Issue - meetings

The minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 16th June 2014 were submitted.

Members commented that there had been a single spelling mistake on page 7 of the minutes where “n” had been recorded rather than “on”.

The Chairman advised Members that the Cabinet had considered the Board’s two recommendations on the subject of the staff survey.  In relation to the first recommendation, on the subject of a statement in favour of a zero tolerance approach to bullying and harassment of staff being added to the top ten recommendations arising from the survey, the Cabinet had fully endorsed the Board’s proposals.  However, the Cabinet had debated for some time the Board’s second proposal, in respect of providing elected Members with access to the staff finder system on the Council’s intranet.  This proposal had subsequently been referred on to the Chief Executive for further consideration.

The four recommendations proposed on behalf of the Leisure Provision Task Group had also been debated.  In respect of the first of these recommendations Cabinet had concluded that it was not necessary for the Audit Board to consider the financial implications of the proposed new leisure centre.  Members expressed some concerns about this response and suggested that due to the significant amount of funding involved and the proposed borrowing levels there was a need for the Audit Board to investigate this matter further.  Members also noted that they had the power to refer the recommendation to the Audit Board directly.

In respect of the group’s second proposal the Cabinet had suggested that it would not be appropriate for them to make a decision about the work of a Task Group as this needed to be determined by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.  However, they had no objections to this proposal.  The Cabinet had noted the third and fourth recommendations proposed by the Board but had made it clear that they did not agree with the Board’s conclusions in relation to their fourth recommendation.

RECOMMENDED to the Audit Board that financial concerns around the increased membership that will be needed to ensure good annual revenue should be addressed through an Audit Board investigation of the figures; and

RESOLVED that, subject to the amendment to the minutes detailed in the preamble above, the minutes be approved.