Report of the Leader of the Council, attached.
Minutes:
The report of the Leader of the Council was submitted setting out the details of the business undertaken by the Executive (copy of report circulated with agenda and appended to signed minutes).
The Leader and the Cabinet made statements and responded to Questions.
The following questions were then submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11.1:-
1 Highway Maintenance
Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Thorpe
Is the Cabinet Member for the Environment and Transport satisfied with the quality of pothole repairs?
Answer
The responsiveness and speed of repair of Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP) in carrying out the varying severity pothole repairs consistently exceeds the target standards of the Highways Services Partnership (HSP) Contract.
The large majority of pothole repairs carried out are of a very high standard and therefore meet required quality levels. There are some (typically less than 5%, and especially concerning kerbs and thin surfacing repairs) that do not meet required Council standards and require a repeat visit to correct. This performance is subject to constant review.
BBLP, over the last year, have successfully been utilising a proprietary pothole repair material that can be used in virtually any weather condition and provides a first-time permanent repair as opposed to a temporary making safe, followed by a return visit to lay permanent, new material. Ongoing monitoring by the Partnership will prove whether this is a sustainable long-term method of repair and this review is part of a study into various other pothole repair materials / techniques in conjunction with Southampton University. Results of this study will be available in approx June.
The HSP are pursuing membership of the Road Treatment Association's patch repair sub-group. When confirmed shortly, this is likely to be a worthwhile newly created forum to share best practice across this specialist area of highway maintenance.
2. City of Culture
Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Payne
How does the Cabinet Member for Housing and Leisure Services reconcile severe cuts in Council grant to culture and heritage organisations with the recently announced joint bid with Portsmouth for City of Culture status in 2017?
Answer
Whilst the public sector, including local government and key cultural organisations such as the Arts Council, experiences significant funding reductions, there are inevitably some difficult decisions to be made about grant funding.
However, both Cities have vibrant cultural economies and for a sustainable future, we need to encourage less reliance on the public sector. Taking opportunities to raise the profile of the City and promoting its cultural offer and the activities of the organisations within the City can only contribute to their future success.
3. Off-Payroll Remuneration
Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Letts
Has the Council made use of off-payroll remuneration arrangements during the past five years, and if so on how many occasions?
Answer
The Council has made very limited use of off-payroll remuneration arrangements, using them on 7 occasions over the last 5 years. These arrangements have been entered into in special circumstances and have covered a small number of contracts for professional services.
The details broken down by directorate are shown below. Individual names and personal details are personal information protected by the Data Protection Act 1998.
Environment & Economy: 1
Health & Adult Social Care: 2
Children’s Services & Learning: 1
Corporate Services: 3
4. Green Waste
Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Thorpe
What is the cost of introducing wheelie bins in place of sacks for the collection of green waste and how many years’ revenue is this equivalent to?
Answer
It is estimated that the average annual cost of providing green bags would be around £66,500; this is because each year around 19,000 replacement bags were requested and cost approximately £3.5 per bag to supply (purchase, administration and delivery costs).
The New Garden Waste service has been designed to be self funding and replaces the previous green bag scheme that initial cost £542,000 per annum to operate.
The cost of supplying enough wheelie bins for 5,000 customers will be around £125,000, however this is represents an annual cost of around £12,500 as the bins will last for on average at least 10 years. The cost of the bins is being funded from the Weekly Collection Support Scheme award and the actual bins remain SCC property and can be reused if the service is no longer required by the customer.
The cost of providing a dedicated crew for the New Garden Waste service is around £160,000 and the breakeven number of customers to cover the cost of a dedicated crew is between 4,800 and 5,000. (actual breakeven depends on the make up of the bin sizes ordered by customers)
The service will initially comprise one collection vehicle and crew who will undertake other fee earning waste related work should customer numbers not initially reach the 5,000 customer level required for the service to break even.
5. Bailiffs
Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Letts
On how many occasions during the past year has the Council engaged bailiffs to collect unpaid debts? What categories of debt have been involved? What proportion of such actions has the Council been obliged to abandon the action or make recompense?
Answer
The Council uses bailiffs for the collection of unpaid debts relating to Council Tax, Business rates, parking charges, overpaid Housing Benefit and Sundry Debts.
1. Council Tax and Business Rates:
In the current financial year the following cases have been referred to bailiffs to collect.
· 6,552 council tax debts and
· 407 business rates debts.
In 2011/12 the numbers were:
· 7,708 council tax debts and
· 529 business rates debts.
Action is stopped if:
· The customer pays the debt directly to the council instead of the bailiff, or
· There is a change in liability which may lead the backdating of benefit or single person discount.
There has only been one occasion when a business rate customer had the fees charged reimbursed following a bailiff visit .This was as a result of the customer proving that the company involved were not liable for the business rate debt.
Overall the Council requests returns from the bailiff in less than 1% of cases.
2. Parking Charges:
· In the current financial year 3,500 unpaid debts have been referred to bailiffs to collect.
· To date no referrals to the bailiff have needed to be withdrawn due to errors on behalf of the Council.
3. Housing Benefit and Sundry Debts:
In the current year there has been:
· 3 Legal Services debt recovery actions
· 8 referrals to the County Court Bailiff
· 20 referrals to the High Court Sheriff
There have been no cases where recompense has been needed.
6. Broadband
Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Williams
Why has Southampton, unlike Portsmouth, not been included among the cities recently announced as due to benefit from a £50 million Government fund to introduce superfast broadband?
Answer
The City Council did not submit a bid for Superfast Broadband funding. The primary reason for not bidding was that after considerable investigation, it was felt that the City already had a high quality fibre optic Broadband infrastructure provided by both Virgin Media and BT. This, coupled with the fact that any state aid would have required matched funding from the Council, meant that there was not a very strong business case for a bid. Only bidding for Wireless was considered but the rules did not allow this. So in essence, we would have been bidding for and match funding for something that the City already has in place.
7. Affordable Housing
Question from Councillor Smith to Councillor Payne
How many affordable houses have you built since taking office?
Answer
171, expected to rise to 182 by the end of March.
8. Cabinet
Question from Councillor Smith to Councillor Williams
Which two Cabinet positions are you intending to remove or combine?
Answer
The decision has not yet been made. The announcement will be made at Full Council on May 15th accompanied by the necessary changes to the Executive scheme of delegation.
9. Manifesto Commitments
Question from Councillor Smith to Councillor Williams
How many of your manifesto commitments have you honoured since being elected Leader?
Answer
The Executive Report has been restructured to reflect the new administration’s priorities which reflect the commitments contained within the manifesto. The manifesto was a four year programme and today’s executive report captures the work achieved to date by the Administration in delivering its priorities and those manifesto commitments and the work that is in progress to deliver them.
10. Libraries
Question from Councillor Turner to Councillor Payne
Are we doing enough to encourage libraries to engage in small commercial activities such as selling greeting cards?
Answer
The library service engages in a number of commercial activities designed to increase income. Greetings cards are already sold in most libraries and a number also sell local crafts and educational posters. All libraries sell books which are no longer of interest to customers and a range of new books of local interest. In the coming year the service will invest in display furniture to maximise the appeal of items for sale. In the coming year it is planned to introduce a range of stationery items for sale, charging for family history enquiries by library staff and drinks machines in the three most visited libraries.
11. Pupil Premium Funding
Question from Councillor Turner to Councillor Bogle
How are we ensuring that the Pupil Premium funding for boosting the educational attainment of disadvantaged children is being used to maximum effect in schools?
Answer
Ofsted and the Department of Education are directly responsible for ensuring the appropriate use of the pupil premium.
Ofsted specifically refer to the use of the pupil premium in their current inspection framework and are reporting that local schools are using it appropriately.
Of the 22 schools in the City inspected so far this year, all reports indicate a good use of the Pupil Premium. Officers review all Ofsted reports and if a report were to indicate any cause for concern, it would form part of the necessary post-Ofsted Action Plan. Officers monitor the schools’ implementation of such plans to ensure any necessary change accordingly.
12. City Economy
Question from Councillor Smith to Councillor Williams
In the budget you allocated yourself a one-off amount of £500,000 to "Get the City’s economy moving." Can you update Council on what you plans you have for this money?
Answer
We aim to use the budget to respond to opportunities to support growth and job creation flexibly at a time of great economic change, and as a lever for additional funding, particularly from the private sector. Therefore, the budget has not been fully allocated yet.
Current proposals being considered include a ‘ One in a Thousand’ scheme to support apprenticeship take-up by local businesses; awareness and skills support for local residents and small businesses to prepare them to take advantage of the jobs which will arise through large scale ‘ECO’ contracts for Council housing stock; wider work to maximise local jobs and training through Council procurement; supporting the development of growth in the Creative Industries sector; and potential match funding to lever additional devolved labour market and skills funding to be negotiated through the City Deal mechanisms.
13. Sustainability Grants
Question from Councillor Smith to Councillor Williams
We know you have a keen interest in sustainability issues. Are you aware of what grants are available from central government, the EU and the private sector to pursue a greener agenda?
Answer
Officers from the Council are actively engaged in seeking and making use of funding for green activities and projects in the city.
The Council is currently involved in 2 European projects; the production of a strategic energy action plan through the LEAP project, and a project to ensure that offshore wind developments are beneficial to the city economy. We are leading a partnership of Solent local authorities to secure energy company funding through the Energy Company Obligation (ECO). This will provide significant energy upgrades and improvements to the city’s housing stock over the next 5 – 7 years. The level of investment is estimated to be in excess of £50 million over the next 5 years.
The Council is also working with Solent partners to attract Regional Growth Fund monies to further support the green economy. We are currently bidding to Defra and the Environment Agency for additional funding to tackle flood risk. We continue to look for opportunities to exploit the Feed in Tariff (FiT) funding, despite the large reduction in this subsidy for renewable electricity generation and more sites have been identified on the Council’s built estate for solar PV. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is another opportunity we are exploring, which could include the use of biomass boilers in public buildings and in some cases solar hot water. This is a selection of our current initiatives to seek external funding for sustainability and energy projects; we are always open to suggestion for further new funding opportunities.
14. Helius
Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Williams
What meetings or conversations has the Leader had with Helius in the last 4 months?
Answer
I have had no meetings or conversations with Helius in the last 4 months.
15. Oaklands Pool
Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Payne
When does the Cabinet Member expect Oaklands Pool to reopen?
Answer
We are continuing to have positive discussions with a community group about reopening the swimming pool. Given that the Oaklands site now comes under the Resources Portfolio, these discussions are being led by Cabinet Member for Resources, Cllr Simon Letts, but I am also attending the talks. The aim is to reopen the pool as soon as practicable, but this will not be for some time because the community group is still finalising its business case, but I can report good progress is being made.
16. Green Waste
Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Thorpe
How many people have signed up so far for the new chargeable green waste collection service?
Answer
At 9am on Tuesday 19th March 2013 a total of 3,104 customers had completed the signing up process for the New Garden Waste service.
2,691 have signed up for the 240 litre bins
434 have signed up for the 360 litre bins
7 have signed up for the disposable bags
551 have signed up for the composters
Total income - £105,337.50 from orders received
At the end of Friday 15th March, 449 of the new brown lid garden waste bins had been delivered to the customers.
17. Secondary Schools
Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Bogle
Is the Council investing enough capital money into our secondary schools in Southampton?
Answer
The Council has continued to invest capital into local secondary schools despite the sharp contraction in government funding. The Council has committed to a total of £.4.6m of investment in the City’s Secondary Schools between 2012/13 and 2014/15. This is profiled as follows:
This expenditure will benefit all of the City’s Secondary Schools in need of investment currently with the exception of our two academies which are newly built and the three schools whose maintenance is under the terms of the PFI arrangements.
In addition, the Council has been successful in applying for and securing significant direct capital investment for the complete new build of the Cedar School (which teaches both primary and secondary age pupils) and Bitterne Park Secondary School (also 100% new build) via the Central Government managed Priority School Building Programme. Officers are developing an initial options appraisal for future needs with a view to a process of consultation later in the school year.
18. Large Casino
Question from Councillor Baillie to Councillor Rayment
What have you estimated the cost to Southampton should a large casino become a reality, of the increased health and social care costs associated with the effects of the casino?
Answer
The impact of any new casino will be addressed by the Licensing Committee as part of competition. As yet the specific costs of any problem gambling directly attributed to any new large casino have not been quantified as it is too early to say. Currently, a wide range of gambling opportunities, including casinos, both within the City and via the internet already exist and any problem gambling as a result is not a significant cause for concern.
Any new casino will be required to specifically address problem gambling as part of their licence conditions and contribute in time and financially towards helping to minimise and deal with such issues. Close scrutiny will be given to this issue during the application process both by the Advisory Panel, which will include problem gambling experts, and the Licensing Committee itself.
Supporting documents: