To
select appropriate items from the Cabinet Board agenda for pre-decision
scrutiny (reports enclosed for Scrutiny Members)
Minutes:
The Committee
scrutinised the following Cabinet Board item:
Examination by Audit
Wales into the Council's Regeneration Service as part of its Well Being
Objectives
Members were informed of
the findings and recommendations of the Audit Wales report.
It was highlighted that
the Audit Wales report was issued in August 2020; Members asked why it had
taken this amount of time to be brought to the Committee. Officers explained
that although the report was issued at a particular date, it takes a while to finalise
the reports.
In regards to engagement
with consultation, it was noted that this had always been an issue;
unfortunately the times that Officers were given between the information coming
out and when the submissions needed to come in, were incredibly short. It was
added that even if there was plenty of resource within the team, it would not
be possible to get to consultation due to the tight timescales.
Members were informed
that there was a Local Strategy Board for Economic Regeneration and the Public
Services Board (PSB) in which Officers work through to try and obtain as many
consultations as they can; local Member representation was very important to
make links between the Council and the communities.
Officers were asked if
the recommendations contained within appendix 2 of the circulated report had
been completed. It was highlighted that all of the recommendations were at
various stages; staff resource had effected completing some of this work due to
temporary re-location of staff and staff that had left and not been replaced.
A discussion took place
in relation to stakeholders and the importance of having contact with both
internal and external stakeholders. Officers mentioned that the Council could
always do more with the stakeholders, however often timescales and capacity
affect the ability to do this. It was added that Officers will identify gasp
following informal and formal consultations.
Members asked if there
was comparative information available on the Audit Wales reports across the
Local Authorities in Wales. It was highlighted that this information wasn’t
available; however, Neath Port Talbot Council was well regarded and had a
number of schemes that were seen as innovative and will have a significant
impact within the community.
It was queried if there
were any penalties to timescales in completing the recommendations and if the
Council had to comply with all of the recommendations provided by Audit Wales.
It was confirmed that there were no penalties, however if Audit Wales felt that
the Council was not performing well enough then it might potentially impact on the
ability to access grant funding. Officers took on board all of the points
raised by Audit Wales and were more than happy to comply and address these
points; Officers had to work with the resources at hand, therefore a lot more
could be done if the resources were available.
It was agreed that the
Regeneration and Sustainable Development Scrutiny Committee would be provided
with an update report in relation to the recommendations from Audit Wales which
were contained within appendix 2 of the circulated report: Delivering Strategic
Regeneration Programmes – Well-being of Future Generations Examination – Neath
Port Talbot Council Action Plan.
Members also asked that
a report in relation to one of the recommendations contained within the report
be added to the Forward Work Programme: An internal and external communications
and stakeholder engagement strategy.
Following scrutiny, the
Committee noted the report.