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230.

Minutes of the meeting held on the 23rd November 2021 pdf icon PDF 325 KB

To confirm as a correct record

Additional documents:

Minutes:

These minutes were confirmed and signed as a correct record.

231.

Declarations of interest

All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter:

 

(i)            any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPIs) and / or

(ii)           other interests arising under the Code of Conduct

in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at the meeting. Anyone with a DPI must, unless a dispensation has been granted, withdraw from the meeting during consideration of the relevant item of business.  If in doubt, advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer or his staff prior to the meeting.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillors Farr, Lee and Mansfield declared non-pecuniary interests in agenda item 6 (public conveniences) on the basis that they were members of Godstone Parish, Whyteleafe Village and Caterham on the Hill Parish Councils respectively and that they would be speaking about sites within those parish areas as referred to in the report.  

232.

Community Services Committee 22/23 draft budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy pdf icon PDF 448 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

A proposed draft 2022/23 revenue budget and capital programme was presented. This explained that, due to current capacity constraints, a pragmatic approach had been taken regarding the distribution of pressures and savings to achieve a balanced budget position for 2022/23, namely:

 

Tranche 1 – savings and pressures which were straightforward to allocate (those for this Committee are shown in Appendix A).

 

Tranche 2 – those requiring more time to allocate correctly to each committee, including £367k of pressures (£193k of staffing increments and £174k of contract inflation) plus savings of £200k regarding staff vacancies. These were being held as ‘corporate items’ pending consideration during the next cycle of committee meetings.

 

Tranche 3 – the more complex cross-cutting savings totalling £450k, which would require service reviews and business cases to be undertaken to ensure accurate distribution to committees.  The recently established Benefits Board would oversee this process to ensure that the benefits were being defined, owned and delivered.  These budgeted savings were being held as ‘corporate items’ pending consideration during the June cycle of committee meetings.

 

In response to questions regarding budgeted savings, Officers explained that:

 

·      the ‘mechanical sweeper utilisation’ saving involved the replacement of just one of the two present vehicles (an additional vehicle would be hired during the leafing season) and that proposals to revise the street sweeping schedule would be discussed with Members in due course;

 

·      ‘consolidating the lot structure’ referred to the intended consolidation of current parks / grounds maintenance / playground contracts into ten lots (defined areas of work for which potential suppliers could bid, i.e. for one, some or all ten).

 

It was also suggested that parish and village councils should be able to procure additional street sweeping services from TDC to supplement its standard service and that a ‘price list’ should be made available (to parishes) accordingly. 

 

The Chief Finance Officer advised that progress against budgeted savings would be reported to Members on a monthly basis.

 

Member suggestions for potential savings in 2023/24 were also discussed. 

 

            R E S O L V E D – that:

 

A.    the Committee’s draft revenue budget for 2022/23 in the sum of £3.975m (as shown at Appendix A) be agreed, taking account of pressures and savings allocated as part of Tranche 1, and it be noted that a further two tranches of pressures and savings currently held in corporate items on behalf of other Committees will be distributed over the coming months;

 

B.    the Committee’s final capital programme for 2022/23 in the sum of £522,000 (as shown at Appendix B) be agreed;

 

C.    the subjective revenue budgets in Appendix C, including movements from 2020/21 to 2022/23 and an estimated movement to 2023/24, be noted;

 

D.    it be noted that due to timing and capacity constraints across the Council, c£0.7m of savings (as part of a £1.1m savings programme) and c£0.4m of pressures could not be allocated in time for the January and February committee cycle and, as such, will be allocated in three tranches as follows:

 

·        Tranche 1  ...  view the full minutes text for item 232.

233.

Review of provision and funding for public toilets pdf icon PDF 170 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

A report was presented regarding options for the future provision of public conveniences throughout the District. This explained that the Council operated facilities at twelve sites but that the equipment (e.g. lavatories, sinks, hand driers) was approximately twenty years old and no longer serviced by manufacturers. The 2021/22 capital and revenue budgets were £550,000 and £94,030 respectively. 

 

The report confirmed that the provision of public conveniences was not a statutory service and concluded that current maintenance costs were unsustainable. The Asset Management Team had therefore been asked to lead a review of the facilities with assistance from Operational Services. An initial desktop review was attached to the report with a commentary about the suitability of the twelve sites. This suggested that facilities at several locations were, for various reasons, no longer viable and that further discussions were required with local communities and businesses regarding longer term options. However, the two facilities on the A25 at Nags Hall, Oxted and the A22 at Godstone Hill (both on land owned by Surrey County Council) were recommended for immediate removal. The Nags Hall facility had remained closed since the 21st October 2021 for safety reasons arising from disrepair and both sites were known to attract anti-social activities / behaviour.

 

Upon debating the matter, the Committee accepted the recommendation to close the A25 (Nags Hall) facilities but argued that those on the A22 (Godstone Hill) should remain open until the need for any repairs made it financially unviable for the Council to maintain them. The need to provide adequate WC’s for lorry drivers was cited as a key reason for this, notwithstanding the proximity of the Clacket Lane service station on the M25. It was also suggested that, in view of the income received by Surrey County Council (SCC) from mobile catering vendors on the A22 site, SCC should pay for the provision and maintenance of any replacement toilet facilities at that location.

 

Members also argued for the retention of toilet facilities at other locations, including where sites were adjacent to bus stops / termini. It was agreed that a more comprehensive review of the sites should be undertaken, including the scope for:

 

·      design features seeking user safety and disabled access

 

·      pay per use options

 

·      partnership options involving alternative funding sources (although some Members doubted whether Parish Councils would be willing / able to take responsibility for WC facilities)

 

·      seeking Community Infrastructure Levy funding (although Officers advised that CIL could not be used to offset revenue costs)

 

·      reassessing the demand for facilities at the respective sites with a view to providing a more robust evidence base for any proposed closures.

 

 

 

          R E S O L V E D – that:

 

A.        the toilet facilities at the A25 layby in Oxted be closed and removed;

 

B.        the A22 Godstone Hill facilities remain open until such time as the need for any repairs will make it financially unviable for TDC to continue to do so and that, in the meantime, dialogue be established with Surrey  ...  view the full minutes text for item 233.

234.

Shared Environmental Health Service - performance reporting for food hygiene standards pdf icon PDF 513 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Quarter 2 (2021/22) performance report for the Committee’s meeting on the 23rd November 2021 recommended that KPI CS5 (% of establishments with a score of 3 or better under the food hygiene rating scheme) be removed from future performance reports. This was on the basis that the KPI reflected the performance of businesses rather than the joint (Tandridge / Mole Valley) environmental health team. However, Members concluded that food hygiene standards should continue to be reported to the Committee, and it was resolved that:

 

“a decision on the future of performance indicator CS5 (food establishment ratings) be deferred until the next meeting on the 18th January 2022, pending consideration of potential alternative means of measuring both the food hygiene standards of businesses and the performance of the food safety team”

 

Since the previous meeting, officers had assessed the quarterly performance information submitted to the Tandridge & Mole Valley environmental health / licensing partnership board and suggested that two of the KPI’s concerned be included in the future quarterly performance reports to this Committee. This proposal was agreed.

 

          R E S O L V E D – that future quarterly performance reports to this Committee include:

 

(i)      continued reporting against the current KPI CS5 (percentage of establishments with a rating of 3 (generally satisfactory) or better under the Food Hygiene Rating Scheme); and

 

(ii)      the performance information most recently submitted to the Tandridge & Mole Valley environmental health / licensing partnership board in respect of:

 

·           the percentage of category A and B (food hygiene) risk premises inspected within 28 days of the inspection becoming due; and

 

·           the percentage of unrated food premises inspected, including registered premises not yet trading.