Agenda and draft minutes

Corporate Services and Communites Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting - Tuesday 7th February, 2012 6.30 pm

Venue: Town Hall, High Street, Maidstone. View directions

Items
No.	Item
9.	The Committee to consider whether all items on the agenda should be web-cast. Minutes: Resolved: That all items be web-cast.
10.	Apologies. Minutes: Councillors Field, Mrs Gibson, Mrs Stockell and Paine sent their apologies.
11.	Notification of Substitute Members. Minutes: Councillors Burton and Butler substituted for Councillors Paine and Mrs Gibson respectively.
12.	Notification of Visiting Members. Minutes: There were no Visiting Members.
13.	Disclosures of Members and Officers: a) Disclosures of interest. b) Disclosures of lobbying. c) Disclosures of whipping. Minutes: The following Members declared an interest in item 8, Draft Parish Services Scheme: Councillor Mrs Gooch, Chairman of Barming Parish Council; Councillor Burton, Chairman of Langley Parish Council; Councillor Hinder, Member of Boxley and Bredhurst Parish Councils; Councillor English, Member of Tovil Parish Council and Secretary to Kent Association of Local Councils (KALC); Councillor Mortimer, Member of Tovil Parish Council and representative at KALC; All Members of the Committee with the exception of Councillor Yates made disclosures of lobbying.
14.	To consider whether any items should be taken in private because of the possible disclosure of exempt information. Minutes: It was agreed that all items should be taken in public as proposed.
15.	Minutes of the meeting held on 29 November 2011. PDF 88 KB View item 15. as HTML 48 KB Minutes: Resolved: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 29 November 2011 be agreed as a correct record and duly signed by the Chairman.
16.	Draft Parish Services Scheme. PDF 57 KB View item 16. as HTML 17 KB Interviews with: · Councillor John A Wilson, Cabinet Member for Communities and Leisure Services; and · Ryan O’Connell, Corporate Projects and Overview and Scrutiny Manager. Additional documents: Recommendation response from the Cabinet Member , item 16. PDF 31 KB View as HTML (16./2) 13 KB Consultation Summary , item 16. PDF 211 KB View as HTML (16./3) 36 KB Draft Scheme , item 16. PDF 218 KB View as HTML (16./4) 11 KB Draft Funding Agreement , item 16. PDF 72 KB View as HTML (16./5) 19 KB Minutes: The Chairman welcomed Councillor John A Wilson, Cabinet Member for Communities and Leisure Services, Ryan O’Connell, Corporate Projects and Overview and Scrutiny Manager and Paul Riley, Head of Finance and Customer Services to the meeting. The Chairman noted the presence of a number of representatives from Parish Councils seated in the public gallery. Mr O’Connell began the meeting with a short presentation outlining the objectives of the proposed draft Parish Services Scheme, the consultation responses received from Parishes, the amendments made to the scheme as a result and the planned implementation process. The Officer referenced the November Meeting held by the Joint Committee at which stage consultation responses from Parishes had been received but had not been evaluated. Members were informed that an alternative scheme had also been suggested by KALC at that time. All responses had been considered and many were included in the amended scheme. The objectives of the scheme were to: • To align parish funding with the Council’s priorities and budgeting process whilst achieving: • Equity of council tax funded service provision between non-parished and parished areas; • Accountability and Transparency; and • A mechanism to agree the local provision of services It was explained that that the Council’s priorities to which the scheme was aligned had been developed with Members involvement in the Budget Strategy setting and via Cabinet. ‘The test’ would be applied to determine which services were priority services and would be funded by Maidstone Borough Council via the Parish Services Scheme. The test would be: ‘In the theoretical absence of the parish council, would MBC change its service provision in the parish?’ Services handed over to Parishes to deliver would need to meet legal minimums that Maidstone Borough Council would retain responsibility for in law. Members questioned the legal responsibilities associated with the delivery of services. Mr O’Connell gave the example of litter enforcement where MBC had a legal duty to meet that Parishes would also have to maintain. It was felt that this would not be an area of contention and an example of where legal responsibility could be given to a Parish. A ‘price list’ would be developed so that Parishes would have access to Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) contract prices to either utilise the economies of scale or use this information to increase their local knowledge for pricing services. If a service cost put forward by a Parish related to an agreed service, by applying ‘the test’, funding would follow the service. The Committee raised concerns about Council overheads being included in the price list. Mr O’Connell explained that the cost of each service would consider the overall cost of service and would vary from service to service. There would be some ‘core’ costs included in some service costs that Parishes would be providing. It was questioned whether the method of costing, and the price list referred to would be made public. It was confirmed by the Officer that it would be. Members were informed that Parishes could ... view the full minutes text for item 16.
17.	Duration of Meeting Minutes: 6.33 p.m. to 9.23 p.m.