Test Valley Borough Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee Meeting

Apologies were received from Councillors Gwynne and Leech.

There was no public participation.

Councillor Hughes declared a personal interest in item 9, Impact of Revenue Funding for Community Bodies, in that he was the Chairman of the Trustees and his wife is employed at King Arthur’s Way Community Centre. He left the room whilst the item was discussed.

Councillor Gidley declared a personal interest in item 9, Impact of Revenue Funding for Community bodies in that she was the Council’s representative and a trustee of the Citizens Advice Bureau.

There were no urgent items.

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 30 August 2023 be confirmed and signed as a true record.

There were no call in items.

There were no urgent decisions.

Chief Inspector Hayley O’Grady supported by Inspector Paul Holmes gave an overview of what has been happening over the last 6 months.  She explained that there is a new Chief Constable whose top three priorities are the relentless pursuit of criminals, exceptional local policing and putting victims first.

There is a new geographical area model covering Isle of Wight, East of the County, West of the County and North of the County and the Area Commander is Paul Savey who is responsible for response, neighbourhoods and CID.

There has been a restructure of the Neighbourhood Policing Team which will be split into 7 aeras and will include a named officer in each of the neighbourhoods who will work to improve community engagement, problem solving and to understand communities better.  Once the neighbourhoods have been set up Chief Inspector O’Grady will circulate a map and named officer for each area.

Chief Inspector Hayley O’Grady as Test Valley District Commander explained that the current District priorities are; Anti Social Behaviour, Rural non dwelling burglary and Drug related harm.  Priorities are reviewed every month.

Plans for the District include Operating Relentless, weekly pro active operations, violence against women and girls and domestic abuse, County Lines, drug related harm, anti social behaviour, rural crime and shoplifting.

Chief Inspector O’Grady explained about Community Partnership Intelligence working with partners to improve intelligence in the community.  Intelligence can only be reported by a partner agency however communities can log intelligence through Crime Stoppers or online. 

In the future the Police hope to have better engagement with head teachers, improving crime reporting around acquisitive crime and a better focus on rural crime.

Members of the Committee discussed the following;

·  Community Intelligence

·  Crime Justice Department

·  Section 60

·  Drones

·  Robust system for recruiting and complaints

The Chairman thanked Chief Inspector O’Grady for her presentation.

Consideration was given to a report of the Community Manager which provides an update on the impact of Test Valley Borough Council’s revenue funding programme, which provides over £350,000 of funding per year to charitable organisations.

Test Valley Borough Council has long recognised the value of a vibrant and robust community and voluntary sector. The Revenue Funding Programme is one example of how the Council invests resources into supporting and developing the sector to increase the quality of life for residents in Test Valley, whilst also reducing demand on public services.

The programme encompasses a broad range of funding offers, both in terms of funding value and in the nature of projects funded, with a mix of core funding of organisations which the Council would consider to be strategic partners, through to funding for specific elements of well-defined projects.

This report briefs Members on the impact of that funding for the organisations and their service users in the 2022-23 financial year.

Resolved:

That Overview and Scrutiny Committee notes the content of the report and supports the continued monitoring and development of services funded through the Council’s Revenue Funding Programme.

Consideration was given to a report of the Head of Planning Policy and Economic Development which gave an update on the delivery of the Climate Emergency Action Plan. This followed on from the previous report to the Committee in April 2023.

The Principal Planning Officer (Environment) noted that since the last report, the Council’s Corporate Plan for the period 2023-27 (A Place for Everyone – Supporting our communities to thrive) was approved by Council in April 2023.

The Council had five electric vehicles on order, three of which have now been received. The tendering process had commenced for the Test Valley Rural Net Zero Business Service. An update was provided on the number of public electric vehicle charging points in the Borough, based on a national dataset, along with usage figures for the charging points in some of the Council’s car parks in Romsey and Andover. The latest data on greenhouse gas emissions for the Borough of Test Valley was shared.

The Portfolio Holder for Climate Emergency, Councillor Johnston advised the Committee that the Climate Emergency Action Plan was being refreshed.  A report will go to Cabinet in November to set up a cross party member group to look at the priorities and way forward.  It is anticipated that the CEAP will be refreshed by the end of the financial year.  The CEAP is intended to include SMART actions.

The Committee discussed the following;

·  Cost of solar panels

·  Disposal of solar panels

·  Sustainability of listed buildings

·  Electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the town centre car parks

·  CEAP milestones and progress measurement

·  Heat pumps

·  Biodiversity and tree planting

·  Details of the cross party working group

Resolved:

That the update and progress on the implementation of the Climate Emergency Action Plan be noted.

There was no update on panels.

Councillor Parker raised concern that the Budget Panel’s meeting had been moved from 2 October to 24 October which meant that the Fees and Charges report would be considered at Cabinet before the Budget Panel could report back to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The Head of Planning Policy reported that a briefing from the Head of Finance was that the Fees and charges report would be deferred until Cabinet on 20 December. That will allow OSCOM to review on 22 November and their recommendations can be incorporated into the final Cabinet report / reported to Cabinet in the usual way.

The Work Programme was updated as follows:

·  Add Water Pollution Report/Presentation to meeting on 22 November 2023.

·  Add Regeneration scoping report to meeting on 22 November 2023.

·  Add Planning Enforcement round table discussion to 3 January 2024.

·  Add Move Authority’s Monitoring Report to meeting on 3 January 2024.

Following the round table to review the proposals and confirm priorities for topics raised at the Away Day, the Committee agreed to update the work programme as set out in Annex 1 to the report.

Resolved:

1.  To agree the topics discussed at the Away Day and adopt them onto the work programme.

2.  Approve the future work programme.