THREE RIVERS DISTRICT COUNCIL
At a meeting of the Resources Policy & Scrutiny Committee held in the Penn Chamber, Three Rivers House, Rickmansworth, on Thursday, 25 October 2007 from 7.30pm to 8.55pm.
Present: Councillors Richard Laval (Chairman) Sarah Nelmes (Vice Chairman), Harry Davies, Geoffrey Dunne, Peter Ray and David Sansom and Ron Spellen.
Officers:- Alison Watson - Assistant Personnel Officer
Susan Townshend - Exchequer Services Manage
Yvonne Petagine - Senior Administrative Officer
Ami Beeton - Principal Committee Manager
Also in attendance Councillor Tony Barton and Ann Shaw OBE.
R.PS18/07 MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting of the Resources Policy Panel held on 6September 2007 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
R.PS19/07 FINANCIAL POSITION STATEMENT BUDGET MONITORING REPORT –AUGUST 2007 (MONTH 5)
The report provided an update of the three-year medium-term financial plan and the position on the current year’s budget for the period ending on 26 August 2007.
ACTION AGREED:-
that the report be noted.
R.PS20/07 CAPITAL PURCHASE OF FOLDER/INSERTER MACHINE
The Panel was asked to consider the purchase of a folder inserter machine, without going through the tender process as per Contract Procedure Rules 5(a)(v). It was noted that a capital bid had already been approved for this item.
The Committee were advised that officers had to stuff envelopes by hand across the Council and this was thought to be around 275,000 items. It was thought that approximately £19,000 of officers’ time was spent stuffing envelopes annually. These figures did take into consideration the housing departments needs, which was transferring to Thrive. It was estimated that this was approx £2,000 worth.
The Senior Administrative Officer noted the only outsourcing of this kind would be the Council Tax billing and this was because they were centralised with information from other partners e.g. Police and Herts CC.
If needed documents could be sent straight from a PC to the folder inserter machine.
ACTION AGREED:-
The Executive Committee be recommended:-
to purchase Folder Inserter Model IS82 from Neopost, which is compatible with existing franking machine and includes an IM30 Opening Extracting machine.
R.PS21/07 SOFTWARE ENHANCEMENT FOR HOUSING AND COUNCIL TAX BENEFITS SYSTEM
The Panel was asked to consider the purchase of a piece of software to enhance the existing housing and council tax benefits system.
The Exchequer Services Manager advised the meeting that the software enhancement would bolt on to the academy system and would provide an efficiency saving as time spent on the payment run could be spent on pre assessment work.
The Chairman suggested that there would also be a cashable saving as schedules will be sent out electronically. The Exchequer Services Manager agreed to workout what this saving would be and report it back to the Committee.
ACTION AGREED:-
The Executive Committee be recommended:
(1) to approve purchase of the software
(2) that the capital programme for 2007/08 be amended to include this item; and
(3) that contract procedure rule 5 be waived in order to permit this purchase without competitive tender
R.PS22/07 DEBT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
The Panel was asked to consider the Debt Management Strategy and to respond to specific debt recovery questions raised by the Council’s Executive Committee at its meeting on 27 March 2007.
After considering the reports, Members asked for the following points to be clarified;
- How old the debts were that were with the bailiff.
- What was meant by debts being on ‘hold’.
- Aged debt analysis of Housing Benefit overpayments.
- Why the Council did not use credit agencies.
- How frequently were debts reviewed.
- An analysis of debts to include those arising from benefit fraud.
It was agreed that a written response answering these points would be circulated to members.
The Chairman noted that he would email officers with some questions he had on the debt management strategy and it was agreed that this item would be considered by the Committee at its next meeting incorporating the answers to the Chairman’s questions.
ACTION AGREED:-
The Executive Committee be asked:
(1) to note the responses to the questions raised by the Executive, which are contained in paragraphs 2.3.1 -2.3.7 of the report; and
(2) to note that a further report of the Debt Management Strategy will be submitted to the next meeting of the Resources Policy and Scrutiny Committee.
R.PS23/07 SHARED SERVICES UPDATE
The Committee received a presentation from the Director of Corporate Resources which updated Members on the Shared Services Programme.
A copy of the presentation is attached as appendix A.
ACTION AGREED:-
that the presentation be noted.
R.PS24/07 EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC
“that under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined under paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.” It has been decided by the Council in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
R.PS25/07 FLEXIBLE RETIREMENT – CARETAKER/COURIER
The Panel was reminded that the Council’s Early Retirement and Early Termination Compensation Policy contained a flexible retirement option allowing employees to take part or all of their pension benefits and to continue in employment on reduced hours or reduced pay.
The Panel was asked to consider a request for Flexible Retirement for a member of staff who reached the age of 65 on 16 October 2007 and wished to release his pension benefits and continue working on a part time basis with the Council.
ACTION AGREED:-
That the Executive Committee be recommended
(1) to approve the request for Flexible Retirement as detailed in this report;
(2) that, in cases of requests for Flexible Retirement for officers aged 65 and above, the Early Retirement and Termination policy be amended to allow authorisation to be made by the Chief Officer of the employing department.
(3) that public access to the report and decision be denied until the decision of the Executive Committee is made public.
CHAIRMAN
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