Agenda item

A question was asked in relation to the Leisure Centre Working Group and an update was requested to be circulated to the Committee.

Ø Action Note

That an update on the Leisure Centre Working Group be circulated to Members of the Committee.

A further question was asked in relation to the action point requesting a response from the Interim Strategic Director Growth on the position in relation to land searches. The Scrutiny Officer read out the following information which had been circulated to Members before the meeting:

·       The team responsible for Land Searches had recently implemented a new way of dealing with Personal searches which was proving successful in providing a more efficient service, saving staff time on administration work.

·       The team were introducing a rota-based system to ensure that more time was spent on searches.

·       An additional member of staff was employed within the team on a temporary contract in order to assist with backlog. In addition, the team’s apprentice was trained to do more Land Charges related tasks.

·       A target was introduced to reduce the average turnaround time on Local Land Charges searches to under 10 days.

·       The Council’s Land Charges team had implemented a number of new processes over the last 4 months, as all planning administration functions were aligned.

·       Although the new processes initially contributed to a drop in performance, it was hoped that that the combined impact will be positive, once the processes were fully bedded-in.

Concern was expressed about the timeframe for receiving information requested at a meeting, it was felt that information should have been circulated earlier.  The Scrutiny Officer apologised for the delay, and explained that information requested by Members at a meeting is usually collated to send to Members in a single update, as opposed to sending information as and when it became available, and that unfortunately due to the cancellation of the April meeting of the Finance, Economic Development and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the update had been neglected on this occasion, and was sent to Members later than expected.

A Member noted that, although not included in the minutes from the previous meeting, they had requested a list of recreation ground assets such as cricket grounds which belonged to Parish/Town councils be shared with Members.

Ø Action Note

A list of recreation ground assets owned by Parish/Town councils to be circulated to Members.

Another Member raised concerns about the monitoring of contracts, and she was advised to raise the issue when the work programme was being discussed.

A non-Committee Member commented on the information that had been received in relation to the Leisure Centre Working Group at the previous meeting, and an earlier meeting of the Culture and Visitor Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee, noting that information shared at these committees was not consistent, and that no such Working Group appears to have been convened in the interim. He requested a statement of clarification on the current situation in relation to Leisure Centre Working Groups.

Ø Action Note

That clarification is given on the membership of the Leisure Centre Working Groups and any decisions taken to date.