Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Councillors.

Apologies were received from Cllr P Broadhead for late arrival.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications.

None for this meeting.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made on this occasion.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 21 October 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 October were approved as a correct record.

To consider outstanding actions from previous meetings.

It was noted that the following actions could be removed from the action sheet as having been completed or were in the process of being completed before the next meeting:

Leader of the Council to Follow up on the issues raised regarding Homelessness performance from the Dashboard.

A copy of the Member/Officer relations report to be circulated to Board members.

Other items would be updated and reported back to the next meeting.

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of public questions is midday 3 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

There were none on this occasion.

This report provides an overview of the consultation methods and approach used by BCP Council to consult on various decisions and issues.

The consultation framework is due to be refreshed, and this is an opportunity to receive feedback from the Board ahead of that work.

The Portfolio Holder for presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Board received a presentation from the research and Consultation Manager, a copy of which appears as Appendix ‘B’ to these minutes in the minute book. The report provided an overview of the consultation methods and approach used by BCP Council to consult on various decisions and issues. The Board was advised that the consultation framework was due to be refreshed, and this was an opportunity to receive feedback from the Board ahead of that work. A number of issues were raised by the Board including:

·     Return address for hard copies – Normally people were asked to return paper copies to libraries, or the civic centre address would be provided. It was noted that there wasn’t one provided for the Community Governance Review Consultation, and this would be looked into.

·     Biases in consultations – It was noted that responses for consultations were always on a scale. However, it was suggested that the wording of questions sometimes prompted a particular response in a certain direction. The Baord was advised that proposals and options were provided from services that he consultation team was working with but it was something which could be considered in greater depth.

·     Analysis of Data - The raw data was not normally directly handed to the service areas, instead a fully analysed outcome would be provided. For example, the feedback from the Poole Park consultation was strongly supported by a robust analysis from the consultation team.

·     Annual Survey – Unfortunately the trajectory of the survey was negative. People did not feel that they can influence, and people do not feel that people can influence decisions in the local area.

·     Consultation login - There was a concern from members of the public of all persuasions, that surveys could be manipulated. There was also concern that people did not receive feedback following a consultation. It was suggested that a login system would be able to partially address these issues.

·     Response to Consultations – It was noted that the results of the Poole Park and Unauthorised Camping consultations appeared to have been ignored which eroded public confidence. It was stated that consultations were not referenda; but a way to try to understand what the community wants.  It may be helpful to provide more information on how consultation responses would be used, the objective and vision and priorities related to the consultation.

·     Rewards / incentives for completing consultations – Incentives were used when carrying out research but not consultations. It was thought there may be some difficulty with this, but it could be looked into to see if any other authorities used this approach.

·     Reaching under represented demographics/viewpoints – It was hoped that a residents panel might help with the issue of not getting the middle ground responses or responses from those not directly invested in a particular  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

In September 2024, all O&S Committees established budget working groups to contribute to the development of the 2025/26 Council budget. This report contains the findings of the working groups.

Note: Due to the scheduling of the working group meetings, appendices A-D of the report, the findings from each of the working groups, are to follow and will be circulated prior to the meeting.

The Scrutiny Specialist presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'C' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Scrutiny Specialist advised that each of the four Overview and Scrutiny Committees established working groups at their meetings in September to undertake scrutiny work into the 2025/26 budget. Each Committee selected a particular area of budget development in which they wanted to take a deep dive within the working group. All of the groups were now reporting back into the O&S Board. Any recommendations from the working groups for Cabinet would be considered by the Board, in some instances the groups had also made recommendations to the individual O&S Committees, and these would therefore need to be recommended to the different Committees as appropriate. The Chair invited the Lead member for each of the working groups to outline the work that they had undertaken and outline the recommendations which would be made to Cabinet or to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Each lead member outlined the work undertaken by their respective groups. The Committee had an opportunity to discuss all of the motions put forward from the working group recommendations and suggested minor amendments to some of the recommendations. The Chair thanked working group lead members for presenting their findings and the working groups and officers supporting them for the work undertaken.

RESOLVED that

O&S Board – Car parking

The O&S Board recommend to Cabinet:

1. That the principle of an inflationary increase across all parking charges be endorsed for the 2025/26 budget.

2. That it requests Officers to take into account the suggestion that an assessment be made on using a proportion of surplus income to accelerate the parking charging machine replacement programme prioritising the best value machines in order to reduce future costs (subject to the necessary procurement processes).

3. That it requests that Officers evaluate the retention and recruitment of Civil Enforcement Officers to ensure a robust and resilient workforce to provide an appropriate level of resource and promote safe and appropriate parking.

4. That Officers be requested to explore options to reduce costs for the Council and make the process easier for the public to pay for car parking, in particular an option to be able to pay in advance/on Council website.

5. That Officers be requested to ensure adequate resourcing of parking enforcement to reduce inappropriate parking around schools.

Voting:10 in favour; 2 against; 0 abstentions

OS Board - Residents Card

The O&S Board recommend to Cabinet:

1.     That any Resident Card offering is made fully accessible to all those who are not digitally enabled.

2.     That there should be an application process for the card with a small financial contribution for the cost of processing and that the card should be a valuable offer that residents are willing to pay a small cost for, so that it can be sustainable in terms of administrative costs.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

The Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Board is asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Work Plan.

The Chairman presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book. The Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Board was asked to consider and identify work priorities for publication in a Work Plan.

The Chairman highlighted that the number of items planned for the next meeting of the Board in December was fairly large and it was suggested that the proposed budget items be grouped together for consideration.

The Board agreed to delegate to the Chair and Vice-Chair in consultation with officers to agree the items to be brought to the December Board meeting. An update would be sent to all Board members.

It was agreed that a KLOE document would be circulated to Board members for completion regarding the complaints working group and a separate reminder email for KLOE documents for other outstanding items on the work plan.