Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 8 March 2011, be approved as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

Mark Nedderman – Senior Scrutiny Officer

Dave Upton - Organisational Change Manager

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests and for members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.

Councillor H Davenport declared a personal interest in respect of items CE10/11-61 and CE10/11-62 in the forward plan, on the grounds that he was a Member of Disley Parish Council.

Councillors G Baxendale, AR Thwaite, PJ Edwards and J Narraway declared personal interests in respect of item CE10/11-62 in the forward plan on the grounds that they were Members of Congleton Town Council , Congleton, Town Council Middlewich Town Council and North Rode Parish Council respectively.

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note: In order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public contacted the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda, at least one working day before the meeting to provide brief details of the matter to be covered. 

There were no members of the public present who wished to make a statement.

To consider a report of the Borough Solicitor.

The Committee considered a report of the Borough Solicitor setting out the 2010/2011 work programme.

The      The Committee reviewed the current work programme with a view to making recommendations for the handover to the new committee in the 2011/2012 civic year.

            The Committee was reminded that the following 3 monitoring groups had been set up during 2010/2011 and that consideration should be given as to whether all 3 groups should continue in the new civic year. :

• The Highways Contract
• Macclesfield Data Centre
• Budget Monitoring

RESOLVED- (a) That the report be received;

(b)   That an item be placed on the agenda of the next meeting in June 2011 to consider whether the Budget Consultation Monitoring group should continue;

(c)   That work of the Highways Monitoring Group and Macclesfield Data Centre be received and noted

(d)   That the work programme be approved subject to the deletion of the following items:

·        Communications service

·        Shared Services

To considers a report of the Strategic Director Places.

The Committee considered a report of the Head of Environmental Services and Borough Treasurer and Head of Assets relating to the progress of phase 1 of the depot rationalisation project.

In December 2010, the Committee had received a report on the depot rationalisation project and at that time had been informed that:

·        The Council would be evaluating future options for all depots used for Cheshire East business, including Council owned sites used by external contractors;

·        Depots that did not meet current and future business needs would be decommissioned within a phased plan;

·        Opportunities for capital receipts and revenue reductions would be explored

·        The Council’s vision was to move towards its 2 super depots in Crewe and Macclesfield;

·        Assurances were being made that there was the capacity to meet all operational needs during the transition process;

·        Stock held at sites would be rationalised.

     The Depots review had been split into 3 phases:

·        Phase 1 – involved changes that could be made now to protect business continuity and to declare depots no longer required for operational purposes surplus to Environmental Services requirements

·        Phase 2 – would proceed after the letting of the Highways maintenance contract

·        Phase 3 – would tie in with longer term Council depot requirements linking with the long term waste and vehicle maintenance strategies.

The project, which was being led by an officer working group, had set the following objectives:

l      Identify changes needed to protect business continuity

l      Rationalise number of sites

l      Super depots

l      Make better use of the sites

l      Identify potential capital receipts/Revenue savings

l      Identify where we need to make investment to raise standards

l      Devolution process/Town and Parish Councils

To date, the project had identified the following issues:

l      That there too many sites and some were in the wrong locations

l      A significant amount of repairs required

l      Under-utilised space

l      Clutter

l      Poor staff facilities (E.g.Mess room/Showers)

l      Some sites were outside of Cheshire East  and there were issues such as excess travel/Carbon)

l      Still operating in silos

l      7 sites had Fuel bunkers (

On behalf of the Committee, the 4 Members of the Business Generation Task and Finish Group had visited depots at Lyme Green Macclesfield, Brunswick Wharf Congleton, Town yard Alsager and Pyms Lane Crewe on 11 April 2011 to witness at first hand the facilities at each of these locations.

The Committee then questioned David Upton, Organisational Change Manager about phase 1 of the proposals.

In response to a question concerning the suitability of the depot at Town Yard Alsager for an affordable housing scheme, David explained that the Council first needed to take a decision in principle as to whether the site was considered to be surplus to requirements.

Members raised concerns about the proposal to offer three sites to Poynton Parish Council under the devolution process banner, on the grounds that the future of the 3 sites had not been subject to the wider strategic asset challenge process and also because the financial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 104.

The Chairman to provide an oral update on the Business Generation Task and Finsih Group final report.

The Chairman referred to the work of the Business Generation Centre Task and Finish group which had concluded two weeks ago. The final report was still in draft stage and could not therefore be considered by the Committee until the new civic year. In addition, the Committee was informed that Sandbach Town Council had expressed an interest in taking over one of the buildings involved in the investigation at Sandbach Enterprise Centre, Wesley Avenue Sandbach in accordance with the Council’s devolution proposals. It would be necessary therefore to carry out further investigations to determine the status of Sandbach Town Council’s enquiry.

RESOLVED – that the report be received.

To note the current forward plan, identify any new items, and to determine whether any further examination of new issues is appropriate.

The Committee considered items listed in the current Forward Plan.

RESOLVED – That the Forward Plan be received and noted

To note any consultations referred to the Committee from Cabinet and to determine whether any further action is appropriate.

There were no consultations from Cabinet.