Agenda and minutes

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 16^th September 2020 (attached) and published on the Council’s Website.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 16^th September 2020 were confirmed as a correct record and signed.

To receive apologies for absence and note any substitutions.

There were no apologies for absence received for this meeting.

To receive from Members declarations of interests in relation to any items included on the agenda for this meeting, in accordance with Waverley’s Code of Local Government Conduct.

There were no declarations of interests in connection with items on the agenda.

The Chairman to respond to any written questions received from members of the public in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.

The deadline for receipt of written questions is 5pm on Monday 9^th November 2020.

There were no questions from members of the public.

The Chairman to respond to any questions received from Members in accordance with Procedure Rule 11.

The deadline for receipt of written questions is 5pm on Monday 9^th November 2020.

There were no questions from members.

The Community and Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee is responsible for managing its work programme.

A Scrutiny Tracker has been produced to assist the Committee in monitoring the recommendations that have been agreed at its meetings. The Tracker details the latest position on the implementation of these recommendations and is attached as Part C of the work programme.

Louise Norie outlined the current work programme and asked the committee to suggest any further items they wished to be considered for scrutiny.

Areas suggested:

·         Housing Repairs – from a wellbeing aspect. It was suggested this was best placed discussed at Housing O&S with input from this committee.

·         Mental Health – issues due to pandemic. Will be discussed as part of Corporate Strategy item on agenda.

·         Future of Farnham Museum Collection – to be discussed later in agenda.

To scrutinise the outcomes and priorities of the Safer Waverley Partnership.

Helen Milton, Chair of the Safer Waverley Partnership, attended the meeting along with Superintendent Tom Budd and Inspector Sam Adcock and other members of the partnership.

Helen gave an overview of the Partnership and the areas of work they were currently focussing on. She explained that   the partnership was well represented by a number of statutory partners.

The committee were advised the Partnership currently had three over-arching priorities highlighted in the action plan along with a number of sub priorities under them.

Superintendent Tom Budd then gave the committee an overview of the partnership mechanisms used to discuss and action these priorities such as the Joint Action Group (JAG), CHaRMM (Community Harm and Risk Management Meeting) and SOC (Serious Organised Crime) Group.

The committee then commented upon the reports presented and any issues they wished to raise.

·         The Committee felt there was not enough communication with the town and parish councils and councillors about issues within their area.  There was not enough engagement, police presence or attendance at town and parish meetings. It was felt it was important to have liaison with ward members who have specific knowledge about their areas.

o   The committee were advised that a communications protocol was being developed to address this issue.

o   Superintendent Budd explained that it was a key priority to improve communication channels.

o   Inspector Adcock advised that the number of officers for Waverley had increase from 2 to four so there was now one officer per area. The team would be relaunching their video to introduce the team.

·         Rural Crime – Concern was raised regarding the way rural crime was being categorised and the understanding officers have of what rural crime is.

o   Superintendent Budd agreed that this had been an area of concern and needs to be improved, This issue was now being reviewed and PCSO Boxall had been allocated as the designated rural crime officer.

·         Scams and Cyber Crime -  the committee raised concern that the action plan did not mention financial fraud.

o   Helen Milton explained that Trading Standards were looking at these issues so she would ensure this was raised at the next partnership meeting as an item for discussion.

o   Insp Sam Adcock advised that there were a number of leaflets available at the police offices in The Burys that councillors could hand out to residents if they wished. 

·         JET (Joint Enforcement Team) – It was raised that there had not been an update received from this group for about two years.

o   Andrew Smith advised that he believed they were now called Joint Enforcement Initiative and he would raise this with Annie Righton, Strategic Director.

·         Cllr Deanus, Chairman of the Community Wellbeing O&S, asked if the Mental Health Team were attending the CHaRMM regularly as it had been reported last year that they were not.

o   Andrew Smith advised that as Chair of CHaRMM he could confirm they were.

·         The committee felt the Partnership Action Plan was lacking in SMART measures and needed to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To update the Committee on the leisure centre investments with particular focus on Cranleigh (if required).

Kelvin Mills, Head of Commercial Services, gave an update on the current position with the investment in the leisure centres.  He explained that with the current financial position due to Covid the plans were on hold. With the current lockdown the leisure centres were currently closed but had managed to open between July and October and had operated ahead of forecast.  It was therefore hoped that once lockdown was released and the centres can re-open the financial situation would improve.

The committee welcomed the update and commended the leisure centre staff for their hard work in implementing the Covid measures to allow the centres to re-open.  It was  emphasised that the centres were a lifeline to many for their wellbeing and mental health.

To receive an update on the current plans for Farnham Museum.

Charlotte Hill, Community Development Officer (Arts), outlined the current position regarding the future of the Farnham Museum and Wilmer House.

At the last meeting the committee had supported the recommendations to repairing Wilmer House.  Since then the team had looked at the councils financial position, the capital budget and any potential external funding.  In order to make a considered judgement the committee were asked to consider options to look at the building and the collection as two separate entities.

Charlotte advised that Montague Evans, external consultants, had been procured to carry out an options appraisal which should be completed early 2021.

It was suggested that Charlotte Hall come back to the committee in January 2021 with a scoping report , which will establish the range of options we intend to look at and a methodology for evaluating them – including the use of case studies so that we can learn from the mistakes of others.

The committee were asked to consider the recommendations set out in the report and noted that recommendation 2 asked for the committee to ‘Agree to Officers being given a mandate to explore,…’.  It was felt that the committee did not have the power to agree to mandate therefore the wording would be changed to ‘Recommend for officers to explore,…’.

The Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee AGREED to:

1.    Agree “in principle” to look at the potential of separating the Museum of Farnham (service and collection) from Willmer House.

2.    Recommend for officers to explore, consult and test the viability of different options for the museum service and collection going forward.

3.    Give consideration to a timescale and the provision of a budget to carry out an options review that includes an understanding of the logistics associated with the museum collection.

4.    Shall have the opportunity to be consulted on potential options for the museum service and collection and to make recommendations to the Council’s Executive.

To receive and scrutinise the draft Corporate Strategy before it is agreed December 2020.

Louise Norie, Corporate Policy Manager, outlined the revised strategy explaining that since the last meeting the strategy now had more structure and six priorities were highlighted.  The committee were advised that an action plan would be developed and monitored through the normal quarterly performance report.

She advised that this had already been presented to the Environment and Value for Money O&S committees. Louise gave an overview of the comments made including advising that this was a high level document which would have a number of underlying documents attached including an action plan with SMART targets for members to monitor.

Comments by the committee included:

·         It was felt the comments on page 6 regarding loneliness and mental health may need strengthening.

·         No mention of ‘protection and safety’ within the strategy. More detail required.

·         It was suggested that mental health should be put onto the forward work programme as an issue to be monitored.

·         Social Housing as part of the LTFP was not mentioned.

·         The financial management section was weak it was felt.

The Committee NOTED the strategy and asked for their comments to be considered.

To receive an update from the working group regarding its progress and findings.

Cllr Jenny Else gave an update on the SLA Working Group. The committee were advised that the second tranche of funding had gone out and this covers until March 2021.

It is uncertain what the position will be going forward to next year.  Group had not met recently due to officer time being redirected due to COVID.

To consider the following recommendation of the motion of the Chairman:

Recommendation

That pursuant to Procedure Rule 20 and in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items on the grounds that it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during the items, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information (as defined by Section 100I of the Act) of the description specified in the appropriate paragraph(s) of the revised Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act (to be specified at the meeting).

There were no items to discuss in exempt session so the Chairman closed the meeting.