Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

No apologies for absence were received.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 12 October 2016.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Board held on12 October 2016 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest made.

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 work of this committee.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee 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

There were no public questions.

To answer any Member questions.

There were no Member questions.

To receive a report regarding changes to Staff Car Parking.

The Personnel Board received a report regarding proposed changes to staff car parking arrangements and the Staff Travel and Expense Policy.

During the discussion of the report the following points were made:

·           Members were informed that the current staff parking scheme needed to change in response to the town centre regeneration projects which would impact the available capacity and location of car parking for staff from May 2017. 

·           Staff had been consulted on the possible options.

·           The following was proposed:

Ø  If frequent business travel was required during the working day, the allocated car park would be that which was closest to the employee’s office.

Ø  Other employees in the scheme whose role did not provide this entitlement would be allocated parking at the long term peripheral car parks (i.e. Carnival Pool and Easthampstead Road East).  They would be issued with a permit valid for both car parks, with their route into Wokingham most likely to inform which car park was selected.

Ø  Employees within the scheme whose role required them to regularly attend evening meetings at Shute End would be entitled to move their car to Shute End after 4pm.

·           It was noted that Members’ car parking arrangements would remain unchanged.

·           The part of The Paddocks car park reserved for staff parking would close but this would not occur until the Carnival Pool car park was available.

·           In response to a Member question Sarah Swindley clarified that staff car parking permits were currently paid for via a salary sacrifice scheme.

·           Service managers would be asked to identify those in their teams who frequently undertook business travel during the working day.

·           Several Members expressed concern regarding the safety of staff working evening meetings at Shute End in winter who would potentially have to travel in the dark to a car park situated further away in order to move their car.  They questioned whether a number of parking spaces in Shute End could be made available for such members of staff.  The Board was informed that modelling had been carried out by the Project Team. 

·           Sarah Swindley indicated that there would be 201 spaces in Shute End.  Billy Webster reminded Members that there would be a further reduction in Shute End car parking spaces in future as a result of the town centre regeneration.

·           Members requested that information be provided at the next Board meeting regarding the number of staff who regularly undertook business travel within working hours and therefore required a parking space closest to their main office, and also the number of disabled parking spaces.

·           It was proposed that the usage of Shute End car park be reviewed 6 months after the implementation of the changes to ascertain whether there was capacity for car parking spaces for those members of staff who would be regularly attending evening meetings.

·           The Board was informed of changes to the Staff Travel and Expense Policy which had been refreshed to provide better clarity over roles and responsibilities and to reflect current legislative implications.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.