The Chair advised the meeting that items 3 and 4 would be considered together.  For the purposes of these minutes, the resolutions appear under the item to which they relate.

At the invitation of the Chair, Councillor Peter Southgate, Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission, presented the reference report which set out the outcome of the meeting to consider the call in of the decision on a strategic approach to parking charges.  The Commission felt that the Cabinet had not given due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty, specifically that insufficient attempts had been made to reach particular interest groups which would potentially be affected by the new charging regime.  It was noted that the Council attached high importance to equalities, the Leader having previously been the Cabinet Member responsible for Equalities; and now with a new focus with the appointment of the Cabinet Member for Women and Equalities.  Councillor Southgate welcomed the contents of the supplementary agenda which set out the steps taken to complete the consultation in response to the request of the call-in meeting and set out the three requests made by the Commission set out in paragraph 2.7 of the report, namely

·         that there should be a review after 12 months after implementation of the new charges of the impact on air quality and numbers of parking permits issued;

·         that the results of the diesel levy be reported to scrutiny as soon as practicable; and

·         that as the approach to parking charges was one of a suite of measures, the Commission looked forward to seeing the introduction of other measures to tackle air quality.

The Commission acknowledged the importance of tackling air quality and was keen to see proposals for those additional measures in due course.

The Chair thanked Councillor Southgate for his presentation and welcomed the valuable work carried out by the Scrutiny Commission.

The Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Housing and Transport thanked Councillor Southgate for his presentation and the members of the Commission for their work.  He welcomed the extensive call in, which in his view had been an example of scrutiny working at its best.  He advised that since the meeting of the Commission, the Council had undertaken further consultation to address the specific points raised by the call in.  He drew Cabinet’s attention to the detailed officer response set out in the supplementary agenda (item 4) and the groups consulted with in paragraph 2.13 of that report.  In addition, the Council had also contacted Merton Voluntary Service Council to ensure that the views of the Borough’s voluntary sector were taken into account.  The groups had all been written to, with a follow up phone call and offered a meeting in person if they wished.  In addition, the groups had been invited to attend the extraordinary Cabinet meeting.  The Cabinet Member outlined the questions asked in the additional consultation and drew the Cabinet’s attention to the responses set out in the report from Merton Vision, Wimbledon Guild and Merton Age UK.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3