Agenda and minutes

To receive from Members, declarations of the existence of any disclosable pecuniary, or non-pecuniary, interests and the nature of those interests in relation to any agenda item. Please see Agenda Notes.

There were no declarations of interest.

To declare if any issues to be covered in the Agenda are under party whip.

There were no declarations of party whipping.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 4^th July 2022.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 4^th July were approved and signed as a correct record by the Chair.

To receive any questions from members of the public provided that a question does not relate to:

·       Matters which are the subject of current or pending legal proceedings or

·       Matters relating to employees or former employees of the Council or comments in respect of individual Council Officers.

To ask a question at this meeting, please submit it to democratic.services@gloucester.gov.uk by 12 noon on Wednesday 31^st August 2022 or telephone 01452 396203 for support.

There were no public questions.

To receive any petitions and deputations provided that no such petition or deputation is in relation to:

·       Matters which are the subject of current or pending legal proceedings or

·       Matters relating to employees or former employees of the Council or comments in respect of individual Council Officers.

To present a petition or deputation at this meeting, please submit it to democratic.services@gloucester.gov.uk by 12 noon on Wednesday 31^st August 2022 or telephone 01452 396203 for support.

There were no petitions or deputations.

To note the outcomes of action points arising from previous meetings.

28.1    In response to a query from Councillor Wilson as to when it was likely that the IDOX application would be restored, the Director of Policy and Resources confirmed that it was hoped that the application would be available towards the end of the week.

28.2    The Chair requested clarification as to how many of the City Council IT applications had been restored. The Director of Policy and Resources confirmed that the Xpress, Modern Gov and Civica Financial applications were live again, and that the Revenues and Benefits team were working to catch up on the Open Revenues backlog. He reiterated that the IT team were close to restoring IDOX and that document management would follow shortly after. He noted that officers had caught up with around 90% of the land charges backlog.

28.3    The Chair asked whether the distribution of Council Tax rebate payments was in hand, referring to the ongoing cost of living crisis. The Director of Policy and Resources confirmed that the payments to residents who paid their Council Tax via direct debit were distributed very quickly, and that an application process for non-direct debit holders had been undertaken with two seperate reminders issued to those residents. He explained that residents who had not already applied for the rebate would receive the relief through credit on their council tax bill.

28.4    In relation to the update relating to the notice of motion item, Councillor Pullen requested that an additional update be brought before the Overview and Scrutiny Committee later in the year to update Members on progress in creating a Covid Memorial in Gloucester. In particular, he requested that officers provide further details on the monument design, the partnership and how the monument will be funded across the relevant organisations, and the involvement of local people. It was agreed that follow-up enquiries would be made with officers to ascertain the timeline and that this item would be added to the agenda of a future Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting. A discussion ensued as to whether Members might wish to make a donation towards the memorial through their respective allowances or via online crowd funding.

28.5    Councillor Wilson requested that the full wording of notice of motions be provided in the agenda papers going forward.

          RESOLVED – That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee NOTE the updates.

To receive the latest version of the Committee’s work programme and the Council’s Forward Plan.

29.1    The Chair introduced the latest version of the Council Forward Plan and invited suggestions as to any items Members wished to add to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme. Councillor Hilton asked whether the Committee could consider the City Council Energy Costs and Reduction Projects Annual Report and it was agreed that this item be added to the agenda for Monday 3^rd October. The Chair wondered whether it would be possible to invite a representative from Gloucestershire County Council to this meeting to provide an update on the position of facilities such as libraries. It was agreed that enquiries would be made with Gloucestershire County Council officers to ascertain their availability.

29.2    A discussion ensued and it was agreed that the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme be amended to move the Task and Finish Group Report and Levelling Up Fund update to the agenda for the meeting on 31^st October 2022. Councillor Hilton suggested that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee may wish to consider the Parking Review and it was agreed that this item would also be added to the agenda for this meeting.

29.3    Councillor Sawyer asked whether the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could request the upcoming Climate Change Strategy and City Centre Commission reports. It was noted that these items had not yet been allocated a date on the Forward Plan and it was agreed that these items would be added to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme under ‘date to be confirmed’. The City Growth and Delivery Manager confirmed that the City Centre Commission were due to meet for final deliberations on 10^th October 2022.

          RESOLVED –

1)    That the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme be amended to reflect the above and

2)    To NOTE the Work Programme.

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources seeking to inform Members of the Council’s performance against key measures in Quarter 1 of 2022/23.

30.1    The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources introduced the report and explained that its purpose was to set out the council’s performance against a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) in the first quarter of 2022/23. She explained that the performance data was set out in Appendix 1, and where targets exist, they had been included along with narrative to explain the data. The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources further noted that as a result of the cyber incident experienced by the council in December 2021, Quarter 1 data for 5 of the 28 KPIs was not available due to some systems still being inaccessible. She informed Members that areas seeing an improvement included the percentage of customers satisfied with the service received from the council, the footfall at the Museum of Gloucester and TIC and the number of unique visitors to the Visit Gloucester website. Areas seeing a declining trend included the percentage of total waste recycled.

30.2    The Chair referred to KPI CCM-2 and asked whether the decreasing number of enviro-crime fixed penalty notices (FPNs) being issued was a positive or concerning trend. The Cabinet Member for Performance and Resources referred to the statement in the narrative confirming that the levels of FPNs issued have increased and exceeded the target. She therefore expressed her view that this was a positive trend. The Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Environment noted that he was aware of periods where there were lower numbers of officers in the team which could account for the reduction of FPNs being issued, however the number had now been restored and the number of FPNs may well rise in due course. He also confirmed that officers had been asked to pay particular attention to issues which often need more time to investigate, such as fly tipping. The Leader of the Council confirmed that he was happy with their performance, and he had personally seen an improvement in the city centre which he felt was testament to the hard work of the enviro-crime officers.

30.3    The Chair agreed that he had also seen a positive impact in his own ward where persistent fly tipping offenders had recently been prosecuted. He asked whether any consideration had been given to lowering the £24 bulky waste collection fee in light of difficulties some residents might experience with the increased cost of living. The Leader of the Council confirmed that the council had not increased the charges, however as this was a discretionary service rather than a statutory one, the council would continue to charge for this service as it had a responsibility to cover operating costs.

30.4    Councillor Wilson referred to H-25 and the narrative confirming that 22 affordable homes had been delivered during Quarter 1 with 199 affordable homes scheduled to be delivered in total during 2022/23. Noting that there were ongoing supply chain issues in the construction industry, he asked whether there was a realistic chance of delivering the rest of the promised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods updating Members on the work that Council Officers have undertaken regarding community safety and that of the Stronger Safer Gloucester Partnership.

31.1    The Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods introduced the report and paid tribute to the Communities Team for their hard work. He explained that there was statutory provision in place for the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) and the City Council regularly attended meetings of the Stronger Safer Gloucester Partnership (SSGP). It was noted that one Community Safety Officer was responsible for coordinating community safety work on behalf of the council, and worked in accordance with the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner’s priorities. The Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods informed Members that some of the previous work of the SSGP included work on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) which had been integrated into partnership work, the establishment of the Bluelight Group which provided outreach work with entrenched drinkers, and NightSafe and Street Aware projects.

31.2    The Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods explained that in 2021, the council had helped deliver a number of SSGP priorities, including an initiative to tackle health inequalities, promoting equality and diversity in Gloucester and had worked to increase awareness of support services specialising in domestic abuse and sexual violence (DASV). He advised that the council had also helped implement Safer Streets funding, working alongside Solace, and had undertaken reviews and renewals of Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) in Gloucester.

31.3    In terms of future work in 2022, the Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods confirmed that priorities included tackling violence against women and girls, safeguarding and making public spaces safer. He also confirmed that the SSGP had been awarded funding to employ a dedicated lead officer to look at tackling youth violence.

31.4    The Chair expressed the view that the report was comprehensive and an interesting read. He referred to the work undertaken by the council to tackle food poverty at 4.1.3 in the report and commented that this was an issue of pertinence due to cost of living challenges. He asked for the Cabinet Members’ comments as to whether any progress had been made in this area and whether ongoing work was planned to tackle food poverty in the city. The Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods confirmed that the programme was delivered over the summer holiday period and the Community Wellbeing Team Leader advised that the programme had been a success and would also be delivered during the Christmas school holidays. The Community Wellbeing Team Leader explained that a Community Wellbeing Officer was now leading on work to tackle food poverty and that the Communities team would backfill her routine work so that she could focus on this area. It was noted that the City Council would be progressing a food strategy towards the end of the year, and the Chair expressed an interest in requesting the strategy to come before the Overview and Scrutiny Committee when available.

31.5    Councillor Hilton referred to the Area Action Plan for Kingsholm and noted that he was pleased with the efforts of officers in tackling street drinking and that he had seen an improvement. He  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

To consider the report of the Leader of the Council seeking to apprise Members of the conclusions and recommendations of the Historic Places Panel (HPP) in the report received from Historic England presenting the conclusions and to advise them of the proposed action plan.

32.1    The Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Environment introduced the report, and informed Members that back in October 2021, the Historic Places Panel (HPP) visited Gloucester and had provided a copy of a report of its visit which summarised its findings, conclusions, and recommendations. He informed Members that the HPP had a broad spectrum of independent expertise within the built environment and heritage sectors across the UK. The Leader of the Council referred to the conclusion outlined at 3.4 and noted that the report was broadly favourable.

32.2    The City Growth and Delivery Manager referred to Appendix 1, which included the Recommendations of the HPP and the City Council’s response to acknowledge and address the recommendations. He provided an overview of each of the 18 recommendations and the proposed actions.

33.3    In response to a request from the Chair as to what was meant by ‘Design Coding’ in recommendation 18, the City Growth and Delivery Manager explained that design codes were similar to a miniature local plan. He further explained that such codes were created to design guided development and helped to identify key design issues.

33.4    Councillor Hilton expressed surprise that the City Council did not employ an in-house urban designer and noted that this was a matter which had also previously been raised during a Planning Policy Members Working Group meeting. He asked for clarification as to the estimated cost of employing a full-time urban designer. The City Growth and Delivery Manager confirmed that it was likely to be a Principal Officer grade post in the region of £60k per year.

33.5    Councillor Hilton noted that the City Council’s previous arrangement with Tewkesbury Borough Council costed around £15k a year and therefore noted that an in-house urban designer would bring an additional cost of £45k. He asked whether the City Council would benefit from this expertise and whether it was likely that an in-house urban designer would have a positive impact on the quality of developments in the city. The Leader of the Council acknowledged that the city could benefit from directly employing an urban designer and that it was worthwhile discussing the provision with the Planning Service. He noted that the Council would still have to find £45k to fund the role.

33.6    Councillor Melvin expressed the view that the City Council would very much benefit from having a dedicated in-house urban designer and raised concerns about some recent building developments in the city. It was her view that this role would be better off kept in-house and a local connection was important.

33.7    Councillor Tracey suggested that the council might want to consider undertaking a project to ascertain a breakdown of the population in the city. She suggested that this might identify pockets of the city where young people were living, which might help with looking at how to bring residents into the city centre. She expressed the view that Gloucester had much to offer as a city.

33.8    Councillor Sawyer referred to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

Monday 3^rd October 2022.

Monday 3^rd October 2022.