Agenda and minutes

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct and the statutory provisions of the Localism Act, Members and co-opted Members of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to register disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and gifts and hospitality to the value of which exceeds £50 or multiple gifts and/or instances of hospitality with a cumulative value of £50 or more when received from a single donor within a rolling twelve month period. In addition, Members and co-opted Members are reminded that unless their disclosable pecuniary interest is registered on the register of interests or is the subject of a pending notification to the Monitoring Officer, they are required to disclose those disclosable pecuniary interests at the meeting. This should be done by completing the Disclosure of Interest form and handing it to the Democratic Services representative at the start of the meeting. The Chair will then invite Members to make their disclosure orally at the commencement of Agenda item 3. Completed disclosure forms will be provided to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion on the Register of Members’ Interests.

There were no disclosures of interest made at the meeting.

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no items of urgent business.

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee is asked to confirm whether or not it wishes to refer the key decision 6520SC on the Crystal Palace and South Norwood Low Traffic Neighbourhood to the Cabinet for reconsideration, based on the concerns agreed at the Committee meeting held on 23 March 2021.

The Chair of the Committee explained that the meeting had been arranged to reconvene to confirm the decision made by the Committee on the call-in request on the Crystal Palace and South Norwood Low Traffic Neighbourhood key decision. At the meeting on the 23 March, the Committee decided it would refer the decision back to the decision maker, which in this instance was the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Croydon. However, the Council’s Constitution does not permit this outcome from the consideration of a call-in. The Constitution provides three options for the Committee, which are:-

1.    That no further action is necessary and the decision can be implemented as originally intended.

2.    To refer the decision to the Cabinet for reconsideration, outlining the nature of the Committee’s concerns.

3.    To refer the decision to Council, if it is considered that it was not in keeping with the budget and policy framework.

As the Committee had previously concluded at its meeting on 23 March that the decision taken by the Cabinet Member was within the budget and policy framework, the option of referring the decision to Council was discounted.

The Chair asked the Committee to confirm whether it wanted to refer the decision to the Cabinet for reconsideration. The Committee agreed that it would refer the decision to the Cabinet based on the grounds outlined in paragraph 2.5 of the Committee report, which had been previously agreed at the meeting on 23 March. It was agreed that no further considerations would be added.

RESOLVED: The Committee agreed to refer the decision to the Cabinet for reconsideration based on the following concerns:-

1.  The Committee was concerned that the lack of clarification on the baseline data sources to be used for the experiment would make it difficult to quantifiably demonstrate the potential benefits arising from the experiment to the local community.  As such that further work was needed to identify and refine the quantifiable data sources that would be used for the project. Additionally, in order to build public trust, confirmation of these data sources had to be made publicly available, prior to the start of the experiment in South Norwood & Crystal Palace.

2.  The Committee was concerned that it would be difficult for the public to have confidence in the benefits arising from the experiment without clearly defined success criteria. As such urgent work was needed to define a framework by which the success of the scheme would be assessed. This needed to be completed and made publicly available prior to the start of the experiment in South Norwood & Crystal Palace.

3.  The Committee was concerned about the potential impact the experiment may have upon the roads surrounding the LTN, particularly in regards to air quality. As such any monitoring installed as part of the experimental scheme needed to include the wider area.  Additionally, given the potential negative impact on the air quality in the surrounding roads, mitigation needed to be identified as a matter of urgency, should there be a significant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35/21

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

“That, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

This motion was not required.