The Council should concentrate on local business rather than big grandiose schemes
2012 kicks off for our nine It’s Our County councillors with Committee Work beginning again.
Since the May 2011 election when five committees were collapsed into one mega committee, most of this has been confined to Overview and Scrutiny (16 members, 3 It’s Our County with our own Liz Harvey the Vice Chair for Corporate Services matters). The next meeting is on 16 of January and has two Big Things to look at; the Amey Contract and the Budget.
Amey deals with most things in the Council right now from Street Cleaning to Public Rights of Way. The size of the Amey budget, revenue £7,718,297 and capital £9,971,982, says it all.
The Council currently has a Managing Agent Contract with Amey which began in September 2009 and runs until September 2013, so in theory it can all change then, but in the meantime the Committee has Targets and Incentives to scrutinise. These are aimed at improving services, 38 measures in all, which cover streets, increasing cycling, increasing biodiversity, using local products, carbon reduction, apprenticeships etc; all of them Good Things. The problem comes in measuring them, using indicators (PPI Partnership Performance Indicators to use the jargon).
Said Cllr Liz Harvey:
“Amey have taken over many traditional Council roles leaving the Council to manage the contract, rather than the services themselves. The Council are planning to buy-in more of the same with proposals for Cultural and Youth and Adult Services to go private. It is our job on Scrutiny to make sure end-users are served well and employees do not suffer.”
The next major item on the agenda is The Budget. This is a tough one for councillors because with a net budget of £158m (the gross is much larger), new grants, income streams, borrowing and capital spending; there are many figures to bamboozle and confuse. Big sums are wrapped up under broad headings and the agenda and setting are given in such a way as to lead Councillors to approve and move on. Opposition Councillors have to hold their nerve and be well briefed.
The Committee’s powers are limited, its “views will be considered by Cabinet” (they meet three days later on 19 January 2012). Nevertheless on the 16th they will be asked to accept a Government Grant rather than raise Council Tax by 2.5% (sounds a ‘no-brainer’ but there are strings attached) and to look at the balance of expenditure and targets for increased income generation.
A big political question for It’s Our County is ‘Should the Council be planning and paying for Capital Schemes at all, or should it just leave the market to get on with it’. The Council definitely thinks the former. Its expenditure plan on new projects is huge, £37m in the current and next year alone and £15m of this on what they call Economic Development. The £15m comes from grants and borrowing and includes:
- Broadband
- Flood alleviation at Rotherwas
- Relief Road around Hereford
- Developing Edgar Street Grid (just what has happened to ESG?)
- Housing development in Merton Meadows
- Higher Education Centre in Central City
- The Buttermarket Development
- Turning Model Farm (Ross) to an Industrial Estate
- Highway Maintenance
- A PFI (private finance package) Energy from Waste Plant in Worcester
You don’t need to be an accountant to see £15m won’t go far with this list and lots of it will be spent on just trying to get grants. The Council have realised this and have decided to stick with Broadband, Rotherwas and ESG for this year, but, will it make or lose jobs and what about the cost of borrowing. Does it make sense at all?
Said Cllr Mark Hubbard
“The real challenge is to strengthen, support and network the businesses which already exist in the county; not big, showy, projects with uncertain outcomes. We need to keep the money they generate cycling within the local economy by helping businesses to work with one another; recognise the distinctiveness and value of the market town network and the communities they represent and encourage new businesses to come to the towns; and support the towns and their inhabitants in rising to the challenge of growing local services.”
Future work for the Scrutiny Committee includes:
- Council Procurement Policy and Local Business and Local Employment
- Income and charging
- Planning System Review – Development Control and the operation of the Constitution
- Safeguarding Adults
- Safeguarding arrangements for Children
- Tourist Signing (Brown Signs)
If you have anything to say on any of this, the committee welcome (or so they say) questions from the public on any of the issues and on anything else you want scrutinised in the future. So go to the website and submit your question and, if you have the stomach for it, attend the meeting and see how it is done for yourself.
Notes:
Overview and Scrutiny Committee meets on Monday 16 January 2012 10.00 am at The Council Chamber, Brockington, 35 Hafod Road, Hereford
http://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=567&MId=3605&Ver=4 for the Overview and Scrutiny Agenda
http://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/documents/s25775/Final%20Version%20Joint%20Capital%20Strategy_2010.pdf for the Capital Expenditure Programme 2010-2013
Other Council Committees:
- Audit and Corporate Governance; 27 Jan, 9 March; 7 members; It’s Our County Liz Chave
- Cabinet; (observing only) 19 Jan, 15 Feb,
- Full Council; 3 Feb, 2 March
- Overview and Scrutiny; 18 Jan, 21 Feb; 16 members, It’s Our County Liz Harvey, Mark Hubbard, Jim Kenyon
- Planning; 1 Feb, 22 Feb; 19 members; It’s Our County Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes, Jim Kenyon
- Regulatory; 20 March, 10 April, 10 members, It’s Our County Charles Nichols
- Standards; 20 April, 3 members No It’s Our County
- Religious Education; 19 March, 3 Members, It’s Our County, Liz Chave
- Task and Finish; 13 January, 3 members, It’s Our County Jim Kenyon