Agenda and minutes

Venue: Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BQ. View directions

Contact: Andrew Charlwood 020 8359 2014 Email: andrew.charlwood@barnet.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on the 24 February 2013 and 7 March 2013 be approved as a correct record.

 

2.

Absence of Members

Minutes:

Apologies for absence had been received from:

·         Councillor Scannell; and

·         Councillor Harper (who was substituted for by Councillor Strongolou)

 

3.

Declaration of Members' Interests

a)      Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Non Pecuniary Interests

b)      Whipping Arrangements (in accordance with Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 17)

Minutes:

Member

Subject

Interest declared

Councillor Ross Houston

Agenda Item 6 (Development and Regulatory Services)

Non-pecuniary interest as a Council appointed representative on the Board of The Barnet Group Ltd

Councillor John Marshall

Agenda Item 6 (Development and Regulatory Services)

Non-pecuniary interest as a Council appointed representative on the Board of The Barnet Group Ltd

 

4.

Public Question Time pdf icon PDF 125 KB

Minutes:

Details of the questions asked of, and the answers given by the Chairman, were circulated at the meeting, made available to the public questioners in advance of the meeting and published online with the agenda papers for the meeting.  Verbal responses were given to supplementary questions asked at the meeting.

 

Officers undertook to provide written responses to the following supplementary questions asked at the meeting:

 

Supplementary to question 46 from Mr Ron Cohen

With reference to statement that “For dividend payments the amount of dividends differs for different classes of sales”, can you please provide more details on classes and the difference for each class?

 

Supplementary to question 7 from Mr John Dix – surely the pre-purchasing of graves should be counted as an accrual and not a revenue stream otherwise the Council could find itself in the situation of having to service graves after contract has finished.

 

5.

Members' Items (submitted in accordance with Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 9) (If any)

Minutes:

None.

 

During consideration of the item below, Councillor Strongolou entered the meeting at 7.40pm.

6.

Development and Regulatory Services: Recommendation for Preferred and Reserved Bidder and Full Business Case pdf icon PDF 110 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received public comments from Mr Julian Silverman, Mr John Dix and Mr Daniel Hope. 

 

The Director for Place, Pam Wharfe, and the Commercial Director, Craig Cooper, delivered a presentation which: outlined the national context; provided detail on the Development and Regulatory Services (DRS) project (including financial benefits, service benefits and standards, service improvement proposals and staff impacts); detailed commercial aspects (including contractual arrangements and the joint venture); and informed the Committee of the decision making timeline.  Copies of the presentation were circulated at the meeting and were made available with the agenda papers for the meeting on the council’s website.

 

A Member questioned what action would be taken to mitigate against residents with protected characteristics being able to access web based services.  The Leader of the Council advised the Committee that a comprehensive Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) had been completed to support the proposed decision.  The Member expressed concern that there was no evidence in the EIA to specify what mitigating steps would be taken during the lifetime of the contract. Officers informed the Committee that there were service commitments to equalities in the contract, adding that move towards more web based services would free up resources for providing the DRS face to face service which was a contractual commitment.

 

The Committee questioned whether the proposals would impact users of the Hendon Cemetery and Crematorium services.  Officers reported that transferring this service to the joint venture would lead to investment in facilities and overall service improvements as the contractor had committed to achieving the gold standard for cemeteries, an improvement from the current bronze standard.

 

The Committee noted that Scheduled 37 of the proposed contract enabled the Council to veto certain schemes proposed by Capita Symonds.  Officers clarified that even though elected Members would have the ability to veto schemes which potentially generated profits for the joint venture, Capita Symonds had provided a guaranteed level of profit per annum.

 

Members highlighted that a number of statutory services were included in the DRS service bundle and questioned how the joint venture would respond to legislative changes which required a reconfiguration of services and what the cost implications would be.  Officers reported that for services in scope, the joint venture would provide these.  Any contractual changes would be subject to a best value review and the Council would have the ability review and challenge any proposed contractual variations arising as a result of new legislation.

 

A Member noted that the borough was expected to experience demographic increases and changes in local economic circumstances over the lifetime of the contract and questioned how tightly the council were bound by volumes of service.  Officers advised that the sensitivity analysis (page 41, Appendix 1) highlighted that there would not be a change in price until there was a 10% increase or decrease in service levels.  It was emphasised that the price changes would only impact on the sub-set of services detailed in the sensitivity analysis and that if prices were increased, that would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Budget and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee Forward Work Programme pdf icon PDF 93 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee noted the Forward Work Programme.

 

8.

Any Other Items the Chairman Decides are Urgent

Minutes:

None.

 

9.

Motion to Exclude the Press and Public

Minutes:

RESOLVED that under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 9 of part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended).

 

10.

Development and Regulatory Services: Recommendation for Preferred and Reserved Bidder and Full Business Case

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the exempt information that relates to the item for consideration at the meeting in public session be noted.

 

11.

Any Other Exempt Items the Chairman Decides are Urgent

Minutes:

None.