Agenda and draft minutes

Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting.

Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts declared a personal interest in item 5, Review of Home to School Transport Policy.

Councillor Cheryl Williams declared a personal interest in item 7, Draft Housing Strategy.

Notice of items which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

No urgent matters.

To receive the minutes of the Communities Scrutiny Committee held on the 10^th September, 2015 (copy enclosed).

9.35 a.m. – 9.40 a.m.

The Minutes of a meeting of the Communities Scrutiny Committee held on 10 September, 2015 were submitted.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Communities Scrutiny Committee held on Thursday 10 September, 2015 be received and approved as a correct record.

To consider a report by the Head of Customers and Education Support (copy enclosed) to provide additional information regarding revision of the School Transport Policy, as requested at Communities Scrutiny on 10 September 2015.

9.40 a.m. – 10.15 a.m.

The Head of Customers and Education Support (HofC&ES) introduced the report (previously circulated) to provide additional information as requested by the Communities Scrutiny Committee on 10 September, 2015.  She outlined the background of the implementation of the Policy.  The service had put forward the school transport policy as a potential savings option from September 2016 to a Freedoms & Flexibilities workshop during 2014.

Elected Members on realising the amount of potential savings associated with this budget had instructed officers to work towards implementing the Policy from September 2015 rather than 2016 as originally anticipated.  This decision had necessitated meeting some tight deadlines in order to publish the proposed policy changes within the statutory requirements of 11 months prior to its implementation.

The policy applied to the eligibility for school transport to secondary schools, hence the 3 mile rule to be eligible to access free home to school transport, and providing that was the nearest suitable school.

In previous years, Denbighshire had been far less stringent when applying the eligibility criteria, and as a result, a high number of pupils had been accessing the service that were not actually eligible.

In applying the policy to secondary school pupils, it had come to light that some primary school pupils had also been provided with free home to school transport even though they were not entitled to the service as they lived less than 2 miles from the nearest suitable school.  This appeared to have caused a problem for families in Rhuddlan with children who attended Ysgol Dewi Sant, Rhyl.  It was asked that a meeting be held between officers and parents to assess the route from Rhuddlan to the school.  The route had been assessed recently as not hazardous.  The cost of paying for public transport to Welsh medium or faith schools in future may limit parental choice when choosing schools for their children to attend.

The majority of issues were in the rural areas, as it was pupils from those areas who relied on school transport.  Members also referred to the community impact of the loss of bus services to the rural areas.  This raised concerns regarding the mid to long-term viability and sustainability of some rural communities following the loss of their schools and bus service.  Members were concerned that because of these losses rural communities would, in due course, become commuter residences without a sense of community.

Members reported the steps one high school had taken and that had been to pay for transport for pupils for one area to the school to enable it to maintain pupil numbers.

The terminology used within the Policy may need revising to ensure clarity, the Policy name for example, home to school transport, may be revised to Schools Transport Policy.  The Committee at its meeting on 11 September 2014 had resolved that the Policy should be called “Home to School Transport Eligibility Policy”, however, there must be consistency in referencing to avoid any confusion with other school transport policies, such as transport for children with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

A positive outcome of the application of the Policy had been the community spirit and the coming together of neighbours to find solutions and work together to transport their children to the designated pick-up points or to schools.  Such collaboration would be required more and more in the future as more cuts to public finances began to impact on services which local authorities would be able to provide.

Officers offered to discuss with Members, individually unresolved problems relating to specific individuals/families within their wards.  However, they emphasised that not all  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

At this juncture (10.20 a.m.) there was a break and the Co-opted Members left the meeting.

The meeting reconvened at 10.25 a.m.

To consider a report by the Graduate Trainee, Business Improvement and Modernisation (copy enclosed) to provide information on the work carried out to date and planned next steps for the Project.

10.15 a.m. – 10.50 a.m.

The Lead Member for Public Realm, Councillor David Smith, introduced the report (previously circulated) to provide information regarding progress on this project since the previous Scrutiny Committee report.            

The Committee had considered the report and it was agreed that the meeting move to Part II

PART II

Exclusion of Press and Public

RESOLVED – that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, the Press and Public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 13 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

Officers drew Members’ attention to the statistics which illustrated the array of services accessed by people living on “holiday” caravan sites and emphasised that:

·       A lot of detailed background work had been undertaken with a view to establishing the extent of the problem of people living in “holiday” caravans on a full-time basis and accessing council services despite the fact that they had not contributed towards those services via the Council Tax system

·       There may also be other people living in “holiday” caravans that the Local Authority would not be aware of as they were not registered on the electoral roll or attempted to access services.  Some may even be in full-time employment

·       From the research undertaken to date, it was estimated that the Council would be losing in the region of a minimum of £300k per annum in Council Tax monies and Revenue Support Grant (RSG) payments by virtue of the fact that an estimated 175 individuals in the county were living all year round in “holiday” caravans

·       The majority of the individuals were living in the county’s larger caravan sites, and these sites had their own services such as shops and launderettes on site

·       Work was currently underway with the British Holiday and Homes Parks Association (BH&HPA) with a view to using the Association’s membership as a conduit for promoting good practice and management and identifying malpractices and mismanagement

·       Work was underway on developing a Regulatory Procedure Manual and it was anticipated that this manual would be launched during the spring of 2016 at a conference jointly hosted by Denbighshire County Council and the BH&HPA.

During discussion, Members raised concerns with respect to:

·       Recent applications to the Council’s Planning Committee seeking to extend operator’s licence conditions from 10 months to 12 months.

·       The cost to the Council of the “hidden population” residing in the county’s caravan sites, particularly those who did not have “homes” elsewhere and stayed in their caravans for 10 months, going abroad for the remaining 2 months before returning to their “holiday” caravans in Denbighshire.  A number of these people were elderly and would, at some point, be accessing public services in the area.

·       There was a possibility that some of those who had homes elsewhere could also be on the electoral roll in two different areas.

Members and officers discussed at some length the benefits and constraints of introducing a “caravan tax” as a way of securing some income from the caravan owners for the services they receive.  Members raised concerns in relation to the eligibility criteria for council housing raised within Appendix 5 of the report (page 56), which illustrated access to council housing and how a resident with medical problems in a caravan could gain additional points in comparison to the occupant of a house when applying for council housing.  The Lead Officer – Community Housing was requested to look into this matter in detail.

Following the in-depth discussion the Lead Member  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

At this juncture (11.25 a.m.) there was a break

Meeting reconvened at 11.35 a.m.

The meeting resumed to PART 1 at this juncture.

PART 1 - THE PRESS AND PUBLIC WERE INVITED TO ATTEND THIS PART OF THE MEETING

To consider a report by the Strategic Housing and Planning Manager (copy enclosed) for Communities Scrutiny Committee Members to review the emerging Housing Strategy and provide input prior to it being reported to full Council in December 2015.

11.00 a.m. – 11.40 a.m.

The Lead Member for Modernisation and Housing, Councillor Barbara Smith, introduced the report (previously circulated) to present the Council’s Draft Housing Strategy and associated Delivery Plan for members’ observations, prior to its presentation to the Lead Members’ Steering Group the following week.

The Strategy, which would support the delivery of a number of the Council’s Corporate Priorities, would be presented to County Council in December, 2015 for approval and adoption.  The progress in delivering a number of the Strategy’s actions would also likely feature in the Wales Audit Office’s (WAO) Corporate Assessment of Denbighshire County Council, due to take place in the autumn of 2016.

During the discussion on the Strategy and Delivery Plan, members raised the following points:

·       More stringent enforcement of planning and licensing conditions in relation to holiday caravan sites in the county, as proposed in the earlier report on the Committee’s business agenda on “Better Regulation of Caravan Sites Project”, could potentially impact on the Housing Strategy’s proposed delivery plan

·       Now that the Council had voluntarily withdrawn from the Welsh Government’s (WG) Housing Revenue Account (HRA) arrangements, it would be expected to utilise at least part of the former HRA monies for the purpose of house building.  Although there would be other pressures on the HRA budget, the new arrangements provided the Council with opportunities to maximise the benefits from the utilisation of the former HRA monies

·       The restrictions of the current Hamlets Policy were highlighted i.e. the fact that some hamlets did not want affordable housing as there were no employment prospects or local services available to attract people who needed affordable housing in those areas – no local schools or bus services.  This was further underlined by the fact that three local housing associations that had been approached by a landowner with a view to developing on land in an area which was within the Local Development Plan (LDP) had refused the offer on the grounds that they would not be able to deliver any development on it due to the constraints of the Hamlets Policy

·       The availability and use of Council owned land also needed to be included in the Strategy’s delivery plan

·       The need to ensure that the Council Housing waiting list was up to date, and the numbers waiting for council housing was regularly checked and verified.  There was also a need to make sure that the Council’s Affordable Housing register was current and to promote it across the county

·       The Lead Officer – Community Housing was asked to consider keeping the housing ‘walkabouts’ at which local members accompanied housing officers visiting housing estates, as councillors were of the view that these were beneficial and useful.

Responding to members’ points the Lead Member for Modernisation and Housing and officers outlined the aims of each of the five themes in the Strategy and explained the how each theme complemented each other.  They advised that:

·       The constraints of the Hamlets Policy had been discussed by the Steering Group and action 1.5 of the Strategy’s Delivery Plan for 2015 – 2020 was aimed at addressing the difficulties caused by the Hamlets Policy

·       Council owned land would be discussed as part of the actions to deliver the Delivery Plan once the Strategy had been approved and adopted by County Council.  The actions in the Delivery Plan would be incorporated into each Service’s business plans

·       With respect to the Council Housing list there were circa 3K applicants on the list at present, the current validity of these figures were checked on a regular basis, but it was an onerous and time consuming process as it had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To consider a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (copy enclosed) seeking a review of the Committee’s Forward Work Programme and updating members on relevant issues.

11.40 a.m. – 11.50 a.m.

A copy of a report by the Scrutiny Co-ordinator which requested the Committee to review and agree its Forward Work Programme and which provided an update on relevant issues, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

A copy of the “Member’s proposal form” had been included in Appendix 2.  The Cabinet Forward Work Programme had been included as Appendix 3, a table summarising recent committee resolutions and advising on progress with their implementation had been included in Appendix 4, and the Terms of Reference for the Corporate Equality Group (CEG) in Appendix 5.

The Scrutiny Co-ordinator requested the Committee to appoint a substitute representative to serve on the Council’s Corporate Equalities Group (CEG).  Councillor Martyn Holland volunteered to be the substitute representative for Councillor Win Mullen-James.

RESOLVED that the Work Programme as set out in Appendix 1 to the report be approved.

To receive any updates from Committee representatives on various Council Boards and Groups.

11.50 a.m. – 12.00 p.m.

Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts gave a brief resume of the meetings he had recently attended.  Those meetings included TAITH, the Welsh in Education Strategic Group (WESG) and the Economic and Community Ambition (ECA) Board.

The meeting concluded at 12.40 p.m.