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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Phoenix Chambers, Phoenix House, Tiverton

Contact: Carole Oliphant  Member Services Officer

Link: audiorecording

Items
No. Item

91.

APOLOGIES AND SUBSTITUTE MEMBERS (0.04.17)

To receive any apologies for absence and notices of appointment of substitute Members (if any).

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Cllrs Mrs S Griggs and E J Berry who were substituted by Cllrs Mrs M E Squires and D R Coren respectively and apologies were received from Cllr Mrs E J Lloyd.

92.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST UNDER THE CODE OF CONDUCT (0.04.47)

Councillors are reminded of the requirement to declare any interest, including the type of interest, and reason for that interest, either at this stage of the meeting or as soon as they become aware of that interest.

 

Minutes:

Members were reminded of the need to make declarations where appropriate.

93.

PUBLIC QUESTION TIME (0.05.00)

To receive any questions relating to items on the Agenda from members of the public and replies thereto.

 

Note:   A maximum of 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

Minutes:

Mr Paul Elstone referring to agenda item 12 stated:

 

‘Given the seriousness of these allegations will the Scrutiny Committee now ensure that an unconstrained plus comprehensive and importantly a fully independent investigation is conducted? An investigation with all the available evidence available being considered including statements from the key parties.

 

That the full findings of this investigation are made public. This to ensure full transparency.’

 

The Chairman responded and advised Mr Elstone that complaints about the conduct of the Council or any of its Officers should be directed through the Complaints Procedure.

94.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING (0.10.08) pdf icon PDF 159 KB

Members to consider whether to approve the minutes as a correct record of the meeting held on 8th November 2021.

 

The Committee is reminded that only those members of the Committee present at the previous meeting should vote and, in doing so, should be influenced only by seeking to ensure that the minutes are an accurate record.

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the last meeting were approved as a correct record and SIGNED by the Chairman subject to the following amendments:

 

·         Nick Sanderson being removed as an officer from the attendance list

·         Minute 88 amended to read loans outstanding for 2020/2021’

 

95.

DECISIONS OF THE CABINET (0.13.00)

To consider any decisions made by the Cabinet at its last meeting that have been called-in.

Minutes:

The Committee NOTED that none of the decisions made by the Cabinet on 30th November 2021 had been called in.

96.

CHAIRMAN'S ANNOUNCEMENTS (0.13.08)

To receive any announcements that the Chairman of Scrutiny Committee may wish to make.

Minutes:

The Chairman had no announcements to make.

97.

BROADBAND (0.13.32) pdf icon PDF 183 KB

Members to receive and consider a proposal from Cllr P Colthorpe.

 

To receive an update from a representative of Airband to cover:

 

·         who are airband

·         what the roll out looks like time wise

·         the project process

·         how MDDC can help

 

Members are to be clear this is NOT about individual ward level detail at this stage.

 

Minutes:

The Committee had before it a *proposal form from Cllr Mrs F J Colthorpe requesting that AirBand work directly with Members to understand where the hard to reach areas are in the District.

 

Cllr Mrs F J Colthorpe explained that she had raised the proposal as she was not happy with the answers that Connecting Devon and Somerset (CDS) had provided about roll out of broadband to hard to reach areas.

 

In response to the proposal AirBand had been invited to attend the meeting to discuss the hard to reach area’s in the District.

 

Paul Nethercott and Andrew Smale explained the remit of AirBand by way of a presentation and explained that the company had been contracted by CDS to provide broadband in parts of the District.

 

They gave an overview of ‘in contract’ and ‘out of contract’ premises and explained the different solutions available for remote properties where pole mounted fibre cables were not possible.

 

In response to questions asked about residents having to fund new infrastructure to enable fibre broadband to be installed the representatives from AirBand explained the Governments current voucher schemes available for both residential and commercial customers.

 

The AirBand representatives explained to Committee that they wanted to encourage individual Members, Parish Council’s and the public to be involved in the roll out and highlight properties that had not been earmarked for connection in the CDS contract. In addition other providers were installing fibre optic in hard to reach areas but they had no obligation to inform CDS or AirBand where they had or intended to install a service. This was proving to be difficult and there was an element of duplication.

 

Members felt that the presentation and overview given was very informative and it would be very useful for Parish Council’s to be provided with the information. AirBand confirmed they would be happy to attend Parish Council meetings and give an overview and they encouraged Members to contact their Parish Councils to take up the offer.

 

Members agreed that the proposal by Cllr Colthorpe should be supported and it was AGREED that two Member representatives, Cllrs Mrs F J Colthorpe and R Radford would act as Member Liaison alongside the Scrutiny Officer and the Project Manager (Economic Recovery) to facilitate individual conversations with AirBand by Members and Parish Councils to identify hard to reach properties.

 

Note: *proposal form previously circulated and attached to the minutes

98.

NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING (1.03.11)

A verbal update on Neighbourhood Policing from the Vice Chairman.

Minutes:

The Vice Chairman provided a verbal update and stated that there had been very few responses received from the Parish Council’s about concerns with the standard of Neighbourhood Policing. It was therefore assumed that this was not an issue causing concern amongst local residents.

 

It was therefore AGREED that this would be removed from the Work Plan for the time being.

99.

FORWARD PLAN (1.16.04) pdf icon PDF 304 KB

Members are asked to consider any items within the Forward Plan that they may wish to bring forward for discussion at the next meeting.

Minutes:

The Committee had before it, and NOTED, the *Forward Plan.

 

Note: *Plan previously circulated and attached to the minutes

100.

SCRUTINY OFFICER UPDATE (1.16.45)

To receive an update from the Scrutiny Officer.

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Officer informed Members that she had sent the Bio Energy proposal to neighbouring district Scrutiny Chairmen on behalf of the Chairman and that she was in the process of collating the replies.

101.

CABINET MEMBER FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT (1.18.16)

To receive an update from the Cabinet Member for Continuous Improvement on her portfolio.

Minutes:

 

The Cabinet Member for Continuous Improvement provided the following update and explained the remit of her portfolio as:

 

1.    To eliminate inappropriate communication between Members and officers

2.    To establish the totality of timely decision making across the Council and to eliminate any backlog

3.    To work with Directors to realise the opportunity for improved Member and officer relationships

 

She explained that since her appointment in March 2021 she had looked to bring in a continuous lessons learned culture into the Council so that the key issues and challenges of public concerns could be addressed and practices improved.

 

She went on to explain voids and reminded Committee that a briefing had been provided to all Members which explained the reasons for them and the issues which prevented properties returning to useable housing stock in the time that Members wanted to see. She informed Members that a recent House Market audit had been good and highlighted how the Council were proactively working on reducing the amount of voids.

 

In response to Members questions about her portfolio and if it was to implement new processes or just look at individual cases it was explained that in the first instance the amount of outstanding cases needed to be established and the reasons for these. The Leader confirmed that in the New Year the portfolio would develop to look at processes to see where these could be improved to minimise outstanding cases.

102.

WORK PLAN pdf icon PDF 193 KB

Members are asked to note the current Work Plan for the municipal year.

 

Members to have the opportunity to discuss additional items to be investigated by the Scrutiny Committee and added to the Work Plan.

 

Members to receive a proposal from Cllr G Barnell on Mid Devon District Council Masterplans

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee had before it, and NOTED, the *Scrutiny Committee Work Plan.

 

Consideration was given to a proposal form which had been submitted by Cllr G Barnell regarding the resourcing and timings of the Council’s Masterplans.

 

Cllr Barnell acknowledged that the Director of Place was due to attend the next meeting and give an update and he requested a conversation with him, the Chairman of the Planning Committee and the Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Regeneration about the Masterplan process. This was AGREED and the proposal was deferred.

 

Note: *Workplan previously circulated and attached to the minutes