Agenda and minutes

To elect the Chairman of the Committee for the 2021/22 Municipal Year.

Councillor Hilary Cole nominated Councillor John Harrison, this was seconded by Councillor John Porter. The committee voted to appoint Councillor Harrison as Chairman for the 2021 Municipal Year unanimously.

Departing chairman, Councillor Parry Batth, thanked everyone for their support over the previous year.

To appoint the Vice Chairman of the Committee for the 2021/22 Municipal Year.

Councillor Harrison nominated Councillor Cole, this was seconded by Councillor Bridgman.

The committee voted to appoint Councillor Hilary Cole as Vice Chairman unanimously.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of this Committee held on 31 March 2021.

The minutes from the meeting held on 31st March 2021 were accepted and signed as a true and accurate record of the meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration, and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members’ Interests, the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

There were no declarations of interest declared.

The Partnership welcomes questions from members of the public about their work. However, no applications have been received from the public to ask questions on an item not included on this agenda.

Subject to meeting certain timescales up to thirty minutes is set aside on the agenda for questions which can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Partnership or an item which is on the agenda for this meeting. For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact Democratic Services.

No public questions were received.

To consider items for inclusion on future agendas.

Item 7, JPPC4068 PPP Private Sector Housing Policy to be deleted from the plan.

Purpose: To provide an annual performance summary for the Public Protection Service as well as providing an updating setting out the Service response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sean Murphy presented an annual performance summary of the Public Protection Service, as well as providing an update setting out the Service’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Councillor Bridgman noted the stated uses for the overspend being carried forward, i.e covering possible shortfalls in income and funding Covid recovery staffing and queried:

1-    What efforts had been made to bid for government income shortfall grants? Officers responded by noting that some had been claimed the previous year; but as the lost income for the current year was not yet known bids had not as yet been submitted.

2-    Sought assurance that the increase spend was subject to the proper checks and balances. It was explained that this role was delegated to the Joint Management Board which was accountable to this committee. This issue was regularly reviewed.

Councillor Soane asked whether there was a breakdown of the shortfall on food inspections by borough. Sean Murphy said that there was and it can be supplied if required. The shortfall/ backlog was fairly uniform across all three local authority areas.

The Committee NOTED the role the Public Protection Service played across the Councils with respect to Covid19 response.

The Committee NOTED the 2020/21 Q4 update and 2021/22 performance outturn for the Public Protection Service.

The Committee RESOLVED to receive a further update at its September 2021 meeting on progress on both the Covid19 response and associated 2021/22 performance.

The Committee RESOLVED that the 2020/21 revenue budget underspend be carried forward into the 2021/22 Financial Year.

Purpose: To set out to the Committee the proposed priorities for the Public Protection Service for 2021 to 2023 and to seek agreement from the Committee that the priorities identified in this report form the basis of our Covid recovery plan.

Sean Murphy presented the proposed priorities for the Public Protection Service for 2021 to 2023 and sought agreement that the priorities identified in this report form the basis of our Covid recovery plan.

It was recommended that the Committee consider the 2021/23 Priorities Document and RESOLVED that:

·         The overarching themes identified in the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA) and set out at Appendix C remain relevant and should be retained;

·         The functional priorities and cross cutting priorities set out at Appendix D inform service delivery for the years 2021/22 and 2022/23 (excluding Wokingham in year 2);

·         That the Public Protection Manager presents the Committee with an updated Control Strategy at its meeting in September 2021; and

• That delivery against the priorities be reported to the Committee as part of the regular reporting cycle and be reviewed and updated no later than June 2022.

Purpose: To provide an update to the legislation requiring owners or those in charge of mobile home sites to apply to the Local Authority to be placed on a Fit and Proper Register under The Mobile Homes (Requirement for Manager of Site to be Fit and Proper Person) (England) Regulations 2020.

RosalyndGater presented an update to the legislation requiring owners or those in charge of mobile home sites to apply to the Local Authority to be placed on a Fit and Proper Register under The Mobile Homes (Requirement for Manager of Site to be Fit and Proper Person) (England) Regulations 2020.

Councillor Cole queried whether this requirement would apply to traveller communities. Ms Gater confirmed that it would provided that the site was licenced. Councillor Cole asked that this be clarified in the report.

Councillor Cole queried if there was similar legislation regarding associates of landlords of permanent buildings. Officers stated that this was not the case as it was derived from different legislation. Councillor Cole was concerned by the inconsistency.

Councillor Bridgman felt the report was not clear about what sites would be covered and what types of site the regulations would not apply to.

Councillor Bridgman queried the PPP’s authority to set fees or whether they need to be set by individual Councils. Officers noted that the report was referring to the methodology of the hourly charge rather than suggesting the PPP set the rates. Councillor Bridgman suggested that it would be beneficial to amend the wording of the second recommendation to include the word “methodology” after the word “setting” to make it clearer. This change was agreed.

The Committee NOTED the role PPP have in determining the Fit and Proper test for mobile home site owners/managers.

The Committee APPROVED the fee setting methodology which is based on the existing framework of Fees and Charges within PPP (hourly rate).

Purpose: To consider and if appropriate agree the Strategy.

Anna Smy presented the review and update of the previously agreed Communications Strategy April 2018 - March 2020.

The report addressed communications for the operation of the service. It acknowledged that the Public Protection Partnership would need to have consideration of the impact of Wokingham Borough Council leaving the partnership, however, it did not cover the communications around the exit plan or development of the remaining Public Protection Service. This would be addressed through a separate communications strategy.

The report detailed how the Strategy would put in place or maintain areas of ongoing improvements of the service, in particular the lessons learnt from Covid and developments in ICT provisions.

Councillor Cole asked about rebranding. This needed to be looked at as a priority in the wake of Wokingham leaving the partnership. The branding was part of the inter-authority agreement and that has to be decided by committee decision; this would most likely be in the November meeting.

Councillor Bridgman looked for data on licensing permissions and noted the report referred to public registers. Was there a link to the licenced premises register and would it be made easily locatable on the council websites going forward? It was noted that there had been periods when it was unavailable but that it should now be visible on the West Berkshire website and portal.

The committee APPROVED the updated Communications Strategy for 2021-2023.

The committee NOTED the range of activities and subjects to be covered by the communications plan.

Purpose: To note the terms of reference which have been updated to show that the Joint Committee is a public meeting.

The committee noted that the terms of reference had been updated to show that the Joint Committee was a public meeting.