Agenda for Overview & Scrutiny Committee on Thursday, 26th July, 2018, 7.30 pm

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA. View directions

Contact: Stacey Gilmour 

Items
No. Item

674.

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

Minutes:

Councillor Levy welcomed all attendees to the meeting.  Apologies for absence had been received from Councillors Tolga Aramaz, Susan Erbil and Gina Needs.

675.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members of the Council are invited to identify any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relevant to items on the agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

 

676.

LEADER OF THE COUNCIL STRATEGIC OVERVIEW

This is a discussion item.

Minutes:

The Chair introduced this item and welcomed Councillor Nesil Caliskan as Leader of the Council.  He asked Councillor Caliskan to give a brief overview of what she considers to be her and the administrations’ vision, key objectives and priorities for Enfield for the coming years.

 

Councillor Caliskan referred to her party’s manifesto as the steer for delivering a clear strategic vision for the future. The council’s Corporate Plan will be shaped by this and would be presented at the Cabinet meeting in September. 

 

Councillor Caliskan spoke of her key priorities on the following:

  • Crime/ community cohesion
  • Housing
  • Reduction of poverty/ inequality
  • A balanced budget

 

Crime/ community cohesion – Councillor Caliskan spoke of the increase in serious youth violence as hugely significant, with an 8% increase in London and significantly a 17% increase for Enfield. She had recently met with the Mayor for London to discuss this issue. The council had helped to fund 16 additional police community support officers (PCSO’s) through match funding from the Mayors Office for Police and Crime (MOPAC) and she sought reassurance that this would continue. This scheme is not at risk. She discussed the pressures of lack of policing, which is especially challenging given the large numbers of vacancies that the Met Police have across London. Before police numbers can be increased these vacancies must first be filled.  Discussions had also been held regarding a bid for £500k a year for three years to tackle youth crime and anti- social behaviour.  She also referred to the £100k that the council had set aside for youth activities over this summer period.

 

Housing

In the long term the Meridian Water project should deliver 10,000 new homes.

Development partners are to be sought to develop the first two housing sites for this project delivering nearly 1,000 new private and affordable homes built around the new train station.

It is also intended to continue rolling out roof top conversion work across the borough.

She referred to the need to drive up improvements for the day to day housing repairs contracts, she spoke of the challenges involved with two contracts being up for renewal in 18 months’ time.

 

Poverty/ Inequality

The Leader stated that the objective to reduce poverty/ inequality should “run through everything we do”.   An equality commission would be set up in the autumn which will have cross party involvement. The aim is for recommendations to be formulated within months for the council to take forward.  It was thought much information already exists, for example in relation to health inequality which could be used to inform the commission’s work.

 

A Balanced Budget

This is the ninth year of budget cuts with a further £20 to £30 million savings to be found by 2019/20.  A robust budget setting process is necessary as ‘salami slicing’ for some services is no longer feasible.   We need to ensure our budget is sustainable and that we support our most vulnerable residents.

 

The following questions/ issues were raised regarding crime/ community cohesion:

677.

DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

 

Provisional Call-Ins

 

Thursday 9 August, 2018

Thursday 13 September, 2018

Thursday 11 October, 2018

Thursday 8 November, 2018

Thursday 6 December, 2018

Thursday 20 December, 2018

Thursday 7 February 2019

Tuesday 12 March 2019

Tuesday 26 March, 2019

Thursday 11 April, 2019

 

Please note, the business meetings of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee will be held on:

 

Wednesday 5 September, 2018

Wednesday 7 November, 2018

Tuesday 12 February, 2019

Wednesday 3 April, 2019

 

The Overview & Scrutiny Budget Meeting will be held on:

Tuesday 15 January, 2019

 

Minutes:

To note the dates of future meetings as follows:

 

Provisional Call-Ins

Thursday 13 September, 2018

Thursday 11 October, 2018

Thursday 8 November, 2018

Thursday 6 December, 2018

Thursday 20 December, 2018

Thursday 7 February 2019

Tuesday 12 March 2019

Tuesday 26 March, 2019

Thursday 11 April, 2019

 

Please note, the business meetings of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee will

be held on:

Wednesday 5 September, 2018

Wednesday 7 November, 2018

Tuesday 12 February, 2019

Wednesday 3 April, 2019

The Overview & Scrutiny Budget Meeting will be held on:

Tuesday 15 January, 2019.  

 

 

Workstreams for 2018/19

The following three initial workstreams have been agreed with the first two to commence initially and the third to follow in the future

  • Transition of Children Leaving Care, Lead Member: Susan Erbil
  • Empty Shops – Lead Member: Tolga Aramaz  
  • Parks and Green Spaces   Lead Member: Gina Needs

 

Discussions to be held at the next OSC meeting on which workstream will commence first alongside the transition of children leaving care.

 

Councillor Levy thanked everyone for attending the meeting.