Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J Collop, S Dark and G Middleton.

From Councillors J Rust and A Tyler for CP104 – Call in, Members Allowances Scheme.

To approve the minutes from the Corporate Performance Panel held on 1 February 2022.

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The minutes of the Corporate Performance Panel held on 1 February 2022 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair, subject to the following amendment from Councillor Morley:

CP90 penultimate paragraph, third line, the word “West” be inserted before Norfolk.

The Chair explained that as there was no item for matters arising, he highlighted the importance of items raised at the last meeting being carried forward.  An update was therefore given on the following items:

Summary of 2020/2021 Outturn Position of all Council Owned Companies

·         Logic tree being available which explained that roles and benefits of the two companies.   The Assistant Director, Central Services explained the request had been fed back to the relevant officer who would include the information requested within the report to be presented to the Panel.

·         Question asked if the Borough Council was subject to tax if it owned houses.  The Assistant Director, Resources undertook to provide a respond direct to the Councillor.  Officers to check if the response had been sent.

Report of the Informal Working Group – Review of the Unreasonable Complainants Policy

A report to be presented to Cabinet on 15 March 2022.

Improvement in Attainment in West Norfolk – Position Statement

Improvement in Attainment – The Assistant Director, Central Services explained the request was being pursued to ascertain what information could be presented to the Panel.

Town Deal Board

An all Councillor Briefing session on governance had taken place.  There were a number of questions which were not addressed.  The Chair advised that he would take this up in a meeting with the Chief Executive week commencing 7 March 2022.

Exempt Report

The Public Open Space Manager would attend the next meeting to conclude the report.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on any item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area.

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider any business which, by reason of special circumstances, the Chairman proposed to accept as urgent under Section 100(b)(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There was no urgent business.

Members wishing to speak pursuant to Standing Order 34 should inform the Chair of their intention to do so and on what items they wish to be heard before a decision on that item is taken.

Councillors R Blunt, A Bullen, B Jones, T Parish and S Squire were present for CP104 – Call in of the Cabinet Report, Members Allowances Scheme.

The Chair informed the Panel that he would hold the correspondence in relation until the item was considered at a future meeting.

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Prior to inviting the Monitoring Officer to address the Panel, the Chair drew the Panel’s attention to page 23 section 5.2 of the report and advised of the following amendment:

If the Panel holds three courses of action – delete (a)and (b) below as well as two lines below commencing If the Panel upholds the call in, etc.

The Monitoring Officer provided an update of the legal advice which would be given to the Corporate Panel and Cabinet with regard to the Members Allowances Scheme report.  It was highlighted that it was a requirement that the Members Allowances Scheme was in place at 1 April 2022.  It was noted therefore that it would be necessary to schedule an additional Council meeting before the 31 March 2022 as Council approval was required to implement the Members Allowance Scheme from 1 April 2022 and provided an overview of the information which would be included in the Cabinet Report to be presented on 15 March 2022.

The Chair reminded Members that at the end of the debate, there were three options available if the Panel determined to uphold the call-in as set out in section 5.2 of the report.

At the invitation of the Chair, Councillor T Parish, Proposer of the call-in addressed the Panel and explained why he had called in the Cabinet decision and outlined a suggestion that could be considered.

Councillor Squire concurred with the comments made by Councillor Parish and added that there was little point in undertaking an Independent Remuneration Panel exercise if the recommendations were ignored. Councillor Squire stated that the role of Opposition Leaders had changed significantly prior to the last Election and should be reflected given the huge amount of work involved in the role.

Councillor Bullen stated that he supported the call-in and had nothing further to add.

Councillors Jones commented that he supported the call-in and the comments made by Councillor Parish.  Councillor Jones added that at this moment  it was necessary to look at the cost to the Council in its current state and stated that the cost of living going up and that Members allowances should not be increased.

The Chair invited the Panel to ask questions of the Portfolio Holder for Finance.

At the invitation of the Chair, the Portfolio Holder for Finance, Councillor Mrs A Dickinson addressed the Panel and outlined the reasons for the Cabinet decision and explained that the 2.5% increase proposed had already been allocated in the budget as previously planned. 

Councillor Joyce referred to page 33 - private vehicles (b) in relation to business use and commented that this was a high court ruling with a tribunal looming.

Councillor Joyce referred to page 27 (2) Cabinet Members were unanimous in their view that the existing allowances should be increased in line with the inflationary increase of the officers’ pay award effective from 1 April 2021 and asked when did the Cabinet become unanimous  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP104

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In presenting the report, the Assistant to the Chief Executive explained that the Council’s performance management framework had historically included performance monitoring and reporting of performance.  Performance monitoring reports had been presented to the Corporate Performance Panel.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive reminded the Panel that a Covid-19 Recovery Strategy was agreed by Council on 8 October 2020.  The report therefore provided an update on the corporate performance monitoring indicators for the Recovery Strategy for the 2021/22 year.

The key issues were outlined as set out in the report.

The Panel’s attention was drawn to the following sections of the report:

·         Rent arrears on industrial units was up 31% for the same quarter last year but it was noted that covid moratorium on possession proceedings would be lifted at the end of March 2022 and Property Services would be monitoring this carefully and take further action on those in arrears.

·         Processing of changes of circumstances – Universal Credit varied according to earnings and the Council was receiving around 2,800 council tax changes per month and would need to be worked on to ensure that the benefit paid was correct.  It was noted that resources had been moved to test and trace but this would end soon and a new procedure was being rolled out to improve performance in this area.

·         Housing – changes in domestic abuse legislation had led to an increase in the number of presentations and these had to be treated as priority need.

The Assistant Director, Central Services responded to questions from Councillor Morley regarding 1.4 % of short term absence – excluding Covid-19 related absence/working from home and explained that no specific analysis had been undertaken on the breakdown but could look to see what information was available.

In response to questions from Councillor Morley relating to 2.2 – Number in employment claim Universal Credit because of Covid, etc the Assistant Chief Executive undertook to look further into the points raised and suggested looking at the dates a lot of it was related to Covid and universal credit was based on people’s earnings.

Following further questions from Councillor Morley on 2.7 – Total value of payments paid to local suppliers, the Assistant to the Chief Executive explained that it was not believed that Covid had impacted upon the Council paying invoices when received.  It was noted the indicator was down 24% and the Assistant to the Chief Executive undertook to find out more information and email a response to the Panel.

In response to questions from the Chair on 3.2 – Total tonnage of waste recycled and composted and separating those two figures and different financials being attached to them in due course, the Assistant to the Chief Executive explained that she would ask the question and would report back when the next full year report was presented to the Panel.

Following questions from Councillor Morley on 5.8 – Number of unique visitors  ...  view the full minutes text for item CP105

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The Chair explained that he had received an email from the Portfolio Holder informing him that he was unable to attend the meeting and therefore the item would be deferred to the next meeting.

To note the Panel’s work programme.

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The Chair explained why the following items had been deferred to later meetings:

·         How the new Portfolio objectives meet the Corporate Business Plan objectives via Director/Service Plans/Key Performance Indicators/timescales.

·         Review of the Council’s working structure to support the Corporate Business Plan.

·         Hunstanton Tourist Information Centre.

·         Cabinet Report: Review of Governance of Council owned companies.

·         Cabinet Report:  Planning Scheme of Delegation/Sifting Panel.

The following items were identified by the Panel:

·         Full Review of IDC to include the appointment of Members, standing orders relating to the investigation of discipline of statutory officers and terms of reference for that Committee.

The Chair advised that he had requested all item listed as forthcoming items be scheduled to a specific date during 2022/2023.

The Chair reminded the Panel that they could contact himself or the Vice-Chair between meetings with items for consideration.

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The Panel noted the Cabinet Forward Decisions List.

Guildhall and Creative Hub Options including Governance – the Chair advised that a joint panel meeting of Regeneration and Development and Corporate Performance Panels had been scheduled for 30 March 2022.

Review of Governance of Council Companies – to be added to the Corporate Performance Panel work programme prior to the Cabinet meeting.

To note that the date of the next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel will take place on 13 April 2022.

The next meeting of the Corporate Performance Panel will take place on 13 April 2022 time to be advised.

To consider passing the following resolution:

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.

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RESOLVED:  That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

The Assistant to the Chief Executive presented the report and responded to questions and comments from the Panel.

RESOLVED:  The Corporate Performance Panel supported the recommendations to Cabinet and Council as set out in the report subject to the amendment to bullet 2 to add that the newly appointment Monitoring Officer take part in the consultation and recruitment programme to establish an in-house legal team.