Test Valley Borough Council General Purposes Committee Meeting

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Lashbrook, Matthews, A Dowden, C Dowden, MacDonald and Yalden.

There was no public participation.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no urgent items to be considered.

Councillor North proposed and Councillor Burnage seconded the motion that the minutes of the previous meeting were an accurate record.  Upon being put to the vote the motion was carried.

The Council’s Corporate Health and Safety Policy requires an annual report on health and safety performance and planning.

The Corporate Health and Safety Manager presented a report which summarised health and safety management activities over a twelve-month period, April 2023 to March 2024, covering significant issues council-wide and demonstrated the Council’s commitment, openness and transparency to:

• Being transparent on the Council’s performance on health and safety, by publishing health and safety performance data.
• Detailing Council’s health and safety performance, accidents, incidents, training and arrangements for managing risks.
• Highlighting how we monitor and measure health and safety performance, with a view to highlighting areas where the Council performs well, and areas for improvement.
• Our responsibility for ensuring a safe and healthy environment for service users, members of the public, employees and contractors.

The following recommendation was proposed by Councillor North and seconded by Councillor Flood and unanimously agreed by the Committee.

Resolved:

That the Annual Health and Safety Report 2023-2024 be approved.  

The Council has a suite of policies and procedures which are used to manage a wide range of employment and other matters. These are subject to periodic review and update. 

The HR Manager presented a report to consider a new Vehicle Mounted CCTV Usage Policy which set out how CCTV mounted on council vehicles will be viewed and managed in an acceptable way and ensures compliance with Data Protection and Human Rights regulations and legislation. The policy set out a number of advantages for the use of CCTV in the provision of a safe and secure working environment within the vicinity of council vehicles, it protects council property and enables prompt investigation of matters raised.

The following recommendation was proposed by Councillor North and seconded by Councillor Adams-King and unanimously agreed by the Committee.

Resolved:

That the Vehicle Mounted CCTV Usage Policy, attached as Annex 1 to the report, be approved.