Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

The Chair, Councillor Aldam, welcomed Councillor Davis to her first meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Councillor Jones and Oxley.

To receive declarations of interest.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 23 March 2023 and 22 June 2023.

RESOLVED That the Minutes of the meetings held on 23 March 2023 and 22 June 2023 were approved as a correct record.

The Chair of the Committee will answer questions from members of the public submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

There were none.

See Agenda Item 4 for deadlines for submission.

There were none.

To receive an update on Performance Monitoring Q1.

Councillor Tucker advised Committee that he had previously raised concerns regarding the finishing dates for projects and explained that no further progress had been made particularly around projects which were 8 – 12 months late and that no comments regarding completion dates had been provided, for example CW1.4. He advised that he appreciated that projects could get delayed however performance monitoring helped identify learning opportunities from mistakes made. Councillor Aldam acknowledged Councillor Tuckers valid comments and advised that she had sought advice and had been informed that the new system would retain the original date set. She also suggested Councillor Tucker used his experience on performance monitoring to input into future reports.

Councillor Prenter suggested that Councillor Tucker attended the meetings as a Performance Monitor. The Chair, Councillor Aldam, confirmed Councillor Tucker had offered.

Councillor Craig echoed Councillor Tuckers comments from his experience as a Performance Monitor for Strategy & Resources Committee and understood that the new system would be easier to follow and with more specific, measurable and achievable targets. The Senior Policy & Governance Officer explained that if item 8 (Revised Council Plan) were to be adopted that evening, the new indictors would be updated on the performance management system, Ideagen and would be able to be reported on and measured against more accurately.

Councillor Job advised she took Councillor Tuckers comments on board.

Councillor Edmunds asked if the Mental Health Champions would be included in the meeting particularly now that the funds had been received from the NHS on mental health. The Chair, Councillor Aldam advised she would take the action away.

To present the 2023/24 forecast outturn position against the revenue budgets and Capital Programme that the Committee is responsible for, in order to give an expectation of possible variances against budget.

The Principal Accountant presented the report on behalf of the Accountant and advised that there was a £65K underspend against the revenue budget and outlined the significant variances against the budget.

Proposed by Councillor Baker, seconded by Councillor Edmunds.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

To present the progress made against the Council Plan 2021-2026 to date, and to approve the refreshed Council Plan.

The Chair, Councillor Aldam, introduced the report and advised that the Council Plan was approved in October 2021 and that it was good practice to review the plan periodically. A review has been undertaken in the summer. Section 2.4 of the report outlined some of the key achievements that related to the Committee. The revised Council Plan and it’s actions and performance indictors had been reviewed and refined to ensure performance management was more effective. She continued and advised of the key changes within the plan which included completed actions, extended deadlines, a ‘newly developed action’ category and additional milestones and performance indictors added. Finally, she concluded by thanking the Committee on the progress that had been made on the plan and confirmed that the new revised Council Plan would allow for more accurate reporting.

Councillor Tucker expressed his concerns regarding the number of different key colours associated with performance monitoring and whether this could be investigated as it looked confusing. The Senior Policy & Governance Officer explained that the additional key colourings were for the purpose of the report going to Committee that evening to distinguish the changes and would not be used in the performance monitoring system.

Proposed by Councillor Prenter, seconded by Councillor Edmunds.

Councillor Craig advised that there was one aspect of the plan that he could not agree with (ER5.2) relating to the strategic allocations following the Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) objections at the inspection and would’ve liked to have seen in the plan that Stroud District Council (SDC) were changing our strategic sites and based on this could not support the recommendation. The Chair, Councillor Aldam responded explaining that the changes Committee were agreeing that evening related to Community Services and Licensing (CS&L) and that his concerns possibly related more to Strategy & Resources (S&R) Committee. She advised that the revised Council Plan under ER5.2 did not reference the detail concerning the objections to the local plan and no specific sites were referenced.

Councillor Prenter commented that CS&L Committee were not responsible for performance monitor of the strategic sites. Councillor Craig responded advising the recommendation of the report was to recommend the plan in it’s entirety to S&R Committee which included ER5.2 which he could not support.

Councillor Edmunds advised that the plan contained a lot of good work and he would be supporting the plan.

Councillor Prenter summed up as proposer reminding Members they were voting on the Council Plan and not Local Plan and he would be supporting the report.

On being put to the vote, the motion received 6 votes for, 1 against and 1 abstention.

The SDCSP Plan details how it plans to tackle community safety issues that matter to the local community in partnership with other responsible authorities and co-opted members.

The Interim Principal Community Services Officer introduced the report and advised the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 required local authorities to produce a Community Safety Plan to work in conjunction with GCC, Police services, Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and Health Services to help reduce crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB). The plan would be a working document comprising of 5 priorities. The plan being considered by Committee included the changes to section 17 of the act relating to Serious Violence Duty along with the statutory priorities which must be included, such as Counter-Terrorism and Modern Slavery. Consultation with the members of the Community Safety Partnership had been undertaken in addition to the PCC’s Strategic Plan priorities.

In response to Members questions, the Interim Principal Community Services Officer provided the following answers:

• Relevant subgroups were being established to work on the priorities of the plan, these groups would create their own plans and objectives to address the issues relating to ASB.
• There were statutory requirements to be listed within the plan and emphasised the importance of having step by step plans in place for each subgroup to deliver on the plan.
• The plan would be linked with other plans such as the Leisure Strategy and Health & Wellbeing plan.
• Once the subgroup related to preventing and reoffending had been established, the group would look at what the outcomes would be used to measure success.

Proposed by Councillor Edmunds, seconded by Councillor Baker.

Councillor Hall advised that crime can be linked to poverty and hoped that this link was recognised within the plan and eliminating poverty.

The Chair, Councillor Aldam gave thanks to the officer for his work relating to the plan. 

Councillor Edmunds advised he was looking forward to seeing the work and progress of the working groups.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

To update members on the plan for replacement of the current analogue Community Alarm equipment (Careline), with digital equipment in preparation for full digital switchover in December 2025

The Senior Community Services Officer introduced the report and advised there were approximately 1,300 careline customers across the district and an income of £165k was expected for 2023-2024. He advised that between now and December 2025 the UK’s public switch telephone network, which delivered the analogue landline phone services would be operating digitally. Current guidance within the industry suggested the Carelines analogue systems were likely to fail. A joint bid to GCC from SDC, Forest of Dean District Council, Cotswold District Council and Cheltenham Borough Council was successful for £375k to replace existing analogue units to digital.

In response to Members questions, the Senior Community Services Officer provided the following responses:

• SDC wanted to support the communities most vulnerable residents and therefore the time commitment to ensure customers were happy with the new system would take as long as needed with the support of the Neighbourhood Wardens.
• In terms of disruption, there would be the requirement for SDC staff to change the system over however the installation should be simple.

The Strategic Director of Communities gave his thanks to both the Interim Principal Community Services Officer and the Senior Community Services Officer for their reports.

Proposed by Councillor Prenter, seconded by Councillor Baker.

On being put to the vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. The Chair, Councillor Aldam, advised that Councillor Hurst had requested that the Committee were informed that the Museum Manager had written the report. There were no further questions raised.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. There were no questions raised.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. There were no questions raised.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. There were no questions raised.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. There were no further questions raised.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. There were no further questions raised.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. There were no further questions raised.

The Chair, Councillor Aldam, provided recognition to the long-standing service of one of the Neighbourhood Wardens who had recently retired.

The Member report had been circulated prior to Committee. There were no further questions raised.

To consider the work programme.

The Chair, Councillor Aldam, informed Committee that the Concession Pricing Scheme that was due to come to November Committee had been moved to June 2024 as part of the Leisure Service Pricing Strategy.

RESOLVED    To note the above update to the Work Programme.