Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of Housing Scrutiny Committee held on 14 August 2017 be received.

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 Helena Mair declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Report by Councillor Neil Murray, Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy and Economic Regeneration'.

Reason: Her husband worked as a local architect and was involved in the Transport Hub/Central Market refurbishment. In the event that any discussion on these matters took place during the course of the meeting she would withdraw from the room at that stage.

She left the room during the discussion on the Transport Hub Project.

Councillor Helena Mair declared a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Bus Station Costs'.

Reason: Her husband worked as a local architect and was involved in the Transport Hub/Central Market refurbishment. In the event that any discussion on these matters took place during the course of the meeting she would withdraw from the room at that stage.

She left the room during the entire discussion of this item.

Pat Jukes, Business Manager, Corporate Policy:

a.    presented a portfolio performance overview of Planning Policy and Economic Regeneration covering the following main areas:

·         Measures from the Local Authority dashboard.

·         A deeper contextual look at relevant growth measures and information from the Lincoln City Profile.

·         Performance measures covered in the basket of key strategic measures.

·         Benchmarking information from LGInform.

b.    advised that this approach was being used with the purpose of bringing out key contextual indicators about issues in the city overall related to the portfolio holder under scrutiny.

The Chair highlighted that the report contained a great deal of information for members to be able to judge how the city was performing.

RESOLVED that the content of the portfolio performance overview of Planning Policy and Economic Regeneration be noted.

(Councillor Mair left the room during the discussion of this item in relation to the Transport Hub Project, having declared a disclosable pecuniary interest in the matter to be debated.)

The Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy and Economic Regeneration, Councillor Murray:

1. presented his report regarding activity and achievements within his portfolio, covering the following main areas:

2. thanked officers for their assistance with his portfolio.

Members made comments to the Portfolio Holder for Planning Policy and Economic Regeneration on various aspects of his report in relation to:

·         Why was it better to delay the opening of the new bus station and to focus on the opening of the new car park? This was a busy time of year with the Christmas Market and Christmas shopping period coming up.

: There were operational reasons why it was better to delay the opening of the bus station in favour of the car park first. At the busiest time of the year for the city starting with the Christmas Market it allowed more time to ease people into the use of the new bus station.

: The temporary bus station had its difficulties when it first opened. Its replacement would offer a much better visitor experience for members of the public.

·         The need to provide publicity on the City of Lincoln Council within the confines of the new bus station to promote Vision 2020, to encourage members of the public to register to vote etc.

: New advertising screens would be on display within the new bus station offering saleable publicity space to local businesses as well as information on key council activities. The entrance to the bus station would be staffed as an information desk. A tour of the new bus station would be arranged for members prior to its launch.

·         What would be the width of each parking space within the new car park?

: The width of each car parking bay at 2.5 metres was larger than normal and fast becoming our new standard.

Councillor Murray, Portfolio Holder, thanked city council car parking staff for their support and patience during the construction work at the Transport Hub project.

·         Members expressed surprise regarding further delays in progressing the Western Growth Corridor Scheme following the recent consultation period.

: There was no surprise. The Highways Authority as statutory consultee had requested further testing of different models to fit in with their own transport structure. This piece of work was necessary in order to progress the scheme to planning application stage. The County Council as a statutory consultee and a major bidder for funding was perfectly within its rights to ask for further information at any time which could only be answered by people technically qualified to do so.

: The Strategic Director for Major Developments would send a letter  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Angela Andrews, Chief Executive and Town Clerk:

a.    tabled the document ‘Vision 2020-Aspirations to Reduce Inequality’

b.    provided Performance Scrutiny Committee with an update on progress towards the ‘Reduce Inequality’ strategic priority contained in Vision 2020, covering both those projects being progressed in year one, alongside the ‘day to day’ service activities that happened across the council that were vital to the delivery of this priority

c.    described the background to Vision 2020 published in January 2017 containing four strategic priorities (Reduce Inequality; Economic Growth; Quality Housing; and Remarkable Place), which involved the establishment of four Vision Groups to manage and monitor Vision 2020 along with an important strand of work focusing on High Performing Services as detailed at paragraph 3 of the report

d.    referred to the project statement attached at Appendix A to her report which captured the day-to-day work by the council integral to delivering this strategic and the Project Monitoring Table attached at Appendix B which provided an overview of the year one projects for this strategic priority

e.    highlighted a set of emerging performance indicators to monitor the outcomes of these projects once completed, as detailed at Appendix C, emphasising that as more projects came to an end more performance data would be added to the table to ensure the full range of indicators could be considered by Performance Scrutiny Committee in future progress reports

f.     requested members’ consideration on the content of the report.

Members raised the following questions:

·         What could the Council do to assist those benefit claimants moving over to Universal Credit who were having to wait six weeks for their first payment?

·         : This was a central government policy. Support mechanisms were in place working with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) including training facilities. However, this was not an easy task as payments were made in arrears.

·         Would the council be chasing tenants who couldn’t pay rent due to this situation?

·         : Policy decisions although not yet taken would be discussed to alleviate problems for tenants in difficulty. There was capacity within the DWP to make payments directly to the landlord in cases involving vulnerable tenants. It could not be underestimated how challenging the transition to Universal Credit would be and the additional resources required to assist this transition.

The Chair highlighted the huge impact Universal Credit would have on the Council, noting that it would be interesting to see how council income was affected.

The Chief Executive and Town Clerk agreed that overpayments carried forward would be affected by Universal Credit as tenants would be struggling financially. She highlighted that the City of Lincoln Council was well prepared for these challenges compared to other districts.

Members praised the City of Lincoln Council’s lead in securing funding to tackle rough sleepers and gave thanks to the Welfare Team for all their hard work

Members asked what had been the take up on Sheffield Money before the scheme fell through?

The Chief Executive and Town Clerk  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

Ali Hewson, Democratic Services Officer:

a.    presented the Scrutiny Annual Report for 2016/17 for comments, prior to being referred to Full Council for approval

b.    advised that the Scrutiny Annual Report as detailed at Appendix 1 of her report summarised the work of the scrutiny committees for the full year and highlighted the key achievements made under scrutiny in 2016/17

c.    reported that once the Annual Report has been approved, it would be published on the Council’s website and circulated to interested persons or groups as appropriate.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Annual Report for 2016/17, subject to a minor typographical amendment be referred to Full Council for approval.

Pat Jukes, Business Manager, Corporate Policy:

a.    presented the Lincoln City Profile (2016/2017), the updated version of the previous year’s profile, which encompassed a breadth of factual information, and focused on key demographic, socioeconomic characteristics and challenges to Lincoln

b.    reported that the Lincoln City Profile acted as the evidence base behind the continued development and implementation of City of Lincoln Council’s Vision 2020 strategic priorities and provided information to help the council to target resources where they were needed most, including work with or influencing partners to take further action on areas not directly within our remit

c.    highlighted a number of key opportunities for the city as detailed at paragraphs 3.1 – 3.9 of the report

d.    reported on a number of key challenges as detailed at paragraphs 3.10 – 3.14 of the report

e.    referred to Appendix A of her report which contained full details of the Lincoln City Profile 2016/2017, in the form of a collection of themed factsheets.

Members highlighted a lack of reference within the report to mini/micro businesses.

Pat Jukes, Business Manager, Corporate Policy agreed to incorporate figures on micro and mini businesses into the next report.

Members queried whether the data provided was based on the old ward boundaries?

Pat Jukes, Business Manager, Corporate Policy advised that the current data from 2016 was only available in the old ward boundary format and once produced in the new ward format this would be reflected within the figures accordingly.

RESOLVED that the contents of the report be noted for information.

The Democratic Services Officer:

1. presented the draft work programme for 2017/18 as detailed at Appendix A to her report

2. advised that the work programme for Performance Scrutiny Committee was put forward annually for approval by Council; then regularly updated throughout the year in consultation with Performance Scrutiny Committee and its chair

3. reported that items had been scheduled in accordance with the existing work programme and officers’ guidance regarding the meetings at which the most up-to-date information could be reported to the committee; the work programme also included the list of Portfolio Holders under scrutiny

4. requested any relevant comments or changes to the proposed work programme for 2017/18.

RESOLVED that the work programme 2017/18 as detailed at Appendix A to the report be noted, subject to the following revision:

·         The Homelessness review be deferred to the meeting to be held on 25 January 2018.

RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item(s) of business because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be a disclosure to them of ‘exempt information’ as defined by Section 100I and Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972

(Councillor Mair left the room for the remainder of the meeting, having declared a disclosable pecuniary interest in the matter to be discussed.)

Steve Bird, Assistant Director, Communities and Street Scene:

1. presented information on the operating parameters and operating budgets for both the Lincoln Central Bus Station and the Lincoln Central Market Multi Storey Car Park

2. outlined the background and operating plans in relation to the proposed project model as detailed within the officer’s report

3. invited comments from members of Performance Scrutiny Committee.

Members considered, discussed, and commented upon the contents of the report.

RESOLVED that the content of the report be noted.