Agenda and minutes

Members and officers must declare any pecuniary or personalinterest in any business on the agenda. They should also make declarations at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting. Consideration should be given to leaving the meeting if the nature of the interest warrants it.  If in doubt please contact Democratic Services before the meeting.

29.1     In accordance with the County Council’s code of conduct the following declarations of interest were made:

29.2     Cllr Oakley declared a personal interest as a member of Chichester District Council, a waste collection authority, under agenda item 6 and as a member of the Executive Task Force Group for Walking and Cycling and a Chichester District Council appointment to the Portsmouth Water Customer Scrutiny Panel and the Water Resources South-East Customer Challenge Group under agenda item 8(b).

29.3     Cllr Ali declared a personal interest as a member of Crawley Borough Council under agenda items 5 and 6.

29.4     Cllr Burgess declared a personal interest as a member of Crawley Borough Council under agenda items 5 and 6.

Items not on the agenda which the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency by reason of special circumstances, including cases where the Committee needs to be informed of budgetary or performance issues affecting matters within its terms of reference, which have emerged since the publication of the agenda.

30.1     No urgent matters were raised.

The Committee is asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 21 September 2022 (cream paper).

31.1     The members were asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 21 September 2022. 

31.2     Members requested the following updates to the minutes.

31.3     Under minute 23.4, first sentence, remove the word prices and make the word cost into costs.

31.4     Under minute 23.5 a member asked that the minute be clarified.

31.5     With regard to minute 22.2 members were updated that the information on the funded schemes for the Bus Enhanced Partnership Plan was now expected in January 2023.

31.6     With regard to minute 23.12 officers confirmed that the breakdown of responders to the Transport for the South-East consultation on the Strategic Investment Plan were not yet available.

The Committee is asked to note the responses to recommendations made at previous meetings of the committee.

32.1     The Committee noted the responses to recommendations made at the meeting on 21 September 2022.

32.2     A member highlighted that under Transport for the South-East Strategic Investment Plan Consultation – recommendation 2 – that availability and connectivity were just as important as cost and that work should be done to fundamentally change the service.

32.3     Clarification was also sought from officers under recommendation 6 as it was felt the response did not address the point made in the minutes. 

Under the Crime and Disorder (Overview and Scrutiny) Regulations 2009, the Committee undertakes the Council’s Crime and Disorder functions.

The Committee is asked to scrutinise the current partnership approach to tackling Digital Crime in West Sussex in order to obtain a more coherent and detailed picture of the threats, harms, risks and vulnerability that impact our residents, and the work being done to address these.

33.1     The Cabinet Member for Community Support, Fire and Rescue, Cllr Crow, introduced the item, reminding members that one of the priorities in Our Council’s Plan was to keep people safe from vulnerable situations and this item would demonstrate how digital crime would apply to that.  Victims of digital crime have impacts for the County Council. There was a direct correlation between people who become victims of digital crime and people who need services and assistance from the County Council, whether they were children or adults. 

33.2     Cllr Crow also asked members to help promote good messages to local communities using the Stay Safe pages on the County Council website and social media.  The County Council has a Stay Safe account on Twitter and messages can be retweeted.  The 36 libraries were a valuable front door for vulnerable people and those who like face to face contact and staff are well trained to provide good advice and signpost people to other support.

33.3     The Committee received presentations from officers and external witnesses PC Lawrie, Financial Abuse Safeguarding Officer for Operation Signature at the Sussex and Surrey Police Specialist Crime Command and Mrs Booker, Director of Police, MOD and Local Government Programmes at Get Safe Online.  Mrs Booker said she worked with organisations across the United Kingdom and that the Safer West Sussex Safer Partnership was much more active than anywhere else she worked with.  

33.4     Members of the Committee then asked questions and a summary of those comments, questions and answers follows.

33.5     Committee members were shocked to hear that in the 7–10-year-old age group self-generated sexual imagery was up 235% and was the fastest growing age group of concern.  Officers reported that this had been because much younger children were using digital technology, groomers had developed more sophisticated ways of contacting children, pandemic lockdowns had impacted, a lack of parental control and loss of school support.

33.6     The Digital Safety Package and associated training is available to schools for a fee. The Education for Safeguarding Programme, through a recent funding scheme was hoped to cover costs until 2024.  Officers would be undertaking a survey in the New Year to establish if schools have heard of the package and to understand why they were not subscribing.  Members asked for a list of schools not signed up by division so that local members could encourage schools to do so.  Information is also regularly shared with schools via the Headteachers’ letter, resources are offered for assemblies, updates on risk or threat information shared, as well as the upcoming West Sussex Children’s Safeguarding Conference which school staff were anticipated to be in attendance. 

33.7     Work is ongoing to share information via the monthly Staying Safe Online e-newsletter, which is also shared by internal and external networks e.g the library services newsletter, neighbourhood watch groups, digital ambassadors, parish, district and borough councils.  Work had taken place with the National Health Service (NHS) to produce a poster for all GP surgeries, and the Digital Safety  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

Report by Director of Finance and support services setting out the finance and performance position as at the end of September 2022.

The Committee is asked to examine the Council’s corporate performance, finance, savings delivery and business performance for services within the remit of this Committee and to make any recommendations for action to the relevant Cabinet Member.

Members are reminded that only the performance data on Community Support in section 4 (Community Support, fire and Rescue Portfolio) falls within the remit of this Committee.

Communities

34.1     The Cabinet Member for Community Support, Fire and Rescue, Cllr Crow, highlighted the success of Trading Standards in receiving money back from the American authorities to pass back to around 30 local scam victims. He also reported that performance measures 4, 33 and 34 were rated green and that the in-year financial variance had narrowed.  One of the savings targets remained outstanding but options were being explored to ensure it would be realised in the next financial year.

34.2     Members of the Committee then asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

34.3     Ukrainian support – Cllr Crow confirmed that all sponsors and guests were contacted at the 4-month point to ensure things were going well and see if sponsor and guests wanted to continue beyond the initial six-month period.  In West Sussex, over 80% of sponsors were keen to continue and the Ukrainian Support Team were working to rematch the other 20%.  The 80% figure was higher than the national average.  The support team were keen to keep guests out of temporary accommodation and arrange matches with new sponsors.  It was not felt there would be a sudden rise in guest numbers needing support, and that team resources would be able to manage.

34.4     Countering Extremism training for taxi drivers – officers agreed to provide a written response on how the Countering Extremism team would train all taxi drivers across West Sussex, as was required under their license arrangements with the district and borough councils, including performance data on achievements to date.

34.5     Library Services - Cllr Crow reported that footfall was not back to pre-pandemic levels but that the number of books being borrowed was.  Fewer people were using library computers and staff were looking at ways to encourage people back. 

34.6     Key Performance Indicator (KPI) 34 – Community Hub – Cllr Crow confirmed that the Community Hub had been awarded the same amount of funding from the Household Support Fund for the next six months and would work to ensure the money lasted the full time.  Cllr Crow felt there was adequate resource to keep up with demand, although he anticipated pressures due to staff vacancies but felt they were not at a level to cause concern.  The team were also working with people who had made repeated requests to address the reasons why they needed support.

34.7     Libraries and archives income – was still at a lower level than pre-pandemic levels, but some staff vacancies helped mitigate that.  The Library Service were looking what could be done in individual libraries to raise revenues.

34.8     Resolved - The Committee:

1.   Acknowledged the good performance under KPIs 4, 33 and 34.

2.   Acknowledged the continued support to Ukrainian refugees.

3.   Acknowledged that the Library Service was looking at income streams for libraries going forward.

4.   Acknowledged that Community Services were looking at how service demand differed pre and post-Covid.

5.   Continued to support the Library Service.

Environment

34.9     The Cabinet Member for Environment  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport is proposing to revise the Speed Limit Policy, building on the work of an Executive Task and Finish Group. The Committee is asked to preview the proposed decision.

35.1     The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Cllr J Dennis, introduced the report saying it had been her key priority to review this policy, particularly for rural roads. 

35.2     Cllr Richardson, the Chairman of the Task and Finish Group (TFG) that had looked at the speed limit policy, reported that TFG had reviewed the existing policy, which dated back to 2010 and found it restrictive and lacking the flexibility to facilitate a common-sense approach. 

35.3     The Committee received a presentation and explanation from Mr Stark, the Road Safety Group Manager, on the basis for the proposed changes.  Those included the proposed relaxation of criteria and threshold at which speed limits could be introduced, and looked to a more hierarchical consideration of road use, e.g. are there schools, vulnerable road users, etc, and refining the definition of a village.  

35.4     Members of the Committee then asked questions and a summary of those questions and answers follows.

35.5     The new policy is more flexible and would look at applications on a case-by-case basis considering whether engineering enforcements could help reduce speed, what is appropriate for the function of the road (e.g. a shopping parade, doctor’s surgery), before any decision to lower a speed limit is made.  A member asked that wording be re-checked to make it clear that excessive average speed on a stretch of road would no longer be used as a reason not doing anything.  Officers reported the policy had been written in a positive, flexible manner but it was agreed to review the wording for clarity.

35.6     The Committee asked whether data on killed or seriously injured casualties could be broken down by category e.g. driver, pedestrian, etc, could be made available. 

35.7     Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Welcomed the revised Speed Limit Policy and thanked Cllr Dennis, Cllr Richardson and the TFG members, and officers for their work.

2.   Asked that the policy be looked at again for clarity for applicants, to make it clear that excessive average speed on a stretch of road would no longer be used as a reason for not taking action.

3.   Sought further information on killed and serious injured numbers by categories.  In particular detailing how many of these could have been mitigated by factors within the County Council’s control.

The Committee is asked to review its current draft work programme taking into account the Forward Plan of key decisions and any suggestions from its members for possible scrutiny taking into account the attached revised scrutiny checklist (attached at Appendix A).

36.1     The Committee agreed the Work Programme proposed by the Business Planning Group and asked that the following items also be considered.

36.2     Fragmentation of the rights of way network, particularly for equestrian users.  It was suggested this could be part of the scrutiny of the Active Travel Strategy to consider how the strategy enables connectivity with the rights of way network.

36.3     CPZ Policy review – responses to the Horsham consultation had been way below the 50% limit set and therefore no action would be taken.  The Committee asked if this could be considered as part of the policy review.

36.4     Consultations on long term water management plans by water companies and how this might be shared with the Scrutiny Committee or members.  It was considered that it was a matter for district and borough councils but was felt that maybe a Member Day could be held for all members involving representatives from water companies.  The chairman agreed to discuss this suggestion with the Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change.

There have been no requests for call-in to the Scrutiny Committee and within its constitutional remit since the date of the last meeting.  The Director of Law and Assurance will report any requests since the publication of the agenda papers.

37.1     There had been no request for call in to the Scrutiny Committee within its constitutional remit since the date of the last meeting.

The next meeting of the Committee will be held on 23 January 2023 at 10.30 am at County Hall, Chichester.  Probable agenda items include:

·       Electric Vehicle Strategy Process

·       Highways Maintenance Contract Performance Report

·       Energy Strategy Action Plan

Any member wishing to place an item on the agenda for the meeting must notify the Director of Law and Assurance by 11 January 2023.

38.1     The next meeting would be held on 23 January 2023 at 10.30am.