If any

The Chairman welcomed everyone to this first meeting of the Central Bedfordshire Shadow Scrutiny Committee. Members and officers introduced themselves.

The Chairman reminded the Committee that there was a lot of work to be done and urged Members to concentrate on making the unitary proposals work in Central Bedfordshire. She also stressed that the Committee should not over-scrutinise as there was not sufficient time for that.

Members were informed that work on the new Authority’s Constitution was well under way.

To receive declarations from Members (if any) in relation to the existence of a whip. (Procedure Rule No. 16 refers)

No declarations were made.

No requests for agenda items under the terms of Rule No. 8 of the Scrutiny Procedure Rules have been received.

The Committee noted that no requests for agenda items had been received under the terms of Scrutiny Procedure Rule No. 8.

To consider any decision of the Shadow Executive; or an individual member of the Shadow Executive; or a decision made on a key issue by an officer with a delegated authority of the Shadow Executive referred to this Committee under the Provisions of Rule 15 of the Scrutiny Procedure Rules.

Members noted that no decision of the Shadow Executive, an individual Member of the Shadow Executive or one made on a key issue by an officer with delegated authority of the Shadow Executive had been referred to the Committee.

(To report on overall progress towards creating the new council for Central Bedfordshire and to highlight issues in order to assist the committee in the discharge of its functions. (Contact Officer: Simon Redmore  Tel: 01462 611255))

The Committee considered a report of the Officer Programme Board on overall progress towards the creation of the new Council for Central Bedfordshire.

The report aimed to assist the Committee in identifying the key issues associated with the administrative changes necessary during the current re-organisation of local government in Bedfordshire.

The Chairman invited Marion Headicar (consultant) and Peter Stabb, Interim Strategic Director, South Bedfordshire District Council,  to introduce the report on behalf of the Programme Board.  She explained that the Portfolio Holders, present, would be given opportunities to comment during the course of the meeting.

Marion Headicar briefly made some key points.  First, she referred to the letter within the Committee papers from John Healey MP, Minister for Local Government and stressed the need for the new Authority to bear in mind that it would need to have a strongly improving Direction of Travel and be a flagship authority within a couple of years and that there was a huge amount of work to be focused on from day one.

She also highlighted the importance of the Implementation Plan with its set of strategic milestones and warned of the pressures on time which meant that  things often had to be done in parallel rather than sequentially.  Marion’s final comment was to reassure the Committee that impressive progress was being made, even though some matters such as shared services were beyond the shadow authority’s control.

Peter Stabb confirmed that  the Implementation Plan was monitored at every Officer Programme Board meeting and he referred, in particular, to the three delayed milestones identified in the Plan.

He explained that the first drafts of the services’ business plans had now been completed.  In relation to service level agreements and contracts for shared services, it was reported that, as at 1 September 2008, of the seventy in total, thirty-three were to be shared from April 2009 and that, of those, fifteen would be hosted by Central Bedfordshire Council, thirteen by Bedford Borough Council and five by Bedfordshire Primary Care Trust.  It was noted that of the remaining thirty-seven, thirty were not being shared and seven were yet to be determined.  Members were pleased to note that very good progress was being made overall.

In respect of the third, delayed milestone, Members were informed that Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council still had differing views concerning customer engagement.

The Chairman then invited Members’ questions.

In terms of accommodation requirements for the new Central Bedfordshire Council, it was reported that, from 1 April 2009, the new Authority would need at least as much of the County Hall in Bedford as it currently occupied but that there would be a two to five years programme to move from the County Hall into three or four sets of offices within the Central Bedfordshire area with additional points of presence being provided in the larger towns.

It was emphasised that there would be a significant Central Bedfordshire presence in the County Hall from 1 April 2009 and that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.