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:
Barry Warren’s questions related to Item 9 on the agenda; on the subject of Review Recommendations of the Planning Enforcement Working Group. It was asked:
1. Would this committee please take that whole document, now rather than later, and see where we were now as it was submitted in September 2021?
2. Were members aware of a paper I prepared on the 16th of April 2023 whilst Leader of the Council and submitted to the then Chair of Scrutiny to address the failings?
3. Would the committee please note that Recommendation 8, to rewrite the Local Enforcement Plan has not been actioned to date and so Council are working from a plan that is over 5 years old?
4. Would the committee please note that Recommendation 6 was to form a sub group of the Planning Committee to oversee Planning Enforcement. That was not implemented thereby denying elected members the opportunity to oversee planning enforcement in an open and transparent manner? Officers decided that the Cabinet Member for Continuous Improvement could deal with this. No such Cabinet post exists under the current administration. Would you please look at putting a process in place which will give the public some confidence in our Planning Enforcement activities which are considered by those most affected to be ineffective and toothless?
5. Would the committee note that staffing levels were recommended and some work was carried out to move toward that? Since this new administration has been in place the staff numbers dedicated to Planning Enforcement has reduced back to levels pre the 2021 report. Why?
6. If looking at this currently would the committee consider any working group co-opting a member or members of the public who have experience of the problems and concerns to assist members?
In reply the Chairman said that these were historic issues, a new administration is just getting going and was work in progress. The Scrutiny Committee would be looking at vacancies and the moratorium on recruitment.
Paul Elstone asked in relation to Item 9 – The Scrutiny Workplan 2023-2024 and the 3 Rivers Independent Authority review:
1. It is clear from the Work Programme that your own 3 Rivers investigation is dependent on receiving the results of other investigations. The urgent, but wide-ranging, Cabinet investigation into 3 Rivers was supposed to have reported by now. What is the date when it is expected that this full and historic investigation into 3 Rivers, including the Council’s handling of the commercial relationship and related reporting, will be completed?
2. Council Officers have only just announced a 3 Rivers bad debt of over £5.2 million. In view of this, would Scrutiny Committee consider widening the scope of your Scrutiny investigation, in the Work Programme, so that it is not limited to the processing of the Business Plan?
3. Allegations have been raised relating to serious ethical and business conduct failings, including involving Council Officers and Members, in the whole matter of 3 Rivers. In the light of this, why was it felt permissible to allow Council Executive Officers to “scope out” the terms of reference of any review, when their own actions, or the lack of, may very likely form a key part of any investigation?
4. For full openness and transparency, which this new administration strives for, will all the Investigation Reports be published and made fully available to the public?
In reply the Chairman stated that this was an historic issue. The Deputy Chief Executive Officer (S151), confirmed that the Allegation report is going to be discussed by the Audit Committee on Tuesday 27 June, and that report from Devon Audit Partnership was now in the public domain. The Francis Clark report looking into how the business goes forward would be available in two and a half to three months’ time. The bad debt and the impairment on the loans is something that the S151 Officer, has to make publicly available as part of the end of year accounts as at 31st March. It is the likely level of loan repayment and is an estimate and not a write off. The terms of Reference for the Francis Clark investigation was put in front of Cabinet in March and was signed off by them so it was a Councillor Terms of Reference and not an Officer Terms of Reference.
The Chairman commented that both reports are to come to the Scrutiny Committee as well as the Audit Committee. The Chairman put on record that the committee intends to be transparent and be as fully accountable as possible. Where this is possible within the remits of the law, we would do that, they would be looking very closely at matters on a case by case basis, there would be no blanket assumption that something is automatically dealt with under part two unless there were very specific legal reasons for it being so
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