Agenda and minutes
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Apologies Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillors Gina Blomefield and Andrew Maclean. |
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Substitute Members To note details of any substitution arrangements in place for the Meeting. Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Hirst substituting for Councillor Blomefield. |
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Declarations of Interest To receive any declarations of interest from Members and Officers, relating to items to be considered at the meeting. Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Hirst indicated that he was once a governor of Sir William Romney’s School, Tetbury. Having taken the advice of the Monitoring Officer it was agreed that in the context of the aims of the report presented at Item 9 this was not a material interest.
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To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 February 2021. Additional documents: Minutes: RESOLVED that subject to the following additions to minute numbers OS.61 and OS.62, the minutes of the meeting held on 23 February 2021, be approved as a true record:
OS.61 - 106 Monitoring - Members noted that this issue had been presented to this Committee before and that the same issues seemed to be appearing, including the monitoring of S106 payments due to Gloucestershire and the need for a fee to be charged. They were assured that this would be a matter addressed within the LocalPlan Update. Consideration would also be given to what statistics might best assist monitoring and evaluation by the committee.
OS.62 - Planning Enforcement Update - Members noted that a number of historic cases were listed as only requiring a formal report before closure, yet still remained "live". It was suggested that the need for the development of metrics, such as (e.g.) the number of live cases older than 6 months, 1 year etc. be addressed.
Record of Voting – for 8, against 0, abstention 1, absent 1.
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Chair's Announcements Additional documents: Minutes: Chair’s Announcements
There were no announcements from the Chair at this point in the meeting.
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Public Questions To deal with questions from the public within the open forum question and answer session of fifteen minutes in total. Questions from each member of the public should be no longer than two minutes each and relate issues under the Committee’s remit. Additional documents: Minutes: No questions had been received from the public.
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Member Questions To deal with written questions by Members, relating to issues under the Committee’s remit, with the maximum length of oral supplementary questions at Committee being no longer than one minute. Responses to any supplementary questions will be dealt with in writing if they cannot be dealt with at the meeting. Additional documents: Minutes: No questions had been received from Members. |
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Called-in Decisions To consider any matter(s) referred to the Committee in relation to the calling-in of decisions. Additional documents: Minutes: No executive decisions had been the subject of Call-In since the Committee’s previous Meeting.
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Tetbury and Fairford Leisure Provision Task and Finish Group - Final Report Additional documents: Minutes: Councillor Gary Selwyn, Chair of the Task and Finish Group introduced the report. He gave thanks to the Members of the group, Councillors Dilys Neill and Gina Blomefield, together with Officers who supported the group, with their experience and expertise, who were the Group Manager, Strategic Support, Chief Accountant and Democratic Services.
The group approached this task with an open mind starting with a desktop review of all the papers available to the group. Interviewees contributed to the debate and the group paused regularly to discuss feedback and agree the next steps in the process.
Nearly a decade has passed since the decisions were taken, some interviewees had very clear memories, others far less, and not everyone was available. Councillor Selwyn was very confident that the report presented to the Committee gave an informative record and clear objectives on lessons which may be learnt. He noted that the Cabinet had commissioned a Leisure Strategy, and the findings of the report could be taken into account in the final strategy.
Councillor Selwyn also explained the different sections of the report, giving the background to the review, that this was not a formal investigation, it was an informal group approach to highlight key issues, concerns expressed with the leisure provision in Tetbury and Fairford, and lessons learnt from the review to be recommended to Cabinet.
Comments from Members and answers from the Task and Finish Group were as follows:
(a)
Reference was made to the council receiving the
accounts and reports from the centres.
The group had reviewed all the reports and accounts available to
them.
(b)
The group also considered whether the strict and
proper guidelines were followed when the contract was awarded to
the schools, Members questioned whether a new set of guidelines were
necessary.
(c)
Schools were not primarily set up to provide leisure
facilities, they were to teach children and the safeguarding issues
at the schools were paramount.
Safeguarding was not something that the group specifically
considered, although this was a valid consideration in the
provision of leisure facilities on school sites.
(d)
It was noted that the schools in Tetbury and Fairford
did not have swimming pools at the time when they took over the
facilities, which would have been a big attraction for
people.
(e)
The group did consider the issue of whether when the
schools took over the facilities, was it
realistic that they would have
been able to achieve success as a leisure
operator, without public subsidy, if the Council was unable to make
a success of these sites. (f) It was noted that the Cotswold School in Chipping Campden did pull out at an early stage of these negotiations and the pool and the gym at the school were run by two different organisations.
It was proposed that the key lessons set out below be recommended to Cabinet. This was proposed by Councillor Andrews and seconded by Councillor Selwyn.
RESOLVED that the findings of the Task and Finish Group, set out ... view the full minutes text for item OS.73 |
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Future meetings of Overview and Scrutiny Committee Additional documents: Minutes: The Business Manager, Corporate Responsibility introduced the report explaining some new ways of working for the Committee which would add value to the work of the Committee. The following points were highlighted:
(a)
The Cabinet Forward Plan would be a new recurring
item on the agenda.
(b)
Task and Finish Groups would look at specific pieces
of work, scoping these groups and ensuring resources were available
prior to commencement.
(c)
Presentations could be given on bigger issues, such
as Broadband.
(d)
The work plan of the Committee
would be much more focussed on key
issues, scoping out pieces of work, with a template to work
from. (e) Training for the Committee would take place.
This would shape the work of the Committee, working together with the Cabinet, although having independence as the Committee would not be carrying out the work of the Cabinet.
RESOLVED that the report and any comments made be noted.
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Draft Work Plan 2021/22 Additional documents: Minutes: The next meeting was to take place on 29 June 2021, which would include items on Crime and Disorder, Publica Update, along with other standing items.
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