Agenda and minutes

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

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Morrison (with no substitution).

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on Monday 30 June 2022.

It was RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on Thursday 30 June 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.

There were no declarations of interest by Councillors in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting.

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.

Pursuant to the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 38, Councillor Griffiths asked the following question:-

“I read the decision regarding the purchase of the new beach patrol equipment with interest..  While reading the report I was quite concerned to read "Clacton and Frinton Beach Patrol Station Quad bikes   are beyond repair and no longer available to use”. Why are we not replacing the equipment while it is still in working order?  This would allow some resale value, and more importantly would mean the beach patrol had functioning equipment.   Can we also clarify if the lack of availability of the equipment compromised the beach patrols effectiveness during this period”?

The Chairman responded based on information provided to him, as follows:-

In the absence of the quad bikes at Clacton and Frinton Beach Patrol Station, please be assured that other temporary measures were put in place to ensure the stations were still operating fully. For instance, manually moving equipment where possible and using the Mule (small vehicle) to help support the manoeuvre of equipment.

I can advise that the old quad bikes for Walton and Clacton are still within TDC stock and are located at Northbourne with the Council’s Open Space and Transport Manager. A decision on what will be the next steps for this equipment will be taken shortly.  Subject to that advice and the obvious compliance with the Council’s constitution, this may include the option for trade-in or a direct sale of this equipment.  An update will be provided once a decision has been finalised.

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 informed the Committee that it had the full list of proposed decisions referred to in the report and advised that, under Rule 13, Councillors could discuss anything that is in that list. However due notice must be given, 2 working days in advance of the meeting and no notice had been given. It was informed that if any members of the Committee wanted to put forward items from the report on proposed decisions for the work programme 2022/23 that this would be the appropriate time in the meeting.

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 report set out the recommendations from the meeting of the Committee on 30 June 2022 (Minute 14 refers) on the Waste, Recycling and Littering enquiry and the interim response of Cabinet on 15 July 2022 to those recommendations.

The Committee was reminded, by the Head of Democratic Services and Elections, that recommendations from earlier meetings had previously been reported to it and had not been repeated in this report. It was RESOLVED to note the report.

To present to the Committee a draft detailed Work Programme 2022/23, to consider the detail and ordering of the Work Programme.

The Head of Democratic Services and Elections invited the Committee to consider the list that was circulated at the meeting of Members who had volunteered to sit on the forthcoming Task and Finish groups.

This list had been considered by the Chairman who invited the Committee to approve the membership o the various Task and Finish groups for the scrutiny enquiries identified. The list also identified who it was proposed to chair each Task and Finish group, The list was as follows:

Other Councillors had volunteered to sit on task and Finish groups. Those not identified in the list would be thanked for volunteering.

The reference to the item of enquiry in the above list needed to be read against the approved enquires scope approved by Council on 12 July 2022 (Minute 29 refers).

After a short discussion the Committee RESOLVED to approve the Membership/Chairman details in the list circulated at the meeting for Task and Finish groups identified and, consequently, authorised Task and Finish groups to commence the scrutiny enquires concerned as approved by Council.

To provide an overview of the Council’s financial outturn for the year 2021/22 and the allocation of the associated General Fund Variance for the year.

The Committee was advised that due to a clerical error, the Committee had been supplied with a financial report that was not the Financial Outturn Report for 2022/23. Although the correct report had been circulated once the error had been identified it had not enabled the full time for Councillors on the Committee to consider it prior to the meeting.

It was RESOLVED to postpone consideration of the financial Outturn 2022/23 report to a future meeting of the Committee.