Agenda and minutes

To record the attendance of substitute members, if any, who have been authorised to attend in accordance with the provisions of standing order 17(1), with notification having been given to the proper officer before the start of the meeting and to receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from:

Councillor Jason Fiddaman; Councillor St John Dickson was his substitute

Councillor Mohinder Kainth; Councillor Bill Jones was his substitute.

To adopt and sign as a correct record the minutes of the committee meeting held on 26 June (previously circulated) 24 July (attached to the agenda), 25 September (previously published). 

The minutes of the meeting of 26 June 2014 were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting and signed by the chairman as such.

Consideration of the minutes of the meetings of 24 July and 25 September 2014 was deferred to the next meeting.

To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests in respect of items on the agenda for this meeting.  

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests or other interests declared by members of the committee.

To receive notification of any matters, which the chairman determines, should be considered as urgent business and the special circumstances, which have made the matters urgent, and to receive any announcements from the chairman.

There was no urgent business.

Any statements and/or petitions from the public under standing order 32 will be made or presented at the meeting.

None.

To review actions taken since previous meeting and any outstanding actions (circulated separately/ tabled at meeting).

The action list would be circulated with the actions from this meeting.

A member requested that the demonstration of the new audio visual recording equipment on refuse vehicles take place as soon as possible.

To review the attached scrutiny work programme. Please note, this is an indicative programme only, and all items are subject to being withdrawn or dates rearranged without further notice.

The committee requested that the following items be added to the work programme:

• Equalities
• Interaction with housing associations

These would be considered at the chairman’s briefing.

A member requested that the work programme item on wifi in Vale towns, which did not yet have a meeting date, be submitted to the committee as soon as possible.  An update on the roll-out of super fast broadband would be included in the 7 November “In Focus” news bulletin.

To receive a report from the head of planning.

The committee considered an overview of the current enforcement service and its performance together with the proposals to update and improve the service over the next twelve months.

Adrian Duffield, Head of Planning, and Emma Turner, Planning Enforcement Team Leader, introduced the report and answered questions from the committee.

Councillor Roger Cox, Cabinet member for Planning Development had been unable to attend but had submitted a brief report stating that:

• Three years ago there were over 1,400 on-going enforcement cases; this number had been reduced to 166.
• The structure of the department had been altered radically and the qualifications of the officers strengthened, resulting in a more efficient and effective operation.

In response to questions, it was reported that:

• The planning enforcement regime was not a punitive one. Powers to take formal action are discretionary and formal action must be proportional to the harm caused.
• Most enforcement powers were delegated to officers but some matters were delegated to the Chairman of the Planning Committee.
• A new enforcement plan was being drafted.  It would include clear advice for members of the public on the action that could be taken by council departments and by other agencies e.g. Oxfordshire County Council and the police.
• The enforcement plan would be free from jargon and written in plain English.
• Successful outcomes were publicised but more could be done in this respect.   However issuing a notice or a prosecution were not the only measures of success.
• With regard to proportionality each case was decided on its own merits.  Extracts of the planning guidance on “expediency” would be circulated to members for information.
• The service was overseen by the Cabinet member for planning development and the Planning Committee.  An annual report on enforcement would be submitted to the cabinet member and, once approved, would be circulated to all members.
• Details of enforcement cases could be accessed via the public website and a link would be sent to members together with guidance on how to monitor cases in their wards.  Email notification of new enforcement cases would be introduced.  A strategy would also be developed for keeping town and parish councils informed of enforcement issues.
• It was acknowledged that the figure of 60% of cases being resolved by negotiation was an aim rather than a target.
• It was proposed to hold a series of training and information sessions for councillors and planning officers to pass on information and share best practice.  These sessions would be incorporated into the 2015 councillor induction programme.

The committee congratulated the enforcement team on its performance.

RECOMMENDATION:

That the enforcement plan set out clearly inter departmental and inter agency responsibilities and working on enforcement.

To receive the report of the head of HR, IT and technical services.

The committee considered the report of the Head of HR, IT and Technical Services which updated the committee on the progress of the information technology (IT) infrastructure project.

Councillor Reg Waite, Cabinet member for HR, IT and Customer Services and Simon Turner, IT Operations Manager, introduced the report and answered questions from the committee.

In response to questions, it was reported that:

.

• The management of IT services might be outsourced but Vale and South councils would continue to run their own hardware and software.
• The migration of the data centre and the uplift of servers were back office functions so would not affect users.
• HR was seeking to recruit external trainers to train staff on the move to the new version of Microsoft Offfice.  Users would be trained at the same time as new desktops were delivered.  This process was likely to be rolled out over a number of months.
• The pilot testing of training of new software and any subsequent user training would include councillors.
• Information would be provided on whether users could have low cost software installed on their home devices.
• Councillors would be kept informed of the IT procurement plan progress via regular updates in “In Focus” news bulletin.
• Care would be taken to ensure that implementation of the procurement plan would not impact upon the elections team in the run up to the 2015 elections. 

The committee welcomed the IT procurement plan but emphasised the importance of ensuring that users were trained before the move to the new systems was implemented.

To note the dates of the forthcoming committee meetings:

• Thursday 27 November
• Thursday 18 December
• Thursday 15 January

The committee noted the dates of future meetings.