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Agenda and minutes

Scrutiny Streets & Environment Sub-Committee - Tuesday, 2nd February, 2021 6.30 pm

Venue: This meeting was held remotely via Microsoft Teams

Contact: Stephanie Davis
020 8726 6000 x84384  Email: stephanie.davis@croydon.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1/21

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 212 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 29 September 2020 as an accurate record.

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee agreed to defer consideration of the minutes till the next meeting.

2/21

Disclosure of Interests

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.

Minutes:

There were none.

3/21

Urgent Business (if any)

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.

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business.

4/21

Staff Changes, Service Impact and Response to Budget Reductions pdf icon PDF 2 MB

To receive an overview of the staff changes, service impact and response to the budget reductions proposed under the Croydon Renewal Plan.

(Report to follow)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

4/21        

 

Staff Changes, Service Impact and Response to Budget Reductions

 

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member Introduced the item by highlighting the strategic context that the meeting would follow. The report in the public interest was published on 23 October 2020 which set out the seriousness of the Council’s financial situation as well as its governance. Following recommendations made, work began to address emerging concerns with the commissioning of Price Waterhouse Coopers to undertake a strategic review of the Council’s companies. There had also been significant work undertaken to submit a request for exceptional financial support from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government through a capitalisation v. All of the work had been undertaken under the umbrella of the Croydon Renewal Plan which includes an Improvement Plan by which the authority would be held to account. This session would detail service delivery, budget, current savings and impact on those savings

 

The Chair outlined briefly the scope of the meeting and it was determined that each section of the service would be presented in turn with questions taken immediately after.

 

Each officer outlined details of each section of the report in a Presentation

 

Strategic Approach and Options

 

Clarification was sought on what statutory and non-statutory services were as referenced in the presentation. Officers said that statutory services included building control, planning, environmental heath, including others, all of which must be provided. Non statutory services were some of the activities around economic growth. Extensive work was carried out to explore how the statutory services could be delivered with a reduced budget.

 

It was asked how the department intended to monitor and gather data to inform the improvement journey. Officers said that they would rely on the new corporate monitoring framework’s corporate tracker. There will be an opportunity to shape the tracker, including what information was needed, interaction with processes and performance as well as information needed for managers to take action.

 

A question was raised on what the wider departmental approach was to ensure values and outcomes were realised despite budget restrictions and strategic priorities and whether there would be a need to pursue eternal funding. Officers said that there were no plans in the proposals that reduced resources and policies around areas such as waste transport and the built environment that directly dealt with tackling the climate challenge. The next steps would be based on recommendations from the climate crisis, which a report would be presented before Cabinet and would detail the next steps on smarter working as well as any financial implications and opportunities to apply for additional funding.

 

It was asked what was being done around prioritisation of the climate crisis which had been considered a priority of the administration.

Officers said that the proposals did not in any way include a requirement for reduction in resources in the area of climate change and that a lot of the activities in the department contributed in the expected way to climate change. There was already a lot of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4/21

5/21

Exclusion of the Press and Public

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.”

Minutes:

This was not required.