Transcript

Transcript

Right, good evening, everybody. Welcome to this evening's meeting. It is six o'clock, so we'll make a start. The first item of business is to elect a chairman for the new municipal year, so can I ask for nominations to that position, please? Good evening. As you did such an excellent job last year, I'd like to nominate Councillor Alan Thiena for the position. Thank you very much. Is that seconded? Gail Sleigh will second it. Thank you very much. Are there any further nominations? No, so that's uncontested. Councillor Thiena, can I invite you to take the chair? Thank you very much. A little bit presumptuous, I think, but there we go. Well, I'd like to welcome everyone back to the Stronger Communities and Neighbourhood Services Scrutiny Board, who was with us last year. We have some new faces, obviously, of Councillor Holt, Councillor Green, Councillor Rolf. I think I'm right in saying this used to be your cabinet portfolio. I'm looking forward to it. Exactly. That'd be a first for me. So just our first statement, obviously, is to remind everyone this meeting is being broadcast live on the council's website and will be archived for future viewing. And can we remind all attendees to use their microphones? Thank you very much. We will move to the second substantive item, which is the appointment of a vice chair for 2024/25. And to kick that off, I'd like to propose Councillor O'Nyons. Do we have a seconder? It's our seconder. Thank you very much, Councillor Green. Do we have any other nominations for the position of vice chair? I see none. Thank you very much, Councillor O'Nyons. Thank you very much indeed. So do we have any declarations of interest? No questions and or deputations? No. In which case, we will turn to the minutes of the last meeting. Yes, I tell you what, why don't we go back and I'll do those apologies that were on the agenda. Thank you, Chairman. You have apologies from Councillor Hawkins this evening, your cabinet portfolio holder for environment and infrastructure. Apologies from Councillor Parker, who will be joining you, cabinet member for housing, but he's running slightly late. And also apologies from Councillor Laura McCarthy. She's in attendance virtually this evening, but not physically present in the meeting. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed. So before I skipped over that, we had got as far as the minutes of the last meeting, which are on pages five to 10 of your agenda pack. So do we have any comments, questions to do with the minutes of the previous meeting? I see none. So we'll accept those as a true record. In which case, we are now going to move on to the cabinet portfolio priorities. We are going to begin with communities and that is going to be courtesy of Councillor Kajst. Thank you, Chair. Congratulations on your appointment as a chair and for Councillor Orlans as well as a vice chair. Welcome, members. And good evening to this first scrutiny committee of this municipal year and to the new members as well. My report is just before you and the members who were here in the last meeting in March. This report was presented back in March, which is on your minutes as well. Some of the changes that I would like to highlight is the public health and leisure is a move to the adult social care and health portfolio, which is Councillor D'Sico's portfolio and element of tourism has been added as part of this portfolio. There is also some priorities added on the regulatory services for 23-24, which is listed on page 13 of this report. And I will take any questions. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councillor Kajst. Do we have any questions on the cabinet members report for communities? Just a little minute just to flick through the papers if we need to. Can you tell us a little bit about the domestic abuse delivery plan and what anticipated changes, albeit that in the year ahead? We haven't got Neeraj at the moment with us, I don't know Alison if you've got any details on that, but we do going to have a strategy for 25-27 in place, which will refresh the plan. But if you have any specific questions, please write it to me or to Neeraj and we are happy to give you an answer on that. Alison, do you want to add anything? I can't really give you any more detail on that. I could come back with an answer, but I couldn't. Thank you very much. Do we have any other questions? I see none in that case. I'm just going to just to highlight a few events that's happening, which is the 22nd of June, Solihull together. It's going to be a great afternoon of entertainment and performance. It will represent the diverse culture that we've got in Solihull. So I will encourage everybody, if you can make it do, please come along to that event. And we also have beacons of light for the D-Day in Almondon Park on 6th of June. So I would encourage you, if you want to come to that, that would be a great event as well. Thank you. I'm sure we're all going to be very grateful for a break off the campaign trail now that we know we're back on it. You can't beat two purders in three months, can you? We have Councillor Carthier and then Councillor Donnelly. Thank you, Chair. Yes. So thank you for the report. Do we have any update on the on the faith covenant for 24, 25? Remember, asked about it last time. Yeah. And if if there's a members have the opportunity to have input into the development. Yeah, it is on the scrutiny work plan for next year to come and consult with the scrutiny board. We haven't got a date for it, but we will come back and put it on their forward plan. Thank you very much, Councillor Donnelly. Yeah. On the 6th of June, we've got D-Day commemoration as well at King'shurst. It starts with the. We've got a poppy cascade off the seeds of hope church, and then he goes right through to the lighting of the beacon at nine o'clock on the night. So everybody's welcome to that as well. Could I just make a comment about bereavement services as well? And it's about the Woodlands Cemetery crematorium. I've had to go there a lot lately. And I think it's quite shocking, really, the way that there's only one way in and out and that people have to queue with the coffins to come in whilst people get out of the car park. You know, because people are upset, as it is, and then it can sound quite bad, but also the crematorium itself is looking a bit shabby. Yeah. If I could just a couple of comments. I was in the funeral world for 11 years before moving into the prison service. I did a lot of services at Woodlands. It's not a problem that's unique to Woodlands to do with timed funeral slots. And sometimes if one overruns, they can run into the other one, which is unfortunate. But Woodlands actually does have quite a generous time slot in terms for people to be able to come in, have the service and then leave without the two meetings. It's usually because something's gone wrong that they would ever meet. All I would say, obviously, bereavement now, if I'm right in saying, sits in resources. If I'm right in saying that. It is in this portfolio with registration. That's great, because I remember raising it with the cabinet member and got told it sat. You're right, Chair. It used to be sat under resources, but it has moved to this portfolio. Alison, do you want to make any comments? Yeah, actually, I think it's good news, really. We are currently in the process of upgrading the facilities at Woodlands and looking at the fixtures and fittings. It is tired. It does need a little bit of work. Those plans are in train, so you should see some improvements in terms of the chapel and some of the work that we're doing. In terms of the in and out, it does limit the ability to use that crematorium. One of the things that we're looking at is whether we put a second cremator in. If we put a second cremator, we acknowledge we've got to do more with the in and out to be able to have that floor. There's currently a piece of scoping work being done around both of those aspects, so hopefully it is something that we would be able to bring to you for discussion, possibly later in the year. Thank you very much. I'm glad to see that's come into this portfolio, because that's where I've always felt it belongs. I do have a very keen interest on it. In fact, that was one of my portfolio pieces when I was at Worcester City Council. So yes, very much looking forward to that, so we can probably come to that at the work plan. I think that's something we could definitely do to get on that. The only other comment I had, while everyone's promoting their events, actually comes under our cultural recovery. I just wanted to pass on my sincere praise to the team who partnered up with the art tricks when the core sadly had to be closed, the main house. I am now performing in two shows at the art tricks, a theatre which would have otherwise been closed were it not for this council partnering to get it reopened. I can say the people of Bronzegrove are loving it, and as I say, that's a theatre that would still be closed if it wasn't for us. Our loss is their gain, but real evidence of quality partnership working, so really well done. I'll let you know what shows it's in. I think I'm playing Michael Caine's part in the one that's coming up. Anyway, enough of that. If we have no more questions on communities, we are going to move on to the portfolio priorities for environment and infrastructure. That report is going to be presented in Councillor Hawkins' absence by Sue Proctor. Thank you, Chair. As we've heard, Councillor Hawkins has sent his apologies to this meeting, and I'll be introducing the item on his behalf. This report is before you and presents the priorities of the cabinet portfolio holder for environment and infrastructure for 2024-25, covering the areas of highways and environment. This is largely as it was presented by Councillor Hawkins at the last meeting of the scrutiny board, with a little more detail in some parts. I'm not going to propose that I go through it line by line in the details of the report, as it's within your agenda packs, but I'm happy to take your questions and attempt to answer them here, and if I can't, then I'll take them away and provide the information later. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do we have any questions for Sue? Councillor Slade? Thank you. It's probably more of an observation than a question. 4.4, the continued delivery of the local cycling and walking infrastructure. That's the shared spaces, I assume. That's what you're talking about there. I'm assuming it'll be a mix of shared spaces, but also segregated spaces. It's the whole programme. Okay. Where I live, we've got a couple, but what's really sad to see, I mean, a lot of money's obviously been spent, especially on the one. It's on quite a main road, in and out of Marston Green, but the shared space now is becoming smaller and smaller, because the hedgerows are not being maintained, and all the moss is growing over the pavement, so you're lucky if you can actually walk in some spots, never mind past cyclists as well, if you know what I mean. So if that's something we could look at, because it has cost us a lot of money over the years. Definitely, yes, and if you wanted to let me have the details of the location of that, we'll make sure that we look at the, because that's the ongoing maintenance of the routes that needs to be looked at. Okay, thank you. Do we have any other questions or comments? I see none. This report is purely for noting, so there's no decisions to be taken on that. So we will move now to the report of the cabinet portfolio for housing, and in Councillor Parker's absence... So in Councillor Parker's absence, we're going to actually move to item, move to the next item, item 10, which is the work programme. So we have obviously lost one or two items around leisure centres, public health, which covered substance misuse, which is obviously something we really did scrutinise quite heavily last year. However, we can bring that back to our statutory crime and justice meeting later in the year, so that is very much open for members to consider. I mentioned about, if we could please put a bereavement services update onto the work programme. Now that that sits in our portfolio, that would be much appreciated. Do members have any other items they wish to add on, take off, anything at all? I try to make sure that the work programme is very, very open, very, very flexible. We will now move to item 10, which is the work programme. I was going to say, you're swithering whether to put the hand up there, Councillor Carthier, but you're very welcome. Thank you, Chair. I was wondering if, could we potentially have a topic on, oh, we've got the waste strategy, yeah, I was wondering about that. Could I ask a question about the highways portfolio again, or is it too late now? No, I'll allow it. Okay, thank you. Sorry, do we know when the food waste collections are going to come in, because that's quite a big change to, obviously, the council waste collections, really. Yeah, the mandatory requirements of us as a collection authority is to deliver those by the end of March 2026. So, as I said in the report, we're working with Veolia now to look at what that delivery would look like, and that would form part of the report that's coming back to this board later this year. Do we have any other queries relating to the work programme? And I suppose I would say, are officers comfortable with the work programme as laid out? You know, we're comfortable we can get all the necessary reports and information pulled together as laid out. So, we did move a couple of bits and pieces around last year, which was absolutely fine. Okay, in that case, we'll accept the work programme as is, but as I say, it's very much a living document, so if there's anything members come across that they would like to see on it, please just ask, you're very welcome. Okay. I was just going to say, as Councillor Parker hasn't joined us yet, I've had indications from Satnam Core that she's happy to present the cabinet portfolio priorities and take what questions she can. Thank you, Chair. I've taken the report as read, but just to say that the priorities listed in the report at 3.5 mirror those that were tabled with this board in March. There's been no changes. As you can see, it's a comprehensive programme. I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you. Do we have any questions on the cabinet portfolio priorities for housing? Councillor Rolf. Sorry, can I just ask, section five, paragraph five, the Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Committee, forgive me, I've been out of this for a little while now, how does that work as far as this board scrutinising that works, please? Do we have a specific thing on the work plan or does it just come in reports? Thank you, Councillor, I'll ask Alison to respond to that if that's okay, thank you. On the work plan, there's a specific meeting in November where we focus on all of the crime and community safety aspects, so that will be a review of the strategic needs assessment and the priorities for the partnership for the following year, so that comes to this board in November. But it's not within the housing aspect, it's in the communities bit. Excellent, thank you. Councillor Holt. Can I ask what the challenges are considered to be with regard to the council's high-rise residential buildings issue in terms of building safety currently? So Councillor Holt, you may be aware that there's new legislation, the Building Safety Act, that's been passed, and as a result of that, our buildings that are 18 metres or more need to be registered with the Building Safety Regulator. And we need to ensure the safety of residents and the safety of the buildings in respect of fire risk and also the big six-ticket items in relation to compliance around gas, electrical safety, Legionella, lifts, asbestos, all the things that you'll be familiar with. A couple of the challenges, there are many challenges, but I'll probably highlight the main two. One is around the change in regulation in terms of permissions moving from building control to the new Building Safety Regulator. So some of the issues that we're finding is correspondence and communication with the Building Safety Regulator is not where it needs to be in order for us to progress some of the projects. So we're working on trying to address that, but obviously dependent on the communication with the Building Safety Regulator. And some of the other things that we've done is undertaken surveys so that we know where we are in terms of fire risk and those sorts of things. But the other thing to add, the second challenge is around ensuring that there's sufficient funding over a period of time moving forward to address the challenges that are coming out of the surveys where high-rise blocks aren't considered to be fit for purpose over a longer period of time. That's a very comprehensive reply and very much appreciated. Is the relationship between the Arms Length Management Organisation and the Council a challenge in itself? Sorry, Councillor, could you just repeat the question? I wasn't sure whether you were saying the relationship was challenging or is it... No, is it that the relationship itself is a challenge in the sense that from a regulatory perspective it's an issue? The challenge is about increased assurance that the Council now requires, not just in terms of Building Safety Act but also the Social Housing Regulation Act. So the challenge is how do we gain that greater assurance given that we are still the landlord and we always have been, but the services are being delivered by Sally Hall Community Housing. So we're working on looking at what that governance looks like and how we can streamline it so we're able to tell a comprehensive story so that everyone's on that same page regardless of whether it's the Council or Sally Hall Community Housing. Because I'll be at pains to say that it's the Council that's ultimately the accountable and responsible body. That's very reassuring, thank you. Thank you very much indeed. I just wanted to, before I bring Councillor Carthy in, just on the topic of assurance. As we all know, assurance requires someone's got to check the homework. So I mean, who in that case then would be responsible for dip testing the assurance that we're receiving to make sure that it is in fact genuine and robust? So ultimately it's for the Council and so that's part of my role and my team, but also some of the measures that we're putting in place is periodically to get external validation. And also via our internal audit programme there'll be validation through that as well, so they're the kind of main measures. That's fine, thank you very much indeed. Councillor Carthy. Thank you Chair. So just with the 2024-25 priorities, is it possible to have a priority just especially encouraging private development to build eco-homes. Homes already having energy efficient basically insulation and everything like that. Because it says about retrofitting, but I'd like to try and encourage every builder in the borough to just make sure most of their homes are really eco-friendly. So we don't have to retrofit them in the future essentially. Thank you Councillor. My understanding is that that is contained within our planning policy, so that's how it's driven in terms of those developer contributions and ensuring that standards are met, the new net zero and things like that on new development. So it's within the planning portfolio as opposed to the housing one. That's great, thank you very much. Welcome Councillor Parker. We're finished, you can go. Yeah, many apologies for being late, I really am sorry, but the traffic and the weather obviously slowed traffic down. But if you wish me to add any words, I will do so at your invitation. If not, then that's it. I would say Satnam's done an absolutely excellent job. If there was any comments you wanted to add on top, if there was anything within the report you were specifically wanting to put across, I'm sure members would be very happy to hear. Only just to say that we are continuing the good work that we started last year on the backdrop of increasing social housing regulation, building and fire safety. I chaired the QMB board on Monday night, I know SCH is working very hard to make sure that all our processes are in place, work is on continuing, but there is much more to do as well. So we're not resting on our laurels, but we're doing our best. Thank you very much indeed. Just on, if anyone had a question for Councillor Parker now he's here, very welcome. I see none. So in which case, then there are no decisions recommended against this. It's a report for noting if members are happy to note that report and that in which case brings us to the end of our agenda. Thank you very much, everyone, for attending. I appreciate that was a fairly swift meeting, but lots of great work to do over the year. And I look forward to working with yourselves and our great team of officers. Thank you.

• Thank you. [ Silence ]