Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 8 and 22 August 2017 be confirmed.

Please note that, in accordance with the Members' Code of Conduct, when declaring interests members must disclose the existence and nature of the interest, and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) or personal and/or pecuniary.

Councillor P Vaughan declared a Personal Interest in the item entitled “Localised Council Tax Support Scheme” as his daughter worked in the Council Tax department.

 Pat Jukes, Business Manager Policy Unit

a.    presented the Lincoln City Profile 2016/17 and advised that it encompassed a breadth of information, and focussed on key demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of, and challenges to, Lincoln.

b.    advised that the report acted as an evidence base behind continued development and implementation of City of Lincoln Council’s 2020 Strategic Priorities.

c.    referred to appendix A of the report and highlighted the key opportunities and challenges drawn from the data provided.

d.    invited members questions and comments.

Members questioned how the introduction of Universal Credit had impacted on the data.

Martin Walmsley, Head of Shared Revenues and Benefits advised that there was not enough data available yet as a small number of people had moved over to Universal Credit.

Pat Jukes, Business Manager Policy Unit further added that the Lincoln City Profile was a working document and it would continue to be updated.

Members further asked if more data could be included on the small businesses in the City.

Pat Jukes, Business Manager Policy Unit responded that the team were looking at some data regarding small, medium and large businesses and future  documents would be updated to include the information.

RESOLVED that the contents of the report be noted.

Heather Carmichael, Client Procurement Officer,

a.    presented the Authorities own internal Procurement Policies following an internal review of the current provision.

b.    advised that following the decision to withdraw from Procurement Lincolnshire Shared Service there was a need to ensure that the Council had in place a robust procurement service.

c.    advised that the policies would ensure that the service operated at a strategic level focussing on those activities that would deliver efficiencies and improve the way that services were delivered. They also aimed to assist and support external bodies contracting and/or wishing to contract with the Council.

d.    advised that 4 policies had been produced in addition to the operation policy document, Contract Procedure Rules which detailed the processes Officers were required to follow.

e.    referred to paragraph 4 of the report and summarised the four policies:

·         Procurement Protocol

·         Delivering Social Value through Procurement

·         How to do Business with City of Lincoln Council

·         Local Purchasing Strategy

f.     highlighted the role that social value could play in enabling sustainable development through the Councils procurement activity.

g.    invited members questions and comments.

Question – What examples could you give of social value?

Response –  Contractors had delivered social value through their current contract by completing works at St Botolphs Court and Shuttleworth House.

Question – Have you made the companies aware of these policies?

Response – There would be meetings held with Chamber of Commerce and Lincoln BIG to promote the policies, also some 1 to 1 sessions would be held with companies where there may be the possibility to sell them some training. Also the policies would be published to the website.

Comment – The quality and performance of a contractor should be more important than the social value aspect in the tender process.

Response – Social value was one element of the tender process and there was a lot of other criteria that the companies would have to fulfil including price and quality.

The Chair requested that a review of the policies be brought back to committee in 1 years’ time.

Heather Carmichael, Client Procurement Officer responded that the data on social value would be included in the review.

RESOLVED that the policies be supported and be referred to Executive for approval.

Martin Walmsley, Head of Shared Revenues and Benefits

a.    presented the proposed scheme for Local Council Tax Support for the financial year 2018/19 as part of the formal consultation period.

b.    gave the background to the scheme as detailed at paragraph 2 of the report and advised that the Council must consider whether to revise or replace its Council Tax Support Scheme each financial year.

c.    referred to paragraph 4.2 of the report and advised that the current cost of the scheme was £7,650,549 this was an increase of £179,539 of which the Council’s share was £28,725.

d.    detailed the options that had been modelled at Appendix 1 of the report and advised that it gave an indication of the potential savings to the Council and the major preceptors

e.    advised that on 25 September 2017 the Executive made the decision to consult on all of the scenarios modelled as detailed in paragraph 4.6 of the report.

f.     advised on the ongoing consultation and updated that 257 online responses and 2 hard copy responses had been received to date.

g.    asked for committee’s consideration and comments on the options as part of the formal consultation process.

Question – Referred to option 3 and 4 and asked if the restriction of Young Persons Allowance to 2 dependants would affect families that were already in receipt of the benefit?

Response – Yes it would.

Comment – Do not agree with taking benefit away from children.

Comment – Referred to options 5 and 6 and commented that they would cost more to the Council in the longer term as arrears would build up and some would have to be written off.

Comment – Option 5 would be the fairest as it affected less individuals.

Comment – Not everyone had a computer to submit an online consultation response.

Response –Anyone who wished to submit a hard copy consultation could contact the office and would be sent a form.

Following the discussion members expressed their individual preferred option as follows:

Councillor Vaughan – Option 2

Councillor Maxwell – Option 5

Councillor Toofany – Option 2

Councillor Loffhagen – Option 2

Councillor Weaver – Option 3

Councillor Hills – Option 5

Councillor J Kirk – Option 1

RESOLVED that the above comments be submitted as part of the formal consultation process on the proposed Council Tax Support Scheme for 2018/19.

Toby Forbes Turner, Principal Planning Officer:

a.    presented a report to advise Policy Scrutiny Committee on the current programme in respect of progressing Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) adoption by the Authority as detailed at paragraph 1.1 of the officer’s report.

b.    highlighted that following the CIL Examiner’s report (detailed at Appendix 1), which concluded that subject to recommended modifications ‘The City of Lincoln Council draft Community Infrastructure Levy Charging Schedule provides an appropriate basis for the collection of the levy in the area’, and subject to member approval, the City Council was in a position to adopt a CIL Charging Schedule.

c.    detailed the five modifications recommended to the Draft Charging Schedule as detailed within paragraph 3 of the report.

d.    identified the time line to implementation of CIL subject to Council approval as detailed at paragraph 4 of the officer’s report.

e.    requested members comments on the content of the report prior to referral to Executive and Council for final approval.

Question – Would the CIL charge be applicable to buildings that have been started but not completed?

Response – For exact clarity the relevant date is the date of the issuing of the planning permission notice. If developers had secured permission prior to CIL implementation date and already started building when the CIL was implemented then the charge would not apply.

Question – How would the City Council use the 15% of CIL receipts?

Response – Members would need to decide how the funds would be distributed, there were several models that could be used.

RESOLVED that the contents of the report be noted and referred to Executive and Council for approval.

Claire Turner, Democratic Services Officer, presented the Scrutiny Annual report 2016/17 for comment prior to referral to Council for approval.

Members considered the contents of the report.

RESOLVED that the report be noted and referred to Council for approval.

The Democratic Services Officer:

a.    presented the report ‘Policy Scrutiny Work Programme 2017-18 and Executive Work Programme Update’.

b.    presented the Executive Work Programme October 2017 – October 2018.

c.    requested councillors to submit what items they wished to scrutinise from the Executive Work Programme and policies of interest.

d.    invited members questions and comments.

Members made no further comments or suggestions regarding the Policy Scrutiny work programme.

RESOLVED that:

1.    the Policy Scrutiny work programme be noted.

2.    the Executive work programme be noted.

The Chair of Policy Scrutiny Committee updated members of the business that had been discussed at the Health Scrutiny meeting held on 13 September 2017 these were:

·         Grantham Hospital Accident and Emergency Department/ Outcome of Referral to the Secretary of State for Health

·         Emergency Ambulance Commissioning

·         East Midlands Ambulance Service: Outcomes of Care

RESOLVED that the report be noted.