Policy and Resources Committee - 23 January 2023

POLICY AND RESOURCES COMMITTEE

NOTICE AND AGENDA

For a meeting to be held on Monday 23 January 2023 at 7.30pm in the Penn Chamber, Three Rivers, Northway, Rickmansworth.

Members of the Policy and Resources Committee:-

Councillors

Sarah Nelmes (Chair)

Stephen Giles-Medhurst (Vice-Chair) (Infrastructure & Planning Policy)      Paul Rainbow (Transport & Economic Development)

Andrew Scarth (Housing)

Stephen Cox

Phillip Hearn

Chris Lloyd (Leisure)

Keith Martin (Resources & Shared Services)

Abbas Merali      Roger Seabourne (Community Safety &

Partnerships)

Reena Ranger

Ciaran Reed

Phil Williams (Environmental Services, Climate Change & Sustainability)

Joanne Wagstaffe Chief Executive

13 January 2023

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public on agenda items at the Policy and Resources Committee meetings. Details of the procedure are provided below:

For those wishing to speak:

Members of the public are entitled to register and identify which item(s) they wish to speak on from the published agenda for the meeting.  Those who wish to register to speak are asked to register on the night of the meeting from 7pm.  Please note that contributions will be limited to one person speaking for and one against each item for not more than three minutes.

In the event of registering your interest to speak on an agenda item but not taking up that right because the item is deferred, you will be given the right to speak on that item at the next meeting of the Committee.

Those wishing to observe the meeting are requested to arrive from 7pm.

In accordance with The Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 any matters considered under Part I business only of the meeting may be filmed, recorded, photographed, broadcast or reported via social media by any person.

Recording and reporting the Council’s meetings is subject to the law and it is the responsibility of those doing the recording and reporting to ensure compliance.  This will include the Human Rights Act, the Data Protection Legislation and the laws of libel and defamation.

The meeting will not be broadcast/livestreamed but an audio recording of the meeting will be made.

1.   APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

2.  MINUTES

To confirm as a correct record the Minutes of the Policy and Resources Committee meeting held on 5 December 2022.

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3.  NOTICE OF OTHER BUSINESS

Items of other business notified under Council Procedure Rule 30 to be announced, together with the special circumstances that justify their consideration as a matter of urgency. The Chair to rule on the admission of such items.

4.  DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

To receive any declarations of interest.

POLICY

5.  CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT TOOL DECISION MAKING

The report requests the Committee’s approval for use of the Sustainability Impact Assessment Tool as mandatory in policy and project development, decision-making and committee reports.

-05-23-01-23-pr-i-climate-and-sustainability-impact-assesment-tool-report-05ix-23-01-23-pr-i-climate-and-sustainability-impact-assesment-template.pdf (pdf)

6.  FIT AND PROPER PERSON ASSESSMENT POLICY

To propose to the Committee a new Fit and Proper Person Assessment Policy to ensure the Council’s compliance in its duties to the residents of Mobile Homes Sites in the District.

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7.  FIT AND PROPER PERSON FEE POLICY

To propose to the Committee a new Fit and Proper Person Fee Policy to set out the fees that the Council will charge for any application for an assessment as a Fit and Proper Person to manage a relevant protected site within the district as per the Mobile Homes (Requirement for Manager of Site to be Fit and Proper Person) (England) Regulations 2020.

The full policy is contained in Appendix A.

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RESOURCES

8.  FINANCIAL PLANNING – REVENUE SERVICES

The purpose of this report is to enable the Policy and Resources Committee to recommend to the Council the updated revenue budget for 2022/23, proposed revenue budget for 2023/24 and indicative revenue budget for 2024/25 and 2025/26. These budgets form the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP).

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9.  FINANCIAL PLANNING – CAPITAL STRATEGY AND THE TREASURY MANAGEMENT POLICY

The purpose of this report is to enable the Policy and Resources Committee to recommend to the Council its capital strategy and treasury management policy over the medium term (2023/24 to 2025/26).  This report is the second of three that is covered under the recommendations report at Item 10 on this agenda.

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10.  FINANCIAL PLANNING – RECOMMENDATIONS

This report enables the Committee to make its recommendations on the Council’s Revenue and Capital budgets and Treasury Management Policy for the period 2023/24 to 2025/26 (medium term) to Council on 21 February 2023.

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11.  COUNCIL MOTION REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE UNDER RULE 11(6)

At the Council meeting on 13 December 2022 it was noted that the motion below had been referred to the Policy and Resources Committee meeting on 23 January 2023 under Rule 11(6) of the Council Constitution

Councillor Abbas Merali, seconded by Councillor Alison Wall to move under Notice duly the motion as given as follows:

This Council believes its Customer Services Centre (CSC) should be easily accessible to all trying to call it.

This Council acknowledges that over many months, call answering times have been unacceptably slow throughout the working week. Call queue position numbers are frequently in double digits resulting in waiting times of 15 minutes or more.

This Council resolves immediately to address the slow speed of call answering by the CSC and aim to ensure that call waiting times do not regularly exceed five minutes.

12.  COUNCIL MOTION REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE UNDER RULE 11(6)

At the Council meeting on 13 December 2022 it was noted that the motion below had been referred to the Policy and Resources Committee meeting on 23 January 2023 under Rule 11(6) of the Council Constitution

Councillor Chris Mitchell, seconded by Councillor Ciaran Reed to move under Notice duly the motion as given as follows:

We thank Josh Sills for the Sept and Oct stats for the wait time on answering phone calls to TRDC.  Cllr Chris Mitchell is still getting complaints from residents who have waited for over 30 minutes and even 40 minutes for an answer. One, a 75-year-old, who has said she will not ring Three Rivers again because she cannot cope with the long waits. If we believe in good customer service then this is totally unacceptable. Our understanding is that if we were trying to sell goods 50% of callers abandon the call after 45 seconds, and if we were providing technical support 50% of caller abandon the call after 95 seconds. We are providing customer service, so people will hang on longer, but get very frustrated and it gives Three Rivers a bad name.

The Council therefore resolves to:

1. Set a target of 80% of calls been answered within 90 seconds to be achieved in a reasonable time period, say by April 2023, to allow sufficient training of staff.
2. This can be achieved by using extra staff at peak periods for short periods of time to back up the customer services team.

13.  MEMBERSHIP OF THE LOCAL PLAN SUB-COMMITTEE

To note that Councillor Raj Khiroya has replaced Councillor Jon Tankard on the Local Plan sub-committee.

14.  WORK PROGRAMME

To receive the Committee’s work programme.

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15.  OTHER BUSINESS – if approved under Item 3 above

16.  EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

If the Committee wishes to consider the remaining items in private, it will be appropriate for a resolution to be passed in the following terms:-

“that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined under Paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act. It has been decided by the Council that in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.”

(Note:  If other confidential business is approved under item 3, it will also be necessary to specify the class of exempt or confidential information in the additional items.)

1.  TO RECEIVE THE RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE LOCAL PLAN SUB-COMMITTEE AT THEIR MEETING HELD ON 7 DECEMBER 2022

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2.  OTHER BUSINESS – If approved under item 3 above.

For any enquires on the agenda please email the Committee Team at committeeteam@threerivers.gov.uk