Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 12 Performance and Financial Review

Cllr Mountney said he welcomed the report and the financial information included. The Chair said he wanted to add something to the work program. Cllr Wittingham referred to 4.4.1, 4.4.4 in reference to a 21% decrease in contracts made. The Chair said he wanted to carry on with the point about why the next two … Continue reading “Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 12 Performance and Financial Review”

Cllr Mountney said he welcomed the report and the financial information included. The Chair said he wanted to add something to the work program. Cllr Wittingham referred to 4.4.1, 4.4.4 in reference to a 21% decrease in contracts made. The Chair said he wanted to carry on with the point about why the next two pages had come here. David Ball said the previous performance report format had covered what was relevant to the committee what worked well, performance indicators and actions which gave an opportunity for scrutiny and comment. The second half was lifted from a report of Jim Wilkie to the Cabinet. He thought the corporate information might be of interest, but was not directly relevant to the report. The reports had been merged together. In reference to Cllr Wittingham’s question he would have to go away, ask and circulate an answer to the committee as he didn’t deal with those areas.

The Chair said he would be more comfortable if they only received information relevant to the scrutiny area and were just asked to cover the remit of the committee and not ground other committees cover.

Cllr George Davies said the second part followed on from a two-part report on finance and the economy. He understand that the financial part had been added but he didn’t see the relevance to the Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair said he would move that in future only performance indicators relevant to the committee would be used. Cllr Ellis said it was helpful background information to see and note.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 6, manufacturing, business forum website

The officer said that they [Wirral Council] also worked with the Manufacturing Advisory Service on culture and had made eighty-one referrals in the last year. They go in with MAS who had a list of practitioners who helped with office or shop culture and worked to add value to the business, attract industry and keep the manufacturing base. Manufacturing hadn’t gone from Wirral, Teledyne CML and Cammell Lairds were examples of positive news on jobs.

Cllr Simon Mountney commented that it was getting increasingly difficult for businesses.

Paula Basnett said their aim was to increase membership on the business forum. According to their CRM system they had had contact with four thousand businesses over the last decade. Their aim was to have an extra five hundred register each year for the business forum, but it as getting difficult to get new business users.

Cllr Mountney asked if it was a local or national target. She replied it was a local target. Cllr Mountney asked how many hits a month it was getting.

Paula Basnett said it was password protected but they measured how long visitors spent on the site and what areas were of interest to them. Cllr Mountney asked how long on average each visitor stayed for?

The Chair, Cllr Johnston asked for a report on this to a future meeting.

Economy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 7th November 2011 Part 1 Declarations of Interest, Minutes, Invest Wirral presentation by Paula Basnett

Present:

Cllr Mark Johnston (Chair)
Cllr Simon Mountney
Deputy Mayor Cllr Gerry Ellis
Cllr Tony Cox
Cllr Denise Realey
Cllr Pat Hackett
Cllr Stuart Wittingham
Cllr Steve Niblock

The agenda and reports for this meeting can be viewed by clicking on the link.

The Chair, Cllr Johnston started the meeting by telling everyone that Cllr Kelly had to go home as his daughter had banged her head. He asked for declarations of interest. Cllr Hackett declared a personal interest with regards to Reach Out. The minutes of the meeting held on the 5th September 2011 were agreed. Cllr Johnston said he wanted to raise a couple of things from page six, which would lead to the work program being amended.

Cllr George Davies (Cabinet member for Housing and Community Safety) arrived.

Cllr Johnston referred committee members to an email from Cllr Phil Davies and Cllr George Davies which he gave councillors a couple of minutes to read.

Once they had read the email, the Chair invited Paula Basnett, Head of Investment in the Department of Regeneration, Housing and Planning to give a presentation to the committee.

Earlier problems with the computer in Committee Room 1 meant a laptop had to be used instead for the Powerpoint presentation. Black and white paper copies of the presentation were handed out to councillors on the committee.

Paula Basnett, wearing something that reminded me of dazzle camouflage on ships, explained what the business support team does and that since September with more funding they had given extra business support they hadn’t previously. At the end of October Business Link North West had gone along with all its business advisers. Business support was given through five relationship managers. These managers had a target of contacting five businesses a week to make businesses aware of what support was available.

Wirral Council Cabinet 13/10/2011 Child Poverty Strategy Action Plan – Progress Report Part 3

Cllr Ann McLachlan said [the Child Poverty Strategy Action Plan] was an “important piece of work” whose “natural home is the Children’s Trust Board”. She said she wanted to move a motion.

Cllr George Davies mentioned Cllr Sheila Clarke and Cllr Mark Johnston. He said that they “owe it to the people of Wirral” and the “statistics are frightening”. He talked about a Tranmere Community Project which had welcomed people from the United States of America to share views. He said certain parts of the Wirral had not altered in the areas of unemployment, housing and deprivation. He said, “Talking has to stop, action has to start.”

Cllr Steve Foulkes referred to the conference and the will to tackle the issue as well as recent press coverage. He also talked about the governance priorities, trends going forward into the future and the last paragraph in which it was declared to be a Budget priority. He said in light of the consultation exercise, he would prefer to call it a “key priority” as it was premature to fit it in the Budget. He said the last paragraph reflected that they would make it a key priority for 2012/13.

Cllr Ann McLachlan said she recognises the issues and welcomed the Action Plan. She emphasised the extreme urgency and referred to an Institute for Fiscal Studies study and referred to 600,000 in child poverty by 2012/13 which would mean the 2010 targets would be missed. She asked Cabinet to agree the recommendations. She thanked people and wanted to make tacking child poverty a key priority. Cllr Steve Foulkes seconded the motion which was agreed.

Economy & Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee 5th September 2011 Part 4 Budget Issues for Economy and Housing in 2012/2013

Kevin Adderley replied that the target for the last seven years was higher than the actual income. They could set the price that equated to the gap between the income target but it would require changing the whole system. Next year they would publish how much it costs and calculate and publish an estimate of planning fees. They would divide the total costs by the number of expected planning applications to derive at the fee. With no savings there would be a £500,000 shortfall. Cllr Hackett referred to 2.1 on page 35 about the capital program. He asked if he was correct that in respect of capital borrowing it equated to an increase in yearly revenue costs of 10% of the total amount borrowed?

Kevin Adderley answered yes, to borrow £9.63 million would cost £963,000 in interest a year. Cllr Hackett asked if it was possible to delay two schemes for two years? Cllr Mark Johnston said he was nervous about the minutiae and thought such matters fell within the role of the Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee to be discussed on another day. He wanted to hear all councillors. Cllr Hackett said he was only asking questions and that he wanted to help and advise in a unpartisan way which was surely the idea of scrutiny?

Cllr Hodson said they scrutinised decisions. He asked where the formula for planning fees was? Were they going to take the figures, divide by planning applications with no savings? Kevin Adderley said that was the government’s suggestion which was similar to the way Building Control had been operating since the start of the year. Cllr Hodson said he thought planning applications had dropped in number and asked for his views on the new planning rules. Kevin Adderley said there was a report to the next Cabinet meeting asking for views and a response. It would be a detailed report with suggestions.