Agenda item

Report by the Deputy Chief Executive.

39.1     The Chair introduced the report, and the Committee discussed whether to make any additions to the work programme. It was noted that the work on Devolution and LGR may have an impact on the work programme and the capacity of officers and the Committee to undertake other scrutiny work. Committee members commented that it should be prepared to prune and delay topics for consideration on the work programme if the work on LGR takes up a lot of time.

39.2     Councillor Tutt suggested adding an item on roadside litter and the frequency of litter clearing, including which roads the County Council is responsible for. The Director of CET outlined that litter clearing at the side of roads and street cleansing is a District and Borough Council function and not the responsibility of ESCC.

39.3     The Committee discussed recommendation 4 of the report, which was to form a reference group, together with members from the People Scrutiny Committee, to provide scrutiny input into the proposals and arrangements for Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation (LGR). Councillor Redstone suggested that the Committee should consider six points when considering this issue. They were:

• The need to be agile as things change.
• The broad scope of what the Committee will be looking at and what the needs are of conducting this piece of work. The Committee may need to split up the work into sub-groups to work on different issues and then report back to an umbrella forum of the reference group.
• The workload of officials and officers due to LGR and to look at what papers, reports and information are already available or could be provided with minimal work. The reference group will probably want to meet with representatives from other local authorities it a similar position or who have gone through the unitarization process already/recently.
• Quite a few of the policies will be Government policies not ESCC policies, which are outside of scrutiny’s remit or ability to influence.
• The reference group needs to be cross party and democratic, and to get people to work together on this issue.
• Often the Committee scrutinises things that are currently happening, whereas scrutinising LGR will require scrutinising things that are going to happen in the future, which will require a different mindset.

39.4     Councillor Hollidge added that as the report to Full Council on the changes to the Place Scrutiny Committee’s remit suggested, the Committee will have insight on and oversight of the LGR process and the existing system. There will also be a need for officers to suggest areas where scrutiny input is needed, as well as the Committee outlining areas of interest. Councillor Wright commented that this work will involve scrutinising documents from Government and those prepared by officers.

39.5     The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) Agree the agenda items for the future Committee meetings, including items listed in the work programme in appendix 1;

2) Consider a scrutiny review topic for progression by the Committee;

3) Review upcoming items on East Sussex County Council’s (ESCC) Forward Plan in appendix 2 to identify any issues that may require more detailed scrutiny for inclusion in the committee’s future work programme; and

4) Agree to form a reference group, together with members from the People Scrutiny Committee, to provide scrutiny input into the proposals and arrangements for Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation.