AGENDA ITEM NO: 5

ENVIRONMENT & REGENERATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

WEDNESDAY 17 DECEMBER 2008

REPORT OF THE CHIEF LEGAL AND DEMOCRATIC SERVICES OFFICER

Contact Officer: Keith Lea, Scrutiny Manager, Tel. 01978 292257

ENVIRONMENT & REGENERATION SCRUTINY COMMITTEE WORK PROGRAMME

1. PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

1.1To advise Members of the Environment & Regeneration Scrutiny Committee of proposed changes to the Work Programme and to enable them to consider forthcoming items for Scrutiny. Proposed changes to the work programme are highlighted in bold type.

1.2To inform members of the Committee of the use of a Topic Selection Form in future Work Programme reports.

2. INFORMATION

2.1The Work Programme has been updated following recent meetings of the Committee and those items requested by Members have been scheduled. The revised draft Work Programme is attached as Appendix 1.

2.2At Committee’s suggestion, the following reports have been included in the work programme since it was last considered:

  • At the meeting on 19 November 2008 it was agreed that a report in relation to the role and composition of the Mersey Dee Alliance. Following discussions with the Chief Economic Development Officer this has now been scheduled for Wednesday 25 February 2009.
  • An item in relation to the Waste Strategy Grant had originally been scheduled for the meeting on 3 December 2008. A request to defer this item to a later date was made at the meeting on 26 November. However this issue has now been resolved and it is therefore felt that there would be no benefit in bringing a report to this committee. It is suggested therefore that this item be deleted from the work programme.
  • A presentation on Traffic Management was given by the Chief Transportation & Asset Management Officer on 26 November 2008 It was agreed that further report be scheduled for April 2009.
  • At the meeting on 3 December it was agreed that a further update report on the leisure review be submitted to this committee. This has been scheduled for Wednesday 1 April 2009.
  • In relation to the same report it was suggested that representatives of the Local Health Board be invited to a future scrutiny committee meeting to discuss their role in relation to leisure related health initiatives. This will be discussed at the Scrutiny Co-Chair Co-ordinating Group meeting on Thursday 18 December 2008.
  • A request has been received from the Chief Environment Officer that a review of the current winter maintenance policy be undertaken by this committee. This policy was agreed by the Executive Board in November 2006. The item has been provisionally scheduled for 25 February 2009.

Use of Topic Selection Forms

2.3Members will be aware that a review of Scrutiny was undertaken in 2007 and both Officers and Members have been working to implement an Action Plan arising from the Review. As part of this work, Scrutiny Co-Chairs Co-ordinating Group have recently agreed use of a Topic Selection Criteria Form for Officers and Members to complete when suggesting topics for Scrutiny work programmes.

2.4The criteria was drafted as a result of some of the findings of the Scrutiny Review which included:

  • Work programmes are unwieldy and imbalanced with too many information items
  • Members are reluctant to request local/parochial issues being included in the work programmes

2.5The aim of the form is to enable:

  • Officers and Members – to clarify exactly what they intend to bring to scrutiny and what their expectations of the scrutiny committee are, and
  • Members – to decide whether they wish to scrutinise an issue and prioritise it accordingly according to the constraints of the work programme.

2.6Completed Topic Selection Forms will be appended to future work programme reports to enable the Committee to be able to make more informed decisions regarding issues for the future work programme.

2.7An article will be included in the December issue of Members’ Briefing explaining the new process and forms are available from Scrutiny Officers and from the Scrutiny pages on the intranet.

2.8A copy of the Topic Selection Form and the Guidance Note are attached at Appendix 2 for Members’ information.

RECOMMENDATION

That Members consider the draft Work Programme at Appendix 1.

Report CLDSO/117/08S

1