Agenda and minutes

(if any) - receive.

Apologies were received from Councillors Ray Morgon, Gary Pain (Frederick Thompson substituting) and Linda Trew (Fred Osborne substituting).

Councillor Lesley Kelly was also present.

Officers present:

Tony Huff, Acting Chief Executive Homes in Havering

Simon Parkinson, Head of Culture and Leisure Services

Sue Witherspoon, Head of Housing and Public Protection

Ian Wilks, Chair, Havering Museum (part of meeting).

Members are invited to disclose any pecuniary interest in any of the items on the agenda at this point of the meeting. 

            Members may still disclose any pecuniary interest in an item at any time prior to the consideration of the matter.

Councillor Thompson declared an interest as he was a director of Havering Museum.

Councillor Brice-Thompson declared an interest as she was married to Councillor Thompson.

The Chairman will announce details of the arrangements in case of fire or other events that might require the meeting room or building’s evacuation.

The Chairman informed everyone present of the arrangements in case of fire or other emergency requiring the evacuation of the building.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of 1 May 2012 (attached) and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 1 May 2012 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Presentation by the Head of Housing and Public Protection on future plans for Homes in Havering.

The Head of Housing and Public Protection thanked the Committee for the invitation and confirmed that, currently, the Council and Homes in Havering (HiH) remained separate organisations.

The ALMO had been set up originally as it was the option chosen, after consultation, to receive and administer the Decent Homes funding from the Government. The HiH Board was made up of four Councillors, four tenants and four independent directors. The Council was the sole shareholder in the HiH company.

The Comprehensive Spending Review following the 2010 election agreed to keep the Decent Homes Programme but required Councils to now find 10% of the funding direct. There was no longer a requirement to keep an ALMO in order to obtain the Decent Homes funding. Havering had been allocated a total of £62.7 million funding compared to an original bid of £112 million although this was still considered sufficient to deliver the Decent Homes programme.

The Council undertook a consultation with tenants between October 2011 and February 2012. The Council’s offer to tenants and leaseholders indicated that Council control would allow costs savings of at least £300,000 per year by for example combining Council and HiH call centres. The Council had also undertaken to maintain the quality of service and to deliver the Decent Homes programme.

The results of the consultation had indicated that 31% of tenants had wanted to keep HiH and 48% wished to return to Council control while 19% had not indicated a preference. This had resulted in Cabinet deciding in March 2012 to bring HiH back into the Council with a target to achieve this by 1 October 2012. A project board for the reintegration had been established, chaired by Cynthia Griffin. The HiH Board had agreed they would sign the termination agreement at their next meeting in early September and the Acting Chief Executive added that the independent directors wished to make sure that the directors were discharging their responsibilities properly.

It was confirmed that TUPE regulations did apply to the transfer and an HR sub-group was considering this. All permanent HiH staff would transfer to the Council on the same terms and conditions. There would be around 150 permanent staff transferred with a further 20-30 staff on fixed term contracts which would be extended to the end of March 2013. The TUPE protection period would last two years but reorganisations could still be undertaken during this period.

There would not be many changes for tenants as a result of the transfer and there would be no change to the tenancies themselves. The HiH Board would be abolished and a residents’ forum set up with the proposal that this be chaired by the relevant Cabinet member.

The new organisation would be called Havering Homes and Housing Service although the only immediate changes as regards branding etc would apply to letterheads and signage at the Chippenham Road building.  Staff would not be moved from Chippenham Road and rebranding costs would be kept to a minimum. The overall costs of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive updates from the Head of Culture and Leisure Services on the recent Jubilee celebrations in Havering and preparations for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Jubilee Celebrations

The head of culture and leisure services reported that Jubilee events had been geld in Havering over a four week period. This included the Big Dance Weekender event in Hornchurch which attracted both older people and children to try ballroom dancing and an open air cinema although the attendance at this was lowered due to the poor weather on the day.

A diamond jubilee market was held on Saturday 28 June and the Romfest event was held on the Sunday. This was however affected by the very poor weather on the day which limited attendance to 2-300. The carnival procession on the day went well. A fun run and sports festival was held in Raphael Park as well as the lighting of a beacon in Havering Atte Bower. The Langtons concert on Tuesday 4 June was attended by 2-3,000 people. Members complimented the head of service on the jubilee events which they felt had been very well organised.

There had been approximately 90 street parties across the borough which was more than many other boroughs. Two open spaces – Brittons Playing Fields and Park Lane Recreation Ground were to be designated as Queen Elizabeth II Playing Fields. This would give the sites extra protection in the planning process and would mean it would be very difficult to develop housing on the sites in the future. Veolia had agreed in principle to fund £25,000 of improvements at each site and the Council was also bidding for national funding for this work.

There would also be a small land swap involving the Dukes Hall car park but the officer confirmed that the same amount of open space would be retained. Further details of the land swap would be supplied to the Committee. Reported problems in the park had now been reduced by the work of the Parks Protection Team.

Olympics Preparation

The head of service reported that a total of £16.5 million of Olympic contracts had been won by Havering businesses. Robust planning had been undertaken for major incidents during the Games period in order to ensure the safety of Havering residents. An emergency planning C3 document had been produced which covered the responsibilities of the Council and Police. 4-5 emergency planning exercises had taken place to allow for planning for different scenarios.

An emergency planning operation centre had been set up in Mercury House which would be in place before the torch relay reached Havering. This would be staffed from 7 am to 7 pm but there would also be on-call arrangements overnight.

It was explained that Havering was in the Park Zone led by Newham and there would be the expectation of cross-borough support in case of Olympic incidents. The Police borough commander was a member of the Havering Olympic Board. Havering Police would provide a normal service during the Olympic period but may have to cover any Olympic-related incidents elsewhere. More use would be made of PCSOs should this occur.

As regards day to day impact, there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Report attached.

The Committee considered an initial suggested work programme that had been compiled by the Chairman with the assistance of the Committee Officer. It was suggested that perhaps a topic group could be run looking at promotion of Romford shopping facilities and the impact on Romford of the Westfield mall in Stratford. Perhaps the Council’s head of communications could attend and brief the Committee on the ‘Love Romford’ campaign.

It was possible that the Committee could scrutinise issues arising out of the Ageing Well event held earlier in the year and space could be left in the programme for this.

It was also suggested that the Committee could scrutinise the approval of housing developments in the borough and their impact on infrastructure etc. Regeneration areas in Havering could also be considered such as the Briar Road Estate and it was felt useful to also programme in items on the Olympic Legacy and a review of how the Games had impacted on Havering.

Subject to the above comments, the Committee AGREED the work programme as presented.

A member of museum staff will give a brief talk on the main features of Havering Museum.

The Committee was briefed by the Chair of Havering Museum who advised that the museum had now been open for two years and was breaking even. The campaign to build the museum had in fact started in August 1999. He explained that few people felt they lived in Havering as a place, preferring to say they lived in e.g. Collier Row. As such, the museum had been designed with a separate pod for each of the five towns – Hornchurch, Upminster, Rainham, Romford and Havering Village.

Members then toured the museum noting that it included a children’s learning zone, reception area and a shop selling the largest selection of local history books in Romford. Displays included audio recollections of local residents as well as interactive screens in each pod.

To consider any other item in respect of which the Chairman is of the opinion, by reason of special circumstances which shall be specified in the minutes, that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

There was no urgent business.