Agenda and minutes
PDF 182 KBVenue: Ashcombe, County Hall, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2DN
Contact: Huma Younis or Sharmina Ullah
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MEETING STARTED 10:30 IN THE ASHCOMBE SUITE |
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS
Minutes: Apologies were received from Ken Gulati and Bob Gardner. Michael Sydney substituted for Bob Gardner. |
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MINUTES FROM THE PREVIOUS MEETING: 14 JULY 2016
To agree the previous minutes as a true record of the meeting. Minutes: The minutes from the last meeting held on 14 July were agreed accurate record of the meeting. |
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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
To receive any declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests from Members in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.
Notes:
· In line with the Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012, declarations may relate to the interest of the member, or the member’s spouse or civil partner, or a person with whom the member is living as husband or wife, or a person with whom the member is living as if they were civil partners and the member is aware they have the interest.
· Members need only disclose interests not currently listed on the Register of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.
· Members must notify the Monitoring Officer of any interests disclosed at the meeting so they may be added to the Register.
· Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest Minutes: There was no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests. |
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QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS
To receive any questions or petitions.
Notes:
· The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (2 September 2016).
· The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (1 September 2016).
· The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received. Minutes: There were no questions or petitions. |
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RESPONSES FROM THE CABINET TO ISSUES REFERRED BY THE BOARD
There are no responses to report.
Minutes: There were no responses to report. |
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RECOMMENDATIONS TRACKER AND FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME
The board is asked to monitor progress on the implementation of recommendations from previous meetings and to review its forward work programme. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman advised the Board that EP2 on the recommendation tracker read as achieved, this was in regards to it being added to the FWP in December, however the update/report from the Transport Group Manager was still outstanding. In addition, the Chairman reminded the board that the link regarding EP3 was circulated, however upon Members’ request it would be re-circulated.
The Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Flooding advised the Board that the update on road safety improvements on Bridge Street would not be ready as the forward work plan suggests, as it was still a work in progress, however an interim report would available in due course.
Actions:
Re-circulate the link showing the network map of current levels of provision/passenger usage at each Surrey train station, to Members.
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MEETING WAS SUSPENDED 10:35AM |
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MEETING RESUMED IN COUNCIL CHAMBERS - 10:47AM |
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EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC
RESOLVED: That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.
Minutes: As a result of an incident, Mike Bennison left the meeting at 10:47am due to a medical emergency.
The Board agreed item 10 to be taken into Part 2, by virtue of paragraph(s) 3, Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person including the authority holding that information).
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PART TWO - IN PRIVATE |
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RISK MANAGEMENT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND INFRASTRUCTURE DIRECTORATE
Purpose of the report: Scrutiny of Services and Performance Management
This paper sets out the approach to risk management and business continuity in the Environment and Infrastructure Directorate. Members of the Board are asked to consider the risk management approach for the directorate.
Additional documents: Minutes: Declarations of interest:
None.
Witnesses:
Mike Goodman, Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning John Furey, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Flooding Jason Russell, Assistant Director for Highways and Transport Ben Skipp, Change Consultant
Key point raised during discussion:
1. The Chairman of the Board introduced the report by giving a laymans view of why it would be a good idea, for the Members’ interests, to have an awareness of how the Directorates assess and cover off perceived risks to the Council’s services. The Chairman explained that the Officers had provided a selection of the most significant risks from the Risk Register.
2. The Chairman further advised Members that risk management was a tool that enables the Council to work out how resources could be used to maintain functions and improve the services.
3. The Chairman mentioned perception of risk may vary as Officers and Members might have differing views. The Chairman further explained the nature of this risk management item was to capture these differences.
4. The Chairman indicated that Officers would, with Members input, judge where resources would be allocated, where relevant. One Member expressed concern with regards to where resident views were considered and whether they will have an input in the allocation of resources. The Chairman explained that this concern was not a risk issue but rather a problem that could be looked at separately.
5. The Assistant Director for Highways and Transport assured Members that Officers would be thinking of the outcomes the service would be trying to deliver and assess the risks against those, contributing to improved resident experience.
6. The Officer added that the registers provided in the meeting had been reviewed recently as steps had been taken to mitigate some of the risks the service previously had, and in some cases the risk scoring had improved.
7. The Board were informed of the two categories of risks, strategic and operational. The Assistant Director for Highways and Transport addressed Members on how the different levels of management engaged with these two types of risks, which in turn ensured they were dealt with effectively and robustly.
8. Members sought clarification on whether Local Committees could engage with Officers in regard to operational risk mitigation. The Officer agreed that day-to-day operational risks/concerns could benefit from Member involvement at Local Committees if they wanted to pursue this. The Officer welcomed a discussion with Chairmen of the Local Committees.
9. The Officer outlined capability and skills as one of the challenges the Council was facing, informing the Board that budget cuts and the competition from the private sector was having an impact on recruitment. Members acknowledged there was a staffing issue and indicated that this needs to be addressed, without the staff nothing would be implemented.
10.The Board were informed that on a short term basis consultants and agency staff were being deployed as a result of poor staff retainment, whilst the service worked on making Surrey a more competitive employer in the ... view the full minutes text for item 10/16 |
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PUBLICITY FOR PART TWO ITEMS
Minutes: It was agreed that non-exempt information may be made available to the press and public, where appropriate. |
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MEETING WAS SUSPENDED 11:42AM |
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MEETING WAS RESUMED IN THE ASHCOMBE SUITE - 11:48AM |
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REPORT OF THE WINTER MAINTENANCE TASK GROUP
Purpose of the report: Scrutiny of Services and Budgets / Policy Development and Review
This report is in response to the £340k saving identified against the Winter Service budget in the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP), as approved by the Council. Winter Service budget reduction options were presented to the Winter Task Group on 28th July 2016. This report summarises those options.
Additional documents: Minutes: Declarations of interest:
None
Witnesses:
Dan Squibb, Asset Planning Team Manager Jason Russell, Assistant Director for Highways and Transport John Furey, Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Flooding
Key points raised during the discussion:
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UPDATES FROM MEMBER REFERENCE GROUPS AND TASK GROUPS
To receive a verbal update from the Board’s Task and Member Reference Groups. Minutes: The Chairman of the Basingstoke Canal Task Group explained to the board that there was nothing to report or sensible to advise. The board requested an update on the progress and why no information has been forthcoming since the last meeting.
The board were informed of the Surrey Wildlife Trust agreement with the County Council, which was approved by Cabinet earlier this year. Members indicated for the Countryside Management MRG to request an update from the Cabinet Member on the progress of the agreement and why it hasn’t been signed yet.
Members were advised that the finance sub-group meeting would be postponed until the finance department agreed the budgetary process with Cabinet and a date would be organised between the sub-group and officers when this was finalised.
The chairman notified the board that two member reference groups were newly created. One was mentioned in the forward work plan under the incorrect title as ‘Local Plan MRG’ but was meant to read ‘Waste Local Plan MRG’. The other newly formed MRG was mentioned as the ‘Surrey Waste Partnership Future’ and would be examining how the county could move to one single organisation for waste purposes and that members would be meeting with officers on Friday 23 September to discuss this.
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DATE OF NEXT MEETING: 19 OCTOBER 2016
The next meeting of the Economic Prosperity, Environment and Highways Board will be held on Wednesday 19 October 2016 at 10:30am in the Ashcombe Suite, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames. Minutes: The next meeting of the Economic Prosperity, Environment and Highways Board will be held on Wednesday 19 October at 10:30 am in the Ashcombe suite, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames. |