Agenda and minutes

Venue: Burnley Town Hall

Contact: Alison McEwan  Democracy Officer

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive any apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors Foster, L Khan, and Malik.

2.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 92 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 19th March 2018 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

3.

Notice of Key Decisions and Private Meetings pdf icon PDF 73 KB

To consider the Key Decisions to be taken for the period July to October 2018.

Minutes:

Members considered the Notice of Key Decisions and Private Meetings.

 

IT WAS RESOLVED THAT THE NOTICE OF KEY DECISIONS & PRIVATE MEETINGS BE NOTED.

4.

Section 106 Agreements

To brief Members on how S106 Agreements are administered.

Minutes:

The Head of Housing & Development Control gave a presentation on Section 106 Agreements related to planning applications.

 

Members considered the following:

 

·         How S106 Agreements were devised, and by who.  Drafted related to policies (such as the Local Plan) or by statutory consultees such as Highways or Education who would supply suggested clauses according to their policies.

·         Policies re flood risk.  These would be dealt with as a condition attached to approval of the planning application rather than as part of the S106 agreement.

·         How ward councillors would be made aware of relevant S106 Agreements – particularly open space and foot/cycle way improvements. Any planning obligations sought as part of a planning application would form part of the consideration of that application and would be contained within the planning file and available for comment from any interested parties.

 

 

5.

Strategic Partner Annual Update - Liberata

To receive the annual update from the Council’s Strategic Partner

Minutes:

Ian Brotheridge, Liberata’s Regional Contract Director gave a presentation updating Members on the aims and performance of the Strategic Partnership Contract.

 

Members discussed the following:

 

·         The number of transactions overall had increased – was this related to Revenue & Benefit queries?  There had been an increase in calls related to garden waste collections and council tax bills, but also a number of calls related to the roll out of Universal Credit.  From other contract areas, experience suggested this could take 12-18 months to reduce.

·         Jobs created through the contract – were these jobs for local people.  They tended to be filled by people from within the east Lancashire and the surrounding areas.

·         Retention of TUPE’d staff – out of 104 people TUPE’d to Liberata, 88 were still employed 2.5 years later.

 

Members thanked Mr Brotheridge for his presentation.

6.

Final Budget Outturn Report 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 111 KB

To consider a report on the final Budget Outturn Position 2017/18

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered a report on the 2017/18 budget outturn position. 

 

Members discussed the following:

 

·         The difficulties of forecasting income, which is dependent on a variety of factors.  Monthly monitoring involving Heads of Service is undertaken to provide an updated position.

 

IT WAS RESOLVED

 

That the report be noted.

7.

Treasury Management 2017/18 - review of activity pdf icon PDF 203 KB

To receive a report outlining the Council’s treasury management activity during 2017/18

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members received a report outlining the Council’s Treasury Management activity for 2017/18.

 

IT WAS RESOLVED

 

That the report be noted.

8.

Year End Performance Report 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 147 KB

To receive the Council’s performance results for 2017/18

Minutes:

Members considered a report on the 2017/18 Year End Performance data which highlighted performance of strategically significant, or strong or poor performance.

 

Members discussed the following:

 

·         80% of calls were answered within the target time – was there any data about how many calls were resolved successfully?  Also with the calls not answered within target time how much was this missed by?

·         There had been a reduction in visitor numbers at Towneley Hall since charges had been introduced.  Were there any other reasons for the fall in numbers, and had any consultation been carried out since the charges had been introduced?

·         It was pleasing to see the number of empty homes that had been brought back into use, but it was a long standing issue, and the number that remained empty would take a number of years to tackle.

 

IT WAS RESOLVED

 

That the report be noted.

9.

Scrutiny Review Groups

To receive an update on the work of any active Scrutiny Review Groups.

Minutes:

The Dementia Services Review group was still active, and a meeting to review progress would be scheduled over the summer period.

 

It was proposed that a meeting be held to measure progress against the recommendations in the Railway Review that had been completed some time ago.

 

A number of topics were identified to be researched and scoped as potential future reviews.

10.

Work Programme 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 65 KB

To consider any additions to the draft Work Plan for 2018/19

Minutes:

The draft work plan for 2018/19 was noted.