Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Jeffrey Room, St. Giles Square, Northampton, NN1 1DE.

Contact: Tracy Tiff, Scrutiny Officer, telephone 01604 837408 (direct dial), email  ttiff@northampton.gov.uk 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Terrie Eales, Councillor Cathrine Russell substituted and Councillor John Caswell.

2.

Deputations/Public Addresses

The Chair to note public address requests.

 

The public can speak on any agenda item for a maximum of three minutes per speaker per item.  You are not required to register your intention to speak in advance but should arrive at the meeting a few minutes early, complete a Public Address Protocol and notify the Scrutiny Officer of your intention to speak.

Minutes:

Councillors Jane Birch, Clement Chunga, Gareth Eales, Brian Markham and Mr Colin Croucher, St James’ Residents’ Association addressed the Call In Hearing.

3.

Declarations of Interest (Including Whipping)

Members to state any interests.

Minutes:

There were none.

4.

Call-In of Cabinet Decision of 16 November 2016: Item 11: Re-Provision of the Environmental Services Contract pdf icon PDF 345 KB

Called in by Councillors Danielle Stone and Anamul Haque (copy attached.)

 

Item 11:  Re-Provision of the Environmental Services Contract:

 

Decision

 

                                          i.    Cabinet agreed that with effect from the 6th June 2018, to Contract Out Environmental Services to an external provider selected through an OJEU procurement process.

                                        ii.    Cabinet delegated authority to carry out the OJEU procurement process to the Director of Customers and Communities, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment.

                                       iii.    Cabinet approved a supplementary estimate to create a budget for the OJEU procurement process of up to £400,000, to be funded from the ‘Delivering the Efficiency Plan’ reserve, in accordance with paragraph 4.2.8 of the report.

                                       iv.    Cabinet agreed to receive quarterly update reports on progress against the programme.

 

Procedure for the Call-In Hearing

 

Public speakers will be asked to address the Committee; a maximum of three minutes is given to each to make comment.

 

The Call-In Authors, Councillors Danielle Stone and Anamul Haque, will be invited to expand upon their reasons for concern, following which the Overview and Scrutiny Committee will question the Call-In Authors.

 

Councillor Jonathan Nunn, Leader of the Council, and Councillor Mike Hallam, Cabinet Member for Environment, will be invited to make a presentation outlining his main reasons for the decision.  The Committee will then put questions to the Cabinet Member and Officers. 

 

Officers will be invited to give evidence and respond to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s questions.  The Officers will be asked to give their reasons for any recommendations or advice to Members. A question and answer session will follow.

 

The Call-In Authors will then be given the opportunity to add any points of clarification before any resolution or recommendation is moved.

 

The Chair will then sum up the findings regarding the Cabinet decision. If there are still concerns, the Chair will lead in the determination of the recommendation with reasons for consideration by Cabinet. At the conclusion of the debate and following response to all matters raised, the Chair will ask the Committee to vote to determine whether or not it upholds the decision of the Cabinet.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Upon the advice of the Borough Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, this Call-In request had been through the appropriate channels and it was confirmed that procedure had been followed. The Call-In Authors, Councillors Danielle Stone and Anamul Haque, would be invited to expand upon their reasons for concern, following which the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would question the Call-In Authors.

Councillor Jonathan, Leader of the Council, Councillor Mike Hallam, Cabinet member for Environment, would be invited to give evidence and respond to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s questions. The Cabinet Members would be asked to give their reasons for their recommendations or advice.  A questions and answer session would follow.

 

The Call-In Authors would then be given the opportunity to add any points of clarification before any resolution or recommendation be moved.

 

The Chair would then sum up the findings regarding the Cabinet decision. If there were still concerns, the Chair would lead in determination of the recommendation with reasons for consideration by Cabinet. At the conclusion of the debate and following responses to all matters raised, the Chair will ask the Committee to vote to determine whether or not it would uphold the decision of Cabinet.

 

The Chair invited ward Councillors and members of the public to address the Call In Hearing:

 

Mr Graham Croucher, St James Residents’ Association

 

Comments made included:

 

·         Resident Associations, such as St James Residents’ Association, did not appear to have been involved in the consultation process

·         There is a need for full consultation with organisations and stakeholders

·         It seemed that the decision had already been taken

·         None of the three options are significantly better

·         Scrutiny involvement is needed in this process

 

The Committee asked questions of Mr Croucher, made comment and heard:

 

·         In response to a query regarding the type of consultation that residents would like, Mr Croucher suggested that in his opinion there had been no consultation to date, a wider consultation with the general public and various groups is required.  He suggested co-option to Overview and Scrutiny.

·         Mr Croucher referred to unemptied bins and littering around the town.

 

 

The Committee heard from Councillor Brian Markham.  Key points:

 

·         There is a need for Overview and Scrutiny involvement in this process

·         There is a need to ensure that we get services, such as waste management, maintenance of parks, street cleaning etc. right

·         All three of the options are finely balanced; none significantly better than any of the others

·         The Council should consider different options for waste and grounds maintenance

 

 

The Committee heard from Councillor Gareth Eales.  Key points:

 

·         The importance of Scrutiny consideration of the Call-In was highlighted

·         There had been a lack of consultation; it is important to gather the views of the public

·         The decision was made, then there was consultation

·         It is important that the decision about the contract is right

·         It is not right to base the success criteria provided by the current Service Provider

 

The Committee asked questions of Councillor Eales and heard:

 

·         In response to a query regarding Overview  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.