Agenda item - Overview and Scrutiny Board Work Programme

Agenda item

Overview and Scrutiny Board Work Programme

Minutes:

Members considered the content of the Board’s Work Programme.  During consideration of this item a number of points were raised:

 

a)        29th February meeting of the Board

 

Officers confirmed that the Board would receive the following reports during this meeting:

 

·                The update on the staff survey.

·                The latest report regarding the Planning Application Backlog Data.

 

b)        21st March meeting of the Board

 

The following items would be considered during this meeting:

 

·                The annual update on the North Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership.

·                The Evening and Weekend Car Parking Task Group’s final report.

 

c)         Increasing Physical Activities Task Group

 

The Chairman explained that, as requested at the previous meeting of the Board, Worcestershire County Council (WCC) had been contacted about arrangements for the presentation of the Task Group’s final report.  Councillor Richard Udall, Chairman of the Task Group, had been invited to attend a meeting of the Board to present the group’s final report once the review was completed. 

 

A response had recently been received from WCC with the invitation being declined on the basis that the Task Group was not considered by the County Council to be a formal Joint Scrutiny Committee and therefore it was not felt necessary for the Chairman to attend the District Councils’ Scrutiny Committees. 

 

Members expressed disappointment in this response.  It was noted that Bromsgrove District Council did not have a formal representative on the group, though Councillor J. M. L. A Griffiths remained a member as a County Councillor, and the Board had been advised that it would not be worthwhile at this stage appointing a replacement.  Furthermore, it was noted that for previous joint Task Groups, such as the joint scrutiny of Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS), the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the group had attended scrutiny Committee meetings at every participating Council to present the group’s report. In this context the Board concurred that the Chairman of the Task Group and Councillor Griffiths should both attend a Board meeting to present the Task Group’s findings. 

 

d)        The Artrix

 

Members were advised that The Artrix had asked to present a report to the Board.  This would cover many of the areas identified during the Artrix Outreach Provision Task Group.  It was likely that the report would be received in either March or April 2016.

 

e)        Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report 2015/16

 

The Chairman explained that the Overview and Scrutiny Board’s Annual Report 2015/16 was due to be presented for Members’ consideration in April 2016.  He suggested that it would be useful to have a section in this report dedicated to reflecting on how the Board had performed during the year and actions that could be taken to improve the scrutiny process at the Council in future years.  There was general consensus that this would be a sensible idea, though Members noted that a number of improvements had already been made during the year.  This included good quality debates and the changes to seating arrangements that had encouraged a more participatory and apolitical environment than in previous years and which was much more conducive to effective scrutiny.

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