Agenda and draft minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to this virtual Community and Corporate Organisation Policy and Scrutiny Panel Meeting.

He explained the procedures to be followed at the meeting and confirmed and explained that proceedings would have the same standing and validity as if they had taken place at a physical meeting of the Community and Corporate Organisation Policy and Scrutiny Panel in the Town Hall.

At the invitation of the Chairman a roll call was taken of the panel members by Democratic Services for the benefit of those in attendance and members of the public watching online.  

A Member must declare any disclosable pecuniary interest where it relates to any matter being considered at the meeting.  A declaration of a disclosable pecuniary interest should indicate the interest and the agenda item to which it relates.  A Member is not permitted to participate in this agenda item by law and should immediately leave the meeting before the start of any debate.

If a Member leaves the meeting in respect of a declaration, he or she should ensure that the Chairman is aware before he or she leaves to enable their exit from the meeting to be recorded in the Minutes in accordance with Standing Order 37.  

None

Panel meeting – 12 November 2020, to approve as a correct record (attached).

Resolved: that the minutes of meeting held on 12 November 2020 be approved as a correct record.

                    The Chairman notified members that he would be submitting a report to Full Council on 20 April 2021 on the work of the CCO Panel. There had been a number of working group meetings convened which concentrated on small focused areas of work, particularly waste with the launch of the new LACO (wef from 27 March 2021).

                    The Chairman had prepared a response to a question raised by Cllr Charles at Council on 20 January 2021 in relation to local democracy and community engagement which would be circulated to all members in due course.

           At the Council meeting on 23 February 2021 concerns were raised regarding the ongoing underfunding of the police service in North Somerset with crime becoming a significant problem in some areas.  It was acknowledged that ongoing efforts were needed to secure fair funding and to ensure that the needs of the area were met. 

            An All Member CCO session had taken place with the Chief Constable, Andy Marsh and Area Commander for North Somerset, Jess Ashton on 23 November 2020.  At the session it had been proposed that the Area Commander be invited to meet with members a couple of times a year to maintain engagement with the police.

          At Council on 23 February 2021 Cllr Ley-Morgan had commented in relation to China and the supply chain.  It was agreed that the Chairman liaise with Cllr Ley-Morgan to discuss.

                    Concluded: that panel members considered the above update.

***Change to Agenda Order***

The Chairman agreed a change to agenda order, to consider agenda item 8

next.

The Policy and Partnerships Development Officer presented the report   

which sought to update elected members on the continued work of the

Winter Gardens Community Board which was established as a result of

specific clauses in the Legal Transfer Agreement between North Somerset

Council and Weston College in early 2016. The annual report of the Board

was published in October 2020 and was attached for members’

consideration at Appendix 1.  Members noted that it was written in the

context of the current pandemic demonstrating the impact on business as

usual and the approach being considered to enable a sustainable future for

the facility.

  Board members were scheduled quarterly with actions and work

  programmes developed between meetings as appropriate.  The terms of  

  reference that guided the Board’s work required the Council to consider

  the Community Board’s annual report each year.  The CCO Panel    

  considered the 2018/19 Annual report at the Panel meeting on 16 July 2019.  

  Since July 2019 the Community Board had continued to meet quarterly until  

  the pandemic required the closure of the Winter Gardens in March 2020.

  The last event held at the Winter Gardens was a high-profile BBC Question  

  Time episode one week prior to the first lockdown.  

  Members were informed that until closure the Community Board continued to  

  work on exploring the establishment of a ‘Friends of Weston Winter Gardens’

  Charity but this had been put on hold as it became apparent that the priority 

  would be to rebuild community usage whilst working towards recovering from

  the impact of Covid 19.  The Business Community Working Group which had

  previously been very successful was also put on hold to enable it to realign

  activity with a recovery position.

  It was report that the Winter Gardens continued to examine options for

  re-opening when restrictions were eased but the unpredictability of the 

  pandemic had made this difficult.  In the interim, the Ballroom had been used

  for the performing arts curriculum to allow social distancing and to enable  

  exams to take place in November 2020.  Weston College had worked closely

  with the Council to help develop a lateral flow Covid testing facility at the

  Winter Gardens for its staff.

  To support this recovery period Weston College had undertaken a review of

  its business operating model.  This review mainly related to catering 

  operations and how they could be more sustainable post pandemic. 

  Experienced consultants with experience in the hospitality sector had been

  engaged to help with this work and the findings of the review would be

  considered by the Community Board later in 2021 to see how the

  implementation of that review could be supported moving forwards.

  The Policy and Partnerships Development Officer responded to the following  

  questions/comments from members of the Panel (with officer responses in

  italics):

·       Why has the establishment of a ‘Friends of the Winter Gardens’ Charity been put on hold as it would seem to be an ideal time during  ...  view the full minutes text for item CCO21

The Community and Environment Service Manager presented the report.  The Panel was provided with an update on the Council’s consultation exercise for the draft green infrastructure strategy. The Executive agreed to publish a draft green infrastructure strategy for public consultation on 11 February 2021 for the period covering 15 February to 9 April 2021. As the CCO Panel meeting took place in the middle of the consultation exercise it provided a good opportunity to update Members on progress.

Members were made aware of the range of activities in place to promote the consultation as follows:

Some of the consultation responses received to date were shared with members of the panel:

·       123 responses as of 3 March 2021

·       One of the questions asked was ‘what do people think is important about the natural environment – 70% identified biodiversity, 45% health and wellbeing (understandable bearing in mind the restrictions under Covid), 39% mentioned climate change.  70% of these respondents visited a green infrastructure daily.  It was noted that it would be interesting to see the percentage on this once lockdown had lifted as there had been a lot of interest in outside parks and spaces.

·       People were also asked whether they thought the strategy included all the important features – 60% said it did and 60% also said the Council identified the key opportunities.

·       2/3rds of respondents supported the aims and objectives of the strategy.

·       Members’ attention was drawn to a couple of quotes received: ‘Great to see this’ and ‘I hope to see this very soon’.

The Panel would be updated in respect of any further analysis of data as

the consultation progressed. 

    The Community and Environment Service Manager responded to the

    following questions/comments from members of the Panel (with officer

    responses in italics):

·       Portishead Town Council welcomed the strategy.  In terms of the consultation session with Town Councils this was very valuable as they were not sure how to engage with it.  The community groups were very  ...  view the full minutes text for item CCO22

The Assistant Director, Neighbourhood Management presented the report

on Your Neighbourhood Consultation and Engagement – Update and

 Actions. It was reported that the CCO Panel received a report at its meeting on 16 July 2020 which contained a summary of the outcomes of the Your Neighbourhood Consultation and Engagement, an overview of the proposed

next steps and a discussion about the role of scrutiny in the emerging action

plan. 

The intention of the Your Neighbourhood work was:-

·       To gather quality information about local communities and their neighbourhood services, and use the information to inform the strategic, policy and delivery framework for those services.

·       To initiate a new way of working with local councils, local communities, businesses and other stakeholders that was collaborative and which offered opportunities for people to influence what happened in their neighbourhoods.

It was reported that a considerable amount of work had taken place to gather

Quality information about local communities and their neighbourhood services using the information to inform the strategic, policy and delivery framework for

those services.

The next phase of the Your Neighourhood work would include continued focussed scrutiny engagement with all of the work areas and would also concentrate on building a new way of working at a more local level – to be developed alongside the unlocking of the Covid restrictions due to take place in 2021.

Members were reminded that the services covered by the Your Neighbourhood work were as follows:-

·       Garden waste – to help the Council to shape the new garden waste collection service and options for home and community composting;

·       Leisure and sports centres – to help the council to understand the way North Somerset’s leisure and sports centres were currently used and how people would like to see them used in the future;

·       Libraries – to help the council to understand what was important to people about library services and how it could be ensured that they were fit for the future;

·       Parks and open spaces – as the Council reviewed the parks and open spaces maintenance contract, to help understand which parks and open spaces people used and how they would like to see them used in the future;

·       Street cleansing – as the Council reviewed the street cleansing contract, to help to shape how it would look in the future.

CCO sub groups and focus sessions had been arranged to input into the

Action planning for each of the areas covered by the Your Neighbourhood

Work as follows:-

The Waste Minimisation and Enforcement Team Leader provided Members    with a  presentation on the new powers for enforcement officers in relation to Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs).  Members were aware that PSPOs were designed to stop individuals or groups committing anti-social behaviour in a public space.  A PSPO could include blanket restrictions of requirements or can be targeted against certain behaviour by certain groups at certain times.

The main points raised were as follows:-

PSPOs

·       The PSPO review process began in October 2019 and led to the decision by the Executive on 9 September 2020 to renew all the existing orders as they currently stood at the time;

·       The review process also identified some additional PSPO requirements which have now been subject to public consultation;

·       New and amended orders were signed off by the Council’s Executive in February 2021;

Local Authority Support (LAS) were due to start mid to late April/early May.

·       The PSPO will be enforced by authorised Council staff and Local Authority Support Staff (12 month trial) who will help the Authority take robust action on many of the offences covered by the PSPO:-

o   Littering

o   Dog fouling

o   Not having means to pick up (not having a dog bag)

o   Dog exclusion area and dogs on lead

o   Urination/Defecation

o   Driving a vehicle (including bicycles) in a manner likely to cause distress

·       LAS officers will undertake regular patrols of problem areas (seafront, town centres, visitor attractions);

·       Some offences will be zero tolerance such as littering, dog fouling, urination/defecation etc: for these offences fixed penalty notices will be issued on the spot;

·       For other offences such as street drinking a warning will be issued first.

·       LAS officers will also undertake educational visits, engage with the public and run school talks;

·       LAS officers will act as eyes and ears across the district so issues are recorded efficiently to relevant teams

     Waste Enforcement Team - Working with Businesses

·       Inspections will be carried out once lockdown measures are eased to allow businesses to re-open to ensure businesses have arrangements in place to manage their waste/recycling;

·       Businesses found not complying will be given two opportunities (warning and statutory notice) to comply before being issued a fixed penalty notice (£110);

·       This work follows on from the educational flyer mailed out with the business rates letter;

·       This will allow officers to pre-empt some of the issues we face around the town centres including overflowing bins.

             Fly-tipping Prosecutions

·       November 2020 – a Bristol man was given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay costs of over £4k following prosecution for waste related offences relating to fly-tips in Dundry and Abbots Leigh.

·       February 2021 – A Bristol man was ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £1133 following a prosecution for fly-tipping brought by North Somerset Council.  Evidence included CCTV footage from the Council’s enforcement cameras.

The following questions/queries were raised by Members (with officer responses in italics):

·       In Hutton we have a couple of places where people continually fly-tip every few weeks.  ...  view the full minutes text for item CCO24

The Electoral Services and Scrutiny Manager presented the Work Plan:-

·       Your Neighbourhood Consultation – discussed at the Panel meeting along with the waste collection and recycling;

·       Members’ ICT Steering Group – a meeting had taken place earlier this week.  It was noted that there were no specific issues at the moment with Members ICT.  Some feedback was received in relation to the recent Modern Gov session for members in that it there was a lot of information and it appeared to be a complicated meeting management system.  The Electoral Services and Scrutiny Manager reassured members that a lot of simplified information was on the way in relation to the system and that it was a good system that was used by the majority of councils in the UK.

·       Community Safety and Enforcement – covered in today’s Panel meeting

·       Asset and Accommodation Strategy – this had not been picked up in today’s Panel meeting but two sessions had been held since the last Panel meeting on 25 January 2021 and 2 December 2020 and would remain high on the Panel’s work plan as it developed.

·       On 11 January 2021 a Member session took place on the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) -  this was well attended and there was good positive feedback from members in relation to an interesting session on how police complaints were being responded to and touched on the local area and how the pandemic had affected activities. 

·       Budget Scrutiny element -   A budget scrutiny session was held for all members in December 2020 in advance of the budget setting in February. Members noted that the Chairman was very keen to work with finance officers to ensure that it is a much more forward thinking programme to enable scrutiny to influence the budget at an early stage rather than looking at the last iteration before agreement of the budget at council. This was a process that would be put in place for members.

·       Consultation and Engagement Strategy – Early days but already raised with the Assistant Executive Member for Community Engagement and Head of Business Insight, Policy and Partnerships. This work is central to the delivery of the Corporate Plan.  Tied into that work and also remit of the panel is the work of Policy and Partnerships Service Lead, closely aligned with consultation and engagement

·       Climate Emergency Action Plan – a report was presented to the panel meeting in November 2020.  It was understood that this would be a six- monthly update to CCO – to flag for July panel meeting.

·       Waste Scrutiny Steering Group -  Since the Council’s decision to set up the Local Authority Training Company (NSEC) from 27 March 2021 there had been a number of break off sessions as well as the core group steering group meetings looking at governance (articles of association of the new company close to being signed off), new governance structures, scrutiny engagement going forwards as we revert to business as usual role going forwards.  It had been challenging  ...  view the full minutes text for item CCO25