To receive any announcements from the Chairman and/or Head of Paid Service
Minutes:
The Chairman provided details of two events:
· Holocaust Memorial in the Parkside Suite on Monday 28th January 2019at 11 a.m. She was happy to report that again there would be a number of local schools attending this event.
· A Thai Evening fund raising event was planned for 22nd February to be held at the Maekong Thai Restaurant in Bromsgrove, to which invitations had been sent out to all Members.
The Head of Paid Service reported that Councillor M. Thompson had raised an issue with the Head of Legal, Democratic and Electoral Services in respect of an error in the Postal Vote Identifier Refresher Letters. He explained that it was a legal requirement that every five years postal voters were written to and asked to provide a new specimen signature for their postal vote identifier. It was a further requirement that requests were sent out during January for the period of 31st January the preceding year to 30th January in the current year (31st January 2018 to 30th January 2019).
Mail was sent out through downstream access where a third party printed and sent out the letters. Unfortunately, when creating the letters the operator omitted to add the request of a reply paid envelope to the electronic order and this was not spotted before sending to the printers. This had led to approximately 1,400 letters being sent out on 17th January without a return envelope and at a cost of around £550 to the Council.
It was explained that Officers had been made aware by callers on 21st January and since it was a legal requirement to send a reply paid envelope it was decided to re-run the batch. This was one on 21st January. Electors that had called the office regarding the missing enveloped had been given an apology and asked to wait for the replacement letter to arrive.
Action had been taken to ensure that moving forward any large mailing would be double checked by another officer before an order being sent.
A brief discussion followed in which the following points were raised:
· Whether the Leader had been aware of this and it was confirmed that he was not.
· Whether the Council was responsible for the costs or the third party – it was confirmed that the Council was responsible for the cost of rectifying the error.
· The low morale amongst staff which would only lead to further mistakes being made. The Leader advised that he was not aware of low morale. Councillor Thompson advised that he had evidence to support his claim.
· It was suggested that a meeting take place between the Group Leaders and the Chief Executive to discuss the morale and a number of other areas. The Leader agreed to this.
RESOLVED that a meeting be arranged between the Group Leaders and the Chief Executive.