Agenda and minutes

County Councillors David Westley and John Singleton JP replaced County Councillors Keith Iddon and Sue Hind respectively.

There were no apologies.

The committee considered a report which set out its Chair and Deputy Chair, membership, and Terms of the Reference for the 2022-23 municipal year.

Resolved: That the following be noted:

  i.  The appointment of County Councillor G Mirfin as Chair and County Councillor J Shedwick as Deputy Chair of the Community, Cultural and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee;

  ii.  The membership of the committee, following the council's Annual Meeting held 26 May 2022; and

  iii.  The Community, Cultural and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee Terms of Reference.

Members are asked to consider any pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the agenda.

None were disclosed.

County Councillor Alan Vincent, Cabinet Member for Resources, HR and Property (Deputy Leader), John Morrissy, Director of Organisational Development and Change and Mike Kirby, Director of Strategy and Performance presented a report on the use of council owned buildings and the councils' new ways of working.

The report provided a summary of data about the use of county council assets, how that information might help the development of options for the county council to better utilise its assets as part of the improvement journey, and the disposal or transfer of council owned buildings.

The committee also considered a presentation, a copy of which is attached to the minutes.

The committee thanked officers for the amount of information provided in both the presentation and report, and comments and queries were raised as follows:

·  It would be helpful if the presentation shared at the meeting was updated on a regular basis and made available to all county councillors.

·  It was noted that the county council was already seeing a financial benefit from its new approach to the use of buildings and ways of working and would continue to work towards improved energy efficiency as a way of saving money and meeting the council's green agenda. It was therefore suggested that the Cabinet Member could provide updates on the use of council buildings as part of the quarterly Money Matters report to Cabinet.

·  In response to a query about the county council's long-term strategy for flexible working, members were informed that more flexible working arrangements (including working from home) were already part of the council's long-term plan, but that the original timeframe for the strategy had to be accelerated because of the COVID pandemic. Additionally, it was noted that upcoming meetings of the committee would focus on the council's data strategy and the council's working procedures.

·  Members highlighted the importance of sharing data with county councillors and requested that a list of assets that the county council was expecting to dispose of be provided to the committee.

·  Members asked about the acceptable rate of occupancy for council owned buildings and were informed that the level of occupancy varied depending on the building's use and location. Members therefore requested that the committee be updated on officers' work and future corporate policies and guidance relating to occupancy levels in council buildings. Additionally, members requested that information be provided to the committee on how much the county council spends to maintain its unused buildings.

·  It was noted that district councils were informed of unused county council buildings in their district and would be asked about possible joint working or purchase of the building from the county council. Members requested that a list of buildings that the council does not currently use, but that may be made available to other partners, such as district councils, be shared with the committee.

·  Regarding the development of data dashboards, it was highlighted that comparing the information from different months and years in the future would be helpful to build a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Laura Sales, Director of Corporate Services and Josh Mynott, Democratic and Member Services Manager presented a report on 'Think Councillor', the council's approach to ensure that the needs, interests and views of councillors were prioritised and promoted in all aspects of the council's work.

It was noted that in other local authorities, Think Councillor was known as Councillor First; however, the county council referred to 'Think Councillor' to avoid confusion with C-First, the county council intranet homepage for members.

Members raised concerns about not being informed in advance of major work being carried out in their areas and commented that there was a lack of communication from officers with members in some areas of the council.

Regarding the reference to a councillor dashboard, members asked for clarification on the dashboard's purpose. It was highlighted that the dashboard's long-term objective was to provide all information that councillors may need to know about their areas and the council, including to answer any questions frequently asked by residents regarding highway related issues such as, defects (potholes etc), highway condition, road works and traffic regulation.

It was noted that members often experienced technological issues, mainly with emails and their mobile devices, which also impacted their access to information.

Members made a number of requests for officers to consider which were as follows:

·  For a formal time period to be set out, in which officers should respond to correspondence from councillors;

·  That the information that is shared with councillors is relevant to their divisions, so that councillors do not receive unnecessary emails

·  That a 'meet the officers' event should be held for all county councillors to meet officers within different council services;

·  In situations where officers were already planning to visit a site or division, the relevant county councillor should be informed and invited to attend; and

·  That a weekly activity list be produced and circulated to councillors relating to the highways work in their divisions.

It was also suggested that the Head of Service for Highways could be invited to a future meeting of the committee to report on how the council's Highways Service was engaging with and informing county councillors about highway issues in their divisions.

In response to members' concerns, it was highlighted that:

·  The work being done on Think Councillor was part of the response to a suggestion arising from the Peer Review to improve the relationship between officers and elected members.

·  Officers were receiving ongoing political awareness training to help them communicate with elected members more effectively.

·  Discussions were ongoing to facilitate a councillor "open day" which would usually have taken place after the election but had been postponed due to the pandemic.

Resolved: That;

The report on Think Councillor be noted;

  i.  Officers be asked to consider the following:

a.  The technology difficulties councillors face in accessing their emails and the information available online.

b.  That the development of the online County Councillor "Dashboard" includes a function that allows councillors to access and search for all the information related  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The committee considered the work programme for the 2022/23 municipal year.

Resolved: That the following be noted:

  i.  The Community, Cultural and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2022/23;

  ii.  The process to add items to the work programme during the year; and

  iii.  The process for progress relating to the committee's recommendations to be reported back to the committee as part of the work programme.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency. Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any member's intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

The next meeting of the Community, Cultural and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee will be held on Thursday 10 November 2022 at 10.30 am in Committee Room B – The Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall, Preston.

The next meeting of the Community, Cultural, and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee will be held on Thursday 10 November 2022 at 10.30am in Committee Room B – The Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall, Preston.