Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were submitted from Councillors Keith Baker, Laura Blumenthal, Chris Bowring, David Chopping, Richard Dolinski, Charlotte Haitham Taylor, Pauline Helliar-Symons, Emma Hobbs, David Lee, Julian McGhee-Sumner, Philip Mirfin, Angus Ross, Chris Singleton, Paul Swaddle and Shahid Younis.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest received.

To answer any public questions.

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the item included within the agenda.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Council or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

In accordance with the agreed procedure the Mayor invited members of the public to submit questions to the appropriate Members.

Question

Can the Executive Member responsible please explain why this contract scheduled for debate at the extraordinary Council meeting next Tuesday which relates to a contract renewal which was entered into in June 2010 and January 2012 and with an expiry date at the end of January 2017 were not scheduled earlier? This would have allowed a proper debate and consultation to take place. Is this considered normal practice for Wokingham Borough Council?

Answer

The shared service agreement with West Berkshire Council will expire in January 2017. The Council has considered alternative arrangements to enable it to meet its statutory responsibilities to provide environmental health, licencing and trading standards services. The Council’s Executive is responsible to authorise the setting up of any alternative and in November 2016, it authorised a new Public Protection Partnership between Wokingham Borough Council, West Berkshire Council (host) and Bracknell Forest Council. This followed the item appearing on the Council’s Executive Forward Programme for many months in advance.

Under the new partnership arrangement, a Joint Committee will be responsible for the strategic direction of the partnership. This will be made up of two elected members from each authority. As a result of recent case law that has indicated that only Full Council can set up this type of Joint Committee, an extraordinary meeting has been arranged. This is only necessary to authorise that this committee is set up and not to agree to the setting up the Public Protection Partnership that has already been authorised.

To consider a report relating to the setting up of a Joint Committee with West Berkshire and Bracknell Forest Councils following the Executive’s agreement on 24 November 2016 to enter into a shared service arrangement for the delivery of Public Protection services.

RECOMMENDATION:  That the Council agrees following agreement by the Council’s Executive to enter into a shared service arrangement for the delivery of Public Protection services with Bracknell Forest Council and  West Berkshire Council (host) commencing January 2017:-

1)        to authorise the creation of a Joint Committee with West Berkshire Council (host) and Bracknell Forest Council through the Public Protection Partnership (PPP) to determine policy, strategy and oversee the performance monitoring and management of the new PPP;

2)        to delegate to the Joint Committee WBC Council (non-Executive) functions in respect of public protection to enable the Joint Committee to further delegate the operational functions to the managers of the shared service;

3)        to authorise the appointment of the Executive Member for Resident Services and his/her Deputy  together with one substitute member (to be agreed by the Executive Member for Resident Services) onto the Joint Committee.

The Council considered a report, as set out on Agenda pages 5 to 14, relating to the setting up of a Joint Committee with West Berkshire and Bracknell Forest Councils following the Executive’s agreement on 24 November 2016 to enter into a shared service arrangement for the delivery of public protection services.

The Executive Member for Resident Services reminded the meeting that the Executive had already agreed to the creation of the Shared Service and the purpose of this report was the setting up of a Joint Committee which would set key performance indicators, service levels, measure performance and also set policies and financial arrangements. This would provide improved control over policies and budget setting.  Councillor Jorgensen also confirmed that the role of the Council’s Licensing Committee would not be affected by the new arrangements. 

Councillor Jorgensen advised the meeting that the new partnership was expected to make a saving of £50k which was in addition to the £180k per annum which had been realised from the original joint service with West Berkshire.

During discussion of the item Members raised concerns that an extraordinary Council meeting had to be called to consider this matter and had the item been better timetabled could have been considered at the November Council meeting.  Some Members also stated that they felt that the saving of £50k seemed insignificant for such a large contract.

It was proposed by Pauline Jorgensen and seconded by Alison Swaddle that the recommendations contained in the report be agreed.

Prior to a vote being held, six Members, in accordance with Procedure Rule 4.2.15.5, requested that a recorded vote be taken on the item.  The voting was as follows:

RESOLVED:  That following agreement by the Executive to enter into a shared service arrangement for the delivery of Public Protection services with Bracknell Forest Council and West Berkshire Council (host) commencing January 2017 Council agrees to:

1)        authorise the creation of a Joint Committee with West Berkshire Council (host) and Bracknell Forest Council through the Public Protection Partnership (PPP) to determine policy, strategy and oversee the performance monitoring and management of the new PPP;

2)        delegate to the Joint Committee WBC Council (non-Executive) functions in respect of public protection to enable the Joint Committee to further delegate the operational functions to the managers of the shared service;

3)        authorise the appointment of the Executive Member for Resident Services and his/her Deputy  together with one substitute member (to be agreed by the Executive Member for Resident Services) onto the Joint Committee.