Agenda item

The Service Director Performance and Innovation (Marianne Hesketh) has submitted a report updating the committee about the progress of the 2018/19 O&S Work Programme.

The Service Director Performance and Innovation submitted a report updating the committee about the delivery of the 2018/19 Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme.

Additional information was presented to the committee on a number of other matters:

(i)            The Corporate Management Team had considered proposing some amendments to the policy on Corporate Complaints but, following best practice advice from the Ombudsman’s Office no significant changes would be made.

(ii)          The Neighbourhood Services and Community Safety Portfolio Holder, Councillor Roger Berry, provided a written note about the new arrangements for Neighbourhood Policing that were proposed to come into effect in the autumn, as follows:

1.    Fleetwood and Garstang Police Stations will be retained. It is planned to use rooms at the Civic as a base to replace the Bungalow which has been vacated.

2.    There will be 6 Community Safety Police Officers, 1 based at Garstang, 1 possibly 2 based at Poulton and the rest at Fleetwood. They will be supported by Police Response Teams consisting of 2 Sergeants and 17 PCs based at Fleetwood and 2 PCs based on Garstang .In addition there will be some 15 PCSOs but it has not yet been decided where they will be assigned to. There will be 2 Early Action Officers who will work with various agencies including our Community Safety Team and hopefully they will be based at the Civic Centre.

The Response Teams will mostly work from cars and vans and from my prospective we will have to monitor how this works out for the areas around Preesall and Knott End which are some distance from the bases and the same can be said to some extent for Poulton certainly until the Civic base is reopened.

Members of the committee commented that there was a lack of information provided so it was not possible to come to a firm view about whether the proposals were favourable or not. It would have been more helpful had more detailed figures and trends been provided. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the figures quoted indicated an increase in the number of officers but it was not known whether this would translate into more officers on the ground.

It was agreed that the matter should be investigated in more depth by the committee once the new arrangements had been in place for twelve months. A report on the implementation of the arrangements and their impact would be requested for autumn 2019.

(iii)         Blackpool Council’s Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme 2018-2019 was circulated to members for their information.

(iv)         The Corporate Management Team had recently agreed to scrap the capital bids process, which would be replaced with the submission of ad hoc business cases. It was acknowledged that capital bids had not routinely been presented to the committee for several years.

The question was posed as to whether the ad hoc bids would routinely be submitted to the Committee, but it was agreed instead that members would individually keep a close eye on the Schedule of Executive Decisions and bring any such matters to the committee for closer examination if necessary.

(v)          A recent Audit Committee meeting had considered a report on the Statement of Accounts. There were items in the report which gave rise to questions that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee reasonably might wish to raise. It was agreed to consider the Statement of Accounts in greater detail at the next meeting in September.

It was agreed

(i)            That a report on the implementation of revised Neighbourhood Policing arrangements in Wyre be considered by the committee in October 2019,

(ii)          That an item on the council’s Statement of Accounts be considered at the next meeting on Monday 10 September 2018

(iii)         That the report be noted.