Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2022 be confirmed.

Councillor Pat Vaughan declared a Personal Interest with regard to the agenda item titled 'Portfolio Holder under Scrutiny - Our People and Resources'.

Reason: His Granddaughter worked in the Finance department at the City of Lincoln Council.

RESOLVED that the minutes from the 24 January and 10 March 2022 be confirmed.

RESOLVED that the order of business be changed to allow the report entitled 'Central Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Planning Committee/Local Plan Annual Report 2021/22' to be considered prior to the report by the Portfolio Holder for Our People and Resources by Councillor Ric Metcalfe.

Toby Forbes-Turner, Planning Policy Manager:

a)    explained that the Joint Planning Committee reached its twelfth course of 2020/21 and had been framed by the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic and high rates of inflation more recently, but from the Local Plan perspective it had seen significant progress made on the plan

b)    highlighted that substantial progress had been made with the development of the plan which had included the Local Plan and all supporting documents being prepared for submission to the Planning Inspectorate in readiness for the examination in public which was expected in November 2022

c)     stated that the Local Plan (adopted in April 2017) sets out the planning policies for Central Lincolnshire (including the City) and this involved allocating parcels of land for development as well as identifying land which should be protected from development

d)    provided a breakdown of the AGM meetings which took place and considered the following:

-        21^st June – the Local Plans Team Annual Report, the Local Plan Budget and Update and the Local Plan Draft for Consultation.

-        18^th October 2021 – the Regulation 18 Consultation Update

-        10^th January 2022 – Update on Local Plan Progress

-        28^th February 2022 - Proposed submission Local Plan

e)    highlighted that in the coming year, it was anticipated that the local plan would enter the final stages before it was hopefully adopted. This would include:

-        Submitting the Local Plan to the Secretary of State

-        Examination in Public;

-        Potentially consulting on Main Modifications to the plan;

-        Adopting the plan (hopefully in April 2023).

f)      invited members questions and comments

RESOLVED that the report be noted by members as a fair summary of activity of the CLJSPC 2021/22.

Councillor Richard Metcalfe, Portfolio Holder for Our People and Resources and Leader of the Council, presented a report to Performance Scrutiny Committee outlining how the Council were taking steps to recovery following the pandemic. He explained that:

a)    throughout the past year Council staff had spent a large amount of time working from home. This approach had ensured our staff had been kept safe and helped ensure service continuity.

b)    A wide range of training and support measures had been implemented as identified at 3.9 of the report

c)    outlined the key achievements in 2020/21 in the following areas:

·         Financial Sustainability

·         Revenues Shared Service

·         Procurement

·         Property Services

·         Emergency Planning

·         Business Continuity

·         Risk Management

·         Brexit

·         Corporate Health and Safety

·         Human Resources

·         Work Based Learning – Apprenticeships

·         Craft apprenticeship scheme

·         Corporate Communications and media relations

·         Civic and International Partnerships

·         Legal Services

d)    highlighted that whilst delivery had been challenging, the following key projects had been completed in the past 12 months:

·         The Boultham Park and Boultham Park Lake restoration projects

·         Development of a new extra facility at De Wint Court

·         A range of refurbishment work to Lincoln’s Crematorium

·         Approved plans for the development of the Western Growth Corridor in the west of the city

·         Progress in the Sincil Bank/Cornhill area

·         Commenced work on the renovation and repurposing of Lincoln Central Market

·         Raising awareness of the Lincoln Community Lottery as a fund-raising tool

·         Successful sign up of over 100 local organisations to the Lincoln Social Responsibility Charter

·         Second year celebrations of the Heritage Action Zones programme

·         The development of a residential scheme on land off Rookery Lane.

e)    invited members’ comments and questions.

Members asked questions in relation to the report and relevant answers were given. In summary:

·         The balance of staff working in City Hall and at home depended on the nature of the job and what the service required, there wasn’t a one size fits all approach.

·         Work was underway regarding the Local Government Pay Award on how it would be rolled out and how it would affect the Council’s finances going forward.

·         There had been a positive response from the recent staff satisfaction survey that had been sent out to all staff to gauge levels of motivation from staff since the shift in the new ways of working.

·         Staff shortages remained an issue and officers were working hard to ensure that current staff were kept on and the direct impact of this was consistently being managed.

·         The MTFS had allocated £65,000 to the Christmas Market to allow extra support should they incur any additional charges with new contracts.

·         Officers had already seen a positive number of stallholders for this years Christmas Market. The cost to stallholders hadn’t changed significantly and it was on track to becoming another fully occupied event.

·         Staff were working hard to ensure that people who weren’t computer literate were still able to access services easily but there was still a lot of work to do to achieve this.

·         There was a long term aspiration to develop  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

Jess Cullen, Democratic Services Officer:

a)    presented the draft work programme for 2022/23 as detailed at Appendix A of her report

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

c)     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

d)    requested any relevant comments or changes to the proposed work programme for 2022/23.

RESOLVED that the work programme 2022/23 be noted.