Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

There were no apologies for absence received for this meeting.

To receive and record any declarations of interests from Members present.

There were no declarations of interests relating to matters on the agenda.

To receive the Minutes of the meetings held on 21 November and 6 December 2023.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 21 November and 6 December 2023 be approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee was given an opportunity to scrutinise the performance of Norse South East (“Norse SE”) during 2023-2024.

Members asked questions of clarification from the Cabinet Lead for Commercial and the officers and raised points in relation to:

·         changes made to the governance arrangements.

·         Improvements to the reporting and use of IT systems.

·         How the changes introduced by Norse SE had been managed to empower and buy in the employees.

·         The performance of the street cleaning and grass cutting services.

·         Measures to be taken to reduce contamination of recycled waste.

·         The processes for reviewing the Norse SE contract when it expires in March 2026

During the discussion, the officers advised that tours of Norse SE could be arranged for Members of the Committee.

RESOLVED that the information, evidence and data presented be noted.

The Committee was given an opportunity to scrutinise the planning enforcement service.

Members asked questions of clarification from the Cabinet Lead for Climate Change Strategy & Environmental and the officers and raised points in relation to:

·                     Improvements made to the enforcement service.

·                     The number of enforcement cases that had been taken to court.

·                     How the backlog in enforcement cases had been cleared.

·                     The means by which enforcement cases were prioritised.

·                     The limitations on what action could be taken in enforcement cases.

·                     The feasibility of using the planning enforcement to tackle the problem of graffiti.

·                     Proposed improvements to the current software systems used by the planning enforcement service.

The Committee acknowledged the improvements made to the service and thanked the officers for work.

During the discussion, the officers agreed to:

1.                  provide details of enforcement action taken over the past few years; and

2.                  discuss ways of reporting enforcement performance statistics to future Planning Committees.

RESOLVED that the information, evidence and data presented be noted.