Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Wyndham Room - County Hall, Taunton TA1 4DY. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services Email: democraticservicesteam@somerset.gov.uk 

Note: Microsoft Teams meeting 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence.

Decision:

Cllr Susannah Hart (attended online), Cllr Kathy Pearce, Cllr Pauline Ham, Cllr Edric Hobbs (Cr Martin Lovell as sub) and Cllr Lance Duddridge (attended online) 

Minutes:

Apologies were received from councillors Cllr Susannah Hart (attended online), Cllr Kathy Pearce, Cllr Pauline Ham, Cllr Edric Hobbs (Cr Martin Lovell as sub) and CllrLance Duddridge (attended online) 

2.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 67 KB

To receive and note any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests, other registrable interests and non-registrable interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes.)

Decision:

There were no declarations of interest?received. 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest?received. 

3.

Public Question Time

The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, please see details under ‘click here to join online meeting’.

Decision:

There were no members of the public in attendance either in person or online. 

 

Minutes:

There were no members of the public in attendance either in person or online. 

 

4.

Committee briefing from the Scrutiny Manager, Somerset Council pdf icon PDF 492 KB

Members are asked to consider and comment on the presentation from the Scrutiny Manager.

Decision:

The committee noted a presentation from Jamie Jackson, Governance Manager Scrutiny on the role and function of the new Scrutiny Communities committee.? 

Minutes:

The committee received a presentation from Jamie Jackson, Governance Manager Scrutiny on the role and function of the new Scrutiny Communities committee.? 

 

The following comments and questions were received and discussed with members–  

 

·         The resources currently available for Scrutiny at Somerset Council, and resource planning for the future 

·         The need to ensure ALL policies are scrutinised before they go to the Executive for decision.  

·         Are we scrutinising the work of theprevious district councils?  

·         What savings have been achieved in bringing the Communities services together into the unitary authority. 

·         Will this scrutiny committee be involved in the bringing together of the service areas across the five legacy councils in Somerset.   

 

5.

Committee briefing from the Executive Lead Member Communities, Housing and Culture

Members are asked to consider and comment on the briefing from the Executive Lead Member for Communities, Housing and Culture.

Decision:

The committee noted a presentation from Chris Hall, Executive Director for the new Communities, Housing and Culture directorate regarding the senior leadership structure and remit of the Communities, Housing and Culture directorate.  

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed Chris Hall, Executive Director for the new Communities, Housing and Culture directorate who introduced himself and shared a presentation detailing the senior leadership structure for the new directorate.  

 

The following comments and questions were received and discussed with members  

 

·         The list of functions in the Executive Directors slides don’t match the Governance Managers slides in item 4 – Democratic Services to check  

·         Regarding the Chatbot online and KPI’s, measures and monitoring, can this committee receive reports on this? - The Executive Director advised that thiswould come back to the committee next month under the Customer Services item.  

·         One member felt that as a Community Scrutiny committee, visits to Communities in Somerset would be extremely beneficial  

·         How do Local Community Networks fit in with this portfolio? 

·         Markets and the problem with centralising market charter to Taunton.  

·         RegardingCCTV operators – how is this going to be managed for the unitary authority? - The Executive Directoradvised that an update would be brought back to this committee  

·         Regarding Local Community Networks - what sorts of issues should parish and town councils take to their LCN, and what issues need to come straight to Somerset Council customer services   

 

6.

Communities, Housing and Culture Service Directors introductions

To introduce the Scrutiny committee to the four Service Directors in the new Somerset Council Communities, Housing and Culture directorate.

Decision:

The committee noted a verbal introduction to the Housing service from Chris Brown, Service Director of Housing at Somerset council.

Minutes:

The Executive Director then welcomedChristopher Brown, Service Director of Housing to the committee who introduced himself and gave a brief introduction to the Housing service at Somerset Council. 

 

 

7.

Scrutiny Communities committee work programme

Members are invited to suggest items for the new Scrutiny Communities work programme.

 

To aid discussion the Executive Forward Plan of decisions can be found here.

Decision:

The committee considered the future work programme for Scrutiny Communities and the following items were suggested by members –

·       Leisure provision 

·       CCTV provision across Somerset 

·       Future model for housing provision 

·       Customer service KPI’s, customer satisfaction etc… 

·       Libraries, museums and theatres. 

·       Gypsytraveller communities  

·       Parking at leisure centres 

·       Tourism 

·       Heritage 

·       Fairs and markets indecline 

·       Neighbourhood policing (could the Police attend this committee on a regular basis?) 

·       Strategic planning around housing    

·       Park provision and maintenance 

 

 

Minutes:

The Chair informed members that he, along with the Vice-chair Cllr Dawn Johnson had attended a meeting with officers to consider itemsfor the work programme of the Scrutiny Communities committee for the coming year. He explained that there had been discussions about the need to balance the work programme between committee formal meetings and member briefings/workshops and/or smaller Task and Finish groups. He suggested thatthe work of the committee would need to be managed in this waygiven that the frequency of meetings for the formal committee meetings would be 6-8 weekly. He invited members of the committee to suggest items for the work programme and the following suggestions were received - 

 

·       Leisure provision 

·       CCTV provision across Somerset 

·       Future model for housing provision 

·       Customer service KPI’s, customer satisfaction etc… 

·       Libraries, museums and theatres. 

·       Gypsytraveller communities  

·       Parking at leisure centres 

·       Tourism 

·       Heritage 

·       Fairs and markets indecline 

·       Neighbourhood policing (could the Police attend this committee on a regular basis?) 

·       Strategic planning around housing    

·       Park provision and maintenance   

 

8.

Date of the next meeting

The next meeting of the Scrutiny Communities committee will be held on Wednesday 9th August, 10am in The Luttrell Room, County Hall, Taunton TA1 4DY.

Decision:

The committee noted that the next meeting would be held on 9th August 2023, at 10am in the Luttrell Room at County Hall.

Minutes:

The Chair advised members that the next meeting of this committee will be held on the 9th August 2023, at 10am in the Luttrell Room at County Hall, Taunton TA1 4DY.?