. Courtel    Agenda Item 6 – Personal interest in so far as he was a member of the Bexhill Environment Group and Greenpeace.

Members received the Head of Service Environmental Services, Licensing and Community Safety’s annual report which provided information on the work of the Rother Community Safety Partnership [known as the Safer Rother Partnership (SRP)] for the Committee to review, scrutinise and make reports or recommendations to the responsible authorities of the SRP, in line with the Council’s statutory responsibilities under the Police and Justice Act 2006.

The Chairman welcomed Inspector Chris Varrall to the meeting who drew Members’ attention to the main points of the report.  Members were advised of the key initiatives delivered during 2020/21 to reduce crime and the impact of crime and Anti-social Behaviour (ASB), which included: providing support for high and medium risk victims of ASB through multi-agency monthly meetings; a range of initiatives delivered by the Domestic Abuse Group and a pan East Sussex Violent Crime Group; reduce the occurrence and impact of young people involved in crime and ASB and as victims; road safety; and Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.

The joint Board met quarterly to identify changes in crime and ASB of strategic significance to both areas, wider trends and review the work delivered against these priorities. The Board was co-chaired by Councillor Brian Drayson and his Hastings Borough Council counterpart (Councillor Paul Barnett).

The Rother Joint Action Group (an Officer group) met monthly to oversee the delivery of the local priorities for Rother which in 2020/21 included: ASB and youth crime; rural crime; County Lines; acquisitive crime within retail (which had been stalled because of the closure of businesses under the COVID restrictions and the associated reductions in this type of crime); White Ribbon campaign; continued Community Safety Partnership (CSP) funding for the Seaview Outreach Service and partners to identify, engage and support rough sleepers in Rother; Operation Thornhill (supporting young people onto a positive pathway); tackling modern slavery (project Discovery); ASB neighbour disputes; issues arising at beaches; safeguarding of both adults and children; COVID-19 compliance; and funded crime reduction equipment.

There were 5,376 crimes in Rother reported to Sussex Police during the 12 months to the end of December 2020, which was 644 fewer than in the previous year. There had been delays in receiving data since COVID working practices came into place, which meant that data was received at least three weeks after the end of the month.  Reductions in crime since March 2020 had matched the patterns across most of Sussex.

Most crime types had seen decreases in the 12 months to the end of December 2020. However, the following had seen increases: criminal damage to a dwelling; racist incidents; racist crime; and domestic abuse incidents.  However, the number of domestic abuse crimes reported started falling in April, which followed the national and local picture.  Police, housing providers and support organisations predicted these figures would rise as victims felt safe to leave their homes after the end of lockdown, when victims perceived they would be able to access services and when victims had a reason to leave the home for  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC20/5

Members received the report of the Environment and Policy Manager, which outlined progress made on implementing the Environment Strategy (ES) since her appointment in August 2020.  The Climate Change Steering Group (CCSG) had been established by Cabinet in September 2019.

The priorities within the scope of the ES were: Air quality, active/ sustainable transport; sustainable waste management; sustainable energy; protecting and enhancing biodiversity; construction and existing buildings; and environmentally friendly Council.  The Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for the ES were: building environmental evidence/driving environmental improvements; and partnership working.

The ES had a dual focus, i.e. it was both internally and externally facing.  Internally, linkages had been explored between the ES’s priorities with existing Council activities and it was recognised that existing staff and functions were already delivering on aspects within the identified priority areas.  Several resource gaps had been identified, representing risks for the organisation in terms of delivering the ES, which had been reported to the CCSG on 25 November 2020.

Externally, the ES had a strong commitment to working with partners in order to meets its goals. The core stakeholders included local environmental groups, local volunteer environmental officers, Rother parish and town councils and Rother Association of Local Councils (RALC). It represented a core group of circa 250 stakeholders.

The ES set out partnership working as a key approach to its delivery and ten partnership projects had been initiated within the first six months of the ES’s  delivery, which met the ES’s KPIs.  Projects included four short 30-day placements that were part of MSc courses at University of Brighton, benefiting from the Council’s membership with the Clean Growth Hub. Two were large scale projects of up to 12 months duration: Bexhill i-tree study and tree planting strategy, and the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging project for Council-owned car parks.  An overview of the projects and activities was detailed at Appendix A to the report.

An external communications specialist had been appointed to create a framework and a plan  for communication and engagement, working closely with the Communications Team at East Sussex County Council. A progress overview was contained within Appendix B to the report.

The draft timetable for the new Local Plan saw adoption towards the end of 2023 and a dialogue with Planning Policy colleagues was already underway, aiming to develop robust linkages between the ES and the environmental evidence underpinning the new Local Plan. Two of the projects which had already been initiated under the ES would inform the new Local Plan, notably the Bexhill i-tree study and the MSc placement on onshore and offshore wind mapping.

Discussions with Democratic Services and the Corporate Management Team had been initiated to modify the report template used to draft reports for committee meetings, to include Environmental and Sustainability Implications. A clear guidance for staff with respect to these sections of the report template would be developed to ensure that all proposals being put forward were robust and aligned with the Council’s climate emergency commitments and the visions and aims  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC20/6

Members received and considered the report of the Finance Manager on the Revenue Budget and Capital Programme Monitoring Quarter 3 2020/21, that had been considered by Cabinet at their meeting on 1 March 2021.  The report updated Members on the Council’s finances as at the end of December 2020 and projected a provisional outturn for 2020/21.

Since the Quarter 2 Monitoring Report, there had been two reportable virements regarding a transfer of the property valuation contract budget from Acquisitions, Transformation and Regeneration to Resources and an £18,000 saving in additional staff hours within the Resources department.

At the end of Quarter 3, the Council was predicted to incur a deficit of £2.594m of which £1.677m was unplanned.  This represented an improvement of £193,000.  The costs of services showed a deficit of £3.696m and non-service budgets increased the forecast overspend to £4.041m.  This was reduced by £2.363m mainly due to additional grant income from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

All forecasts included inherent risks, and these were exacerbated by the level of uncertainty surrounding the pandemic.  Quarter 2 report estimated the cost of the Council’s pandemic response to be approximately £1.109m after the additional funding from the MHCLG.  Quarter 3 forecast showed a net reduction of £197,000 to £912,000.

Overall, the deficit on the cost of services was attributed to various overspends/deficits including staff restructuring, consultancy advice, grants, increased planning fees and land charges income, increased Community Infrastructure Levy funding, salaries, increased garden waste income, supporting leisure services, housing benefit overpayments and other minor variances.

Interest income from investments was expected to be below budget (an improvement of £38,000 on the previous forecast).  The pandemic had slowed progress on several capital schemes which would reduce the borrowing requirement in 2020/21.  As a result, the interest payments forecast had reduced by a further £68,000 and the amount of revenue funding for capital projects by £628,000.

The Council had received £170,000 from MHCLG to assist with administration costs during the pandemic; in total £2,567,000 had been received.  The reimbursement from the MHCLG for the loss of income from sales, fees and charges was anticipated to increase by £25,000 which was attributed to the reduction in car parking income.

The net impact on Reserves was forecast to be a reduction of £3.805m against the planned figure of £2.276m; an improvement of £821,000 on the previous quarter.

The Council Tax part of the Collection Fund (CF) was currently 2.50% lower than the same point last year and Business Rates was 1.85% lower. These represented a significant improvement of 2.74% from the Quarter 2 forecast.  Based on the current collection rates, it was expected that the CF would be in deficit by the end of the financial year.  Cabinet was advised that the Government was allowing councils to spread deficits over a 3-year period, so impact on the Council’s financial position in 2020/21 would be limited.

A summary of spend by capital project for 2020/21, financing sources and overall five-year programme was  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC20/7

Consideration was given to the report of the Head of Service Acquisitions, Transformation and Regeneration on the Performance Report of the Third Quarter 2020/21.  Members were given the opportunity to scrutinise the progress towards the Council’s stated aims, outcomes and actions in the Corporate Plan and make any necessary recommendations to Cabinet for future service delivery. 

A summary of the Council’s performance against the selected Key Performance Indicators (KPI) areas (Housing and Homelessness, Waste and Recycling, Asset Income and Other Income) was set out in the report.  Performance was compared to the previous quarter result and to the same quarter the previous year.

Housing and Homelessness:  During quarter three, all seven measures had not met their target (Affordable Homes Built (gross) Supply target, (Affordable Homes Built (gross) Local Plan target, New Homes Built (net) Supply Target, New Homes Built (net) Local Plan Target, Homelessness Prevention Cases per 1,000 homes, Number of all Households in Temporary Accommodation [TA] and Average Weeks in Temporary Accommodation).  There was a concern that once restrictions on evictions were lifted, the Council would be likely to see an increase in requests for assistance with TA.  Current figures for those in TA were high due to a slow-down in the movement within the private rental market, therefore restricting the number of individuals who could be moved from TA.

Waste and Recycling:  Two of the indicators had not met their targets (Re-use, Recycling, Composting: East Sussex County Council and Re-use, Recycling, Composting: Contractor) and one had met its target (Missed Bins per 100,000 Collections).

Asset Income: A review of rental income had been undertaken to ascertain the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Council’s revenue stream. It was predicted that there would be £120,000 of unpaid rent in this financial year, and whilst some of this would be written off at a future point in time, officers would continue to work with tenants to recover this lost rental in the 2021/22 financial year once the longer-term effects of the pandemic were better understood.

Other Income:  All three indicators had not met their targets (Car Park Income, Garden Waste Income and Planning Income) due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Projected car park losses had increased to £192,000 for the 2021-year outturn; this was to be reviewed as the full impact of the current lockdown and winter snow became known. The income for garden waste was performing well against target despite the £5 reduction in the subscription charge due to COVID-19 service disruption.  It was anticipated that income would increase further as officers worked to incentivise new subscribers to the service to achieve a minimum of 20,000 subscribers by March 2021, to reduce the cost per household charged by the contractor.  The number of households subscribing reached 20,137 as of 31 January 2021.  Planning income had picked up in Quarter 3 but was still heavily dependent on how the economy reacted to COVID-19 during the forthcoming spring period, and how that impacted or stimulated the development  ...  view the full minutes text for item OSC20/8

Consideration was given to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme, and the following additions/amendments were made:

•           an additional meeting had been arranged for 12 April 2021 to discuss the Town Hall Redevelopment Proposals;

•           Key Performance Targets 2021/22 be added to 26 April meeting;

•           Review of the Disabled Facilities Grant Policy moved to 7 June 2021; and

•           East Sussex County Council Nurseries in Bexhill, currently under ‘Items for Consideration’ could feed into the work of the Anti-Poverty Task and Finish Group.

Members were concerned that once the pre-election period had commenced for the elections taking place on 6 May 2021, issues to be discussed in the upcoming meetings would contravene the pre-election rules, in which case consideration should be given to those meetings being postponed.  The Chief Executive would consider and advise Members in due course.

RESOLVED: That the Work Programme attached at Appendix A, as amended, be agreed.