Council and Democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Chesterfield

Contact: Charlotte Kearsey  01246 345236

Items
No. Item

31.

Declarations of Members' and Officers Interests relating to items on the Agenda

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

32.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Borrell, Caulfield and Catt.

33.

Forward Plan

Please follow the link below to view the latest Forward Plan.

 

Forward Plan

Minutes:

The Forum considered the Forward Plan.

 

Councillor Fordham raised concerns about reports being added to the Forward Plan without enough time for pre-decision scrutiny to be carried out as the Forum meets every two months. The Joint Chair advised that at previous Forum meetings she had asked scrutiny members to check the Forward Plan and to email the Joint Chairs about items on the Forward Plan which arise between meetings.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Forward Plan be noted.

34.

Scrutiny Monitoring pdf icon PDF 247 KB

-       5:05pm HS2 update

Minutes:

The Forum considered the Scrutiny recommendations implementation monitoring schedule.

 

The Leader of the Council provided a monitoring update regarding HS2. The Forum was informed that there had been some misunderstandings in the press and HS2 had not been cancelled but the HS2 tracks would only go as far as the East Midlands Parkway. HS2 trains would then travel from the Parkway to Chesterfield on Victorian tracks. Electrification of the Midlands Mainline was due to start in January but this had been promised twice before.

 

The Leader emphasised that the Derbyshire Rail Industry Innovation Vehicle (DRIIVe) at Barrow Hill was still required to train people to support the increase in rail innovation.

 

Lobbying was continuing along with work on alternative plans.

 

Members noted the disappointing news, agreed with the need to deliver DRIIVe at Barrow Hill and thanked the Leader for the update.

 

Members enquired how long it may take to revise and deliver the alternative plans; the Leader explained that it was difficult to tell how long because there remained outstanding responses from the Government but as much pressure as possible was being applied across the East Midlands.

 

RESOLVED –

 

1.   That a further monitoring update from the Leader about HS2 be scheduled for the second half of the 2022/23 scrutiny work programme. 

 

2.   That the Scrutiny monitoring schedule be noted.

35.

Scrutiny Project Group Progress Updates pdf icon PDF 118 KB

-       5:15pm Air Quality Scrutiny Project Group Report

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Scrutiny Project Group on Air Quality

 

Project group support officer, Amanda Clayton, presented the report of the scrutiny project group and asked Members to approve the recommendations.

 

In July 2019 the Council declared a climate emergency with the purpose of enabling Chesterfield to become a low carbon, resilient and sustainable borough and in February 2020 the council adopted a formal climate change action plan. The scrutiny project group was formed to look at the perceived problem of air quality within the Borough, particularly in relation to traffic hotspots on key routes, congestion around schools and increasing numbers of asthma/chronic breathing conditions.

 

The aims of the project group were to:

·        Identify existing plans and strategies in respect of air quality within the Borough.

·        Identify areas of concern within the Borough and the management plans in place.

·        Examine air quality around schools within the Borough and if any issues were identified to suggest ways in which the schools can impact/mitigate against them.

·        Identify any opportunities to improve the air quality in the Borough thus contributing to the Council’s vision of a clean, green and attractive Borough, where our open spaces and built heritage are valued.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the recommendations of the Scrutiny Project Group’s review of Air Quality, as detailed below, be approved:

 

1.   That the Scrutiny Project Group conclude its work in this area.

 

2.   That the subject of air quality remains a key element of the Council’s Climate Change work to ensure continued improvement for the benefit of all residents of the Borough.

36.

Work Programme for the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum pdf icon PDF 31 KB

Minutes:

The Work Programme for the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum was considered.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Work Programme be approved.

37.

Overview and Scrutiny Developments

Minutes:

There was no update.

38.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 307 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum held on 18 November, 2021 were presented.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

39.

Cabinet Member for Governance - Emergency and Business Continuity Planning pdf icon PDF 401 KB

-       5:30pm

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Business Transformation and Customers and Executive Director attended to present a report about Emergency and Business Continuity Planning.

 

Since 2005 Chesterfield Borough Council (CBC) had contracted with Derbyshire County Council (DCC) to deliver an Emergency Planning and Business Continuity service. To further strengthen the capacity and co-ordination of emergency or business continuity events two senior CBC officers, the Service Director - Corporate and Strategic Health & Safety and Risk Manager, hold emergency planning liaison roles. These officers would work alongside the DCC Emergency Planning team and CBC’s Senior Leadership Team and Corporate Leadership Team to respond to an emergency or business continuity event. Senior officers receive regular Emergency Planning and Business Continuity training, including training on Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP) principles which would be used in response to a major multi agency incident.

 

The Council had a detailed emergency plan and business continuity plan in place, which was regularly updated. Service specific business continuity plans were also regularly reviewed and updated.

 

The Council leadership teams would review, agree and document the priority services for protection and restoration in an emergency. This process would then inform the activities which would need to be undertaken when the business continuity plan was invoked. Individual Corporate Business Continuity Plans existed in respect of winter planning, flood planning, flu pandemic and more recently Coronavirus.

 

The number and type of strategic and tactical groups that would be initiated to effectively manage the emergency or business continuity event would depend on the size and scale of the event. This would be determined when an emergency or business continuity event was triggered.

 

The officer’s report detailed the business continuity structure which had been implemented to enable the management of coronavirus business continuity activity across Derbyshire.

 

The Covid-19 Emergency Planning/Business Continuity report presented to Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum in November 2020 outlined how the Coronavirus pandemic had presented unprecedented risks, disruption and changes to Council working practices. It highlighted that the business continuity plans needed further review to ensure they incorporated all the learning from the new pandemic and were updated appropriately. Over the period of the pandemic to date, Business Continuity Plans had been updated and any new developments had been incorporated. Urgent work had been carried out to ensure that the Council had arrangements in place to create and maintain safe working environments within council buildings and workspaces which included the creation of a network of support to enable home working for many of the Council’s staff. Where there were capacity pressures on key services, such as the Crematorium, some staff were redeployed to provide service support as part of our business continuity arrangements.

 

Objective 1 - How successful have the Council’s plans and actions been in response to the Covid-19 pandemic?

 

A number of further arrangements had continued to be kept in place specifically in response to the Coronavirus pandemic e.g. three task and finish groups, regular engagement with partners through the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) emergency response arrangements and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.