Agenda and minutes

Resident Experience Board - Thursday, 13 October 2016 10.00 am

Venue: Surrey History Centre, 130 Goldsworth Road, Woking, Surrey, GU21 6ND

Contact: Dominic Mackie or Sharmina Ullah 

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Items
No. Item

73/16

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

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    Minutes:

    Apologies were received from Mike Bennison, Barbara Thomson, Alan Young and Ramon Gray.

    Richard Wilson had agreed to attend as a substitute for Mike Bennison but was unable to attend the meeting at late notice and gave his apologies.

74/16

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING

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    The minutes from the previous meeting will be tabled at the next meeting on Tuesday 22 November 2016.

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    Minutes:

    Minutes from the previous meeting would be available at the next Board meeting on Tuesday 22 November.

75/16

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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    All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter

    (i)            Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or

    (ii)           Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting

    NOTES:

    • Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest
    • As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner)
    • Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.

     

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    Minutes:

    No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests from Members in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting were received.

76/16

QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS pdf icon PDF 73 KB

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    To receive any questions or petitions.

     

    Notes:

    1.    The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (Friday 7 October 2016).

    2.    The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (Thursday 6 October 2016).

    3.    The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Three public questions were received from Surrey resident Sue Johnson. The questions and their responses are attached to these minutes as Annex A.

     

    As Ms Johnson was unable to attend the meeting, supplementary questions were tabled at the meeting. The Chairman decided to prepare answers to these supplementary questions after the meeting.

     

77/16

RESPONSES FROM THE CABINET TO ISSUES REFERRED BY THE SCRUTINY BOARD

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    There are no responses to report.

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    There were no responses from Cabinet to report.

78/16

RECOMMENDATION TRACKER AND FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 149 KB

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    The Board is asked to monitor progress on the implementation of recommendations from previous meetings, and to review its Forward Work Programme.

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    Declarations of interest:

     

    None

     

    Witnesses:

     

    Peter Milton, Head of Cultural Services

     

    1. The Chairman explained to the Board that the Forward Work Programme needed to be amended significantly after the publication of the agenda. As part of these changes, the Chairman explained that the Flooding Engagement item would be held in early Spring 2017 as part of Environment and Infrastructure’s Flooding Strategy consultation.

    2. As result of the changes, an up to date version of the Forward Work Programme would be available at the next meeting.

     

    1. Regarding the Recommendation Tracker, the Board noted the responses and information enclosed in the agenda pack.

    2. The Head of Cultural Services provided the Board with an update regarding the Registration Service’s recommendations, REB24/2016 – 29/2016 & 31/2016, as outlined in the Tracker; the response is attached to these minutes as Annex B.

    3. The Board was informed that Phase Three of the MARS software package required further resource to be completed, and as a result was not being progressed any further. It was explained that this final Phase was key for helping the Registration Service realise planned savings, as well as freeing up staff time.

    4. Members of the Board discussed potential avenues to explore to obtain the funding required to complete Phase Three of the project. Members were in full support of the Service and it was suggested that the funding could potentially be secured following a recommendation to all Members asking for contributions from their Member’s Allowance towards the project.

    5. Though the Board was keen to make a recommendation at the meeting in support of continuing Phase Three of the project, the Head of Cultural Services agreed to keep the Board informed of any negotiations and developments from IMT regarding this work.

     

79/16

SURREY COUNTY COUNCIL'S HERITAGE SERVICES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A FUTURE STRATEGY pdf icon PDF 77 KB

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    Purpose of the report: Policy Development and Review

     

    The Residents’ Experience Board has requested a report on what Surrey Heritage currently provides for residents. Budget pressures and the changing pattern of public use will require a new strategy to be formed for the provision of Heritage Services in Surrey and this paper forms the basis for a discussion.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Declarations of interest:

     

    None

     

    Witnesses:

     

    Barrie Higham, Heritage Manager

    Nowal Shaikhley, Archaeological Operations Manager

    Julian Pooley, Public Services and Engagement Manager

    Michael Page, County Archivist

    Peter Milton, Head of Cultural Services

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

     

    1. The Chairman explained the Board that the meeting was being held at the Surrey History Centre (SHC) in Woking so that Members could have the opportunity to experience what the service provides Surrey’s residents first-hand.

    2. A Member questioned Officers regarding income generation, asking for Officers to clarify SHC’s current position, particularly around room hire, and for the Officers to expand on any ideas of future income streams in the future. It was explained that SHC has two rooms which generate income from room hire. The spaces are available to external organisations and individuals, as well as internally for Surrey County Council employees and teams. Officers emphasised that they receive lots of room hire enquiries and gave examples of organisations that have expressed their interest in the rooms.

    3. Officers highlighted some concerns with regards to room hire. Firstly, the SHC rooms were frequently booked by internal Surrey County Council teams and officers without charge. It was also noted that SHC was unable to generate income from tea and coffee refreshments from internal bookings either.

    4. The second concern was regarding out of hours booking enquiries, which were very frequent. Due to the original setup of the building, for any out of hours bookings, the whole building would need to be opened up, operational and staffed. As these costs would need to be recovered by a prospective hirer, these limitations often acted as a deterrent for business.

    5. The Heritage Manager proposed making the meeting rooms and foyer independent to the rest of the building in a move to maximise the business potential of the Centre. Continuing, Officers advised Members that the alarm system would need to be modified for the rooms and foyer to be separated from the whole building alarm system, allowing this section to be used out of business hours by other organisations.

    6. The Board recommended that Officers prepared a business case including: the projected cost of the modifications to the building’s alarm system; projected income from room hire, both during and out of operational hours; projected costs for caretaking of the building for outside hirers.

     

    1. Members proposed the following suggestions for Officers to explore:

    a)    Withdraw the SHC from the Surrey County Council booking system so that the rooms cannot be booked free of charge for common use.

    b)    Restrict internal teams to specific days for booking the SHC rooms so that so that the SHC can accept additional external bookings at prime times in the working day.

    c)    Charging internal teams at a full or discounted rate for hiring the SHC rooms.

    The Cabinet Member for Localities and Community Wellbeing expressed support for the suggestions raised, provided that the business cases for each option were assured and that any changes made were after consultation with the appropriate Council policies around room booking.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 79/16

80/16

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

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    The next meeting of the Board will be held on Tuesday 22 November 2016 in  Conference Room 1, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames.

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    The next public meeting of the Board will take place on Tuesday 22 November 2016 at County Hall.