Home > Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Town Hall, Katharine Street, Croydon CR0 1NX. View directions

Contact: Simon Trevaskis  Email: simon.trevaskis@croydon.gov.uk

Note: Moved from 10 January 2023 

Items
No. Item

1/23

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 123 KB

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 6 December 2022 as an accurate record.

 

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 6 December 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.

 

2/23

Disclosure of Interests

Members are invited to declare any disclosable pecuniary interests (DPIs) and other registrable and non-registrable interests they may have in relation to any item(s) of business on today’s agenda.

Minutes:

There were no disclosures of interest made at the meeting.

 

3/23

Urgent Business (if any)

To receive notice of any business not on the agenda which in the opinion of the Chair, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.

 

Minutes:

There was no urgent business for discussion by the Scrutiny & Overview Committee at this meeting.

 

4/23

Pre-Decision Scrutiny: Whitgift Indemnity and Land Transfer Agreement (ILTA) Remedy pdf icon PDF 63 KB

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee is asked review the Cabinet report due to be considered by the Mayor on 25 January 2023 and decide whether it wishes to submit any comments or recommendations on the report for the Mayor to take account of as part of his decision making.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report set out on pages 17 to 32 of the agenda and an accompanying confidential report on pages 37 to 44 of the same agenda concerning the Whitgift indemnity and Land Transfer Agreement (ILTA) Remedy. The report was due to be considered by the Mayor at the Cabinet meeting on 25 January 2023 and the report had been included on the agenda to give the Committee the opportunity to provide feedback on the recommendations.

The Cabinet Member for Planning & Regeneration, Councillor Jeet Bains, the Corporate Director for Sustainable Communities, Regeneration & Economic Recovery, Nick Hibberd, Director of Planning & Sustainable Regeneration, Heather Cheesbrough and Head of Commercial & Property Law, Kiri Bailey, attended the meeting for this item.

During the introduction to the report the following was noted: -

  • The ILTA provided for a remedy under the contract with the Croydon Limited Partnership (CLP) for works to the value of £4m indexed and was not a cash sum.
  • The Council was seeking the remedy because CLP had not redeveloped the Whitgift within the time frame specified in the contract.
  • The deadline to issue the remedy was 23 Feb 2023. If it was not issued by that date, then CLP would be released from any of its obligations specified in the contract.
  • The remedy required CLP to carry out improvements to the North End area of the town centre to the value of £4m indexed. These improvements included work to activate the Alders site, improvements to the Whitgift Mall, the provision of a consultation space to inform the development of a Town Centre Masterplan and connectivity improvements to the town from Wellesley Road.

Following the introduction, the Committee was afforded the opportunity to ask questions on the information provided. The first question asked whether there was a timeline by which the works identified through the remedy had to be delivered. It was advised that although the remedy notice needed to be served by 23 February 2023, conversations continued with CLP about the timeframe for delivery although the contract specified that work should be delivered promptly.

In response to a follow-up question about whether there was any guarantee the remedy work would proceed, it was highlighted that CLP had worked hard to redevelop the Whitgift Centre over the previous nine years, resulting in two planning applications. However, if the original plans had progressed the town would have had an old fashioned town centre, based predominately around retail provision, which was no longer fit for purpose. The Council would continue to work with CLP on delivering a more viable town centre informed by community engagement.

As notice of the remedy could have been served from February 2022, it was questioned why the Council was only moving ahead with it now. It was advised that the Council had been seeking to find an agreeable way forward through negotiations with CLP. As these discussions had not resulted in a resolution and to preserve the Council’s position, it was no proposed that the notice of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4/23

5/23

Pre-Decision Scrutiny: People & Cultural Transformation Strategy 2022-2026 pdf icon PDF 79 KB

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee is asked review the Cabinet report due to be considered by the Mayor on 25 January 2023 and decide whether it wishes to submit any comments or recommendations on the report for the Mayor to take account of as part of his decision making.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report set out in the supplementary agenda, due to be considered by the Mayor at the Cabinet meeting on 25 January 2023, which proposed a new People and Cultural Transformation Strategy for adoption. The report had been included on the agenda to give the Committee the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed new Strategy.

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Jason Cummings, Chief People Officer, Dean Shoesmith, EDI & Workforce ICBS/Tea Talks & Programme Managers for Crossing the Threshold, Barbara Grant, Staff Network representative, Kay Oshin, Guardians Scheme representative, Liz Uwadiae, Crossing the Threshold Facilitators, Olu Oludare and Klaudia Petecka attended the meeting for this item.

A presentation was delivered by the Chief People Officer, to introduce the report which summarised the staff engagement that had informed the strategy and outlined the next steps. A copy of the presentation can be viewed on the following link: -

https://democracy.croydon.gov.uk/documents/s42711/People%20Strategy%20-%20Presentation.pdf

Following this presentation, the Committee heard from several different staff representatives who had been involved in the development of the strategy. The responses given provided reassurance to the Committee that staff had been actively engaged in the development of the strategy through the ‘Crossing the Threshold’ workshops, as well as staff survey feedback, and that it could demonstrably be seen how feedback had shaped its content. The delivery of the next steps, including the co-creation of an action plan to deliver the strategy, would be crucial to carrying staff along the improvement journey. It was highlighted that there  was an intent from senior management to make a positive change across the Council and that they were open to listening to feedback from staff.

Following the feedback from the staff representatives, the Committee was provided with the opportunity to ask questions about the strategy. The first question asked whether staff had been given the opportunity to feed into the final version of the strategy presented in the Cabinet report. It was confirmed that not all staff had been consulted on the final version, but there had been engagement with stakeholder groups, such as the staff networks. The responses given in the recent staff survey had also helped to shape the final document. The next step would be to engage with staff on the seven pillars outlined in the strategy and the actions behind them, with a communications plan being prepared.

It was noted that it was critical to get the pay offer to staff right as the Council was competing with 32 other local authorities and other employers. Given the financial challenges facing the Council it would be difficult to deliver the pay offer strand but it was essential to find the right balance and external expertise may be required to assist with this.  Brand management was important as improving the image of the Council as an employer would help with the recruitment and retention of staff.

Given that there had been other similar strategies in the past, it was questioned how the People and Cultural Transformation Strategy would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5/23

6/23

Scrutiny Work Programme 2022-23 pdf icon PDF 57 KB

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee is asked: -

  1. To note the most recent version of the Work Programme.
  2. Consider whether there are any other items that should be provisionally added to the work programme as a result of the discussions held during the meeting.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report on pages 33 to 36 of the agenda which presented the work programme for review.

It was highlighted that an item on the new voter id requirements was being considered for the work programme later in the year, which could be informed by the experience from those local authorities with elections in May 2023. It was also noted that further items on the Town Centre and the People and Cultural Transformation Strategy would need to be scheduled, as discussed earlier in the evening.

Resolved: That the work programme for the Scrutiny & Overview Committee is noted.

 

7/23

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The following motion is to be moved and seconded where it is proposed to exclude the press and public from the remainder of a meeting:

 

“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 it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

 

 

Minutes:

The following motion was moved by Councillor Davis and seconded by Councillor Chatterjee to exclude the 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 it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information falling within those paragraphs indicated in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended.”

 

The motion was put and it was agreed by the Committee to exclude the press and public for the remainder of the meeting.

 

8/23

Pre-Decision Scrutiny: Whitgift Indemnity and Land Transfer Agreement (ILTA) Remedy

This item sets out the confidential Part B report that accompanies the report under item 5.

Minutes:

Please note that a full confidential minute has been produced of the Committee’s discussion held in the exempt session.