Decision details

The scrutiny committee received a report of the Committee and Scrutiny Officer which included the scrutiny proposal form completed by Councillor Jeffree and also discussed with Councillor Bell.

The Chair invited Councillor Jeffree to speak about the proposed scrutiny.

Councillor Jeffree informed the scrutiny committee that currently there were two ongoing inquiries.  The Grenfell Inquiry was due to provide an interim report next Easter and the review of Building Regulations was due to report in the Spring.  He suggested that it may be too early to start the proposed scrutiny task group during the current municipal year. 

Following a question about the possibility of carrying out part of the review immediately, Councillor Jeffree felt that this may not be necessary.  Councillors had been provided with information about the council’s emergency plan procedures and how it worked closely with the county council.  He suggested that councillors could be given a presentation by the Facilities and Resilience Manager and the Facilities Management Buildings and Projects Section Head.  He hoped this would give councillors the confidence in the council’s plans.

It was suggested that if the presentation was to take place, the scrutiny committee could then make an informed decision as to whether the task group needed to go ahead to review that aspect of the proposal.  The presentation should be open to all councillors and not just those on Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Chair proposed that a councillors’ briefing be arranged to enable them to hear about the council’s emergency planning arrangements.  Following the presentation an item would be added to the next agenda for Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider whether a task group needed to be set up to review this specific area.

RESOLVED –

1.      that an all-councillors’ briefing session be arranged to hear about the council’s emergency planning arrangements.

2.      that following the presentation an item be included on the next agenda for Overview and Scrutiny Committee to discuss the presentation and to consider whether a task group needs to be set up.