Agenda and minutes

Councillor Goddard.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 5 July 2010 (SSC3)and any

matters arising on them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 5 July 2010 were approved and signed.

Matters Arising

Minute 69/10 – Community Pride and Self Help Select Committee – Ms Coldwell undertook to chase up the information on community development workers as requested by Councillor Pressel.

Minute 72/10 – Draft Action Plan Arising from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Inspection of Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (OFRS) – the Chief Fire Officer stated that OFRS was still awaiting formal HSE approval of the Service’s action plan. Once this had been received costings for Recommendation 3 (delivery of operational training policy) would be provided to the Committee.

Minute 77/10  – Forward Plan – the Committee noted that the report on Cogges Trust was now due for consideration at the 19 October Cabinet meeting.

10:15

The Chief Fire Officer will give a verbal update on key issues.

The Committee received the update as part of Agenda Item 6.

10:45

A presentation will be given to the Committee which will provide a high level overview of services provided and the challenges which will need to be addressed to meet the savings target. The Director for Social & Community Services and the Chief Fire Officer will cover their respective areas.

The Committee is invited to receive the presentation.

The Chief Fire Officer and Director for Social & Community Services gave presentations to the Committee which provided a high level overview of services provided and the challenges which will need to be addressed to meet the savings target. Copies of the presentations are attached to these Minutes and to the signed Minutes.

The County Librarian undertook to provide the following data to all members of the Committee:

• Number of visits per week to each of the county’s mobile libraries 2009/10 (based on sample week count)
• Cost per visit per mobile library 2009/10
• Issues by mobile library 2009/10
• Cost per issue per mobile library 2009/10

11:30

Contact Officer: Colin Thomas, Acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer, (01865) 855206.

The Acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer will provide an update and answer the Committee’s questions.

The Committee noted the update from Mr Thomas and thanked him for his tireless work in relation to the rollout of the mobile data terminals and for maintaining the morale of the control room staff.

Mr Thomas undertook to provide the Committee with a report in six months’ time which would detail the benefits of the new systems.

11:50

Contact Officer: Bethan Morgan, County Emergency Planning Officer, (01865) 323760

A paper which provides detail on:

·              progress by local resilience partners to increase resilience to flooding following the 2007 floods

·              action taken to improve plans and processes to improve the local response to extreme weather incidents

·              “Exercise Watermark” and the local activities planned to take place in relation to this national exercise

is attached (SSC8).

The County Emergency Planning Officer will attend for this agenda item in order to answer any questions which the Committee may wish to ask.

The Committee is invited to receive the update and to conduct a question and answer session.

The Committee thanked Ms Morgan for her report and conducted a question and answer session.

Ms Morgan undertook to provide:

• the draft version of the Joint Extreme Weather Response Plan to a future meeting of this Committee for comment prior to sign off (it is currently anticipated that the joint plan will be prepared by November 2010 in order for training to be provided to staff by January and testing in March 2011).

• an update on financial accountability in relation to flooding response to the Committee.

Ms Morgan undertook to provide a copy of the most recent report of theOxfordshire Strategic Flooding Group (OSFG) to Councillor Pressel at her request.

12:10

Contact Officer: Roger Edwards, Scrutiny Review Officer (Health), tel (01865) 810824

The object of this review will be to ascertain whether the appropriate policies are in place to control admittance to youth centres, as well as to ensure that young people behave properly once inside. The review will consider recent incidents around alcohol usage and other poor behaviour which have tested current policies and ascertain whether those policies were effective.

Once the membership of the joint working group has been established, a more detailed scope for the review can be agreed at the group's first meeting.

The Committee is invited to nominate two members to join the Joint Working Group.

The Committee noted that the Lead Member Review Group would consider the Directorate’s review report prior to commencing scrutiny activity (due at the end of October/early November) and AGREED to nominate Councillors Viney and Service to join the Lead Member Review Group.

12:15

A list of items already logged for future scrutiny consideration is attached at SSC10.

Members of this Committee are asked to consider any items that they may wish to have presentations about in future and any items that they may wish to include in future agendas.

The Committee AGREED to request that statistics pre and post the removal of speed cameras be provided for its February meeting. Data should include levels of speeding, the age and gender of offenders, numbers and types of accidents and numbers of serious injuries and deaths. The purpose would be to enable a comparison to be made between the periods when speed cameras were in operation and following their removal.

This report would:

·        be considered in conjunction with the business plan for the integrated road safety approach within the Council if the latter document was available for the February 2011 meeting. (This Committee intends to consider the business plan in light of the current and anticipated further reduction in funding to the Thames Valley Road Safety Partnership);

·        also be brought to the attention of the Growth and Infrastructure Scrutiny Committee on the grounds that those areas of road safety not covered by this Committee (SSC Scrutiny Committee covers road safety in terms of Fire & Rescue, the Police and Trading Standards) sit within its remit.

It was also AGREED that an update in relation to the latest position on the Coroner’s Service Scrutiny Review be provided to a future meeting and that updates on the current position of all the service areas that sit under the remit of this Committee be provided at least annually to all members of this Committee (possibly on the rising of the meeting). 

A number of suggestions were made for items to be incorporated into this Committee’s future work programme; these will be considered when the work programme is next reviewed and decisions are made about resource availability.

12:25

Report back on advice given by this Committee to the Cabinet, full Council, other scrutiny committees, relevant strategic partnership bodies and other organisations/bodies where appropriate.

• Self Help Communities

In July this Committee conducted a select committee investigation into community pride/self help and put forward a number of recommendations as part of the officer paper to the County Council Management Team (CCMT), which was considered on 28 July.

The CCMT decision is given below:

The county council continues to value the voluntary and community sector and recognises that there are challenging times ahead for all. It is particularly important that the council continues to support initiatives that encourage volunteering where possible within the financial constraints that emerge from the government's spending review in December. The Chief Executive and other members of CCMT are meeting representatives of the voluntary sector in September to discuss how we can continue to work together productively to support vulnerable people and communities.

This Committee will be invited to comment on the framework/strategy at its 8 November meeting and will conduct a question and answer session on progress in relation to this at its 14 February 2011 meeting.

The Committee noted the information as listed on the face of the agenda.

12:35

Listed below are reports for information and links to background information that may be of interest to Members for noting only.

• Tackling Illegal Money Lending Progress Report

The Committee thanked Mr Webb for his informative report and AGREED to express its appreciation of the way in which the team had rolled out its work in Oxfordshire during its first year of operation in this county.

Mr Webb undertook to provide a  breakdown of the number of reports of activity the team had received to date in time for the next update to Committee.

12:50

The Committee is asked to note any items of interest on the current version of the Forward Plan which covers the time period September 2010 to December 2010.

No items were identified for consideration.

Mrs Jacquie Bugeja, Head of Registration, will give a presentation on the Registration Service on the rise of this meeting. 

The Committee is reminded that although the Service now sits under Legal & Democratic Services, it still falls within Councillor Heathcoat’s portfolio and therefore falls under the remit of this Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee received information on the Registration Service from Mrs Jacquie Bugeja, Head of Registration, on the rising of this meeting.