Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils
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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Council Offices, Corks Lane, Hadleigh. View directions

Contact: Committee Services 

Items
No. Item

24.

SUBSTITUTES AND APOLOGIES

Any Member attending as an approved substitute to report giving his/her name and the name of the Member being substituted.

 

To receive apologies for absence.

Minutes:

An apology of absence was received from Councillor Melanie Barrett.

25.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

Members to declare any interests as appropriate in respect of items to be considered at this meeting.

Minutes:

Councillors Barry Gasper and Clive Arthey declared non-pecuniary interests for Item 5 as they were both private land lords.

26.

CONFIRMATION OF MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 24 JULY 2017 - TO FOLLOW

To confirm and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 24 July 2017 as a correct record.

Minutes:

The minutes for the meeting held on 24 July 2017 had been forwarded to Members prior to the meeting. 

 

The minutes for the meeting held on the 24 July 2017 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

 

 

27.

TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATION OF PETITIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE COUNCIL'S PETITION SCHEME

Minutes:

None received.

28.

BOS/17/8 VOID TIMES IN COUNCIL PROPERTIES pdf icon PDF 156 KB

Report by the Corporate Manager – Housing Options and the Corporate Manager – BMBS.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Sue Lister, Corporate Manager – Housing Options, introduced Paper BOS/17/18 and began by informing Members that voids time in 2015/16 was 43 days, but were reduced 29 days in 2016/17.  These voids times included both major and standard repairs. 

 

She continued that recently there had been some substantial changes, which included the integration of IT systems, a review of the trade teams, the introduction of a single IT platform in December 2016 and Babergh and Mid Suffolk Building Services (BMBS) in April.  Continuity in working practices across the two councils were also being established, along with allocation of new roles with in the teams, and therefore it was taking time for the teams to be fully operational.

 

Members asked where the BMBS team would be based and Justin Newton – Wright, Corporate Manager – BMBS, said the main depot in the Babergh District would be at Great Wenham, which maximised efficiency for the teams working in this area, but teams could also be sent to other locations if needed. The base for Mid Suffolk District was to be situated at Creeting Road in Stowmarket.

 

Some Members asked if BMBS’ vans were leased and if this was more cost efficient than for the Council to maintain its own vans.  The officer responded that it was far more cost effective to lease the fleet, and that the cost was included in the business plan for the Housing Revenue Account.  The cost was also detailed in the business plans for BMBS, which was currently undergoing a revision but once completed the Corporate Manager would provide the cost for leasing the vans to the Committee.

 

Members wanted to know why properties selected for sale took so long to be sold.  The response was that this depended on the property market and that properties put on the property market were often in need of substantial repair, which could make them less attractive to potential buyers.  However, until recently the main reason had been the committee cycle process which had delayed the sales. Further questioning on the average time, it took to sell a property, resulted in that the officer was to provide this information to Members.

 

It was established that the 2016/17 void time of 29 days had not been possible to maintain in the first quarter of 2017/18 and were likely to remain higher in the second quarter of 2017/18.  This was due to the lengthy process of conducting Asbestos surveys for properties, which could take up to 2 – 3 weeks to organise for the initial inspection.  The Corporate Manger – BMBS explained that once a property became vacant, a predetermination survey for Refurbishment and Demolishing (R and D survey) was conducted in the empty property to determine if any asbestos was present.  The was the correct Health and Safety procedure, and only proper sampling and testing of potential asbestos could determine if the property was safe. 

 

The Corporate Manager – BMBS said that the Flagship Group and had produced new voids procedures  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

29.

BOS/17/9 INFORMATION BULLETIN pdf icon PDF 176 KB

The Information Bulletin is a document that is made available to the public with the published agenda papers.  It can include update information requested by the Committee as well as information that a service considers should be made know to the Committee.

 

This Information Bulletin contains updates on the following subjects:

 

1.     Community Engagement

Minutes:

Mike Evans, Strategic Director, was unable to attend the meeting,

 

Councillor Peter Burgoyne provided a response to an action taken concerning a deficit in the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), which then became a surplus at the end of the four-year period for the HRA.  The action was raised at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee 19 June 2017 for The Housing Revenue Account 30 Year Business and Finance Plan Update 2017.  He said that the business model used for the four-year business plan had created a surplus at the end of that period, as the production of council properties was terminated for the same period in the business model. It was this which created the surplus, however, once the building of council properties continued this surplus in the HRA would disappear by 2020.

 

Councillor Barry Gasper provided an update on the Councils risk assessments provided in reports.  To provide an auditable trail for these the Senior Leadership Team had agreed to provide agendas and minutes from their meetings and make these available internally to Members and staff. 

 

Members then discussed the Community Engagement bulletin and it was generally felt that the 0300 number’s response time of one to two minutes were still too long, although it was improving, and that more training for the staff was required.

 

Some Members though that the Members were becoming disengaged with their electors’ due to the move to Endeavour House and the new ways of engaging with the public.

 

It was generally agreed by Members that the website had improved.

 

Members requested that quarterly updates on Community Engagement to be provided to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee under the Information Bulletin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

30.

BOS/17/10 FORTHCOMING DECISIONS LIST pdf icon PDF 113 KB

Minutes:

Emily Yule, Assistant Director – Law and Governance, advised Members that the purpose of including the Forthcoming Decisions List to the Overview and Scrutiny Agenda was to enable the Committee to decide on which forthcoming decisions to scrutinise before they went to Cabinet.

 

She also explained the procedure for Call-in for Cabinet decisions and that an item on the Forthcoming Decisions List could be delayed,  if the Overview and Scrutiny Committee requested an item be scrutinised.

 

Members decided that the Public Realm Transformation Project report should be added to the Overview and Scrutiny Forward Plan for October and that Councillor Alistair McCraw should undertake a scoping exercise with Peter Garratt, Corporate Manager – Public Realm.

 

By a unanimous vote

 

RESOLVE

 

1.     That the Public Realm and Transformation Project be added to the Overview and Scrutiny Forward Plan in October.

 

2.     That Councillor Alistair McCraw be scoping the Public Realm and Transformation Project with the Corporate Manager – Public Realm before the Overview and Scrutiny Committee 19 October 2017

 

 

 

31.

BOS/17/11 BDC OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY FORWARD PLAN pdf icon PDF 145 KB

Minutes:

Ben Staines, Project and Research Officer presented the Overview and Scrutiny Forward Plan and the following changes were noted:

 

·        The report on Community Grants was moved to December and the item was to be presented as an Information Bulleting;

 

·        A new report from the Assistant Director – Corporate Resources on the use of temporary and interim staff was added to the Forward Plan in November;

 

·        The report on Supporting Business Growth was moved to December and to include the results from Business Survey conducted in 2016;

 

·        A review of CIFCO was added to the Forward Plan for January 2018;

 

·        Suggestion for two reports from the SLT on staff welfare, absences, sick leave and the cost of moving to Endeavour House were added to the Forward Plan in March 2018, but the Chairman would discuss these reports with the Chairman for Overview and Scrutiny for Mid Suffolk District Council at the next joint Chair and Vice-chair Meeting on 25 October 2017.