Agenda and minutes

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

An apology was received from Councillor L Kennedy (Chair).

To record any interests on agenda matters.

All Scrutiny Committee members had received e-mail communications from two members of the public in relation to Agenda Item 7 - Examination and Review of Freedom of Information Processes within Mid Devon District Council.

To consider whether to approve the minutes as a correct record of the meeting held on Monday 25 November 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on Monday 25 November 2024 were APPROVED as a correct record and SIGNED by the Vice-Chair.

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

The Chair had no announcements to make.

To consider any decisions made by the Cabinet at its last meeting on 10 December 2024 that have been called-in.

The Committee NOTED that none of the decisions made by the Cabinet on 10 December 2024 had been called in.

To receive a report from the Head of Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement.

The Committee had before it a *report from the Head of Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement.

The following was highlighted in the report:

·         The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act served to promote transparency and accountability in public authorities. It granted the public the opportunity to request access to information that a public authority may hold.

·         At the point the request was made, the Council considered how the request was to be treated.

·         Where there was concern about full disclosure or only partially disclosing because there may be commercial sensitivity, a data protection aspect, or another legal exemption applied including legal privilege, the requester would be informed of the decision not to disclose or to only partially disclose and the reasons for the decision.

·         The decision as to what information to release was reviewed at each check point of a case. As a case moved through a review or Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) case, the Council or ICO may change its position due to circumstances changing, e.g. commercial sensitivity no longer being relevant due to the passage of time.

·         The Information Management Team was made up of two full time officers who as well as processing FOI requests, managed data protection, ensured information management was compliant, maintained registers including FOI disclosure logs and assisted other services such as ICT and cyber security.

·         Requests under Freedom of Information were provided to officers for collation of information and were anonymised.

·         Reporting was recorded using the financial year, not the calendar year.

·         Key Performance Indicator response rates were reported to the Internal Corporate Performance Group which was made up of officers.

·         FOI Reporting on the Corporate Dashboard no longer appeared and the Head of Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement would speak to the Corporate Performance and Improvement Manager to get the information added back on.

·         On review, the disclosure log in the current format would be published monthly from January 2025.

·         Transparency and lessons learned from ICO rulings would be included in the Annual Report.

·         The Annual Report would include lessons learned from ICO rulings.

Discussion took place with regard to:

·         Reporting would be reviewed within the team to establish how more detail could be provided to the Committee.

·         Regaining the trust of members of the public, who wanted greater openness and transparency.

·         Freedom of Information dashboards to be presented to Scrutiny Committee and oversight on a quarterly basis – the dashboard limited to top line information.

·         Members mentioned that there appeared to be three themes emerging – the number of judgments against the Council, not comparing like for like and not being open and transparent. – The Committee wanted the process to be as transparent as possible.

·         Lessons learned – what form and frequency? The officer explained that the intention was that the team would look at each of the findings and examine what they did not do well.

·         The information would be contained in the Annual Report.

·         The Information Management System turned non-working days such as bank holidays into negative data. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

To receive a report from the Corporate Manager for Performance and Improvement.

The Committee had before it and NOTED a *report from the Corporate Manager for People, Governance and Waste and the Corporate Performance and Improvement Manager which provided an update against the Corporate Plan 2024-28 and service performance measures for Quarter 2 – July to September 2024.

The following was highlighted in the report:

·         This was the first time that this report, in its new format had been presented to the Scrutiny Committee.

·         This report was presented to Cabinet on 10 December 2024 and it presented performance information up to September 2024. The report and the accompanying dashboards were structured according to the five themes of the Corporate Plan.

·         The dashboards contained 99 measures on how services were performing across the Council, and those indicators that were part of the Corporate Plan were highlighted in yellow text.

·         Section 2 of the covering report provided performance analysis on a theme by theme basis, with the focus on Corporate Plan performance indicators.

·         The Performance Dashboards had also been reviewed by the relevant Policy Development Groups and the Planning Committee.

·         The Planning Dashboard on page 46 of the report pack needed to be corrected. It stated that the total number of open planning enforcement cases was 338. Having reviewed this, it should have stated 319.

Discussion took place with regard to:

·         On the Economy and Assets Dashboard, under Capital Slippage percentage of projects why was there no annual target? The target was that none of the projects should slip, however, 26% had slipped into the 2025/26 period, the largest of the projects was the Cullompton Relief Road which had only recently received funding approval.

·         Why, on the Corporate Performance Dashboard Finance Measures, the annual target for Agency Spend ‘v’ Budget was nothing budgeted? The Corporate Manager for People, Performance and Waste replied that the aim was not to incur any agency spend, however, due to circumstances there were officer positions within the Finance department that had to be covered.

·         On the Homes Dashboard under delivery of Social Housing – were the Council unlikely to meet their target of 100 new social houses? The Corporate Performance and Improvement Manager explained that the target was an annual target and all of the targets were shown as annual targets for consistency. This report measured up to the end of Quarter 2 and the 44 new homes delivered was more than 10% less than the target and so attracted a red rating. This was a mid-year point and it was expected that the slippage would be made up.

·         A correction was needed at paragraph 2.1 of the report, Crofts was in Sandford and not Lapford.

·         The Officer was thanked for providing a very helpful glossary to the dashboards.

Note: *report previously circulated.

To receive a report from the Director of Place and Economy on the Destination Management Plan with an emphasis on data and visitor spend.

The Committee had before it and NOTED a *report from the Director of Place and Economy.

The Economic Development Team Leader highlighted the following:

The Destination Management Plan Update Report was requested by Members and provided a summary of tourism data and how this supported the delivery and review of the Council's Destination Management Plan.

The Council's Destination Management Plan was currently being reviewed for the next five years.  The Destination Management Plan directly supported the Economic Strategy and complemented or was supported by project work such as the Shared Prosperity Fund Delivery Plan.

With regards to data, the Economic Development team utilised several data streams to monitor tourism trends locally.  There was a delicate balance between usefulness of data and value for money as the majority of the data had a cost element attached to accessing it.  Therefore, the team made use of the best value data for ongoing monitoring and then commissioned the more bespoke elements such as the Visitor Survey periodically when needed.  The Visitor Survey was a useful research tool to understand visitor profiles, characteristics, destinations of choice and feedback for helping shape the new Destination Management Plan.

Visitor Survey:

• The 2024 Visitor Survey, undertaken between Easter and October this year, surveyed just over 600 people.
• It showed that Mid Devon's visitors were predominantly day visitors (66% coming from within the South West).
• 2024 saw a slight increase in family visitors from the 2016 survey which directly linked to the growth of new attractions since then such as Bear Town and the funded project work through Shared Prosperity Fund such as the Swan Trail.
• Visitor Satisfaction was high with a percentage of 83% being repeat visits.
• 34% of visitors were couples over 55, which was the target customer base for the Mid Devon Walking Festival

The Report before Members also identified other data streams the team used including:

• An annual Volume and Value of Tourism Report, which outlined visitor spend data, showing that in 2023, Mid Devon attracted approximately 232,000 staying visits combined with approximately 1.4 million day visits, generating an estimated £121 million worth of visitor spend in the local economy. Approximately 5% of Mid Devon jobs were tourism related.
• Additionally, the Economic Development Team had footfall data, which allowed them to monitor footfall data to our main town centres, which included visits by day/time, dwell time, visit frequency and catchment data. 
• The Economic Development team also had coach booking information, although currently that was only for the coach bays in Tiverton.
• Digital Engagement data that the Economic Development Team monitored such as through the Visit Mid Devon website and social media platforms.

Coming forward:

• A new Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) for Devon was formally approved by Visit Britain earlier this year.  This was a collaborative partnership consisting of Devon authorities and key destination management stakeholders across Devon.  This Partnership was in its early stages and was working on forming its Business Plan.  Mid Devon District Council had a seat on the Partnership Board  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

To receive a presentation from the Cabinet Member for Quality of Living, Equalities and Public Health.

The Committee received and NOTED a presentation from the Cabinet Member for Quality of Living, Equalities and Public Health.

The Quality of Living, Equalities and Public Health portfolio broadly encompassed public health and welfare, licensing, and many regulatory functions. It also included many of the Council’s technology and data processing functions including information governance and digital transformation, which drove changes to the way the Council delivers both internal and external services. This was more important than ever with the Council’s need to balance the increasingly difficult local government funding picture against its recognised high performance in a number of vital public services – and the need to improve where the Council may fall short of where they wanted to be. The Council also delivered a number of discretionary services that were nonetheless really important to its communities. This was where the ‘Quality of Living’ part of the portfolio became really important to check and challenge the Council’s services to ensure they deliver fairly, and bring improvements to the lives of its residents to the front of the Council’s decision making.

The complete presentation is available on the Council Website as a supplementary agenda item. Slides covered the following subjects:

• Key function
• Information Governance
• Information Policies
• Recognised Risks
• Digital Transformation
• ICT Services
• Licensing and Regulatory
• Community Safety
• Local Welfare Assistance
• Household Support Fund
• Online Resources

Discussion took place with regard to:

·         Thanks given for the installation of the direct-access telephone connection from the lobby of Phoenix House, thanks also given to the Community, People and Equalities Policy Development Working Group for developing the suggestion.

·         With the ever increasing use of automated electronic systems, during the procurement process, the Council did look at similar Councils to see what systems they used and were part of the Devon County Council Procurement Partnership to get best value for money. The Council also worked with other local authorities to see whether it was possible to purchase at the same time and so get a better deal.

The Vice-Chair thanked Councillor D Wulff for his presentation.

To review the existing Work Plan and consider items for the committee’s future consideration, taking account of:

a)    Any items within the Forward Plan for discussion at the next meeting;

b)    Suggestions of other work for the committee in 2025 including consideration of Work Proposal Forms.

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

The following was highlighted:

·         The items already listed in the work programme for the next scheduled meeting in January 2025.

·         The item on house maintenance, emergency repairs, pollution monitoring and resident safety would also include general repairs.

·         South West Water had confirmed that they would be able to attend the Scrutiny Committee Meeting scheduled for 17 March 2025.

·         The Portfolio presentations from Cabinet Members had now been through each portfolio and had reached the end of the cycle. No further Cabinet Portfolio presentations would be made unless there was a specific reason to do so.

·         The work proposal form relating to how Devolution might affect Mid Devon District Council was AGREED and programmed in for the meeting on 17 February 2025. (Proposed by Cllr G Czapiewski, seconded by Cllr E Buczkowski)

·         There was discussion about the work proposal form relating to infrastructure around Cullompton. A lot of the infrastructure proposed, would be controlled by other authorities even though Mid Devon District Council had spearheaded the work that had been positive. It was AGREED that the work proposal needed further work to refine it before it was re-presented to the Scrutiny Committee.

·         A suggestion that the Scrutiny Committee considered the Emergency Plan in relation to linking with the Community and Town and Parish Councils state of preparedness was requested to be formulated into a formal work proposal.

Note: *the Forward Plan and the *Scrutiny Committee Work Programme were previously circulated.