THREE RIVERS DISTRICT COUNCIL

At a meeting of the Resources Policy & Scrutiny Committee held in the Penn Chamber, Three Rivers House, Rickmansworth, on Thursday, 27 March2008 from 7.30pm to 8.15pm.

Present:Councillors Richard Laval(Chairman), Graham Denman (substitute for Councillor Ralph Sangster) Geoffrey Dunne,Paul Goggins, Barbara Green (substitute for Councillor Harry Davies), Pam Hames (substitute for Councillor Sarah Nelmes) and Peter Ray

Officers:-Sue Townshend-Exchequer Services Manager

Andy Stovold-Acting Head of Corporate Development

Sarah Haythorpe-Principal Committee Manager

Also in attendance:- CouncillorsDavid Sansom and Ann Shaw OBE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Harry Davies, Chris Hayward, Sarah Nelmes, Ralph Sangster and Ron Spellen.

R.PS55/07MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting of the Resources Policy and Scrutiny Committee held 28 February 2008 were confirmed as a correct record and were signed by the Chairman.

R.PS56/07NOTICE OF OTHER BUSINESS

The Chairman advised that the separately circulated report on Prosperous Communities presented to the Sustainable Environment Policy and Scrutiny Committee on 18 March 2008 and the draft minute from the meeting had not been available for inspection at least five clear days before this meeting and therefore could only be dealt with as an urgent item of business.

The Chairman ruled that the item was of sufficient urgency to warrant it being dealt with at this meeting, the reason being that the Committee needed to nominate two representatives to sit on the Task and Finish Group which would consider the provision of benefits in areas of deprivation, focussing on South Oxhey.

The Chairman advised that the separately circulated report on Audit and Internal Control – Local Code of Corporate Governance had not been available for inspection at least five clear days before this meeting and therefore could only be dealt with as an urgent item of business.

The Chairman ruled that the item was of sufficient urgency to warrant it being dealt with at this meeting, the reason being that the Committee needed to consider the amendments to the revised Local Code of Corporate Governance by the end of March.

R.PS57/07DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

None received.

R.PS58/07THREE RIVERS COMPACT AGREEMENT

Members noted that the Three Rivers Local Strategic Partnership had consulted with the voluntary and community sectors on the draft COMPACT agreement. This set out some key principles and commitments on working together between statutory sector and voluntary/community sector partners. The Local Strategic Board had asked constituent partners to formally sign up to the agreement.

Members noted that there was over 80% support for the agreement from the partners, which included the Police, NHS, Fire Service, Voluntary sector and the County Council.

In response to a question on the purpose of the COMPACT agreement, the Acting Head of Corporate Development advised the agreement was a set of principles to provide better services in the District and to improve the quality of life of the residents in the District. Consultation had taken place between July and November 2007 with all known voluntary and community sector organisations operating in the District and a group discussion had been held with the Voluntary Sector Forum. It was anticipated that there would be no additional costs to sign-up to the agreement.

ACTION AGREED:-

that the Resources Policy & Scrutiny Committee recommend to the Executive Committee to sign-up to the Three Rivers COMPACT Agreement.

R.PS59/07RESOURCES POLICY AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE WORK PROGRAMME

The Committee received the work programme for consideration.

The Chairman advised that following the presentation to the Committee on the Local Strategic Partnership, this could be an area that the Committee may wish to review. Any review would need to ensure that all the partners on the Board were included. Members noted that the Board had asked Officers to identify an evaluation tool kit which could be used as a starting point for the review.

Concern was raised regarding Member involvement in the Board. It was requested that Committee Members be advised of the dates and times of the LSP Board meetings and that the dates be included in the Council Calendar. The Committee requested that a written response be provided on whether the meetings were open to the public and whether elected Members could attend.

With regard to the report being prepared for the April meeting on Procurement Cards, it was noted that this was now the subject of an internal audit that would begin next week. The result of the audit may have an impact on the report, therefore it could be necessary to wait until the audit report had been received before a report was presented to the Committee.

The Chairman requested that a report be presented on the new regulations for Community Call for Action at the April meeting.

A Member of the Committee requested that a review of Shared Services be considered before the conclusion of the first phase of Shared Services. It was suggested that a Group be established to prepare a scoping document for the review to be considered by the Committee at the April meeting. Possible areas for the review could be:

  • To discuss with Watford Borough Council their views on Shared Services.
  • To discuss with Dacorum Borough Council why they discontinued their partnership on the Shared Services project.
  • How effective would Shared Services be?
  • What were the financial implications?
  • Would it save the Council money?

The Members of the Group that would prepare the scoping document were agreed as follows:

Councillors Paul Goggins, Richard Laval, Ralph Sangster and Ron Spellen

Other areas for scrutiny review put forward for consideration were as follows:

Three Rivers Investment Strategy - it was agreed that a report should be presented to the Committee on the investment priorities and plans before a decision was made on whether the strategy needed to be reviewed.

Local Area Forums’ - it was unclear whether these Forums’ were under the remit of this Committee or the Leisure and Community Safety Policy and Scrutiny Committee. It was agreed that a review should be completed and the best qualified and appropriate Committee should undertake that review.

Sale of Council property - with the complications with the property market,consideration should be given to whether the Council receive sufficient professional advice and whether the Council should seek advice from an outside organisation as large amounts of money were involved.

ACTION AGREED:

(1)that subject to the comments raised in Minute R.PS59/07the work programme be agreed; and

(2)that the Members of the Group that would prepare the scoping document on the shared services review would be Councillors Paul Goggins, Richard Laval, Ralph Sangster and Ron Spellen

R.PS60/07STRATEGIC PLAN – PROSPEROUS COMMUNITIES

The Committee noted that the Sustainable Environment Policy and Scrutiny Committee had received an updating report on scrutinising the Strategic Plan in respect of Prosperous Communities to reduce pockets of deprivation. The Committee had agreed that a Joint Member Working Group be set up to scrutinise the provision of benefits to areas of deprivation and to look at how those benefits were provided and ways in which the Council could improve the ways in which benefits were delivered. They had asked that this Committee nominate two representatives to join the Group as elements of the study were under the remit of this Committee.

After a detailed discussion it was agreed that Councillors Geoffrey Dunne and Sarah Nelmes be the nominated representatives from this Committee on the Group.

ACTION AGREED:

that Councillors Geoffrey Dunne and Sarah Nelmes be the nominated representatives from this Committee on the Group.

R.PS61/07 AUDIT & INTERNAL CONTROL – LOCAL CODE OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

Members considered a report which had been omitted from the printed Audit Committee agenda. The report asked that consideration be given to the revisions to the Local Code of Corporate Governance which the Committee may wish to review annually. Following the recent purchase of some self assessment software, this had enabled the Council to monitor compliance with good governance requirements. The software incorporated the requirements of the 2008 Use of Resources Key Lines of Enquiry. As this self assessment was completed the ‘Issues’ and ‘Actions’ columns would be completed.

It was noted that key lines of enquiry were used as part of the Use of Resources assessments and also to provide evidence of good corporate governance. After a discussion, it was agreed that this report should continue to be presented to the Audit Committee.

With regard to Best Value Performance Indicators, it was advised that new national performance indicators were being introduced with two indicators identified for Exchequer Services on the quality and speed of benefit processing but the Committee would need to decide which of the best value indicators should be kept as local indicators.

ACTION AGREED:

That the amendments to the revised Local Code of Corporate Governance be approved.

R.PS62/07 DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING

The Chairman proposed, duly agreed by the Committee, that the next meeting take place at 7pm on Thursday 24 April and that the Audit Committee meeting take place after this meeting.

CHAIRMAN

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