Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Leys, substituted by Councillor Wright.

To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest advice attached to this Agenda. If a Member declares an interest, they should complete the Declaration of Interest Form

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

To approve the Minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 19 April 2022, copy attached.

Councillor Tomlinson proposed, Councillor Austin seconded and the Panel agreed that the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 19 April 2022 were a correct record.

Sally O’Sullivan, Tenant & Leaseholder Services Manager introduced the report and made the following comments:

• The strategy had been developed to set out the council aspirations and the performance indicators were currently being developed by the regulator;
• The aim was to achieve residents’ satisfaction and the strategy was co-developed with the residents group;
• There were five objectives that the service would be working towards and these were set out in the strategy document attached as Annex 1 to the Panel report.

Members asked questions and made comments as follows:

·  Will the residents training be conducted in house in person or will it be via a virtual arrangement?

• How was the council going to monitor involvement in order to ensure that access was given to a wider cross section of residents?
• How will the council identify appropriate representation?
• Was there an ongoing plan to involve councillors in any particular issues?

Sally O’Sullivan, Bob Porter, Director of Housing & Planning and Councillor Jill Bayford responded to Member questions as follows:

• The regarding training for residents would depend on the type of training that was being offered to residents. Previous trainings have been delivered in-house in person by council officers;
• Third party trainings were also available and were normally provided online;
• With regards to involvement of a wider cross section of residents, officers were currently working on a wider piece of work to collect data and understand better the cross section of the residents;
• The council would then broaden the way for tenants’ involvement. This might be having people in a particular area championing certain issues;
• Councillor involvement: When conducting neighbourhood inspections officers would usually invite Members;
• When conducting the refurbishment of the Tower Blocks, councillors would be welcome to get involved;
• Tenants were kept informed through the regular tenants’ newsletter.

Members noted the report.

Sally O’Sullivan introduced the report and said that the expenses and incentives policy was linked to the residents’ involvement strategy discussed earlier. This policy would enable residents to get involved as it breaks some of the barriers for residents' involvement.

Councillor Jill Bayford said that this policy would promote equality and diversity by removing the financial barriers to involvement.

Members noted the report.

The Chair requested for Member contributions to establishing a new work programme for the Panel. Members commented on the draft work programme as follows:

• Recommendations from the Coastal Waste Scrutiny Review will be considered by Cabinet on 16 June 2022. It was important for the panel to keep this issue in the work programme to monitor the implementation progress if cabinet were minded to accept the recommendations or some of the recommendations;
• Could the Panel review the cost and benefits of recycling in Thanet and review how well the council was doing? This would include looking at any changes to recycling performances at the recycle centres in the district. This would include benchmarking against other neighbouring local councils;
• There was also an issue of access restrictions regarding collection of recycle waste in some areas around Thanet;
• The Panel could review this issue and identify the areas where access was an issue. This was because in some areas bins were removed due to access problems. There was need to tackle this problem;
• Where does the green waste collected within the district go?
• It was also important to encourage councillors to walk the wards to find out of this information on queries being raised;
• Was information available on the waste collection service the council delivered to each street?
• With in-cab technology, this information should be easily available;
• How can the waste collection service be adapted moving forward?
• Waste collection teams would have this information on inaccessible streets which Members were looking for;
• The hub areas for recycling and these in some instances had become dumping ground as the containers were usually always very full;
• Can the Panel look into how the hubs can be prevented from becoming dump sites?

The Chair sought Members' views on whether the Panel should set up a Scrutiny review looking at building closer working relationships between the District and Parish and Town Councils. This topic was first suggested by the CEx. The Chair also advised Members that if they were minded to set up the Scrutiny Review, would Members be also minded to appoint a non Panel member, Councillor Bailey to the sub group. Councillor Bailey had expressed an interest in taking part in such a review.

Members agreed to set up a working party to consider establishing closer working relationships between TDC and Parish and Town Councils. They further agreed that Councillor Bailey be on the working party and that the membership be made up of following:

1 Conservative; 1 Labour; 1 Green; 1 TI; 1 I.

The Panel agreed that Councillor Currie be the Chair of the working party.

The Panel also agreed to reconstitute Memorials Working Party to conclude the work that had been in abeyance for some time.

They further noted the report.

Members noted the report.

Councillor Rattigan proposed, Councillor Paul Moore seconded and Members agreed that the public and press be excluded from the meeting for agenda item 9 as it contains exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A Part 1 of the Local Government Act 1972.

Livestreaming was stopped and the Panel went into a private session.

Morgan Sproates, Regulatory Services Manager introduced the item and made the following points:

·  The council enforced the regulations including the code of practice on food services in the district;

·  Once the updated Food Service Plan and Food Service Enforcement Plan had been approved Full council, they would become enforceable as from July;

·  It was a statutory requirement that councils had such plans in place to regulate food service providers.

Councillor Jill Bayford thanked the staff for producing the Food Service Plan and Food Service Enforcement Plan.

Members considered the item and thereafter noted the report.