RESOLVED: The Panel agreed the minutes subject to an amendment to the attendance list to show that Councillor Russell Makin was not present.

RESOLVED: The Panel agreed the minutes subject to an amendment to the attendance list to show that Councillor Russell Makin was not present.

RESOLVED: The Panel agreed the minutes subject to two amendments:

•    amendment to the attendance list to show that Councillor Peter Southgate’s attendance was as a substitute for Councillor John Sargeant and Councillor Miles Windsor’s attendance was as a substitute for Councillor David Dean

•    amendment to apologies for absence to remove Councillor David Dean as he was present at the meeting.

RESOLVED: The Panel agreed the minutes subject to two amendments:

·         Item 7 – public value review. Amendment to last paragraph on page 17 to replace “Councillor Ian Munn said he had received complaints” with “ Councillor Ian Munn said he had received concerns from residents regarding the long absence of a well-regarded streetsweeper and that residents hoped he would get well soon and be re-instated to duties on their streets”.

·         Item 9 – parking. Amendment to last paragraph on page 19 to replace “Chris Lee confirmed the approach to be taken was set out in the report” with “Chris Lee confirmed that this would be rolled out where identified as appropriate for the parade. Implementation would be progressed on a parade by parade basis”.

Matters arising – p13  - James McGinlay, Head of Sustainable Communities, confirmed that  information on Rainbow Industrial Estates had been sent to Councillor Samantha George as requested.

Caroline Holland, Director of Corporate Services, introduced the report and outlined the content. She said that there will be a further business plan update to Cabinet on 20 January in order to take into account the local government financial settlement. The service plans had been provided as context and they would be finalised after the completion of the budget process.

Some members said that they found the report difficult to follow, partly due to its length. They said that members without a financial background would find explanations of the kind provided verbally at the meeting easier to understand than the terminology used in the report.

Revenue budget – amendments to previously agreed savings (pages 41-43)

Chris Lee, Director of Environment and Regeneration, explained the reasons for the proposed changes to the four previously agreed savings (ER07, ER23, EN12 and ENV1).

The Panel expressed concerns at the lack of detail for ENV1 given that the proposed £334k saving is relatively large. Chris Lee and Caroline Holland said that it would be achieved through removing some underspend, income growth and reductions in a number of areas, some of which will not be easy to make. The Panel agreed that it wished to see more detail on how the proposed savings would be made before making a decision on this.

RESOLVED: to recommend that a breakdown of how the proposed ENV1 saving will be achieved should be provided prior to Cabinet making a decision on this item.

In response to a question on the basis of funding for taxi cards and freedom passes (page 30), Caroline Holland said that this had changed and was now mainly based on usage. Members expressed concern that funding may be reduced if card users didn’t touch in and out during journeys.

RESOLVED: to recommend that Cabinet consider how best to raise awareness of the importance of freedom pass users touching in and out during journeys so that the council achieves maximum financial benefit. This may include use of My Merton to communicate the message.

Revenue budget – new savings proposals (pages 59-64, 68-70)

The Panel asked questions about each of the savings proposals and made comments and recommendations as set out below:

Chris Lee, Director of Environment and Regeneration, introduced the report and said that the current street lighting contract will run till the end of September. The two options are to extend the contract for two years or to re-procure through competitive tendering. He said that officers are likely to recommend the contract extension subject to negotiations because the current contract is working well. Officers are in the process of negotiating further improvements that could be included in a contract extension.

Chris Lee and Mario Lecordier, Traffic & Highways Services Manager, said that they consider the current contract to be competitive and good value for money

In response to questions, Chris Lee and Cormac Stokes, Head of Street Scene and Waste, said that they are in discussion with other boroughs regarding the potential for achieving savings through a shared service and/or a joint contract. Extending the current contract would give time for this to be explored further. Cormac Stokes said that  it is not necessary for all boroughs’ current contracts to finish at the same time because it can be helpful to the contractor to start these on a phased basis and that this approach has worked for other services.

A Panel member noted the lack of contractor and council resources referred to in the report and asked how much of an issue this was. Mario Lecordier said that the difficulties for the contractor had mainly been due to staff turnover in the first two years of the contract but that the workforce was now stable and performance has improved.

A number of Panel members commented that they thought highly of the street lighting service and the current contractors, based on their own experiences and views received from residents. 

RESOLVED: that the officers should take the Panel’s comments into account when drafting the report to Cabinet’s meeting on 20 January 2014

RESOLVED:

1.            The Panel agreed to make the Merton Priory Homes report the main item for its meeting on 26 February 2014 and to delete the following items in order to have sufficient time for discussion :

·         Commercial waste

·         Morden town centre regeneration programme

·         Quality of footpaths

·         Passing inspection

2.            The Panel agreed the following changes to the agenda for its meeting on 23 April 2014:

·           add report of the climate change and green deal scrutiny task group

·           delete work programme report

3.            The Panel agreed that there should be a meeting of the Public Transport Liaison Committee in June 2014, at a date to be determined by officers. ACTION: Head of Democracy Services to inform the Future Merton Programme Manager