Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence and note substitutions.

Members who are unable to attend this meeting must submit apologies by the end of Monday 6 March 2023. to enable a substitute to be arranged, if applicable.

Apologies were received from Cllrs Joan Heagin, Martin D’Arcy and Michaela Wicks.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 24 January 2023 and published on the Council’s website. 

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

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.

There were no declarations of interest submitted for this meeting.

The Chairman to respond to any questions submitted by members of the public in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.

The deadline for submission of written questions for this meeting is Monday 6 March 2023..

There were no questions submitted by members of the public.

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

The deadline for submission of written questions for this meeting is Monday 6 March 2023.

There were no questions submitted by members.

The Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee is responsible for managing the Committee’s work programme.

The current work programme (attached) includes items agreed and takes account of items identified on the latest Executive Forward Programme (Annexe 2) as due to come forward for decision.

Recommendation

Members are invited to consider their work programme and make any comments and/or amendments they consider necessary, including suggestions for any additional topics that the Committee may wish to add to its work programme.

The committee forward work programme was NOTED and the following comments raised:

·         To clarify details as to what elements are pending on actions/resolutions with this status.

To review feedback from the public consultation and consider the draft updated Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) February 2023 for the Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) and draft Clean Air Strategy for Waverley (CAS) February 2023.

To seek approval of the draft updated Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP) February 2023 and draft Clean Air Strategy for Waverley (CAS) February 2023, prior to submitting the AQAP to Defra for approval.

Richard Horwood, Executive Head of Regulatory Services updated the Committee on the changes to the reports following the consultation.

Cllr Jerry Hyman had registered to speak on this item and advised he felt this was a plan to have an action plan rather than a plan in itself as it had no measures in it.  He also raised concern that Farnham had not had a proper plan for over 15 years as Surrey CC had failed to ever implement one. He disagreed with the sentence “ It will also be ensured that the Farnham AQMA will remain in place until the Farnham Infrastructure Programme is implemented” and felt it should be removed.

The Chair advised he would pass on Cllr Hymans comments to Surrey CC.

Members were advised that it was an action plan and had measures in it. Officers advised that it would be down to DEFRA to decide if it is acceptable or not.

Members raised concern that some of the actions set out would require significant resources to implement but that Waverley could take incremental steps requiring less resource whilst Surrey CC look at resourcing the more technical actions.

Members made a suggestion around using 5G for the monitors rather than using landline as it was likely to be cheaper.

Officers were asked why there was no signage on Station Road, Farnham to ask motorists not to idle when the level crossing barriers were down. They were advised that Surrey had refused the last application to put signs up but officers would submit an application again.  The Chair agreed to forward the application to Surrey CC.

Members raised the pollution caused by the air traffic from Farnborough Airport and were told that could not be included in the Action Plan as this was prescribed by DEFRA but consideration would be given to including reference in the Clean Air Strategy.

Officers were asked how we knew the measurements from the diffusion tubes was fit for purpose and were advised this would be raised to the consultants for a response.

It was agreed that education of residents was paramount to make any actions implemented to have an effect.

The Committee NOTED the feedback from the public consultation.

The Committee asked that the comments asked that their comments were taken into consideration in the final draft of the Air Quality Action Plan and the Clean Air Strategy.

The Corporate Performance Report provides an analysis of the Council’s performance for the third quarter of 2022-23 and also includes the annual review of KPIs for the coming year 2023/24. The report, set out at Annexe 1, is being presented to each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees for comment and any recommendations they may wish to make to the Executive. The reports under this committees remit and to note are pages 39-63 of the report (pages 173 – 197 of the agenda pack)

Jenny Sturgess, Policy and Performance Officer, attended for this item.  She highlighted this was the first Corporate Performance Report since the service restructure had taken place. Members were invited to comment on the report and raise any issues for the Executive Heads of Service present to answer.

The Head of Planning Development was asked why KPI P1 was set at 100% as it was felt this was difficult to achieve.  It was advised this was a government target and if the application was not determined within 26 weeks their was a risk the application fee may have to be refunded.

With regards to RP4 (Actual number of dwellings commenced) Members were concerned that Waverley Council were unable to penalise developers for not completing properties in an acceptable timescale meaning our targets are not met despite being out of our control.

The Overview & Scrutiny Committee:

·         considered the performance of the service areas under its remit but made no further recommendations to the Joint Management Team or the Executive.

·         considers the annual review of Key Performance Indicators of the service areas under its remit but made no recommendations to the Joint Management Team or the Executive.

Scrutinise the three-year rolling Service Plans for the service areas under the remit of this Committee.

The Committee commented that SP 23/26 ES 11.1 was not ambitious enough. The felt officers should be working towards Biffa improving their performance but acknowledged that they had been under a lot of pressure during the pandemic period.  Chris Wheeler advised that the issues were similar at Guildford BC and other authorities and it was more important as to how we respond when service levels fall.

SP23/26 PD10.2 - The Officers were asked how we could audit and review the Horizon System when there was no specification plan or test procedures document. 

Action: Services O&S Committee to scrutinise this at a future meeting

Members asked for an update on the status of the LPP1 review with regards to upcoming appeals and planning applications. Gilian Macinnes advised that the development plan remains in effect until the review has been carried out and still carries weight.

Abi Lewis advise that the officers had been focussing on getting LPP2 over the line and now would be moving onto scoping LPP1. The next step was to create a plan on how to review.

The Committee NOTED the service plans as set out in the report.

To consider, if necessary, the following recommendation on 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 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) to be identified at the meeting.

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