Agenda and draft minutes

The following committee members were unable to attend the meeting and gave their apologies:

Councillor Chris Aldred

Councillor Tim Grogan

Councillor Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff

Councillor Subash Sharma – substituted by Councillor Eric Broadbent

Councillor Nick Brown – substituted by Councillor George Jabbour

Resolved – That the draft Minutes of the meeting held on 2 December 2024 be taken as read and signed as a true record.

All Members are invited to declare at this point any interests they have in items appearing on this agenda, including the nature of those interests.

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice to Melanie Carr of Democratic and Scrutiny Services and supplied the text (contact details below) by midday on Wednesday 26 February 2025, three working days before the day of the meeting.  Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item.  Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak:

·         at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes);

·         when the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.

If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not wish to be recorded, please inform the Chair who will instruct anyone who may be taking a recording to cease while you speak.

There were no public participants registered to speak at the meeting.

Purpose: To update the Corporate and Partnerships Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the progress of the transformation activity within the council, with particular focus on the Customer Strategy, IT systems consolidation and property rationalisation.

Considered – A report of the Corporate Director for Resources providing a progress update on transformation activity within the council, with a particular focus on the Customer Strategy, IT systems consolidation and property rationalisation.

Brigette Giles, interim Director of Transformation introduced the report and confirmed good progress was being made.  She also proposed that as part of her Autumn report, she provide an update on progress with harnessing the power of data.

In response to members questions, officers confirmed the following:

·            Work on the IT systems listed at page 21 of the report was in progress - based on the ongoing service consolidation work, it would likely be a further 18-24 months before all the IT systems were in place and in use.

·            Full service consolidation was dependent on IT

·            The council was proactively looking at how it might best use AI, with some already in use.

·            The Council was one of 25 local authorities working with the Government on a pilot looking to roll out some of central government’s AI technology.

·            IT design principals looked at both innovation and cost savings.  IT systems were not being replaced where the existing remained fit for purpose or would not become out of date quickly.

·            Recycling was considered when converging IT systems, but the aim was always to ‘adopt’ a system not ‘adapt’ a system (given the problems that had arisen as a result of previous system adaptions).

·            There was no plan to close the council office in Stokesley, and where a closure was being considered it would always be consulted on first.

·            There had been no job losses or changes to job descriptions as a result of the relocation of staff from North Yorkshire House in Scarborough.

Members noted the update on property rationalisation work to date and agreed it would be helpful to have a better understanding of the Council’s new Corporate Property Strategy.  They therefore requested that the Strategy be included in the next Transformation update scheduled for their June 2025 meeting.  Officers confirmed that should work on the Strategy may not have been completed by then, an update on its development would be provided in June instead.

The Chair thanked officers for their latest update, and it was

Resolved – That:

i.       The report be noted.

ii.      The Council’s new Corporate Property Strategy be included in the next Transformation update scheduled for the Committee’s June 2025 meeting.

Purpose – To update the Committee on projects and programmes undertaken by the Localities Service and Corporate Volunteering.

Considered – a report of the Assistant Chief Executive for Local Engagement presenting a bi-annual update on the work of the Localities Service, presented by Adele Wilson-Hope (Localities Area Manager) and Mark Codman (Parish Liaison and Local Devolution Manager).

In response to members’ questions the following was confirmed:

·          A number of double devolution deals were progressing, and some were close to completion.  It was acknowledged that the process was taking longer for some, but it was expected that a number of bids would come through in the next few months.   Members suggested that the process was very onerous and bureaucratic and as a result, was likely seen as a barrier to some Parish Councils.

·          In the first round of parish liaison meetings, it was intended to hold a drop-in surgery prior to the formal parish liaison meeting for parishes in each of the constituency areas.

·          The first round of Parish Council liaison meetings had just been completed.  The lessons learnt from the process were to be examined and future council officer participation in those meetings would be based on individual Parish Council requirements.  

·          The Household Support Fund would continue to fund local food support in 2025-26.

·          There would be no cost to the council associated with the expansion of the playspace partnership programme.

·          The number of community anchor organisations was originally based on the number market towns and their surrounding villages identified (32).  An organisation wishing to become an anchor organisation would first need to submit a bid.

Members welcomed the ongoing work around the swift initiative, empowering migrant communities across the county.

The Chair proposed that given the recently agreed reduction in the Members Locality Budget effectively halving the allocation to each councillor, consideration should be given to revising the bid criteria to allow the submission of bids for less than £300 (the current minimum funding allocation allowed).   He asked that officers consider this and feedback on this proposal within the Annual Review of Councillor Locality Budgets Scheme 2024/25 report scheduled to come to the next meeting of the committee on 11 June 2025.

Members also agreed they would like to have a better financial understanding of the costs associated with delivering the localities service across the county, and requested a breakdown of core spending as part of an overview report for their next meeting on 9 June 2025.  They agreed that if anything specific was then identified that required further consideration, this could be explored in more detail as part of the committee’s next planned Localities Bi-annual Update scheduled for the meeting in September 2025. 

The Chair thanked officers for their report, and it was

Resolved – That:

i.       The Localities bi-annual update be noted.

ii.      Feedback on the Committee’s proposal to revise the bid criteria to allow the submission of bids for less than £300, be included in the scheduled Annual Review of Councillor Locality Budgets Scheme 2024/25 report in June 2025.

iii.     An overview report giving a financial understanding of the costs associated with delivering the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Purpose: To provide an update on the partnership working around the priority areas agreed by North Yorkshire Community Safety Partnership (NYCSP). 

Considered - A report of the Head of Community Safety and CCTV updating on local Prevent arrangements with the new Community Safety Partnership Chair (NYP Chief Superintendent Fiona Wyllie) in attendance.

Councillor Tony Randerson queried the Clear-Hold-Build project currently underway in Barrowcliff, Scarborough and asked whether there was any plans to roll out that project to other areas of Scarborough.  In response, Chief Superintendent Fiona Wyllie confirmed that until the two current projects detailed in paragraph 4.12 of the report, had been completed and reviewed there would be not rollout

The Committee noted that 43% of hate crime recorded across the county took place in York, and  was linked to the night time economy.

Councillor Richard Foster suggested it would be helpful if the Area Committees could each receive a regular community safety report, as currently it was not possible for local Councillor to gauge whether there was any consistency in approach across the different areas, or any data to undertake a worthwhile comparison of performance.

Chief Superintendent Fiona Wyllie confirmed work was underway to review North Yorkshire Police’s website as part of an ongoing Neighbourhood Policing Review. . The intention was to provide regular updates online on ‘what you’ve said – what we’ve done’, and to provide up to date  information on area police contacts etc.  As part of the wider review, work was underway to improve the links between Councillors and local police.

Resolved – That the report be noted.

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Purpose – To consider the draft work programme for the coming 2025/26 municipal year and agree any amendments.

Members considered the proposed work programme for the coming municipal year drafted by the Senior Scrutiny Officer and took account of the discussions on previous agenda items and other developments taking place across the county.

They were pleased to note the proposed attendance of the Deputy Mayor at the Committee’s next meeting in June 2025 but suggested that given the amount of planned business for the June meeting it might be better to hold an additional meeting later in June to meet with the Deputy Mayor and discuss the new Police & Crime Plan 2025-29 and new Fire & Rescue Plan.  A number of provisional meeting dates were identified, and it was agreed the Scrutiny Officer would pursue the Deputy Mayor’s availability for those dates.

Resolved – That the draft work programme be amended to include the following additional items for the 9 June 2025 meeting:

·            An overview report on the Localities Service providing a better financial understanding of the costs associated with delivering across the county, to include a breakdown of core spending

·            The new Corporate Property Strategy to be included in the scheduled Transformation Update.  If not completed, an update on its development to be provided.

·            Feedback on the Committee’s proposal to revise the bid criteria to allow the submission of funding bids for less than £300, be included in the scheduled Annual Review of Councillor Locality Budgets Scheme 2024/25 report in June 2025.