Agenda and minutes

The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

An apology for absence was submitted by Councillor Paul Clifton (no substitution).

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on 9 May 2022

It was RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on Monday 9 May 2022 be approved as a correct record.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

Councillor Steady declared an interest in relation to the item on the agenda for this meeting in respect of the work programme (Minute 12 refers), as there were suggestions that an enquiry be undertaken in relation to the Council’s Beach Hut Strategy, as he owned a Beach Hut and was a member of the Brightlingsea Beach Hut Association. 

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

On this occasion no Councillor had submitted notice of a question.

Pursuant to the provisions of Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 13, the Committee will review any new and/or amended published forthcoming decisions relevant to its terms of reference and decide whether it wishes to enquire into any such decision before it is taken.

Matters may only be raised on those forthcoming decisions at Committee meetings where the Member has notified the Committee Services Manager in writing (or by personal email) of the question they wish to ask, no later than Midday, two working days before the day of the meeting.

The Head of Democratic Services and Elections submitted to the Committee the list of forthcoming decisions published since the publication date of the agenda for its last Committee meeting. No Councillor had served notice that they wanted to raise an item in respect of any of those items.

It was RESOLVED to note the report.

To present to the Committee the updated Recommendations Monitoring Report, outlining any recommendations the Committee have sent to Cabinet. The Committee is requested to consider the report and determine whether any further action is required on the recommendations submitted.

The Committee was informed by the Head of Democratic Services and Elections that the recommendations agreed in their meeting on 21 March 2022 (Minute 53 refers), on Children Missing from Education, had been submitted to Cabinet on 17 June 2022. The decision Cabinet made in response to the recommendations had been recorded in the report to this Committee. The Committee was also advised that the recommendations that were agreed in its meeting on 9 May 2022 in respect of Freeport East were also set out in the report together with the decision made by Cabinet on 17 June 2022 in response.

It was RESOLVED to note the report.

To review the Committee’s work undertaken during the year 2021/22 and to seek the Committee’s approval to its draft programme of work for the 2022/23 year for recommendation to the Council meeting on 12 July 2022.

The Committee had before it a report of the Head of Democratic Services and Elections, which invited Members to consider a draft Work Programme for 2022/23 for recommendation to Council on 12 July 2022 and a review of the work that had been carried out in the Year 2021/22 in respect of Overview and Scrutiny.

The Committee was advised that, following Publication of the meeting’s agenda and reports, an email had been received from Cllr Davidson, in respect of potential Work Programme Items. This had been circulated at the meeting. Councillor Davidson wished to add the following items for consideration for Work Programme items in 2022/23:

·         “Revisit home education. What progress has been made as to the governing and safeguarding?

·         Revisit climate change and progress made.

·         Revisit Monitoring child poverty, deprivation and child life expectancy. What progress and policies have been put into place?

·         Tendring Homeless and the progress made.

·         Housing stock/ social housing for larger families.”

The Committee was further provided with a draft Annual Report in respect of the scrutiny function in 2022/23. This was circulated to the Committee at the meeting. It had been prepared in conjunction with the Chairmen of the two Overview and Scrutiny Committees of the Council. The Committee was advised that this report was a reflection of the last year of Scrutiny within this Committee and the Resources and Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee. The Committee was invited to comment on what it wanted to see reflected in the Annual Report and that this report would go to Full Council on 12 July 2022 (with the Work Programme).

In respect of the Work Programme 2022/23, the Head of Democratic Services and Elections advised the Committee that it had before them comments and suggestions by the public and various other stakeholders on what they would like to enquire into. Some of those thoughts included focusing on measure to regenerate Clacton Town Centre and looking back at health and education enquiries.

The process of developing the Work Programme for 2022/23 had involved;

·         Requests to all District Councillors for items – dated 3 May 2022

·         Requests to Cabinet Members – dated 3 May 2022

·         Requests to Parish Town Councils for items – dated 3 May 2022

·         A press release and social media posts inviting ideas on 4 May 2022

·         Council staff invited to suggest items on 13 May 2022

·         A meeting between the Leader, Deputy Leader, Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive, Head of Democratic Services and Elections and the two Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chairmen to explore ideas – held on 17 May 2022

·         Training on 25 May 2022 for Councillors on using approaches such as Task and Finish Groups, briefing papers, enquiry days, standing panels , when undertaking Overview and Scrutiny enquiries and reflecting this in its Work Programme.

The Committee’s attention was drawn to the requirements of the Council’s constitution in developing, and seeking approval for, its Work Programme proposals. 

The Committee was directed to two suggestions for the work programme. The first picked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.