Agenda item

To receive questions from members for the Executive and committee chairmen.

Councillor Dean referred to Question 2. He said that the written answers provided by the Leader had not fully addressed all the questions. He referred to his question relating to the trajectory towards the established aim of 183 council homes and to the position at Auton Croft.

The Leader said that she hoped that the HRA Business Plan would move forward in this week, that Housing Board had agreed that Auton Croft would move forward and that a further 33 council homes were required to achieve the target. She said that she considered that all other questions had been answered and referred Councillor Dean to the next meeting of the Housing Board.

Councillor Khan referred to Question 1. He raised a number of points for clarification.

He noted that the Leader`s response had stated that operational issues had been addressed by officers since the partnership started two years ago. He said that nobody at Uttlesford seemed to be aware of the issues or their urgency until the new Chief Executive took up his role, and he asked the Leader whether, within her role sitting on the partnership board, she had addressed these concerns and if not why not. He said that the matter demonstrated the failure of the administration to put in place robust contract management arrangements for such contracts and partnerships.

He acknowledged that the Chief Executive had reported to GAP that a post would be created within the budget and he asked when an experienced contact manager would be recruited. He said that the Housing Board had not been notified of the problems with Uttlesford NORSE and he asked the Leader to commit to ensuring that the management information was provided to each Housing Board meeting so that members could have an overview of the performance of Uttlesford NORSE.

He also said that the Leader had failed to provide an answer to his question regarding value for money and quality of service delivered by Uttlesford NORSE and requested a response in writing to Councillors as part of the minutes of the meeting.

He asked the following questions:

·         What return did Uttlesford receive for each £1 invested in this partnership?

·         How were savings reinvested?

·         What outcomes were being achieved?

The Leader said that she did not have a problem with providing the management information to the Housing Board if it fell within their remit and confirmed that operational issues were raised with the partnership board.

She confirmed that the minutes of the Housing Board meetings were available on the website and include details of profit made by NORSE. She offered to provide further details and Councillor Khan requested that the Leader provide information on what value Uttlesford District Council gets for every £1 spent on the Uttlesford NORSE partnership, how much was reinvested in frontline services and how the quality of service was assessed.

Councillor Khan noted his assumption that the Uttlesford NORSE partnership had been entered to achieve better quality and to save money and said that UDC would not have exited the previous arrangements if the partnership was not a better option.

The Leader noted that the operational minutes were not a public document and agreed that they would be shared with the Housing Board. She said that she would speak with the officers who coordinated the contract management.

Councillor Jones interjected with a point of order and requested that questions were limited to those detailed within the agenda.

Councillor Khan said that the Leader had ignored the second bullet point of his question. The Leader replied and confirmed that her response had stated that the budget remained the same, as advised by the finance officer. She confirmed that she would provide the additional information as requested.

Councillor Caton referred to Question 3; he thanked Councillor Reeve and officers for their comprehensive answer. He sought further clarification in respect of the available office space at the Little Canfield site.

The Chief Executive said there would be adequate space available for 40-60 desks at the Little Canfield site.

Councillor Caton asked to be provided with the square footage figures in writing at some future point.

Councillor Caton referred to Question 4; he asked which area of the Council the vacant Principal Planning Officer post was in.

Councillor Evans confirmed this post was in the Development Management team.