There were changes to Committee Membership for this meeting: Councillors Collett, Counter, Crout and Lynch replaced Councillors Greenslade, Hastrick, Jeffree and Watkin.

The Head of Legal and Property Services explained that, for this Call-In meeting, several members of the Committee had Personal and Prejudicial Interests in the matters under discussion.  For this reason they had been unable to take part in the meeting and, consequently, substitute members had joined the Committee.   

In reply to a question from a Member, the Head of Legal and Property Services explained that a councillor who was a member of an affected group could resign their membership and then take part in the discussion.  She advised that the Member must not be seen to have an interest at the time of the decision and that proof must be provided.  She added that in this case all necessary proof had been noted. 

The following decision taken on 5 December 2011 by Cabinet has been called in:

Review of three year grant funding programme to achieve savings

The reason for call-in, agreed by 3 Members, is as follows

“We the undersigned Call-In the decision by the Cabinet on Monday 5th December to agree the Officer recommendations in Item 34 regarding the Review of the 3-year Grant funding programme to achieve savings, including Appendix A and B.

We feel that the "single-Interest" criteria was not followed consistently across all groups and Organisations and that the overall funding criteria was not followed consistently for all groups.

We feel that groups and organisations were not given sufficient time to prepare for the possible loss of funding.”

The following documents are attached

(a)       Report of the Head of Community Services presented to Cabinet

(b)       Appendix A to the report – Recommended savings options table

(c)        Appendix B to the report – Organisation Analysis table

(d)       Additional paper – Feedback to Cabinet from the organisations

(e)       Extract of the minutes of Cabinet on 5 December 2011

(f)         Proforma requesting the call-in of the decision agreed by Councillors Nigel Bell, Ken Brodhurst and Asif Khan

(g)       Call-in procedure to be followed

Review of Three Year Grant Funding Programme to Achieve Savings

The Cabinet decision taken on 5^th December 2011, minute reference 34, regarding proposed savings in the Three year Grant funding Programme.  The reason for call-in supported by three Members was as follows –

·            “the ‘single-Interest’ criteria was not followed consistently across all groups and Organisations

·            The overall funding criteria was not followed consistently for all groups

·            Groups and organisations were not given sufficient time to prepare for the possible loss of funding.”

The Scrutiny Committee had received a copy of the Cabinet report, the relevant minutes, the completed call-in pro-forma and details of the call-in procedures.

The Chair invited Councillor Bell, one of the signatories, to present the reasons for the call-in. 

Councillor Bell referred to the three reasons as quoted by the Chair.  He noted paragraph 3.9.ii. in the report to Cabinet of 5^th December 2011 with regard to the Equality Impact Assessment; he asked whether this had been carried out by external assessors in addition to the Council’s own assessment team.  He also drew attention to paragraph 3.13 of the report and advised that withdrawal of funding for single interest groups would have a negative effect on community cohesion. 

Councillor Bell then referred to the provision of a Voluntary Sector Resilience Officer and asked whether the time available to one officer would be sufficient for the needs of the four groups for whom this staffing was intended.  He commented on the loss of 50% of the Women’s Centre grant, stating that this would have a significant impact on the centre.  He quoted the Mayor’s statement at Cabinet that funding for this group was ‘nice to do’ and affirmed that this funding should in fact be a ‘must do’.  He added that the loss of this grant would greatly affect elderly women and those of ethnic origin.  He doubted that the Citizens Advice Bureau would have sufficient resources to deal with additional enquires from the Muslim and Afro Caribbean sections of Watford’s residents.  With the loss of funding, the help the Muslim Community Project and the Watford Afro Caribbean Association had provided would no longer be available. 

Councillor Bell concluded by questioning the funding to be provided to the Watford Palace Theatre.  He noted the reluctance of the Arts Council to continue funding were the Council to reduce its grant but advised that it would be a fairer system to look for savings across the board rather than take all funding from three groups and 50% from the Women’s Centre. 

The Chair invited Mrs Sharifa Chaudrey to speak on behalf of the Multi-Cultural Community Centre.

Mrs Chaudrey said that there was misunderstanding over the reserves the Centre had accrued.  She stressed that this represented savings which had been made over the years.  She explained that for two years no centre manager had been employed and that this had resulted in a considerable saving.  She then detailed data on monies raised by the centre itself which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

·               Thursday 2 February 2012

·               Wednesday 7 March 2012

·               Thursday 29 March 2012 (For call-in only)

·               Thursday 2^nd February 2012

·               Wednesday 7^th March 2012

·               Thursday 29^th March 2012 (For call-in only)