North Somerset Council

                                                       Item 6.5

North Somerset Council

 

REPORT TO THE STRATEGIC PLANNING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY & SCRUTINY PANEL

 

DATE OF MEETING: 8TH JANUARY 2007

 

SUBJECT OF REPORT: MEMBER-LEVEL INVOLVEMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND JOINT WASTE MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING STRATEGIES

 

TOWN OR PARISH: N/A

 

OFFICER/MEMBER PRESENTING: SOLICITOR TO THE COUNCIL

 

KEY DECISION: NO

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

 

(1)       that subject to the agreement of Council that three members be appointed by this Panel and the Environmental Services Policy and Scrutiny Panel to the joint arrangements for shadowing the Executive Board dealing with the joint strategies for municipal waste management and waste planning;

(2)       that the Panel receive periodic  reports on progress;

(3)       that officers pursue agreement to the servicing arrangements.

 

1.         SUMMARY OF REPORT

 

The report updates the Panel further to previous reports on proposed arrangements for effective engagement with the Waste Management and Planning Programme.

 

2.         POLICY

 

The Executive has agreed for North Somerset to work jointly with Bath and North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council to deliver joint municipal waste management and waste planning strategies. The Strategic Planning and Economic Development Policy and Scrutiny Panel and the Environmental Services Policy and Scrutiny Panel have welcomed joint scrutiny to establish effective engagement with the Waste Management and Planning Programme.

 

3.         DETAILS

 

The four Unitary Authorities of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire are working in partnership to develop joint strategies for municipal waste management and waste planning, and in parallel the development of a joint Outline Business Case for procurement of waste treatment capability.

 

This Panel and the Environmental Services Policy and Scrutiny Panel have previously, received a report from the Solicitor to the Council on the formal establishment of joint scrutiny arrangements involving the relevant overview and scrutiny committees of the four unitary authorities participating in the partnership work.

 

It was suggested that a joint scrutiny committee be established, comprising six members of each council, appointed by their relevant scrutiny committees/panels. This was intended to enable the respective scrutiny committees/panels to discharge their scrutiny functions in partnership so that there was a single co-ordinated approach to a joint strategy issue. This Panel and the Environmental Services Policy and Scrutiny Panel each appointed three members to the joint scrutiny panel. However, when the four unitary authority scrutiny representatives met on 30th November 2006, they agreed that such representation was too unwieldy. Similarly, after considerable discussion, they agreed that the joint scrutiny should be undertaken informally at this stage along the lines of the successful joint scrutiny of the Joint Local Transport Plan.  However, only the individual parent scrutiny bodies would have the authority to recommend their views to the individual Cabinets/Executives.

 

The meeting on 30th November agreed to ask their consultant scrutiny bodies to agree to a way forward with the joint scrutiny of the West of England joint waste management and planning strategies as follows:-

 

(1)       The joint scrutiny of the West of England joint waste management and planning strategies to be undertaken informally by 3 Overview and Scrutiny members from each of the local four unitary authorities (each authority’s relevant Overview and Scrutiny Panel to agree on that representation), with substitutions allowed and with a general invitation to any relevant person to attend the joint scrutiny meetings;

 

(2)       The meetings will shadow meetings of the Executive Board (Project Board) which currently meets 4 times per year, or more often as circumstances dictate. The meetings to be informal at this stage, reflecting the way the Executive Board is actually meeting currently;

 

(3)       The joint scrutiny deliberations to be reported back to their individual scrutiny bodies when appropriate. The individual scrutiny bodies reserve the right to undertake their own formal scrutiny of the joint waste management and planning strategy;

 

(4)       The servicing arrangements to be agreed by the four unitary authorities’ Democratic Services officers, and any apportionment of costs, if necessary;

 

(5)       The first meeting of the joint scrutiny body to be convened once all 4 UA scrutiny bodies have agreed this approach, the agenda to be agreed after liaison with all 4UAs;

(6)       The scrutiny of any implementation of the strategy will be left for future consideration. It is proposed this Panel and the Environmental Services Policy and Scrutiny Panel agree between them to appoint three members from this Authority.

 

Servicing Arrangements

 

The Solicitor to the Council would not be in favour of rotating the servicing arrangements. When the JSPTU existed, Bath and North East Somerset Council was the lead authority and provided the legal advice but the secretariat was rotated each year between the participating unitary authorities with funding to cover the added expenditure.

 

The need to accommodate this additional work was found to be particularly difficult when it was this authority’s turn to provide the secretariat, as spare resources were not available.  It is considered that it would make far more sense for one unitary authority (the lead authority) to take up the secretariat role so that they can plan and staff it accordingly. It would be particularly difficult to staff up for something which comes around every fourth year unless fortuitously there happed to be spare resources available.

 

Name/designation of the committee/group

 

It is considered that the name of the committee/group needs to be altered as it is not an overview and scrutiny committee pursuant to the Local Government Act 2000. Reference to a scrutiny committee has caused confusion. A possible more appropriate name for the group could be the Joint Unitary Authorities Reference Group on Waste Management and Planning Strategies. This will be a matter for the group to agree on.

 

4.         CONSULTATION

 

N/A

 

5.         FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

 

The proposed joint arrangements albeit informal will enable deliberations to take place in a co-ordinated way. Agreement will need to be reached on servicing arrangements.

 

6.         RISK MANAGEMENT

 

-

 

7.         EQUALITY IMPLICATIONS

 

-

 

8.         CORPORATE IMPLICATIONS

 

The programme accords with the Council’s Corporate Plan aims of protecting and improving the environment and ensuring continuous improvement.

 

9.         OPTIONS CONSIDERED

 

An option not to have joint arrangements would affect the Council’s ownership and consideration of the issues.

 

AUTHOR

 

David Jellings, Democratic Services

Tel: 01275 884219

 

BACKGROUND PAPERS

 

Report to South Gloucestershire Council’s Planning, Transportation and Strategic Environment Select Committee, 13th December 2006.