Issue - meetings

Follow-up Items from Cabinet Scrutiny Committee

Meeting: 01/06/2011 - Cabinet Scrutiny Committee (Item 16)

16 Follow-up Items from Cabinet Scrutiny Committee pdf icon PDF 38 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Bold Steps for Kent – the Medium Term Plan to 2014

 

(1) The Chairman explained that a response had been received to Recommendation 5 in the form of a report written in respect of the relevant Towards 2010 target. It was not yet possible to see the effect on Small and Medium sized Enterprises, particularly as there had been a reduction in the number of local contractors accessing KCC contracts because the overall number of contractors had also reduced. It was agreed that the issue would be passed to the Regeneration and Economic Development Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committee (REDPOSC) for follow-up.

 

Older Person’s Modernisation

 

(2) The Chairman reminded Members that the papers provided in response to the recommendations were not considered at the 9 February meeting due to the fact that they were provided sufficiently in advance of the meeting. Regarding recommendation 11, the Chairman welcomed the high-level commitment to Member involvement from the Group Managing Director and asked that the Committee Report Format be circulated.

 

(3) Referring to the consultation process, the Chairman stated that there had been a complaint from Hawkhurst Parish Council that they had not been formally consulted. She had been informed by the lead officer that individual Parish Councillors had been written to or invited to meetings, but the Parish Council had not been consulted formally via the Parish Clerk. The officer had apologised to the Parish Council, and the consultation protocol had been amended as a result.

 

Edenbridge Community Centre

 

(4) The point was made that the report provided by the Cabinet Member in response to the recommendations dealt with the closure of the school, yet local people appeared to be more concerned with the move of the library and the opening of the community centre.

 

(5) Recommendations 6 – 11 related to consulting with or contacting local businesses and it was agreed that these outstanding recommendations be dealt with by the Customer and Communities POSC.

 

(6) Having made reference to Recommendation 2, the Chairman initiated a discussion about the attendance of Cabinet Members at Cabinet Scrutiny Committee, and invited Mr Sass to inform Members of the relevant legislation. Mr Sass quoted from subsections 13 and 14 of section 21 of the Local Government Act 2000, which state that an overview and scrutiny committee may require members of the executive to attend before it to answer questions, and that it is the duty of those members to comply with this requirement.

 

(7) A number of comments and views were expressed during the discussion, including that:

 

  • the Cabinet Member and Deputy Cabinet Member had been unable to attend the Edenbridge meeting despite many dates being offered
  • members of the Executive could frustrate the Committee by not making themselves available for meetings (but it was not being suggested that the Cabinet Member, Customer and Communities had done so on this occasion).
  • the circumstances surrounding the Edenbridge meeting made it difficult for the Cabinet Member to attend (i.e. the fact that the meeting was held outside  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16