Agenda and minutes

The Panel to be notified of any substitute members.

The Panel were notified that Councillor Mrs. Radley would be substituting for Councillor Mrs. Wheat and Councillor O’Hare would be substituting for Councillor Bisnauthsing for this meeting only. The Panel were also notified that Councillor Thompson would be filling the vacant New Independent seat for this meeting only.

Members are asked to declare interests in matters for consideration at the meeting.

None declared.

The following decision has been the subject of a request of a call-in in accordance with rule 16 of the Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rules:-

Non Key Decision taken by Councillor Mrs Frances Cartwright 16th April 2007

Decision:   

That approval is granted to appoint Enterprise Beha Williams Norman Ltd (EBWNL) to provide consultancy support to the Working Group established to explore more innovative options for the management of the Council’s housing stock.

The reasons for exercising the call-in are:

Insufficient consideration of all options and/or weighting of options

Inadequate/insufficient consultation

Involvement of these consultants in the failed stock transfer ballot inevitably brings into question the extent of possible public confidence

whether unfairly or not, it raises the question of impartiality

Copies of the Call-in request form, the decision notice and report TSE020 are enclosed.

A call-in request had been received in respect of a decision made by Councillor Mrs. Cartwright to appoint Enterprise Beha Williams Norman Limited (EBWNL) to provide consultancy support to a working group. The Scrutiny Officer summarised the procedure that would be followed during the meeting. The signatories summarised their request to call-in the decision.

• The DSP had not received any reports on the activities, considerations and recommendations of the working group.
• The working group was established after a decision by Council as a Cabinet working group. As such, it was not accountable to the DSP.
• The working group comprised five elected members, five staff members and five tenants.
• The working group had not reported back to Cabinet. Its terms of reference and time frames were summarised.
• The Chairman of the Community DSP was listed as a consultee for the non-key decision. He was supplied with the same information as the Portfolio Holder.
• The Director of Tenancy Services had the authority to make decisions with cost implications below £10,000. Due to the sensitivity of the subject he recommended that the consultants should be appointed via a non-key decision.
• There was no in-house capacity to carry out a detailed financial appraisal of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) and future options for the management of the council’s housing stock.
• EBWNL were responsible for previous appraisal work carried out on the HRA. They were also appointed as lead consultants for SKDC during the Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) process and prepared the business plan for the shadow board of South Lincolnshire Homes.
• EBWNL had a clear role in the LSVT process and the signatories were concerned about the public’s perception of this.
• The selection criteria used to appoint EBWNL were not listed within the non-key decision report. Contracts costing below £10,000 were decided on a cost basis. Higher cost contracts would include an assessment of value and quality. The contract with EBWNL was a low value, fixed cost transaction.

The Scrutiny Officer explained that the Panel had to take a vote on whether to accept the call-in request. On being put to the vote, a majority of members of the DSP did not support the call-in request.

CONCLUSION:

To not support the call-in request.

The meeting was closed at 12:20