Agenda and minutes

Overview and Scrutiny Management Board - Tuesday 3 July 2012 4.30 pm

Venue: Council House (next to the Civic Centre)

Contact: Helen Wright, Democratic Support Officer  Email: helen.wright@plymouth.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

15.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made by members in accordance with the code of conduct.

16.

CHAIR'S URGENT BUSINESS

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

Minutes:

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

17.

CORPORATE PLAN 2012-2015 pdf icon PDF 2 MB

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will receive the Corporate Plan 2012-2015 for its consideration and comments.

Minutes:

The Head of Policy, Performance and Partnerships advised that the Corporate Plan was originally submitted to the Management Board in January 2012 as part of the budget scrutiny process.  The Plan was subject to a number of recommendations which were endorsed by the city council. The purpose of this meeting was to scrutinise the revisions made to the Plan.

 

The Leader provided an overview of his areas of responsibilities which included –

 

?

the Corporate Plan;

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economy, enterprise and employment;

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Destination Plymouth and associated bodies;

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regional and local economic strategy.

 

The following responses were provided to questions raised by members –

 

(a)

as Chair of the new task force on jobs, the Leader would ensure an  urgency in putting in place plans and initiatives to attack long term unemployment within the city;

 

(b)

 

members of the Management Board were being consulted in the first instance regarding the Corporate Plan; a discussion took place regarding the pre decision scrutiny arrangements and whether partners should have been consulted first, in this instance);

(c)

 

the cooperative council ethos would be operated within the existing budget framework which had been set in March 2012; this would be a different way of working for the council but at the same cost; (although there would be variations within the current budget framework);

 

(d)

with the reduction in the number of Cabinet Members from ten to eight this provided revenue in the sum of £50,000 which would be used to set up the Community Economic Development Trust; (the same model would be used as the Wolsley Trust).

 

The Deputy Leader provided an overview of his areas of responsibility which included -

 

? 

customers services including libraries;

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business continuity and civil protection;

?

leisure management contract;

?

sports development.

 

The Chair took this opportunity to congratulate the Deputy Leader on the resounding success of Armed Forces Day which took place on 30 June 2012, and asked for the Board’s congratulations to be passed to the team that had been involved with the event.

 

The following responses were provided to questions raised by members –

 

(e)

there was no reference within the manifesto to the closure of libraries;

 

(f)

 

the council was currently liaising with other local authorities regarding joined up ICT services;

(g)

 

work was being undertaken to investigate ways of increasing voter registration, such as automatically being entered into a prize winning competition when people registered to vote;

 

(h)

there was a commitment to finding a long term solution for Breton Side bus station; improvement works had already been undertaken such as the refurbishment of the street furniture and cleansing of the area;

 

(i)

in order to engage members of staff with the cooperative council ethos, a new employee handbook was being drafted; communication links would also be improved; the council’s employee benefits discount scheme iCHOOSE had also been launched;

 

(j)

it was anticipated that with the use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook this would encourage young people to engage with the democratic process;

 

(k)

work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

18.

EXEMPT BUSINESS

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it (they) involve(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) … of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Minutes:

There were no items of exempt business.